Christianity no longer seems moral to me

stevenb6 said:

Edit: I think it might be okay to mention that I have schizophrenia/bi-polar if this seems like a stupid read.
First off I have a tendency to only post negative feelings or experiences, so let me reiterate that I have indeed had a lot of very good moments in my faith

But. Recently going through a rougher patch and it's not necessarily even my patch.

My family seems to be struggling a lot. I have siblings as well and we all know siblings can argue a lot.

The reason for me doubting morality is rooted in the way Christianity is portrayed through mainstream media. It's very counter intuitive to Christianity. I feel like it tries to over emphasize it without explaining the Word of God and including the Holy Spirit into teachings leaving everyone with less than nothing.

In the same way that growing up my parents never mentioned God once. The time I was trying to believe in Jesus was a horrible time as well. I've had a hard time coming to peace with that and constantly ruminate on the mistakes I made through just going with the mainstream Christianity or lack thereof. In the bible it explains how bad it is for anyone who causes the little ones to stumble, yet in the broken world we live in that seems to be the overwhelming majority of people.

And if parents don't teach their kids anything of spiritual sustonence how can God hold that over them growing up with none? It's a habitual cycle of brokenness as I feel the way to finding God is obviously a hard test of faith because I remember not even understanding how to call on the Lord.

I've just seen the way this leads to absolute brokenness and I have a hard time trying to believe God's morality as anything that is actual morale. Morale is based on clear evidence of right or wrong when we are born into this world missing the very Spirit that tells us right from wrong. Unless I'm just so off and he is always actually there allowing our mistakes to happen. Even so though?

It's just is seeming a chaotic cluster fluff to me right now. Deception has been a big topic I'm studying lately and it's hard to believe we live in a world like this, being hated and a target

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stevenb6 said:

Morale is based on clear evidence of right or wrong when we are born into this world missing the very Spirit that tells us right from wrong. Unless I'm just so off and he is always actually there allowing our mistakes to happen. Even so though?

Click to expand...

stevenb6 said:

Edit: I think it might be okay to mention that I have schizophrenia/bi-polar if this seems like a stupid read.
First off I have a tendency to only post negative feelings or experiences, so let me reiterate that I have indeed had a lot of very good moments in my faith

But. Recently going through a rougher patch and it's not necessarily even my patch.

My family seems to be struggling a lot. I have siblings as well and we all know siblings can argue a lot.

The reason for me doubting morality is rooted in the way Christianity is portrayed through mainstream media. It's very counter intuitive to Christianity. I feel like it tries to over emphasize it without explaining the Word of God and including the Holy Spirit into teachings leaving everyone with less than nothing.

In the same way that growing up my parents never mentioned God once. The time I was trying to believe in Jesus was a horrible time as well. I've had a hard time coming to peace with that and constantly ruminate on the mistakes I made through just going with the mainstream Christianity or lack thereof. In the bible it explains how bad it is for anyone who causes the little ones to stumble, yet in the broken world we live in that seems to be the overwhelming majority of people.

And if parents don't teach their kids anything of spiritual sustonence how can God hold that over them growing up with none? It's a habitual cycle of brokenness as I feel the way to finding God is obviously a hard test of faith because I remember not even understanding how to call on the Lord.

I've just seen the way this leads to absolute brokenness and I have a hard time trying to believe God's morality as anything that is actual morale. Morale is based on clear evidence of right or wrong when we are born into this world missing the very Spirit that tells us right from wrong. Unless I'm just so off and he is always actually there allowing our mistakes to happen. Even so though?

It's just is seeming a chaotic cluster fluff to me right now. Deception has been a big topic I'm studying lately and it's hard to believe we live in a world like this, being hated and a target

Click to expand...

stevenb6 said:

Edit: I think it might be okay to mention that I have schizophrenia/bi-polar if this seems like a stupid read.
First off I have a tendency to only post negative feelings or experiences, so let me reiterate that I have indeed had a lot of very good moments in my faith

But. Recently going through a rougher patch and it's not necessarily even my patch.

My family seems to be struggling a lot. I have siblings as well and we all know siblings can argue a lot.

The reason for me doubting morality is rooted in the way Christianity is portrayed through mainstream media. It's very counter intuitive to Christianity. I feel like it tries to over emphasize it without explaining the Word of God and including the Holy Spirit into teachings leaving everyone with less than nothing.

Click to expand...

stevevw said:

I think in todays society its hard to know Gods truth or be still and know God. Theres a lot of white noise going on I think compared to say 70 or even 30 years ago a generation back. Though God and Christianity was becoming less central it was still something that was respected and society still used it to some extent as the basis for morality. Go back another couple of generations and it was the basis for society.
But post 2000 and especially in the last 10 years its radically changed. Not only had the long march of radical ideas come to fruition into society from academia creating a postmodern relative reality and morality but the internet and then social media really changed how we communicated.
This gave a platform to all sorts of ideas and beliefs and has really taken over how we interact with each other. Because its detached from engaging face to face and through the relationships we cultivate which humanises reality. Its like a virtual world has been created where altenative realities become the reality for how people see the world.
At the same time I think despite the white noise Christs truth can shine through and will cut through all the rationalisations that dismiss God and Christs truth. Its just a case of sticking to the same truth and restating it.
In some ways I think the more white noise the more Christs truth will stand out if its presented the right way. Which is usually not about words but example. Then the words become more powerful. This is noticed in the early church after Christ that the best leaders were the quiet ones who had Christs disposition and meekness. It was enough to either turn someone to Christ or threaten them.
I think battling with words and arguements can never win someone. In fact its sort of buying into the same game in which the world has the upper hand on their terms.

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stevevw said:

I think in todays society its hard to know Gods truth or be still and know God. Theres a lot of white noise going on I think compared to say 70 or even 30 years ago a generation back. Though God and Christianity was becoming less central it was still something that was respected and society still used it to some extent as the basis for morality. Go back another couple of generations and it was the basis for society.

But post 2000 and especially in the last 10 years its radically changed. Not only had the long march of radical ideas come to fruition into society from academia creating a postmodern relative reality and morality but the internet and then social media really changed how we communicated.

This gave a platform to all sorts of ideas and beliefs and has really taken over how we interact with each other. Because its detached from engaging face to face and through the relationships we cultivate which humanises reality. Its like a virtual world has been created where altenative realities become the reality for how people see the world.

At the same time I think despite the white noise Christs truth can shine through and will cut through all the rationalisations that dismiss God and Christs truth. Its just a case of sticking to the same truth and restating it.

In some ways I think the more white noise the more Christs truth will stand out if its presented the right way. Which is usually not about words but example. Then the words become more powerful. This is noticed in the early church after Christ that the best leaders were the quiet ones who had Christs disposition and meekness. It was enough to either turn someone to Christ or threaten them.

I think battling with words and arguements can never win someone. In fact its sort of buying into the same game in which the world has the upper hand on their terms.

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Clare73 said:

Only if you agree with them on what is the authority for truth.

And you're not going to get them to agree with what is your Authority for truth.

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fhansen said:

And yet despite all that, pehaps ironcially, I think there are also more and more people who're becoming jaded with the way things are, and open to the truths of our faith, open to God. If many members of previous generations often accepted Christianity for reasons of cultural tradition, without much question, my generation questioned pretty much everything. But when such people do convert to the living God, it's generally going to be the real thing- since they asked, sought, and knocked for themselves.

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stevevw said:

Yes and no I think. I don't think many in the old testament or even in the early church had science or enlightenment to question God. Yet they had great faith even until death.

Christ speaks of a child like faith that cannot be answered by enlightened questioning. Faith seems to work no matter what.

I agree for the individuals it is good that our right to belief is in our hands and we can rationally work out whats false and what is truth. But then rationality is also a threat to faith and we cannot believe due to rationality. So I think it works up to a point and then its the evidence unseen which cannot be rationalised.

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stevevw said:

Yes and no I think. I don't think many in the old testament or even in the early church had science or enlightenment to question God. Yet they had great faith even until death.

Christ speaks of a child like faith that cannot be answered by enlightened questioning. Faith seems to work no matter what.

I agree for the individuals it is good that our right to belief is in our hands and we can rationally work out whats false and what is truth. But then rationality is also a threat to faith and we cannot believe due to rationality. So I think it works up to a point and then its the evidence unseen which cannot be rationalised.

Click to expand...

fhansen said:

Most theologians have long understood that faith and reason do not contradict or conflict with each other. Faith is a supernatural gift that simply reaches beyond reason's capacity to know and to believe on its own. And science wasn't missing in the early church as some philosphers and academics attempted to use it as a weapon against Christianity at least as early as the 3rd or 4th centuries. Augustine had much to say about all this.

Anyway, for me I see some people today growing more cynical about God, often still misusing our even more advanced modern science to rule God out, while others are seeing through that and growing more cyncial about scientism, trusting in science to be able to answer the more important questions and solve life's problems. I think a child-like faith is growing more appealing now than ever to a portion of young people, hopefully a great number of them.

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fhansen said:

Most theologians have long understood that faith and reason do not contradict or conflict with each other. Faith is a supernatural gift that simply reaches beyond reason's capacity to know and to believe on its own. And science wasn't missing in the early church as some philosphers and academics attempted to use it as a weapon against Christianity at least as early as the 3rd or 4th centuries.

Click to expand...

Augustine had much to say about all this.
Anyway, for me I see some people today growing more cynical about God, often still misusing our even more advanced modern science to rule God out, while others are seeing through that and growing more cyncial about scientism, trusting in science to be able to answer the more important questions and solve life's problems. I think a child-like faith is growing more appealing now than ever to a portion of young people, hopefully a great number of them.

Click to expand...