A Farewell

I won't make this any longer than it needs to be, but I am not an adherent of this faith any longer. I will not lie, I was not the most devout, nor the strongest of faith, nor the most pious in my years as a Catholic, so this should not surprise you given those previous facts.

I'm having a difficult time putting it into words, and I want to remain as respectful as possible since I do still hold this board, and Christians, in high regard, but I suppose the best way to say this is that I simply do not feel it anymore.

To me, it all seems far too convenient to be logical, and all too comforting to be truth. I've come to understand that this world is cruel, and it simply doesn't make sense to me why that would be the case with a loving, caring God at the helm. It simply doesn't make sense for everyone to suffer due to the sins of our ancestors. It's cruelty and wrath.

I can not simply sit back and accredit every good thing that comes my way to be the work of God, while every bad thing goes unchecked (Not to say God wouldn't steer people in the right direction using methods you wouldn't immediately recognize as "Good").

It simply does not make sense.

But!

It is not all bad! At first, it was a very sorrowful time after I came to these realizations, but that does not mean that the time that I spent in faith was wasted, and I don't resent any of it. Despite my realization, it does not mean that there can not be good in the world, as Jesus, whether he be Man or Messiah, shows. Just as this world is cruel, it is also good, and seeing that not just all of the bad in this world was brought upon by men, but the good of it too is a lightening thought.

So, I suppose this is goodbye. I hope all of you be good.

P. S. I am open to discussion on this post, but if you don't want to discuss, I will leave this board as is. Thanks for reading and listening.

Attached: stars_in_the_sky-wallpaper-2560x1440.jpg (2560x1440, 1.33M)

you know i was kinda like you in my younger years, dipping in and out of agnosticsm/athiesm and back to Christianity again and again. this was mainly due to not understanding or misunderstanding christianity (at the fault of certain denominations). you say you were not devout or faithful to Christ? Yep that sounds like your average Roman Popery slave. i cannot continue right now but i will say this: once you have understood the basic fundamentals of christianity every other religion/non religious ideas would seem absurd and unthinkable to you. You would immediately return to Christ, and when you did the Orthodox church would be waiting for you.

I feel that you might have psychological problems user and believe me you will change The Outlook of "There is as much Good things as there are bad things in The world" many Times. Bo see a specjalist.

Perhaps time will tell


How wouldyou infer that?

About the world: Thats because of us. God made His creation good, and it was subjected to us. So when we choose to rebel, creation in general also suffered the consequences. As for the second part, I'm Ortho, so I dont really believe in Original sin in the sense that west does (at least by my understanding). We inherited nature inclined towards the sin, that we inherited from first man. But we dont suffer for them.

How is it convenient to conform to God's law? The alternative is doing whatever you want, which is being your own God.
Which seems to be more convenient?

You just let the demons get the better of you, this what they want and you fell for it. You don’t feel God, you have to have faith in him. You must suffer first to feel God, currently you need to endure

Attached: 32C8E495-23DE-4524-8CE3-5DEA921A1F48.jpeg (960x1200, 241.73K)

Hurry back, user.

Attached: Jesus.jpg (900x900, 99.25K)

And by what standard are you judging these things you're thinking to be good, cruel, etc.?

The Lord is always with you, whether you feel Him or realise that He is there for you or not does not change the fact that He always love you. He smiles when you believe in Him, letting good things happen to you; he puts on a face when he lets you suffer so you can be more than what you think you can be as He waits for your enduring eternal spirit to overcome the durance until your final hour on this world. And when that happens, both you and Him will be joyful as you have returned to your true home, you are home at last.

Nope. It is a "I need some time off, I do not want to be a bother so see you very soon". And I will say to you "Godspeed".

Attached: God 3.jpeg (500x665 251.5 KB, 52.92K)

Mine

People will always be cruel, and even when God himself came down to show them the way they responded with cruelty. It's one thing if you don't like the storm people have stirred up, but why would you jump off the Ark?

Do you understand that this is a self defeating position?

God gave us the World and we gave the World to Satan.

It's a good question why we should be punished for Adam's sin. But the reason is relatively simple, that knowledge is irrevocable. So we condemned ourselves to know, and sorting out the mess has been a particular thorny issue for God and humans alike.

Really I agree with Christianity is taught poorly by Protestants and Catholics, but the root of this is really in the theories of atonement they offer. Also the mindless mantra that "God is Love" which is the most substandard simplification.

I remember when I was even such a brainlet I thought Buddhism had lots of overlap with Christianity. What I didn't realize then was that in the 19th century Methodist preachers just BTFOed Shintoism and Buddhism so hard that they modernized their theologies in fear, because instead of just renouncing existence and spitting on disabled people (like the Buddhists actually do), Christians actually follow the law of Charity. Even today Buddhists are basically all pretending to be more Christian just to stay relevant, they are the world's fastest shrinking religion in fact.

umm..1 John 4:8?

Attached: e9dff62d3c13583966f09b72cccda92ece026db904c4265b5f715beb17a472d1.jpg (379x503, 37.44K)

Kek, you know secular people have had to abandon the notion of evil. They will use the word "evil" but they admit that morality is in their opinion subjective. This is only logical they claim, because they have no external standard (a God) in order to measure their actions against.

Basically by saying that you have knowledge of what is good, cruel etc. means that you have claimed that you know better than mother nature what humans should be doing. To quote the scriptures, God "sends rain upon the just and the unjust alike." A purely Darwinian perspective means that you accept the only morality as being the pirate code viz. Jack Sparrow "take what you can, give nothing back." You may say that Darwin might make altruism an adaptive feature, but you're still free to reject altruism in the moment if you think the rewards for yourself outweigh the risk. We Christians like to call this presupposition hell on earth.


Checked
But honestly, think about why that idea, while in fact quite brilliant and unlike God in other religions, might not be the best place to start. Love must be defined as in Christianity it is more than an emotion, and it is best defined in this emotion-free context in scripture.

Basically when you say "God is Love" out of context you risk a secular kind of feeling, essentially Tom Lehrer "National Brotherhood Week" levels of hypocrisy.

nah yeah, I assumed what you were getting at in the first place and that it was likely you were aware of that passage and description and totally see where you're coming from, just wanted to make sure and also signal to any anons that there is a scriptual basis for the phrase, and you're right it is indeed something that separates Christianity from other faiths, as misconstrued as it might be at times..

Your post boils down to an inability to confront the problem of evil, basically, which is understandable, but it's no good to abandon it for that.

With respect, I have never heard of someone abandoning a belief or an idea because it seemed too correct.

That same loving, caring God promises us nothing but a hard fight in this life, which is, as Holy Job says, "warfare". That same, loving, caring God told us to take up our crosses and follow Him. He didn't promise that we would be happy in this life, only in the next.
Suffering is our crucible. It is purgative and absolutely necessary for us, and is a ready means for us to use to atone for our sins by offering up that suffering to join it to the Cross of the Lord as St Paul encourages us to do.

This isn't aimed at you, but as other posters ITT have stated, the level of catechism in the West is utterly abysmal, and seems to have fostered some belief that God's love means that suffering should be over and done with, and that love is good and painless rather than a cleansing fire, as it is described in Scripture.

Honest question - what are you doing about that?
It's all very well to sit back and sigh about all the trouble in the world, but what are you doing about it?

The other point about this is that we are crabs in a bucket, all suffering for the sins of one another. In a world that just does not love (and often actually hates) God, why do we deserve His help? We don't want it and claim we don't need it, so this "Why would God allow this to happen?" smacks of hypocrisy.
We are all the prodigal son, and the decision to go back to Him is up to us.

Sauce on the buddhist claims?

That tells us what real love is. The world's idea of "love" is far from God.

If someone says they can't see a loving God do something found in the Bible you can turn here to disprove it.