Reclaiming the Religious Discussion Forum

Hi there. I am curious - what motivated you to make the move from a Protestant to a Roman Catholic? Just curious. Also, are your studies in theology and philosophy for..I'm not sure how to put it...a move into a position of religious leadership? Youth group leader perhaps? Or leader of a church? Just wondering.

Conservative christian here...been in and out of denominational churches longer than I care to remember. At a certain point, you stop caring, and stick to what the foundations of your christian beliefs are.

Well, as for the move from Protestant to Catholic, that'll take a while to explain, so I'll save it for a post (probably tomorow) when I have more time to type.

But for the leadership thing: I think God is calling me to be a Priest.
Now, I want to clear this up right now:
I'm talking about the kind of Priests who are exemplified by virtue and goodness, who are upstanding, the champions of the poor, completely self-sacrificing for the Kingdom of God... the type that go down in history as stunning examples of the Christian Life lived to its fullest...

I'm thinking of men like St. John Bosco, St. John Vianney, St. Anthony of Padua, St. John of the Cross, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Patrick, St. Bonaventure, St. Benedict, etc. These men lived as I would like to live: completely For God, Period.

As for Why, well every day I keep seeing things that make me think.
I see people in bad situations, and think: One good example could change their lives.
I see disorganized well-intentioned activist groups scrambling about blindly and think: a little solid leadership and a firm overarching goal is all they need to change the world.
I see folks whose faith is weak, and who only need a little honest witness to fan the sparks into flame, and think: what if I were to witness to them?

...that is why I'm on the path I'm on, Discerning whether or not I have a Religious Vocation. If not, then I'll simply go where God wants me, with whatever education and talents I have at my disposal.

P.s, if anyone's curious about who these people are, most of their names can (or should) be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia online, at www.newadvent.org.

I'll come back with a post about my Conversion some other time. But for now, It's late, and I work tomorow 🙂

Peace, Everybody!

-Granitewhite

What leads/led you to believe so firmly in your god?

Where is your god from? I believe everything has to have a beginning, what is his? I cannot accept "he just is" as a valid answer, regardless of "well that's what faith is for".

Such an omnipotent presence/being with power over everything, yet allows such chaos, death, suffering to go on forever. How do you figure?
Don't use 'sin' as a response, because i'm sure the 100,000 people that died to the wrath of the last tsunami wouldn't appreciate being told they died for sins they didn't do.

I can't place the religion crutches under my arms like the rest of society, I like being responsible for what I do without being reliant on someone else for my actions/thoughts.

Well, the easiest ways to answer your questions is first to say this:
God isn't some landmark that you journey towards with a compass, nor is God some idea or concept that you eventually learn enough to grasp and understand.

The proper way to approach God is the same way you approach a relationship with a friend: You meet them, get to know them, become friends with them, etc.

So, therein lies the answer to my Faith: I knew that God was there, and I got to know Him over time (Still am.) So what led me to my Faith?
I can only say that God reached out to me one day. I always knew there WAS a God, I just didn't know much about Him. Then, as I grew up a bit, I began to learn more about "What God had to be like if there was a God," and through Prayer I began reaching out to Him.
Well, to make a long story short, He met and welcomed me. That is what began my conversion.

So, to answer your other questions: I'm not going to "reason my way towards God," but instead I'm going to answer your questions from the other side.

In answer to "everything having a beginning:" If EVERYTHING had a beginning, what would have started it off? Why did it "Begin" at all? I can trace my beginning to something before me (my Parents, Grandparents, etc.) And they can trace their beginnings back further. Scientists propose many 'beginning' theories, one variety often being summarized as the "Big Bang," which states that all the matter and energy and substance in the universe exploded out of a single hyper-compressed point in an instant, thus beginning time... But why did It "Blow" when it did, if at all? And why did it exist in the first place?
To answer this: God created everything that is contingent (contingent = "dependent upon something else for the definition of its own existence"). But His very existence is such that HE subsists (maintains, causes it to continue) all creation, such that God actually controls and is outside of time, matter, and space.
So, yes: everything contingent has a beginning, but God alone, who is Absolute, is beginningless. God is outside of Time, and therefore exists, period. But how could this make sense? Study some Metaphysics (I had a semester course in it to explain such things as Essence, Contingency, Being, Space, Time, Eternity, etc, and I can't sum up in one post everything that is necessary to explain further.) The beautiful thing, however, is that I don't really have to in order to approach God. Rather, Metaphysics is useful for making sense of some of the things we learn about God AFTER meeting Him.
Rather, We know that there IS a God, and that He is Good, and that He created everything. Therefore, if everything started from a single point, it was God who made it and then 'blew it up,' writing into the very fabric of the universe all the laws that govern it. If macro-evolution is the pattern of growth for living things, then it is just one more law that God has written into the nature He created.

So, on to death, suffering, and pain: God is Good.
How is it that something that God has created could be not good?
Because God has given persons free will, and their fulfillment is in choosing Him and choosing Goodness freely. This implies the possibility of not choosing Him, of choosing self and selfishness instead.
(By the way: THAT is what leads to Hell: if I choose Myself entirely above God, so that when my temporal life is done, God says to me, lovingly, out of respect for the greatest gift He has given to us (free will,) "Thy Will be Done," and I, powerless and finite, will sit in darkness, alone except for those who also choose themselves, a miserable company. But without God, no matter how many sinners there are, they are still finite. Thus their darkness is nothing compared to the infinate fulfillment and bliss that the myriad of Saints experience for all eternity in the Presence of God.)
The wages of Sin is death. The first stewards of creation sinned, and chose themselves, thus allowing death to enter the world.
So Why does God allow it? Why doesn't He do anything to stop it?
Because He brings a greater good out of the evil.
This is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian Faith, that God should bring greater good out of evil than there was good before. However, it is true. In and Through Christ, we are closer to and more Intimate with God than Adam and Eve were before they sinned.
(Do not think therefore: I will do all the evil I can so that God can do more good, for God brings greater Good out of Love and Mercy; not out of some twisted "gotta-fix-it" complex. Therefore, Love God, and do not sin!)
Thus, in summary: It was the first sin entering the world that shattered so much: there was no pain or suffering before then.

As far as the Tsunamis, and other natural disasters: Why did those people die? Because they were there where the disaster occured. Why did it occur? Because there was an underwater earthquake. So Why Didn't God Stop it? Perhaps because the natural forces were already under way, tracing their origins in a vast chain-reaction all the way back to the first evil entering the world.
It is not consolation, I know. I myself have family who have died suddenly due to strange and disasterous circumstances ~ Freak auto-accidents, blizzards, terminal illness, etc. So here again, I return to God, and address this from the other side:
I know there is a God, and I know that He is both Good and Loving. Therefore, I simply do my best to serve Him today, so that should He call me to His Eternal Presence tomorow, He will say to me: "Welcome, and Well Done, my Good and Faithful Servent. Enter now into the Joy of your Father's Kingdom." Also, I pray for the souls of those who have died, (and those who have miraculously lived), that God will have mercy on them for the ways in which they were not all they should have been.
IF the Soul really is eternal, and all Souls belong to God, then who can Judge God for when He chooses to end someone's life, and the method by which it happens (now, if some other person unjustly ends someone's Life, that is a grave sin: Murder. For it takes out of God's Hands the authority to do as He pleases.)
Also, if the Soul is Eternal, than those who have "died" are in a sense more Alive than we are.

As to placing religion under my arms as crutches, that is not at all what I do 🙂 I freely choose to do what is Good, and to grow up, and to be self-sacrificing and generous out of Love for God and the Persons He created. Crutches? I'll be honest. It's much more like a Cross, weighing upon my back.

So in finale, to return once again to your first question: What led to my Faith? It was there from birth. I neglected it for a time, and it grew dim. It almost died entirely, but with the help of God and many good people (especially science, math, and philosophy teachers), my Faith began to grow again, like a muscle that is being exercised.
However, I know that Faith is a Gift from God.
So, if you don't have Faith, Pray for it.
"But Pray to Whom?" Well, God is God, He knows what you're after, and Who you're trying to reach, so if you are skeptical, start off your prayer with something like: "To Whom it may concern..." And pray for the Gift of Faith. Also, Pray for the Teacher you need in order to get to know God better.

When I was just returning to my Faith after the deepest period of dimmness, my prayer was something like this (for I had become skeptical myself!)
"God, if you're really there, help me. Please increase my Faith, and teach me about yourself. I promise not to give up on you, but please, don't give up on me either."

Also, take what I have said to you with a generous heart. Ponder and weigh it~ I am trying to express what I have seen, lived, and what I know, but I'm not very good at it yet 😉 Therefore, hold on to my words and think about them, without passing judgment on them too quickly. Try to see what I am pointing at, what I am trying to convey (for that is the art of curteous conversation: trying to understand what the other means, not simply judging the words he says.)

I am happy to answer many more questions, especially as I remember that (especially with the more foundational questions) each answer tends to raise a hundred more questions... but over time, the answers start to mesh together, and answer more questions at once, and those formulated blocks answer entire other questions!

Peace be with you!

-W. B.
"Granitewhite"