I Need Help: Finding the Faith Again

[OneOfTheMany]

Ok so the short version of my religious life is that I was raised in a non-religious household but was always very interested in the subject. When I was a teenager I started reading the bible and talking to some extended family members who were Christian. I decided to get baptized when I graduated from high school, and while I have never been a steady church goer I have always held a deep belief in God. I have been praying every day, and while sometimes I am angry or confused but I always kept some faith.

But now my faith is shaken. For example, I saw a documentary on conjoined twins and parasitic twins... and it just seems like this is the direct act of biology going wrong, just as might happen with an animal or plant. Seeing things like this and hearing of the way that people get tortured and ripped apart has sort of caused me to doubt the reality of God.

I fail to understand it. I don't see how, if we are all spiritual beings that are being given a chance at a next life, how these things can happen.

Here are some examples that make me say, "This is just crooked biology, and if God were real there would not be a half mutated human." The sheer fact that a fetus can be trapped inside a human just convinces me that we are not spiritual children of God.
http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=2346476&page=1
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107814.php


I like myself when I have faith in God, and I think it is the right thing, but seeing this stuff has for some reason caused me to doubt when so many other things have been conquered by my faith.

 

[GoodNewsJim]

I know God is real. I know Jesus is Lord.

Most of the problem of,"Why can something bad happen in the world." all stems back to sin.

When sin came into the world, people had free will to do evil.

God's way of getting rid of sin is by allowing you to be forgiven through Jesus... Not by stopping every act of sin or its consequences.

People get cancer because of unthoughtful things done by the industry. It is the industry's fault for what happens. An example would be people living under power lines getting cancer at a higher rate. Or toxic dumpings into a river.

There are so many bad things that happen through indirect consequences that it is impossible to talk about how important it is in the conviction of sin. Lets say someone drops a nail on the street. Chances are it will give someone a flat tire. Are they to blame? Absolutely. In the same way, it is quite possible that sin can be to blame for many things that are indirect.

There are also more detailed arguments that some people may give to you. I'm just going ahead and stating the most obvious.

 

[OneOfTheMany]

Thanks for the reply. I realize that finding the faith again is ultimately up to me, and even in the last hour I have managed to calm myself down and channel my focus back to God.

It just seems so weird to me, you know? That we are all these spiritual beings but someone can be born inside of someone else as a parasite. Wow. I think this is different than someone dropping a nail on the street.

 

[ebia]

Ok so the short version of my religious life is that I was raised in a non-religious household but was always very interested in the subject. When I was a teenager I started reading the bible and talking to some extended family members who were Christian. I decided to get baptized when I graduated from high school, and while I have never been a steady church goer I have always held a deep belief in God. I have been praying every day, and while sometimes I am angry or confused but I always kept some faith.

But now my faith is shaken. For example, I saw a documentary on conjoined twins and parasitic twins... and it just seems like this is the direct act of biology going wrong, just as might happen with an animal or plant. Seeing things like this and hearing of the way that people get tortured and ripped apart has sort of caused me to doubt the reality of God.

I fail to understand it. I don't see how, if we are all spiritual beings that are being given a chance at a next life, how these things can happen.

Here are some examples that make me say, "This is just crooked biology, and if God were real there would not be a half mutated human." The sheer fact that a fetus can be trapped inside a human just convinces me that we are not spiritual children of God.
http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=2346476&page=1
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107814.php


I like myself when I have faith in God, and I think it is the right thing, but seeing this stuff has for some reason caused me to doubt when so many other things have been conquered by my faith.

Surely the whole point of Christianity is that it acknowledges both that creation was created good, but that it has gone wrong because of human behaviour. That going wrong and its consequences are what Genesis 3-11 are all about.

God has acted to put it right beginning with the call of Abraham and culminating in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth but that won't come to its fulfillment, suffering will not be ended until, the final resurrection. Then, and only then, will suffering cease and creation work the way it was intended to work, with humanity as its guiding, leading, image of the creator God; leading all creation in proper response to the creator.

Editted to add: "parasite", in a sense, is a loaded term. We all live in relation dependence with each other. As African theology is better at acknowledging, we cant' be human except through relationship with other humans. Modern, western, individualism is actually deeply unbiblical - indeed a deeply alien way of thinking to most of humanity for most of history, and deeply unhealthy too.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Ok so the short version of my religious life is that I was raised in a non-religious household but was always very interested in the subject. When I was a teenager I started reading the bible and talking to some extended family members who were Christian. I decided to get baptized when I graduated from high school, and while I have never been a steady church goer I have always held a deep belief in God. I have been praying every day, and while sometimes I am angry or confused but I always kept some faith.

But now my faith is shaken. For example, I saw a documentary on conjoined twins and parasitic twins... and it just seems like this is the direct act of biology going wrong, just as might happen with an animal or plant. Seeing things like this and hearing of the way that people get tortured and ripped apart has sort of caused me to doubt the reality of God.

I fail to understand it. I don't see how, if we are all spiritual beings that are being given a chance at a next life, how these things can happen.

Here are some examples that make me say, "This is just crooked biology, and if God were real there would not be a half mutated human." The sheer fact that a fetus can be trapped inside a human just convinces me that we are not spiritual children of God.
http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=2346476&page=1
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107814.php


I like myself when I have faith in God, and I think it is the right thing, but seeing this stuff has for some reason caused me to doubt when so many other things have been conquered by my faith.

Are you born again?

 

[arunma]

Hello OneOfTheMany. I would like to help you to find faith. However, I would first like to ask you a question. You've spoken in your OP about having faith in the existence of God. The Bible states that all men believe in God. Belief in a creator deity does not cause one to be saved. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and some Buddhists all believe in a God, and they will go to hell. What saves men is faith that by the death and resurrection of God's Son Jesus, we are saved from our sins and granted forgiveness. So my question to yu is: do you know Christ Jesus? It is he, not intellectual assent to the existence of God, that saves men from hell.

 

[packermann]

I think that you have to keep in mind the first three chapters of Genesis. God orginally created man to live in a Paradise. But man rebelled against God. As a result of man's sin God has given control of this world to the great Serpent - the Devil. The Bible calls the Devil the God of this world. So it should not surprise us when we see things a little warped in this world. That is the result of sin. The god of this wotld, the Devil, has made this world warped. But the promise from God is that Christ first came to pay the penalty for man's sin and then will come a second time to throw the Devil and his followers into hell forever. Then the world will no longer be warped.

 

[OneOfTheMany]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think that failures of faith are not the world's fault, but faults of our own. When we lose our faith, the world becomes an obvious target for blame, but it is only a reflection of our own faults.

And I don't really know how to answer some of your questions. For example, I don't consider myself a born again, I consider myself a human. Do I know Christ Jesus? Well, I think that Jesus is indeed the son of God, and I think he came to earth and suffered to solve a problem that he didn't create. But I don't 'know' him, I mean, I have never spoke to him or anything.

It sounds like there is something I am missing; feel free to help me out.

 

[Jpark]

Ok so the short version of my religious life is that I was raised in a non-religious household but was always very interested in the subject. When I was a teenager I started reading the bible and talking to some extended family members who were Christian. I decided to get baptized when I graduated from high school, and while I have never been a steady church goer I have always held a deep belief in God. I have been praying every day, and while sometimes I am angry or confused but I always kept some faith.

But now my faith is shaken. For example, I saw a documentary on conjoined twins and parasitic twins... and it just seems like this is the direct act of biology going wrong, just as might happen with an animal or plant. Seeing things like this and hearing of the way that people get tortured and ripped apart has sort of caused me to doubt the reality of God.

I fail to understand it. I don't see how, if we are all spiritual beings that are being given a chance at a next life, how these things can happen.

Here are some examples that make me say, "This is just crooked biology, and if God were real there would not be a half mutated human." The sheer fact that a fetus can be trapped inside a human just convinces me that we are not spiritual children of God.
http://abcnews.go.com/primetime/story?id=2346476&page=1
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107814.php


I like myself when I have faith in God, and I think it is the right thing, but seeing this stuff has for some reason caused me to doubt when so many other things have been conquered by my faith.

The perfect will of God is not manifest in the presence of death, disease, discord, and disaster any more than it is manifest in human sin.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

 

[OneOfTheMany]

The perfect will of God is not manifest in the presence of death, disease, discord, and disaster any more than it is manifest in human sin.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

I agree with you. The twin thing really caught me off guard for some reason but I understand that it is our fault and not His.


I think the real issue, like I mentioned in my previous post, is not with the world but with myself. I have doubt in my heart that I need to eradicate, and blaming that doubt on some aspect of the world isn't going to help anyone.

 

[Jpark]

I agree with you. The twin thing really caught me off guard for some reason but I understand that it is our fault and not His.


I think the real issue, like I mentioned in my previous post, is not with the world but with myself. I have doubt in my heart that I need to eradicate, and blaming that doubt on some aspect of the world isn't going to help anyone.

Yes. We sinned. God was testing us and Adam was tempted. But even in the midst of a counterproductive curse, God had formed a plan of redemption. (Genesis 3:15)

 

[OneOfTheMany]

jpark43- Thanks for your help. Hopefully as I mature as a person my understanding of these concepts will grow and I will become a better Christian.

 

[Jpark]

jpark43- Thanks for your help. Hopefully as I mature as a person my understanding of these concepts will grow and I will become a better Christian.

That's what I am here for. To "end" debates , to spam threads , and to answer questions.