Doubt

[Seeker]

I'am currently facing a problem i think to be doubt. I am constantly getting feelings that Christianity is wrong and then i look on the internet and find something that will cure this doubt for about a day and then this painful experience that Christianity is wrong comes back. I have been told by atheist that this is the truth trying to make its way out of my delusional religion. Any help would be great.

[Danieltwotwenty]

I'am currently facing a problem i think to be doubt. I am constantly getting feelings that Christianity is wrong and then i look on the internet and find something that will cure this doubt for about a day and then this painful experience that Christianity is wrong comes back. I have been told by atheist that this is the truth trying to make its way out of my delusional religion. Any help would be great.

What exactly about Christianity do you feel is wrong?

[Jac3510]

Apologetics will only get you so far. By all means, continue to study it, but I encourage you to consider two things:

1. Apologetics must give way to philosophy if you want real, final answers to rational questions. Philosophy is hard, but it's worth it. If you are interested in that approach, I would very, very highly recommend reading The Last Superstition and Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide, both by Edward Feser. Then you should read The Unity of Philosophical Experience by Etienne Gilson and then Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by Moreland and Craig.

2. Recognize that God and Christ really can be experienced. We are certainly to love God with all our mind, but we are also to love Him with all of our heart. You really can know God. Don't me afraid of mystics here. I'm not saying seek an experience exactly, but I'm saying that reality (and God is real) can be experienced. And then, while you are at it, get deeply involved (not just superficially) in a local church. I don't just mean your local First Baptist Whatever (not that that is a bad thing). Go read Frank Viola's Pagan Christianity and you'll get what I'm talking about. I mean find some truly, deeply Christian people that you can live your life with. A painful truth that many Western Christians fail to grasp is that the Christian life is not lived in isolation. You don't, you can't, just turn on a preacher on TBN and listen to a praise CD and say you have a Christian life. To be the Body of Christ is to be a part of the fellowship of an actual body.

If you do those things--try to understand faith and allow faith to seek understanding--the rest will come naturally enough.

Just my $.02. Sorry there's no magic pill here or silver bullet. Reality usually isn't like that.

[Seeker]

the problem i have with reading books from a christian point of view i can almost always find an atheist on youtube that does a review of the book and debunks all the points made in the book. The same goes for when i find something that says God is real i can find an atheist on youtube that can prove that it does not prove anything at all

[Danieltwotwenty]

the problem i have with reading books from a christian point of view i can almost always find an atheist on youtube that does a review of the book and debunks all the points made in the book. The same goes for when i find something that says God is real i can find an atheist on youtube that can prove that it does not prove anything at all

You are always going to find rebuttals to any argument whether it be atheist, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or any number of other religions or worldviews and it will go back and forth without ever reaching a conclusion, it's a complete waste of time in my honest opinion.

There is no easy answer to your question and it is your choice to decide what the truth is.

I can tell you what I think is truth but that probably is not going to help you much, you need to make this decision for yourself.


Dan

[neo-x]

you lack peace, seeker. You lack inner peace. And thats because your trust in God has been rocked. I am with jac. questions and rebuttals are plenty. what you need is the realization that God is real.

You have a spiritual void and no philosophy will fill it. The atheist will likely say that you have no spiritual need at all and if you will listen to it, eventually you will realize that you don't have one but thats wrong. We all have spiritual voids, many people just seal them up and pretend they don't need to be spiritual. I am saying that if you listen to the atheist long enough you will see that you can live without the turmoil of being corrected by secular media.

part of the whole problem is you are looking into books to solve problems that introduce doubt in your faith. To some extent doubt is natural and good but unchecked it can be disastrous.

I have plenty of doubt, but I have faith too.
You are not to be blamed for your natural doubt...God does not hold you to things you have no control over.
God is not dishonest he loves you even if you can't find any proof of him.
I have NO EMPIRICAL PROOF of God which will satisfy a skeptic, and frankly there is none. But faith in God makes the most sense to me.
I am not obliged to answer anyone openly questioning my faith. Trust God, and be happy. One day your faith will grow and mature, then you will find it easy to find answers. The only time we don't find answers is when we are troubled in ourselves.

My suggestion, just be honest, ask for help. Ask questions and think about them. Most of all, try to nurture your faith, keep it sheltered, like you would keep a candle burning in a storm. Your faith right now is little, protect it for now. One day you will be able to shine the brightest and perhaps be steady in a storm but for now, its the wrong thing to do. If someone asks about your faith, tell them you are thinking about it. There is no harm in that but like your username, keep seeking more and more.

[PaulSacramento]

Doubt is natural.
Even the direct Apostles of Christ never fully understood and doubted until the risen Christ came to them.
Every argument can refuted, every view point can be argued.
The only people that have 100% certainty of things that they can't prove are those that choose to ignore the arguments from the other side.
We can't prove God's existence and we can't prove His non-existence.

Our faith MUST be based on more than just "blind faith" or belief simply for the sake of believing, but faith in ANYTHING can be contested.

I came to faith based on a personal experience that I could NOT deny ( and believe me I wanted to).
I KEEP my faith because of that AND because I do study The Word and I do study apologetics and I do study the arguments against it better understand the issues that others have with Christianity.

We defend our faith because it is right to do so, we are told to do so in the NT, to be ready to give account of our faith.

We don't do it to convince anyone or win anyone over.

God comes to those that truly seek Him with love in their heart.
Not to those that look for what THEY THINK God is SUPPOSE to be.

[1over137]

God comes to those that truly seek Him with love in their heart.
Not to those that look for what THEY THINK God is SUPPOSE to be.

[WannaLearn]

Just keep trying to find god. Its better to look and want to know instead of just following it blindly(a blind faith). God wants you to search and look for answers.Spend some time with god and ask him to show himself to you and for him to strengthen you. Hear are some stuff you might want to look into
- Christian testimony's
- Heaven is for real story you tube it and see what you think about this family's story.
- Angel caught on tape in hospital camera you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUGoFTfP7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wok4OgFW1g

[Seeker]

Wanna learn, I went on the video of the angle caught on tape and got what i had expected. The comment section seemed to be overruled by Atheists. Both of the top comments are of Atheists "beating" Christians attempting to defend their faith. I am sorry but this didn't really help me out if anything it brought more doubt to me.

[WannaLearn]

I'm sorry to hear that but give me your honest opinion on what you thought about the video?

[Seeker]

I thought the cameras could have been tinkered with or foggy or something of that sort. I didn't view it as viable evidence of the supernatural or angels.

[WannaLearn]

possibly but what about the girl?

[cnk12]

Seeker, I can relate to your situation. Sometimes I think I'm finally realizing Jesus is God and was resurrected while at others I'm consumed with doubt. It's a constant cycle that goes on hourly to daily. Unfortunately I don't have the ultimate answer for you as I'm searching and hoping myself. At least you're not alone.
Allow me to share some encouragement just the same. I think this is a terrific site to spend time on, and that you should give God equal time or better as compared to what you spend on Atheist propaganda. While I find certain things about God difficult to keep my belief in, I find I'm more and more turned off by Atheists; more by the way they tend to say things and the contempt many show towards believers. What one of the repliers said about studying the philosophy of God, I think is right on. The topic of God is a philosophical issue more than it is scientific, and if you study moral relativism (just for starters), you'll see virtually every Atheist is an intellectual hypocrite right out of the gate. I also think the person that suggested getting involved with a Bible based church is right on the mark.
Personally, I'm planning on checking out some of the suggested reading suggested in another reply. Good luck.

[Metacrock]

the problem i have with reading books from a christian point of view i can almost always find an atheist on youtube that does a review of the book and debunks all the points made in the book. The same goes for when i find something that says God is real i can find an atheist on youtube that can prove that it does not prove anything at all

The level of Christian apologetics for the uneducated layman is not very good. It's not very deep. It's not hard for people who hang out on message boards and argue every day and who scan a bunch of websites designedd to give them weapons to kill faith, to find good arguments against the shallow level.

I think You probalby need two things:

(1) Deep assurance of God's reality that can only come from the sense of God's presence; for that you need prayer. You should read some good scholarly and devotional level books on prayer. I recomend A.W. Tozer for that. Elvyn Underhill, she's good but she was too wrapped up in mysticism to much help to a person needing immediate help with a prayer life. unless you have a real interest in that. The thing is go pray! spend time in prayer!

(2) you need to move to a deeply level of theological understanding. You should probably start familiarizing yourself with the field of theology, learn who is whom. Maybe start by reading a book by NT Wright for example.

you might read Luke Timothy Johnson. He's a scholar, somewhat liberal but a true believer who writes mainly about New Testament Scholarship. The New Testament documents is a good one.

Not to compare myself with those guys. Those are real scholars. I'm just an amateur fart. But my site (despite it's many draw backs such as my dyslexia) has been seen as helpful by some people. So if you need quick stuff that's going to point you in the right direction and give interim answers good for argument You might take a gander at it.

the main site

http://www.doxa.ws/

My list of God arguments:

http://www.doxa.ws/meta_crock/listGodarguments.html