Im doubting my faith...

[vazilizaitsev89]

yeh so I've begun to doubt my faith.

Im recalling a conversation I had w/ my priest (greek orthodox) and the subject of my disease (Chron's) was brought up. So I asked him why I got it. and he told me "god wants you closer to the church." I thought it made NO SENSE.

and then looking at life in general. all the poverty, wars, famine. Either god doesnt exist or he's just an underachiever. Which? I dont know.

His opposite number is the one who causes problems, I believe. Life is just a test. It's all about choices. You just need to make the right choices. If you make the right choices, you pass the test. Bad things, those are the tests. How you respond to them decides whether you pass or fail. This is just what I think, don't know if it helps or not.

quote:Originally posted by vazilizaitsev89:

god doesnt exist

Yeah, I expect to be flamed over that.

quote:Originally posted by Death of a Nation:

Yeah, I expect to be flamed over that.

Why?

[Hare_Geist]

quote:Originally posted by MidnightRambler:

His opposite number is the one who causes problems, I believe. Life is just a test. It's all about choices. You just need to make the right choices. If you make the right choices, you pass the test. Bad things, those are the tests. How you respond to them decides whether you pass or fail. This is just what I think, don't know if it helps or not.

If you accept that God knows everything past, present and future, then God created Satan, knowing full well that he would rebel.

Tell a little girl with skin cancer that it was a test from God. Also, hell is the most disgusting thing ever. Nothing done on earth deserves such a punishment.

quote:Originally posted by vazilizaitsev89:

Either god doesnt exist or he's just an underachiever. Which? I dont know.

... good line.

Talk about it with your priest some more. Make him give you some real answers. Or at least make him acknowledge that he doesn't have all the answers. Don't let him off the hook so easily. Ask him if he ever questioned his faith.

Respectfully,

conjuror

[---Beany---]

..or, just fuck the priest off and believe whatever makes sense to you.

Also see good in bad. However you perceive your desease is up to you. IT is possible to see it in a possitive light. Dare to search for the beauty in all of lifes processes.

God did not give you your Crohn's disease. Studies show that right series of genetic mutations and environmental factors and possibly an infection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis cause Crohn's disease.

For more information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chron%27s_disease#Cause

No God needed

quote:Originally posted by MidnightRambler:

His opposite number is the one who causes problems, I believe. Life is just a test. It's all about choices. You just need to make the right choices. If you make the right choices, you pass the test. Bad things, those are the tests. How you respond to them decides whether you pass or fail. This is just what I think, don't know if it helps or not.

And it really depends on what faith you hold or no faith at all.

If you are an atheist, you can just believe it was scientific or whatever.

[Viraljimmy]

quote:Originally posted by Q777:

No God needed

quote:Originally posted by Hare_Geist:

If you accept that God knows everything past, present and future, then God created Satan, knowing full well that he would rebel.

In that case you also accept that god already knows wether you will pass the test or not and that it is actually not in your hands. If God knows everything you have no free will as your life will be the way God knows it's going to be and He already knows wether you will go to heaven or hell.

There just is no god or higher mighty creature. And we are humans, not the kings but the fuckups of this world.

quote:Originally posted by Amos:

In that case you also accept that god already knows wether you will pass the test or not and that it is actually not in your hands. If God knows everything you have no free will as your life will be the way God knows it's going to be and He already knows wether you will go to heaven or hell.

Well actually, it doesn't make your choices less free if someone knows what you'll choose. Let's say your mother offers you chocolate and spinach, you have to choose. She knows you'll go with the chocolate, that doesn't deprive you of the choice itself



Why would God solve famine, wars and whatnot for you? It's not his problem that you're a piece of shit that fails at life, literally. If people actively strived to be better, make things better, the problems would be solved and everyone would have it better. Yet, not enough people bother to really make a difference

[Viraljimmy]

But we suck because god made us this way.

quote:Originally posted by Viraljimmy:

But we suck because god made us this way.

Yeah, in his image. He sucks too.

quote:Originally posted by Pilsu:

Well actually, it doesn't make your choices less free if someone knows what you'll choose. Let's say your mother offers you chocolate and spinach, you have to choose. She knows you'll go with the chocolate, that doesn't deprive you of the choice itself

Except that's not a correct analogy, because she doesn't know - she is guessing. It might be a good guess, but it can never be more than that (unless you're omniscient).

quote:Why would God solve famine, wars and whatnot for you? It's not his problem that you're a piece of shit that fails at life, literally. If people actively strived to be better, make things better, the problems would be solved and everyone would have it better. Yet, not enough people bother to really make a difference

Yeah, why would an omnibenevolent being help people? Oh wait...

Besides, he's the one who made everything like this. "Yeah, I made you fail at life and now I'm not going to help you out!"

[Rizzo in a box]

quote:Originally posted by bitplane:

Yeah, in his image. He sucks too.

Yeah man, cos your shadow is totally representative of the true you.

[---Beany---]

quote:Originally posted by Twisted_Ferret:

Yeah, why would an omnibenevolent being help people? Oh wait...

We have the opportunity of helping ouselves. If our parents took us out of every single pickle we were in we would never grow, like those spoilt brats from sweet sixteen.

Every problem holds an opportunity to choose who we want to be in relation to it and then learn from the results.

I am absolutly atheist. However, I was raised a christian and am a confirmed member of a local church. I no longer attend to worship, however to observe. I am an observer by nature and take instesive notes in my head. Observation is what origionally turned me off to religion in the first place.

The problem I encountered was that people did not behave any differently than when they were doing other social activities. This is when I came to the revelation that the worship of god is more a social activity than anything else. It is just like going to the gym to excersice, however you are simply sublty reassuring yourself that you are actually a good person. And in the presense of others who believe it becomes easier to believe, which is why I'm sure the writers of the bible chose to add the chruch bit. If left to thier own devices people would surely question and perhaps even turn to other religions.

This begged me to ask the question, why do we even need religion. My uncle, an anthroplogist and the Dean of the Honors College at Chicago State University, explained to me that people created god for many purposes. They have a finite view of an infinite universe which, instead of accepting the simple answer, that the universe does not need created but can simply exsist, they personify creation in a being. They also need to feel that their soul can exsist after this world. Many people would fall into a state of depression if they accepted the fact that their concoiusness(sp) simply ended. We need the comfort and reassurance.

This argument made more sense to me than the years of religious indoctranation which, due to the churches actions, I never much believed in anyway. Every christian I have debated with this have gotten angry when I have presented this argument, rather than providing a logical explanation for why god exsists. I am dissapointed in some of my freinds who are belivers as they tend to be the most closed minded of my freinds. As I have leanred in psycology, they show signs of denial. I try to be as open minded as possible, but the only thing that could convince me there is a man in the sky is him coming here to say hi. Not figurativly, not through someone or with a sign, but him coming down here and speaking directly to me.

Let me provide a simple example of my view. A freind who has not been very succesful with women suddenly tells you one day that he has a very hot girlfreind that is in love with him. After years of supposedly dating her he can not produde a single picture of her. He however shows you notes she has written him, however some are very fishy as parts have been edited and they contradict on many points. You have of course never met her because she lives in the next state over and are never around when she supposedly comes to visit. He talks to her on the phone every night, but when you are over it is suspicous because he does all the talking ans you never hear any noise coming from the reciever.

Now, do you beleive he has this girlfreind? Or is he deluding himself. It is another case where is is very hard to prove he doesnt have one, however I'm pretty sure it's safe to say he is making it up. So why do we not see this so clearly with religion? Culture I guess. Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think.

Swin

|---G---|

Axle

[glutamate antagonist]

http:../../www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/default.htm

You need a new priest. That's just lame.