Dear Reader,
I've been trying for years to figure out how to find my faith again but the more I've been thinking about it the more I've gotten away from it. I'm always so anxious to ask anyone questions because most of the Christians around me are very resistant to the kinds of questions I feel like I need answered, and even if I get any answer they are either extremely vague, or make no sense; in the case of the latter, further explanation is either avoided or explained with further vagueness.
I signed up for this site inthe hopes that I could get some of these questions answered with the relative security of anonymity.
The questions that I've found most profoundly difficult to overcome are below:
If God is portrayed as a perfect being (at least, that is my interpretation of how God is portrayed), then how can God "want" for anything, or be "happy" about anything. I may be misconstruing how perfection, want, and happiness operates, but how I understand it is that in order to want something, you must not already have it, if there is something that you don't have that you would want, how can you be perfect; to further that analogy, happiness, like many things, operates in a dichotomy, where there is happiness, there is unhappiness, so if God can be happy about our faith and going to Heaven, it must be the case that God can be unhappy about something. If that is the case, how can God be perfect?
What purpose do the varying denominations of Christianity and even all monotheistic (Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and any others that I've missed) serve? I understand that the basis is upon varying interpretations of the words in the Bible, but it just doesn't make any sense for a piece of work that is supposed to provide guidance and support to be so convoluted and by its nature pit people against each other in a "who's right" debate, instigating countless contests.
When I think about how I wish my faith could be, I really wish that it didn't necessitate trying to decipher the meaning of a variety of compiled texts written across 3000 years, and was simply supposed to be a reflection of how I live my life and treat others; furthermore I wish that only the only necessity to reach heaven, or whatever afterlife ends up being true among the several interpretations we have, would be to live in that way, being good to one another, not turning yourself into a servant of another, forfeiting the life you were given, and the lives that were given to others. I always hope that if I simply do everything in my power live as a good person, respecting everyone around me, at least believe that there is a god that created everything and remain grateful for the good things that occur in my life, that I should be ok. But instead I am faced with countless decisions that I need to think critically about on a daily basis that continue confuse and outright irritate me about how my life and those around me are affected by them.
This was an example of the thoughts that I go through on a semi-daily basis about my faith, exactly how I would think them. I would greatly appreciate any help that could be provided in terms of how I am looking at the whole situation of religion, and how my views could be clarified and my questions answered. I realize some of my views and logic could be invalid, and it is for this reason that I am seeking help to create a valid view of these things. In any case, I thank you very much for your help, and apologize for the long post.
-Josh
I've been trying for years to figure out how to find my faith again but the more I've been thinking about it the more I've gotten away from it. I'm always so anxious to ask anyone questions because most of the Christians around me are very resistant to the kinds of questions I feel like I need answered, and even if I get any answer they are either extremely vague, or make no sense; in the case of the latter, further explanation is either avoided or explained with further vagueness.
I signed up for this site inthe hopes that I could get some of these questions answered with the relative security of anonymity.
The questions that I've found most profoundly difficult to overcome are below:
If God is portrayed as a perfect being (at least, that is my interpretation of how God is portrayed), then how can God "want" for anything, or be "happy" about anything. I may be misconstruing how perfection, want, and happiness operates, but how I understand it is that in order to want something, you must not already have it, if there is something that you don't have that you would want, how can you be perfect; to further that analogy, happiness, like many things, operates in a dichotomy, where there is happiness, there is unhappiness, so if God can be happy about our faith and going to Heaven, it must be the case that God can be unhappy about something. If that is the case, how can God be perfect?
What purpose do the varying denominations of Christianity and even all monotheistic (Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and any others that I've missed) serve? I understand that the basis is upon varying interpretations of the words in the Bible, but it just doesn't make any sense for a piece of work that is supposed to provide guidance and support to be so convoluted and by its nature pit people against each other in a "who's right" debate, instigating countless contests.
When I think about how I wish my faith could be, I really wish that it didn't necessitate trying to decipher the meaning of a variety of compiled texts written across 3000 years, and was simply supposed to be a reflection of how I live my life and treat others; furthermore I wish that only the only necessity to reach heaven, or whatever afterlife ends up being true among the several interpretations we have, would be to live in that way, being good to one another, not turning yourself into a servant of another, forfeiting the life you were given, and the lives that were given to others. I always hope that if I simply do everything in my power live as a good person, respecting everyone around me, at least believe that there is a god that created everything and remain grateful for the good things that occur in my life, that I should be ok. But instead I am faced with countless decisions that I need to think critically about on a daily basis that continue confuse and outright irritate me about how my life and those around me are affected by them.
This was an example of the thoughts that I go through on a semi-daily basis about my faith, exactly how I would think them. I would greatly appreciate any help that could be provided in terms of how I am looking at the whole situation of religion, and how my views could be clarified and my questions answered. I realize some of my views and logic could be invalid, and it is for this reason that I am seeking help to create a valid view of these things. In any case, I thank you very much for your help, and apologize for the long post.
-Josh