Reply to I'm coming to terms with the possibility that I'm an atheist....

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "I'm coming to terms with the possibility that I'm an atheist...."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] [/quote]

Perhaps the problem was that you were praying for your faith to strengthen --- what were you actually DOING to strengthen your faith? You were just waiting and hoping for something to strike you, to rejuvenate your faith? I don't think that's how it works at all. A relationship with God and Christ is just that -- a relationship. If I told my DS that I wasn't sure how I felt about him any more and that I was going to sit around and wait for him to impress me so that my love and faith in him would be restored -- and he'd better get to work on it -- what do you think would happen?[/quote]

NP here:

You clarified that you meant DH above instead of DS, but I believe you more accurately reflect the situation in your first statement. Let me reframe the situation for you. Your DS is lost and you know if he doesn't find you, he will fall into a lake of fire. You hear him calling, "Mommy, where are you? I don't see you anywhere. I can't find you." And you keep quiet and say to yourself, "If he really wanted to find me he'd look harder and work for it more."

As a parent, I don't care how much of a pain in my rear my child is being, I will come when called even when there isn't a real danger and the child is just scared. Yet, God is supposed to love us more than we love our kids? And we're supposed to be able to call upon Him with more trust than our kids have when they call on us? And when many, many people call on God and beg Him to do anything to let us know He's there, we get nothing? I don't want to hear that God [i]is[/i] screaming out to those people and they just can't hear because of lack of faith or sin or whatever. It's GOD! If He really wanted to, He could put a burning bush out there or blind people in a vision like with St Paul. There's precedent. So, if people genuinely seek and do not find, then I have to think that either nothing is there or nothing is there that wants to answer. And from there, I think if God is there and doesn't want to answer, how is that love? We are supposed to be little children in comparison to God. Who puts the burden on their child to instigate and maintain a relationship with them? [/quote]

Point well made, thanks.  You effectively handled the "you're not doing it right" argument but there's still the "God works in mysterious ways" argument.

In an attempt to give the benefit of the doubt to well-meaning Christians who use these arguments to comfort and influence doubters, it could be that they have had an experience that they interpreted as God/Jesus entering their heart and thus assume (and hope) that it's available to anyone who really wants it.

Let's say that what they don't realize is that this kind of "transcendent" experience is common among humans and unassociated with a particular religion or with religion at all.  It  can happen - or not- to many kinds of people under many kinds of circumstances.

Let's say, again looking for a compassionate explanation for this behavior, that what they also don't realize is that such an assurance that God will enter your heart if you really want it is not at all comforting to someone who has tried but has not had that experience.  Instead it can make them feel worse -- inadequate or hopeless, unloved and doomed.

So, I ask well-meaning believers to consider all of this before you decide to assist people who have not found what you think you have. In your attempt to save their eternal soul, you may be making their life here on earth miserable.    Maybe you can take heart in thinking that a truly loving God will provide them a last minute revelation before they die.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics