Why do Christians lose faith?

[juvenissun]

Let's say you are going to the animal shelter to adopt a cat. What you are doing is reacting to your environment. One cat looks particularly needy, and you might think "that's the cat for me". If we could replay the scene, you would adopt the same cat every time. Your brain simply reacts to stimuli, and that results in a happy new cat owner. There is no choice. The same is true of our beliefs. We believe differently because we are different people who have had different experiences.

Like I said, you are exploring the mechanism of choosing. I say that is a different problem.

The immediate issue is: YOU CHOOSE. For whatever reason.

In your example, many people could have hard time to choose a pet among several candidates. You go there at different time with different mood, you could make a different choice.

 

[juvenissun]

Getting back to the OP, how many people lose faith solely as a result of philosophical arguments versus rationalizing a belief that resulted from emotions about personal circumstances? I know that in my case, I simply could not see enough evidence that God cared about my life, so I lost faith. Some Christians trust that God cares even though they cannot see the evidence.

I don't trust myself.
My problem was: if so, what to trust?
So, in an issue of faith, when I see some unreasonable things took place, I do not trust my feeling.

Faith should function like the rudder of a ship. It controls (resists) the flow, not follows the flow.

 

[AV1611VET]

Could be...however, I sincerely doubt these are the sorts of problems that cause some to lose faith. I think, generally speaking, the problem comes from not being able to reconcile what's said in the bible with what they observe around themselves or in the world in general.

That's not the way I interpreted this:

I lost my faith because of contradictions in the Bible. I was an inerrantist. I then realized that either God cannot or will not preserve the Bible, and I found neither to be acceptable.

 

[Ana the Ist]

That's not the way I interpreted this:

Obviously, I can't speak for every atheist. I'm not even speaking from my own experience since I wasn't a christian in any real sense of the word to begin with.

What I said is based upon my personal understanding of most atheists' transitions from christianity. I don't know if it applies to Nihilist or not.

 

[cloudyday2]

I lost my faith because of contradictions in the Bible. I was an inerrantist. I then realized that either God cannot or will not preserve the Bible, and I found neither to be acceptable.

If that was really your reasoning, then it sounds a little bit like a false dichotomy to me. Almost everybody has experienced things in life that might be evidence for God's existence. And the reverse is true too - almost everybody has experienced things in life that might be evidence for God's NON-existence. Sometimes we experience more of one than the other.

At least in my case, I start by trying to understand if there is something fishy going on in my life that might not fit the model of metaphysical naturalism. Ideally a person might examine the stories that other people tell to get a more objective view too. It's not an exact science obviously. Belief in an inerrant Bible is only one possibility of many.

Everybody is different, and I know that what you said is a common path. Are you sure there were not some tragedies or difficulties in your life at the time you lost faith - things that seemed like evidence for God's NON-existence?

 

[Archaeopteryx]

If that was really your reasoning, then it sounds a little bit like a false dichotomy to me. Almost everybody has experienced things in life that might be evidence for God's existence. And the reverse is true too - almost everybody has experienced things in life that might be evidence for God's NON-existence. Sometimes we experience more of one than the other.

At least in my case, I start by trying to understand if there is something fishy going on in my life that might not fit the model of metaphysical naturalism. Ideally a person might examine the stories that other people tell to get a more objective view too. It's not an exact science obviously. Belief in an inerrant Bible is only one possibility of many.

Everybody is different, and I know that what you said is a common path. Are you sure there were not some tragedies or difficulties in your life at the time you lost faith - things that seemed like evidence for God's NON-existence?

For me, it was a gradual erosion of my faith. It was not as well founded as I initially thought it was. At the height of my religiosity, I didn't expect that I would ever reach a state of nonbelief.

 

[(° ͡ ͜ ͡ʖ ͡ °) (ᵔᴥᵔʋ)]

To answer your question: "is belief a choice?" - probably not

Let's say someone told you that in order to be saved, you had to believe that the sky was pink and purple polka dotted. You may look that person in the eyes and say "yes, I believe". You may truly want to believe because you want to be saved. But deep down, can you truly believe it with all your heart?
For the sake of timeliness. I will cut to the chase.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.

Hebrews 6:4-6

Just for clarification, the scripture is not saying that Christians who "fall away" can never be saved. But rather, it is impossible for someone who truly believes to loose their faith and "fall away". So the question is, "if a christian lost their faith, did they ever truly believe with all their heart in the first place"?

 

[razzelflabben]

Let's say you are going to the animal shelter to adopt a cat. What you are doing is reacting to your environment. One cat looks particularly needy, and you might think "that's the cat for me". If we could replay the scene, you would adopt the same cat every time. Your brain simply reacts to stimuli, and that results in a happy new cat owner. There is no choice. The same is true of our beliefs. We believe differently because we are different people who have had different experiences.

but salvation is a belief of the heart not the mind....iow's it is something we decide to do or not do based on the convictions of the heart and our determination thereof.

 

[razzelflabben]

For me, it was a gradual erosion of my faith. It was not as well founded as I initially thought it was. At the height of my religiosity, I didn't expect that I would ever reach a state of nonbelief.

I think this sums it up pretty well, for many, Christ is just a religion, not a relationship. Religions are easy things to break or walk away from, relationships are much harder to just dismiss.

 

[razzelflabben]

Obviously, I can't speak for every atheist. I'm not even speaking from my own experience since I wasn't a christian in any real sense of the word to begin with.

What I said is based upon my personal understanding of most atheists' transitions from christianity. I don't know if it applies to Nihilist or not.

Here is another great example of what happens to many, they try to make Christ about traditions rather than about relationship. Unfortunately those traditions are usually the traditions of the church, not of God or scripture.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Here is another great example of what happens to many, they try to make Christ about traditions rather than about relationship. Unfortunately those traditions are usually the traditions of the church, not of God or scripture.

How does what you said here apply to my post?

 

[rockytopva]

You don't have any trouble! All you need is faith in God!

 

[razzelflabben]

How does what you said here apply to my post?

from my experience, most Atheist's view of God is based on the traditions they have been taught to believe about God....saw an example of that last night on tv...

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I think this sums it up pretty well, for many, Christ is just a religion, not a relationship. Religions are easy things to break or walk away from, relationships are much harder to just dismiss.

Well, they are dismissed much more easily if there is little to no evidence that they were ever real. When Christians say, "Oh, but you never had a *relationship* with Christ," they are (rather rudely) presuming that my devotion was somehow lesser than theirs. Yes, I believed that I had a "personal relationship with Jesus," as did many former Christians.

 

[Ana the Ist]

from my experience, most Atheist's view of God is based on the traditions they have been taught to believe about God....saw an example of that last night on tv...

That's fine ...but it doesn't have anything to do with what I said. Was your example from a work of fiction perhaps?

 

[razzelflabben]

Well, they are dismissed much more easily if there is little to no evidence that they were ever real. When Christians say, "Oh, but you never had a *relationship* with Christ," they are (rather rudely) presuming that my devotion was somehow lesser than theirs. Yes, I believed that I had a "personal relationship with Jesus," as do many Christians.

not my suggestion at all....in fact, I was not referring to you specifically, only to your comment about religiosity.

As to evidence, amen, it is wise to look for evidence, but we need to be careful about what evidence we are looking for....iow's are we looking for evidence that scripture itself says we will not find? or are we looking for evidence that scripture says will be there? An idea that takes us back to the traditions that we often hold as truth of God when in fact, they are not truths of God at all, but rather truths of the churches beliefs. Just like the difference between religion and relationship....and please, understand, I am in no way judging you, I don't know you or what your "relationship" was or was not, I am only responding to the post you made and the words you used therein.

 

[razzelflabben]

That's fine ...but it doesn't have anything to do with what I said. Was your example from a work of fiction perhaps?

I was trying to take what was said and apply it to the OP, you know, keep us on topic...nothing more or less.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I was trying to take what was said and apply it to the OP, you know, keep us on topic...nothing more or less.

I thought the topic was about why some christians lose faith?

If there was no connection between your post and mine...that's fine. You understand why I thought there might be though...since you quoted me.

 

[razzelflabben]

I thought the topic was about why some christians lose faith?

If there was no connection between your post and mine...that's fine. You understand why I thought there might be though...since you quoted me.

My comment was that some people lose their faith because their faith is in traditional understanding of God rather than in God Himself to start out with, as evidenced by a vast number of atheists and their ideas of who God is and who He is not.

Not sure why that is bothering you so much, but that is all I have to say about the matter at this time.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

I think this sums it up pretty well, for many, Christ is just a religion, not a relationship. Religions are easy things to break or walk away from, relationships are much harder to just dismiss.

Half of marriages end in divorce and most people do not marry their first boyfriend/girlfriend. Therefore most relationships are walked away from. So I think they are quite easy to walk away from. In fact it's healthy to walk away from a bad relationship.