Yes. You must look at the beginning BEFORE it was corrupted. Jesus and his Apostles, God, Mary and the Holy Spirit.
I was strictly raised as an atheist. My father said there is no God. The Bible was written by man. And priests are just a bunch of parasites. The rest of my family remain strict atheists now. Whatever my father said was law and the absolute truth.
I believed everything was nature. I was a carbon being and would return to earth as carbon when I died. I tried to do good because it was the right thing to do. If God wanted to punish me when I died after a lifetime of good deeds, then he was egocentric and I didn't care. I was such an atheist, I thought religious people were weak and needed a "crutch". I also thought they weren't very bright. I even asked someone to have God "move that chair" if he existed. If you do research, you will find many bright, accomplished people believe in God. Even scientists and philosophers.
Then I had a life-changing experience which brought me to a level so low, it was excruciating. I needed help. I needed hope. At that time I turned to God for help. I learned the history of Jesus. I experienced hope, faith and redemption. It is a great comfort to me now, and I believe it to be true.
Having lived with and without faith, I choose faith.
I was able to accept God, because it is taught it rains on the good and the bad.
I don't think EVERYTHING happens just so because it is God's intention. Sometimes it's just bad luck. I've seen good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
There was woman sitting in her home with her son on her lap during a battle. A bomb just fell on them. God didn't intend for that to happen.
In retrospect I can appreciate the use of rituals. I don't go to church but there's something meaningful about a life organized around sacraments and that sort of thing. Rituals take you out of your own life and reminds us of the bigger picture. A lot of people will just fall into mindlessly living day by day without some form of ritual ingrained into their lives.
I felt that way when I was younger. I then figured out what Authentic Christianity is. Dogmatic Christianity is not Christianity at all.
Amen.
Yes. You must look at the beginning BEFORE it was corrupted. Jesus and his Apostles, God, Mary and the Holy Spirit.
I was strictly raised as an atheist. My father said there is no God. The Bible was written by man. And priests are just a bunch of parasites. The rest of my family remain strict atheists now. Whatever my father said was law and the absolute truth.
I believed everything was nature. I was a carbon being and would return to earth as carbon when I died. I tried to do good because it was the right thing to do. If God wanted to punish me when I died after a lifetime of good deeds, then he was egocentric and I didn't care. I was such an atheist, I thought religious people were weak and needed a "crutch". I also thought they weren't very bright. I even asked someone to have God "move that chair" if he existed. If you do research, you will find many bright, accomplished people believe in God. Even scientists and philosophers.
Then I had a life-changing experience which brought me to a level so low, it was excruciating. I needed help. I needed hope. At that time I turned to God for help. I learned the history of Jesus. I experienced hope, faith and redemption. It is a great comfort to me now, and I believe it to be true.
Having lived with and without faith, I choose faith.
for me its closely tied with my truther side. i saw the evils in the world and i saw no real solution.
i decided to have faith that all the right people would be in all the right places to save the world.
now we have Q. all the right people in all the right places. faith is amazing.
I was able to accept God, because it is taught it rains on the good and the bad.
I don't think EVERYTHING happens just so because it is God's intention. Sometimes it's just bad luck. I've seen good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
There was woman sitting in her home with her son on her lap during a battle. A bomb just fell on them. God didn't intend for that to happen.
All the ritualism of the church never sat right with me.
In retrospect I can appreciate the use of rituals. I don't go to church but there's something meaningful about a life organized around sacraments and that sort of thing. Rituals take you out of your own life and reminds us of the bigger picture. A lot of people will just fall into mindlessly living day by day without some form of ritual ingrained into their lives.