I am slowly becoming an Atheist... I think...

a reply to: TexasSeabee
God is certainly not what He is painted, or told to be. Problem with belief have many people especially when they meet churchmen not to the required level of duty (regardless of the concrete church).
I am not into your kind of churches and cannot give any other advice than to follow your own conscience that is something God gave you together with your soul.

If we are talking overall and not personally, all big churches are in a big crisis. Catholic Church desperately tries to find salvation way for its biggest numbers but also fastest slowing numbers in traditionally catholic countries like Poland, Ireland, or even Brazil. I speak on that in other threads, including of catholic prophecy in relation to the "last pope". If you are interested, pls visit my profile.

One is sure, God is not Catholic (quote by the late cardinal Martini, jesuit, from Milan). God is not a member of any of the created churches. No one holds His hand to command from His name, not even the pope. Perhaps the current absurd situation with churches unable to clear their face and start a better Christianity, is permitted by Him. But also envisioned how long it will continue, and that is not another 200 years, not another 20 years. You may also want to visit one of the Fatima threads.

I always think back to the anthropology courses I took in university. The prof asked his students to imagine yourself as some of the first cognitive humans that walked this planet. Very little knowledge, except that of the world immediately surrounding us (for example how to make tools, dangerous creatures, what to eat and what not to eat, etc). Over time that knowledge expanded but we could still not explain the natural forces that surrounded us. This non-explanation were the beginnings of religion. When you think about it how many belief systems have come and gone on this planet since then the number is simply mind blowing.

Well, I see you've heard it from many sides. I'm a Christian, so let me see if I can help.

First, when Jesus was preaching to the masses a lot of people didn't even believe Him when He was in front of them. For these, he said "my sheep know my voice" and "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." When He sent out his disciples to proselyte, they were not sent to everyone. Not everyone will hear and believe. And that's ok with God.

On the other hand, Jesus said that it is the Father's will that none should perish. Jesus gave the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd left the 99 sheep to save the one that was lost. He also gave the parable of the prodigal son, where he showed that the father "ran" to the son when he returned home.

So, God isn't going to make you believe. He is patient. He can wait generations, like He did in the Old Testament. However, there is no getting around the fact that Jesus is the only way. No one gets to heaven except through Jesus.
How can we say that? Think about it. Any religion has a perfect heaven at the end. Hindi believe you must become perfected, sometimes through many lifetimes, before you can reach heaven. Muslims believe that Allah must forgive you before you can enter heaven. Notice what's wrong here? The price for entry. You can't pay it. The purchase is too large for you to pay it. You can't get eternity with a finite sacrifice. You have to sacrifice something eternal, and that is God, through Jesus, on the cross. How can Allah forgive? Does he throw away justice? Does he remove the punishment for sin freely without payment? Somehow, people need to be made perfect. Why? Because heaven is a perfect place, and if you go there without being perfected it is no longer a perfect place. Right? So, logically, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross paid the price. No reincarnations, no forgiveness without payment, can get you in. Justice demands punishment for sin. With the commandments comes the payment for disobedience. In Hindu, it's karma. No amount of "karma" can pay for infinite heavenly reward.

Scientific facts will never prove that God exists, but where there's smoke there's fire. The fine tuned Universe is a good example. For example, the rate of expansion of the Universe is so finely tuned that it would be unable to support life if you changed it by one part in 1x10^15. That's like saying one grain of sand from all the beaches in the world. One grain different---no life, no Universe. The Universe appears to be "designed for life" according to Leonard Susskind, and he says "nobody thinks that's accidental." Weiner says we will always be left without the answers, and he discounts the multiverse theory. Gates says there are computer codes in strings at the most elemental level, resembling Google search. theawakenment.com... The cosmological constant is fine tuned to one part in 10^120. Compare that to the number of atoms in the Universe: 1 x 10^85. The mass and energy of the original Universe is fine tuned by 1 part in 10^10^123, and any change it would be hostile to life of any kind. For example, you have 1x10^14 cells in your body, and there have only been 10^20 seconds since life began. The energy state of the electron exactly matches that of the proton. A 1% difference and all atomic matter would disintegrate.

How about the laws of Nature? There is no reason to believe that any such laws should exist, or that they should remain constant, or that they should fit into nice neat little equations. Then there is the strong and weak nuclear forces. They must be tuned just right for matter to exist.

Ironically, the word cosmos means "ordered universe" and the word universe can mean "one sentence" as in "let there be...." from the mouth of God.

Next time you spit out your toothpaste into the sink, please remember that the chance of making an enzyme by random events is one part in 1x10^40,000.

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

God loves you. He wants to be your personal savior. Like many others, I have seen Jesus personally. Humble yourself, pray and ask Him into your life, really truly with sincerity.

Also, it appears from the fulfillment of prophecy in Rev 12:1 that the time is coming soon for the kingdom of God to return. Now is a good time to get your house in order. www.youtube.com...

God bless.

If the religion you were taught doesn't feel right, and you need to go agnostic until you discover the truth of reality, that is a path many have traveled.
The truth is out there.

a reply to: TexasSeabee

It's like stepping out of a jail to the lovely fresh air of the outdoors, only to find you were never locked in to start with.

Don't stress on the past, those belief systems were what you were given to navigate life, just like being given books and pens to write, but now you type on a computer to communicate and learn.

The religion you were in is heavily laden with guilt management, so it will take you some time to let go of that victim/guilt mentality, and if anything it may stay with you in different ways your whole life. The reason for that is we are like sponges as children and what we are repeatedly taught tends to stick longer in your thought processing / personality. So just accept it is there, smile at it, pat it on the head, don't fight it, or you will be in a cycle of guilt and anxiety where nothing has changed from when you were a ball of guilt christian to a ball of guilt atheist.

a reply to: zazzafrazz

Thank you for the encouragement. It definitely is a lot to take in at first, i will try to remember your words when i start argue with myself.