Lost Grandfather, Lost Faith
A 16 year old female experiences difficulty with her faith. Is it because her relationship with the Church is out of obligation to her more religious relatives?
So personally I grew up fairly religious. My grandfather was a minister and I went to his church every Sunday. After he retired, my family stopped going to church. Now we only go sometimes on Easter and Christmas. My grandma still goes to church, as do my aunt and uncle. I think it's interesting that while my grandfather was a minister we went to church. Personally I think my family goes to church when we feel like we have to. We feel the pressure of our more religious family to go to church. Through family I have learned respect for our religion, but have lost some belief. Personally, I find it hard to believe the idea of a "greater being". I find it hard to believe that "GOD" would let someone as true and honest as my God-fearing Grandfather die of a stupid disease like cancer. I like the idea of there being a heaven. I like thinking my loved ones who have died are happy and can see me going on with my life. But I read a lot, and with reading comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes loss in faith. I just want to believe there is a happy ending. I want to believe really badly, but I find it really difficult sometimes.
Just to sum up, my family has instilled a lot of "Christian" faith in me. I know to be respectful in a church, say grace at dinner etc. But I'm still missing a lot of true belief.
It is a question that challenges one's faith: Why do bad things happen to good people? Does knowledge really contribute to a loss of belief?
May 3, 2006 at 1:14 am
Q: Does knowledge really contribute to a loss of belief?
A: Issac Newton and Albert Einstein were hardly atheists, so I would say no.
Q: Anyone more recent?
A: John C. Polanyi, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry from 1986. When we was recently on The Originals (Citytv TV show) he specifically went into belief of God and how important a sense of destiny is in a career. This University of Toronto professor is, fortuantely or unfortunately, more known for being “that scientist” who came up with the superlaser Ronald Reagan desired to base his Star Wars defense program on.
Q: All physicists?
A: All extremely intelligent, well-educated physicists, yes. It is, of course, far more complex an issue. Nonetheless, this is sufficient commentary to commence conversation should anyone care to engage.
May 21, 2006 at 12:30 am
[...] I find it interesting that there is common emerging theme of questioning faith when someone passes away. He is also questioning his faith because of the contradictions he sees between religious morality and enacted reality. The traditional religions preach peace, love, understanding, tolerance, and compassion. However, religion is too often used to justify violence, aggression, and the erosion of human dignity. Many religions have as one of their foundations the principle of charity. But what is charity? Charity in a religious sense means giving money to those less privileged for their sustenance. The Church’s role was to act as an institution to redistribute wealth. Today, there are some lavish, extraordinarily expensive places of worship that are run more like a business than a charity. This is not new; there are many lavish cathedrals throughout Europe that exemplify the relationship between faith and finance. Modern youth notice these hypocrisies, and have trouble trying to make sense of what is said versus what is done. [...]
May 22, 2006 at 1:44 am
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Although I am personally atheist, I have gone to church for a long time, and becaus eof that, know a lot of the ideas behind christian-anglican belief. When someone dies to go to heaven it is because it si a better place. Like the story of Job who loses his family, health and everything really because Satan and God had a bet (pretty much) to see if Job would still believe in God if he had terrible things done to him. And the reward is that he gets a higher place in heaven. So to answer the question of why God would take someones life when they are good people, I would say it is because it is their time to be at God’s side.
Does knowledge really contribute to a loss of belief?
That really depends on the person. I do think though that when you start to use logic you can see that maybe it doesn’t make that much sense. Like Adam and Eve versus Darwin. My dad is a physicist and believes in God is a pretty devout catholic I’d say. But he also believes in science (which incidently generally seems to contradict religion). So for me, the more i think about religion, the farther I am drawn from it. But my dad simply takes both and embraces them both. So that he lives in two worlds really. One for work, and one for spirituality.