Have you ever lost your faith?

[killedbyanangel]

Did you ever stop believing in your chosen deity or belief system? Why? What have your beliefs changed into?

[german]

No Never, keeps me going through life.

[ShadowTklr]

No. I've never lost my faith in God. I have, however, long ago lost my faith in man's ability to interpret what God is, and as a result have developed contempt for organized religion and the people who occupy its highest positions.

Faith = Enlightenment
Religion = Brainwashing and Manipulation

[Krokus]

as a child, I was a "christian" ...my parents put me in christian private schools and such. I got a little older and realized the only person worth having "faith" in and believing in is myself. I think religion is a crutch for many. (Not all though)

Not to mention all the "moral" and "abomination" discussions I've had with my family.

[isabeau]

i never lost my faith its what kept me strong in face of many adversities. i have however in the past questioned why God took my three children from me when others who are unfit mothers were allowed to have them right and left. but that isnt Gods fault it was just the way my body was. i have come to terms with those losses, plus the death of my parents. without faith, i couldnt go on but thats just me. i do not however use my faith as a crutch, i put blame where blame is deserved, with myself.

isabeau :xbee:

[scorpionldr]

yes. i don't now how to explain it, so i'll go about it later

[red indian]

.........and now it seems, the second coming is almost upon us. The Great Gods of the Pantheon....Trescothic,Vaughn,Jones,Harmison,Giles ,Hoggard,Flintoff, seem set to bring a new dawn upon the planet.

May the gods of the Oval be with us.

[hivoltage]

I went from being a solid believer in the almighty to a solid non-believer between about 12 and 14, despite a moderate level of indoctrination.

I mostly dropped it because I approach most things scientifically; but seeing what humans are capable of doing to each other, and the concept of eternal damnation pretty much make it certain that I won't go back.

And even without any kind of faith in a divine being, my life has been exceptionally great for many years - which makes it easier to not desire to return to the flock.

[Robace252]

I think someone faith is where you find it. If its in science...you have faith in that, if its in God, you have faith in that. I think that sometimes people just either get tired of being force fed a belief from birth or just decide what is best for their own lives. I do believe in God, put I put my faith in him in my own way. Science cures and God gives me strength. Science is tangable and something I can use to explain things that need to be like weather, health, technology and such. Where God helps me realize that no one will ever have all the answers and sometimes you just have to hope that things are going to be okay and put your faith in yourself. Thats about as simple as I can put it. You can believe in both and not have the "religious right" think of you as heathen, or the science community think you a nut.
In this case I think you can have your cake and eat it too.

[isabeau]

without God there would be no science. there would be no technology. God gave us the knowledge to invent these things. God gave us the ability to heal. without God we would cease to exist. just my opinion.

isabeau

[steph]

Lost my religion at times, is that the same thing? :idunno:
XOXO

[Darkknight]

Yes.

It's been just over 5 years now.

Life actually improved but not cuz of that, timing is everything.

Sorry, not up to opening up on why but felt like answering the question given.

DK

[ShadowTklr]

without God there would be no science. there would be no technology. God gave us the knowledge to invent these things. God gave us the ability to heal. without God we would cease to exist. just my opinion.

isabeau


Perfectly stated, Isabeau. :wavingguy

[isabeau]

thank you Shadowtklr its how i feel

isabeau

[MrMacphisto]

I was raised as a Methodist, but I never could really say I had any faith to begin with. I just never bothered to question what I had been raised with until I was about 15. As soon as I discovered that I had no reason to believe, that's when I lost my faith, so to speak.

It has never returned ever since, but I can't say that I miss it....

[hivoltage]

I really would rather not write this, this is not that kind of thread, but -

God also gave us the ability to torture, the ability to enjoy others' suffering, the ability to humiliate, the ability to rape...

I don't buy it. While people can be great, they can also be as savage as any "lower life form".

[steph]

Interesting theory...Did you see "Bruce Almighty"? One of "God's" few rules was "you cannot mess with free will..."

XOXO

I really would rather not write this, this is not that kind of thread, but -

God also gave us the ability to torture, the ability to enjoy others' suffering, the ability to humiliate, the ability to rape...

I don't buy it. While people can be great, they can also be as savage as any "lower life form".

[killedbyanangel]

It's good to know that there are others who struggle with this. I seem to go back and forth on whether or not God exists, I was raised very strict evangelical, my belief system changed to universalism and now I'm not sure what to believe in or if I should believe in anything. At times I can swear God's presense is in my life and at others ............I'm not so sure. Maybe it's because I'm terrified of the fact that I might have nothing to look forward to when I die.

Guys: none of these posts require a rebuttal. Like somone said "this isn't that kind of thread". I just want to hear about your personal experiences and your own reasons.

Thanks

[mpeyton]

as a child, I was a "christian" ...my parents put me in christian private schools and such. I got a little older and realized the only person worth having "faith" in and believing in is myself. I think religion is a crutch for many. (Not all though)

Not to mention all the "moral" and "abomination" discussions I've had with my family.

I don't completely disagree with you. But I think most people confuse religion with faith. Religion, which is really nothing more than a bunch of rules and regulations that tend to bind people, can be a crutch if that's what you choose. Faith in God, though, offers a person more freedom and encourages him to work towards reaching his or her full potential. I have found that circumstances make you question your faith, but I 'm sure if a person can completely lose it.

[Ticklish9's]

I really would rather not write this, this is not that kind of thread, but -

God also gave us the ability to torture, the ability to enjoy others' suffering, the ability to humiliate, the ability to rape...

I don't buy it. While people can be great, they can also be as savage as any "lower life form".


God gave us a beautiful universe and the capacity to make use of it, however we see fit.

That's quite a gift, no matter what we do with it.

Don't sell humanity short, either - we've done some incredible things in our time, and the best is yet to come. :)

To answer the main question - I have spent some time as a bitter atheist, but it never really had the conviction it required. I've since returned to my Christian faith.

Fortunately, even when I didn't believe in God, God never stopped believing in me. Which was nice, because for a time I didn't really believe all that much in myself, either.

That's all changed of course. :)

[hivoltage]

Would you have "returned to your Christian faith" if you were born a Muslim?

I'm sorry, but the rhetorical answer is no - and the billions of people who are born and die non-Christians prove that the supposed system of salvation is "rigged", based on where you are born.

A system that imposes eternal punishment or salvation that is heavily based on one's birth circumstances is preposterous - and God should be smart enough not to do preposterous things.

And even if that is God's grand plan - I am strong enough in my beliefs to go to eternal damnation with nearly all of the people who were born in the wrong country. I don't want to be with a God whose system of salvation is heavily biased against Asians and North Africans. Why would anyone?

[killedbyanangel]

That in a thread where I just want some people to open up about somthing that might or might not have to do with religion, that we have to keep hearing the age old atheism vs. christianty debate. It's really tiring guys, can we just stay on topic?

[jim66e]

Did you ever stop believing in your chosen deity or belief system? Why? What have your beliefs changed into?


Nope, never have. Nowadays I just appreaciate God and Catholicism more than I did when I was younger.

[ticklingfeet4fu]

I believe that faith in God comes from being confident. When things are at it's absolute bleakest that you have confidence to believe that God will always be there for you regardless how things work out. Good or bad. :rotate:

[Ticklish9's]

Would you have "returned to your Christian faith" if you were born a Muslim?

I'm sorry, but the rhetorical answer is no - and the billions of people who are born and die non-Christians prove that the supposed system of salvation is "rigged", based on where you are born.



It appears I haven't adequetly explained the nature of Christianity.

Christianity - and this is my admittedly undereducated opinion - postulates that A) A higher being or mentality exists; B) it loves us and desires our love in return; and C) wants to spend time with us.

Additionally, it states that Christ lived, died, and was resurrected in compensation for our sins.

The idea of hell is rarely addressed in the bible - the majority of our popular notions of hell came from Dante's "Inferno" and reflect almost nothing of the bible's concepts.

Where am I going with this?

You'll find that hell, as an idea, is often something created by those who can't conceive of a great gift like eternal life without some sort of balance. The notion of exclusivity is generated by religious folks who need some sort of reassurance that they've made the right choice - and get it by proving to themselves that other people have made the wrong choice.

So the answer to your unvoiced question: the God of my faith hasn't abandoned billions to the depths of hell for the sake of geography. He's simply given us his message as many times as it takes to get the point across. Every few millenia we seem to forget that He's out there (or in there, or in here, and so on) and it seems like we need a refresher.

So while I enjoy the conventions of Christian religion, my faith is purely Deist.

Love is, after all, it's own end and means. Just the way God wanted it. :)



(again, that's how I see it. THere's EVERY possibility I could be wrong. Such is being human)

[Ticklemmmeeeeee]

It is easy for our faith to dissipate during hard times because losing faith takes no effort. It happens by default if we are not using it as an opportunbity to get closer to or at least stay close to God.

It is easy to enjoy victory. It is hard to deal with defeat. It is easy to enjoy success. It is hard to deal with failure.

I have always had a profound respect and admiration for any person who refused to surrender his or her life to failure.

I think an example I will use is that of two people who have had a loving yet primarily uneventful relationship with their significant other in that neither one has cheated, there are no major obstacles they have to overcome to achieve intimacy. They will probably experience placing faith in God as a relatively easy task.

Conversely, the couple who has had obstacle after obstacle set before them whether as a result of a stupid thing they did or by some event beyond their control, and have used that as an opportunity to grow stronger, grow closer to one another and to God , has chosen to retain faith when life seemed faithless. To make something good out of something bad is what having and sustaining faith is all about.

I don't know why one person can have faith in God and another cannot but I just know that I am thankful to God that as long as there is a spark still in that person God will never let him go. if my God can have that kind of faith in me to do the right thing why should I have any difficulty reciprocating that? :)


In every area and dimension of life, we need great faith. If one is to believe in God then we need to learn how to trust God in all areas of human existence.

But in no area of life do we need faith more,or to trust God more, than in the areas of our failures. Without faith, failure will defeat us. With faith, God can always help us rebuild our lives through a living relationship with Jesus.

We live in the presence of a God who forgives. and even in our failures, we can glorify God. We can glorify him by accepting His forgiveness and allowing Him to work in us.

It is never easy to begin believing in God, he is abstract by nature. But if we are to place faith in him and not ourselves all we have to do is see the wonder of all that is around us and know that he is God and we are not.
~tm :)

[hivoltage]

I'm sorry ticklemeeeee, I guess I think that faith is unnecessary and boring. I don't see how I could possibly be any happier - life has gotten better and better since I stopped believing.

But the critical part, besides my lack of belief in a super-being, is that being one of the faithful really seems to require limiting your beliefs on sociopolitical issues.

I don't see how you can be one of "the faithful" and be pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-euthanasia, or spend much time with the non-faithful. And I don't think I can accept the existence of hell in any way, shape, or form.

I'm not willing to give up my beliefs and choices to join the faithful until I get a clear message from God as to which is the one true religion, and why science seems to constantly unearth evidence that humanity is just a random occurrence in the flow of existence.

[Darkknight]

Sorry Tm,

Since you're one that has never lost faith, your statement of
"It is easy for our faith to dissipate during hard times because losing faith takes no effort" does not hold true to some of us "once-believers".

Losing faith was soul wrenching and tremendous effort to let go of the painful faith, you have no idea, so don't put us all in a nice little bowl..... until you've walked on our side with nothing watching over you.....

DK

[Celtic_Emperor]

Nope, I've never lost my faith. God, and my faith in Him combined give me additional focus in life and make me a stronger and better person the longer my connection runs and the deeper it gets. There will undoubtably be trials for me, but none can overshadow the blessings and graces my Lord and loving God has showered me with and will continue to.

And as the saying goes- "God will never send you/allow you to experience more than you can handle." Theres also the saying "Jesus is closest to you when you're suffering." And thats because he's been through what we have.

The wonderfully divine insurance plan God has offered us all cannot be beat, so theres no reason to go elsewhere. :)

[hivoltage]

My wife was raised in an "intensely" Christian home. It was very difficult for her to drop her faith.

She did see a lot of hypocritical people who claimed to be faithful, and this was a huge turn-off. She also found that faith was incompatible with some of her liberal viewpoints. Eventually, she just decided that it wasn't real, and let it go - not easy after years of indoctrination.

The strangest part is that my wife and her biological brother and sister have all dropped religion completely, but her step-brother and step-sister that moved in when they were around 10 are both "intensely" Christian to this day. Weird.