Not sure anymore

[Tashin Hanabi]

I've lost most of my convictions. I'm unsure what I really believe now, and I don't really know what to do. I can't really call myself Christian anymore because of all the changes...
I don't know what to think about God....whether he exists, or doesn't, and if he does what he is like...if he doesn't, what that means for us after death. I'm looking at the world now and am sort of let down. I used to be so strongly convicted about Christianity, and now I see...no evidence.
I...hope desperately that there is a God, that he cares, that I can somehow know Him. But I'm not sure if it's wise to try and shape a belief on what I hope to be true when I have no real confidence...
I'm stuck. I want to believe it's true, but I have no reason to. In a way I wish I could fool myself into thinking I believe it, because it seems like that would be easier than just not knowing...

Can anyone relate? Is anyone going through this/has gone through it?  

[CPUGenuis]

i have been with that feeling many times, and then i thought to myself, that if god was done with me, i wouldn't be living.

i mean after all, if you can't believe in god, then what can you believe in???  

[Tashin Hanabi]

CPUGenuis

i have been with that feeling many times, and then i thought to myself, that if god was done with me, i wouldn't be living.

i mean after all, if you can't believe in god, then what can you believe in???

I believe in...nurturing relationships, caring about people, being loyal to your loved ones, one mate for life, working hard, practicing good communication...
I just don't know about God anymore...there's the problem of pain, so many different theories on deities and religions, the hugeness of the concept of God, the problem of how to begin to define him..and then the divisiveness of religions pitting against each other...
It's just confusing and upsetting to me that I no longer have faith in God. I guess I'm kind of mourning it, in a way...  

[CPUGenuis]

oh. well, i always find that reading the bible usually helps out here.

mabe if you read revelations it will help you understand.  

[Tashin Hanabi]

Revelations is one of the most confusing books in the bible. ;.; I've read the bible ll the way through, and realized there was a lot in there that was beneficial but also a lot that can be interpreted all sorts of ways. Generally as far as scripture goes, I still think it's very valuable, I just don't think it can possibly answer everything perfectly as I once thought it could.
I question my original conversion. Did I do it because I really desired God, or did I just want to belong to something? Was I afraid of all the hellfire and brimstone type stuff? Did I simply become dedicated to following it because I admired the people I was with who were involved in it? I can't even be sure about my attitudes before!  

[CPUGenuis]

i haven't read hte whole thing yet (workin on it), but from what i understand, if you keep on reading it, you might just get an answer that you need.  

[48rr484y8448]

God does exist, so don't worry about that.

I know it sounds like such a cliché, but I've had personal experiences.

I think, maybe, you questioning your beliefs and this world is part of the plan, part of what God wants you to learn lessons from.  

[Tashin Hanabi]

48rr484y8448

God does exist, so don't worry about that.

I know it sounds like such a cliché, but I've had personal experiences.

I think, maybe, you questioning your beliefs and this world is part of the plan, part of what God wants you to learn lessons from.

God's existence can't be proven or disproven, though, so it is something to worry about as far as what I say I believe. I can't just adopt someone else's beliefs.

I guess I'm starting to realize that I won't ever know the answers to these questions. I've just got to decide where to go from here. A part of me wants to stay with what I've had for so long, but another part knows I really can't.  

[Princessofwhatever]

Tashin Hanabi

48rr484y8448

God does exist, so don't worry about that.

I know it sounds like such a cliché, but I've had personal experiences.

I think, maybe, you questioning your beliefs and this world is part of the plan, part of what God wants you to learn lessons from.

God's existence can't be proven or disproven, though, so it is something to worry about as far as what I say I believe. I can't just adopt someone else's beliefs.

I guess I'm starting to realize that I won't ever know the answers to these questions. I've just got to decide where to go from here. A part of me wants to stay with what I've had for so long, but another part knows I really can't.

This sort of thing is one of the many issues that gives faith its purpose. Faith is key in believing in God. Other people cant prove his existence to you as you know. Everyone being able to completely proove his existence would destroy the purpose of faith anyways. It's mostly a matter of perception. You make the choice of how you perceive things. You can choose to believe in Him or not. Mostly it all boils down to a personal choice. In today's world, we often rely upon the same logic that was used by pagan philosophers and people who did not believe in our God such as Plato. If they didnt believe in our God, then how can we use their logic to try to prove his existence? It seems irrational to me to take such an approach to trying to prove the existence of God (especially because God is a being beyond humans being able to fully understand especially using such logic...ha, even when trying to figure out all the mysteries of life disregarding the existence of God or gods, people still dont know anywhere near everything and are often left with more questions). And although people seem to claim they know that one cannot prove nor disprove God's existence, they still strive to do so. For what ends but those that include more doubt and confusion? Also, we can make choices to change our attitudes. But basically, it mainly winds down to emotion (how you feel God concerning the relationship between you and Him if there is one), and a choice.
One thing that inspires me to believe in God (in addition to personal experiences which need not be shared unless you want them to be since as we both know, one's personal experiences cannot automatically become generalizations, and mine apparently do not apply to you) is that unlike other animals in their own habitats, humans have universal morals (i.e. having empathy and compassion) that exceeds those that simply meet the needs (and perceived needs) for survival. In my eyes, this goes along with how the Bible says that man was created in God's image. The Bible says many things that lead me to believe that God does exist and that the Bible is His word. And many things happen in life that lead me towards this belief even more. And a lot of reasons people find to not believe in God mean completely different things to me, like much of the suffering going on in the world. I usually see it as either the devil doing his thing, and/or man practicing free will and choosing to make or let others suffer. Even using the same logic of today's world, i still come to the conclusion of man practicing free will. But, i've gone off on a tangent. The main point is in bold XD  

[Tashin Hanabi]

But what other approach can I take? I don't want to be inconsistent.
This issue is so important. How can I just shrug my shoulders and say,"well, I hope it's true, so I'll say it's true." I can't just...create faith if I have none. neutral
It seems wrong to choose something you know you can't defend as true even to yourself. I cringe even as I type that, because it didn't used to be like this...I thought I knew God for sure...I thought I knew a lot of things...

I used to think similarly of trying to rationalize God and whatnot--how can I try, when God is supposed to be other worldly anyway? But then I realized that I know nothing about God. How do I /know/ he's other worldly? I don't, really. And anything else that is this important I would think out rationally and be sure that I really and truly believed what I was going to dedicate myself to. So, when I think "maybe it's irrational to approach thinking of God this way" I don't even believe my own reasoning on how to reason about God. I know I'm just making it up, trying to make excuses for not being able to really conceive of Him one way or the other. sweatdrop

I hope that's not too confusing. Basically, I just don't buy my own BS anymore when it comes to these questions. I want to think them out and have a reason for what I believe...and if I don't have a reason, then I should find something I can be consistent with...  

[Princessofwhatever]

Tashin Hanabi

But what other approach can I take? I weigh everything else with reason and don't accept things based necessarily on what I feel.
This issue is so important. How can I just shrug my shoulders and say,"well, I hope it's true, so I'll say it's true." I can't just...create faith if I have none. neutral
It seems wrong to choose something you know you can't defend as true even to yourself. I cringe even as I type that, because it didn't used to be like this...I thought I knew God for sure...I thought I knew a lot of things...

Seek Him. We've already said that God's existence cannot be proven nor disproven, and that the use of man's logic will get you nowhere on this topic unless you have evidence of some sort. However, evidence of God often comes from one's own experiences, and if you don't believe, then how are you to perceive this as evidence rather than just enigma? Make the choice to believe, at least temporarily in your quest for Truth. Open your mind to perceive both sides of the issue. Only if you make the choice to believe will you be able to perceive the evidence as evidence that God exists in addition to other possibilities. So choose to believe, pray honestly to God about it, and hope (hope is very important in Christianity, as shown in the Bible i.e. I Corinthains 13, Colossians 1, Hebrews 10, especially Hebrews 11:1, that entire chapter actually, and so on). You must also make the choice to be faithful. God does indeed answer the prayers of His children who truly believe in Him, believe Him, and have faith. Faith is key. Evidence does not come first; that would make faith unnecessary. And with Christianity, often in life too, how you feel is very important. Belief without evidence comes with a feeling. Like a gut feeling, which are oh so often right. Reason can lead us further away from the truth, especially when it disregards feelings. Sometimes feelings lead you closer to truth than reason. Sometimes, reason leads to foolishness. Take people for example. I recently met someone who i had a gut feeling was someone that is not good. But reason led me to give him the benefit of the doubt. After getting to know him more, i learned that reasoning was stupid and i should have gone with my gut feeling. Sometimes going by feeling instead of reason seems wrong, but it's actually right (feelings often have subconscious reasons too, but this is not the reason that we consciously use). Another example would be a man in a coma who had a high chance of staying that way. It's very expensive to keep people in such situations alive, but hope and emotion drove the wife to keep him alive. After years of being in a coma, he woke up and recovered (this happened in real life in Europe. It was on msn and wow it was a happy story. You should look it up if you're interested biggrin ). Reason said to pull the plug. Emotion and hope said to keep him alive.  

[Princessofwhatever]

Tashin Hanabi

But what other approach can I take? I don't want to be inconsistent.
This issue is so important. How can I just shrug my shoulders and say,"well, I hope it's true, so I'll say it's true." I can't just...create faith if I have none. neutral
It seems wrong to choose something you know you can't defend as true even to yourself. I cringe even as I type that, because it didn't used to be like this...I thought I knew God for sure...I thought I knew a lot of things...

I used to think similarly of trying to rationalize God and whatnot--how can I try, when God is supposed to be other worldly anyway? But then I realized that I know nothing about God. How do I /know/ he's other worldly? I don't, really. And anything else that is this important I would think out rationally and be sure that I really and truly believed what I was going to dedicate myself to. So, when I think "maybe it's irrational to approach thinking of God this way" I don't even believe my own reasoning on how to reason about God. I know I'm just making it up, trying to make excuses for not being able to really conceive of Him one way or the other. sweatdrop

I hope that's not too confusing. Basically, I just don't buy my own BS anymore when it comes to these questions. I want to think them out and have a reason for what I believe...and if I don't have a reason, then I should find something I can be consistent with...

So do you think that man's reasoning is perfect? If man's reasoning were perfect, we would know everything there is to know. Reason alone is highly flawed, bringing forth the existence of theories instead of all things being law. Man tries to rely on reason, but reason alone cannot tell us everything. Reason alone isn't even always consistent, bringing forth arguments over science for example. Even when reason examines facts of history, it is still not consistent, bringing forth the different interpretations of facts of history for example. Reason alone will not solve all your problems, nor will it/can it prove or disprove the existence of God  

[Tashin Hanabi]

Quote:

So do you think that man's reasoning is perfect? If man's reasoning were perfect, we would know everything there is to know. Reason alone is highly flawed, bringing forth the existence of theories instead of all things being law. Man tries to rely on reason, but reason alone cannot tell us everything. Reason alone isn't even always consistent, bringing forth arguments over science for example. Even when reason examines facts of history, it is still not consistent, bringing forth the different interpretations of facts of history for example. Reason alone will not solve all your problems, nor will it/can it prove or disprove the existence of God

I know it's not perfect. It's...all I have, really. Basing choices on feelings has never really been an effective or wise way to make decisions
I still hope God is real. Maybe that's enough. I don't know. Perhaps I can be satisfied with that for now...  

[Princessofwhatever]

Tashin Hanabi

Quote:

So do you think that man's reasoning is perfect? If man's reasoning were perfect, we would know everything there is to know. Reason alone is highly flawed, bringing forth the existence of theories instead of all things being law. Man tries to rely on reason, but reason alone cannot tell us everything. Reason alone isn't even always consistent, bringing forth arguments over science for example. Even when reason examines facts of history, it is still not consistent, bringing forth the different interpretations of facts of history for example. Reason alone will not solve all your problems, nor will it/can it prove or disprove the existence of God

I know it's not perfect. It's...all I have, really. Basing choices on feelings has never really been an effective or wise way to make decisions
I still hope God is real. Maybe that's enough. I don't know. Perhaps I can be satisfied with that for now...

Sure it may seem unwise from a purely human point of view, however, reason, being as unreliable is it can be, is unwise to use alone also. Either way, from a purely human perspective, is unwise (relying upon feeling or reason that is). But in my opinion, if you hope God exists so much, you should go ahead and disregard what people think is wise or unwise (especially because a lot of times, people are unwise more than anything else), take that hope, and build faith from it, especially because hope without believing only results in negative feelings, doubts, confusion, etc.
By the way, reason is not all you have. We do have feelings for reasons. Ha, ironic how that statement has more than one meaning. Not only does it mean feelings have purposes (better than good ones at that) but it also means that feelings can compliment reason (and often do).