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#Post#: 115--------------------------------------------------
Having doubts
By: Igor_Gavi Date: April 5, 2020, 11:51 am
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Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and would like to know your
experience with doubts on the existence of God (and on
Christianity) and how to overcome them.
I know the arguments and they seem plausible, but I keep
thinking that I'm going in a wish fulfillment thought, and
anxiety hits me really hard.
#Post#: 116--------------------------------------------------
Re: Having doubts
By: RomanJoe Date: April 5, 2020, 10:48 pm
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What has helped me is contemplating the classical notion of God
as the metaphysical bedrock of being and how denial of this
comes at the cost of purging the world of intelligibility and
implicitly affirming that reality bottoms out to a big fat brute
fact or 'just thereness.'
#Post#: 121--------------------------------------------------
Re: Having doubts
By: jd3 Date: April 15, 2020, 2:03 pm
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What have you read so far? I'd recommend Feser's "Five Proofs of
the Existence of God" and then move on to arguments specifically
for the resurrection (NT Wright for example). I'm all curious
which doubts in particular you are having, feel free to list a
few. As far as wishful thinking goes, it's worth mentioning that
atheists too engage in wishful thinking. Thomas Nagel
HTML http://admits
HTML https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/325845-in-speaking-of-the-fear-of-religion-i-don-t-meanthat<br
/>he doesn't want God to exist and that the thought makes him
uneasy. So people on all sides do this.
My view is that there must be some purely actually entity that
exists (stage 1), this entity would have to have properties we
commonly ascribe to God such as power, simplicity, and goodness
(stage 2), monotheistic religions best fit this description
(stage 3), the Catholic-Christian worldview is a better fit than
other religions, since it A. best deals with the problem of
suffering in that all humans can be brought into joyous relation
with God and B. is based on the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, which can be established (or at least rendered
very plausible) by historians (stage 4), and finally that living
out a Christian life fills me with great joy and just feels
right (stage 5).
Most Christians who don't study philosophy just jump right to
stage 5--they know it in their heart to be true and that's that.
But for a lot of us on these boards, we thirst for a greater
defense than that and hence dive into the first four stages.
Also, I should have mentioned that preceding all this (call it
stage 0) is a defense of scholastic metaphysics, which is
presupposed by arguments for God in stage 1.
#Post#: 130--------------------------------------------------
Re: Having doubts
By: ClassicalLiberal.Theist Date: April 24, 2020, 9:11 pm
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If you are having doubts emotionally, but are nonetheless
convinced intellectually, you should first understand that the
relationship between thoughts and anxiety is that the thoughts
only have as much power as you give them. The continued
contemplation of the thoughts which gives you anxiety notifys
your brain that those thoughts are something to be feared,
furthering the affect they have on you. If thoughts are giving
you anxiety, don't dismiss them, or engage them, or anything.
Ignoring them is the key. This tells your brain that the
thoughts that were once feared aren't actually anything it needs
to be afraid of. I've read a little bit about insrusive thoughts
like this (because I've experienced them in a way that
significantly affected my mental health) and the ignoring of
your thoughts is what helps you get rid of them. I applied this
to my own situation and it helped greatly. You can read more
about this if you just google instrusive thoughts. Theres more
than enough available information about them.
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