A crisis of faith.

[sburns2421]

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith - TIME
I remember hearing something about this a year or so ago. Due to a few things I was pondering, I decided to look it up.

It is very interesting, the case of Mother Teresa. Apparently a few years after arriving in Calcutta, basically her communication with God turned into a one-way call. She left messages, but He never called back. Eventually she stopped leaving messages.

She still went through the motions, running her ministry, and on the outside appeared the living saint everyone thought she was. I am still trying to decide of that makes her more or less of what everyone thought of her.

I am not implying she was deceiptful in any way, or even take a stand on Christianity's validity. That is for each person to decide for themselves.

I would be interested in your thoughts, opinions, and personal experiences regarding religion. Let's see if this goes anywhere.

[998Junkie]

Originally Posted by sburns2421

She still went through the motions, running her ministry, and on the outside appeared the living saint everyone thought she was. I am still trying to decide of that makes her more or less of what everyone thought of her.

I'll vote more, I have found myself being a non-believer to Doubting Thomas, to there must be something...during different parts of the day. My wife is a true believer, but I don't like sharing my doubts because I fear it might affect her beliefs.

Teresa was a selfless person and a hard role model to follow, whatever she thought about God, she felt helping others was still the most important work that she could do.

[RockyMt]

I think it was an incredibly courageous thing to think, let alone say. She has dedicated her life based on a belief she now has doubts about, think about it, if the very core of everything you've based everything else on is called into doubt.......Wether you consider yourself Christian or not, you have to admire the selfless way she has led her life, putting "the least amongst us" before herself.

-Rocky-

[zen748]

Originally Posted by RockyMt

I think it was an incredibly courageous thing to think, let alone say. She has dedicated her life based on a belief she now has doubts about, think about it, if the very core of everything you've based everything else on is called into doubt.......Wether you consider yourself Christian or not, you have to admire the selfless way she has led her life, putting "the least amongst us" before herself.

-Rocky-

Very well put Rocky.

[RockyMt]

Sorry 'bout that, I sometimes suffer from unexpected moments of clarity........

-Rocky-

[firstcherokeekid]

Originally Posted by sburns2421

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith - TIME
I remember hearing something about this a year or so ago. Due to a few things I was pondering, I decided to look it up.

It is very interesting, the case of Mother Teresa. Apparently a few years after arriving in Calcutta, basically her communication with God turned into a one-way call. She left messages, but He never called back. Eventually she stopped leaving messages.

She still went through the motions, running her ministry, and on the outside appeared the living saint everyone thought she was. I am still trying to decide of that makes her more or less of what everyone thought of her.

I am not implying she was deceiptful in any way, or even take a stand on Christianity's validity. That is for each person to decide for themselves.

I would be interested in your thoughts, opinions, and personal experiences regarding religion. Let's see if this goes anywhere.

No doubt you are going through some things. I will make an attempt to explain what I have learned and hope it will help you in some way. There are many ways people believe and worship. There are many gods to many people. But there is a very real difference between spirituality and religion. To me religion is nothing for me to take a second look at but on the other hand I am a very spiritual person. I have found that over the years the church has just gotten in the way of my personal relationship with God. There is not a day that goes by that I do not pray or say thanks for what I have and what I have pulled through. There are so many things in a lifetime that you will go through that will leave a lasting impression or even change your life. But you have to realize that everyone and everything is created with a purpose. Although sometimes some of the things that we go through seem unbearable at times, you have to take a step back, calm yourself and realize that you are not alone and everything is this way for a reason. The hard part is putting faith in the fact that you will survive the hard times with your sanity in tact. But I have also learned that sometimes you have to let your guard down just a little and open up to the people that are closest to you and talk about the things that are eating away at you. So many people like to blame God for all the bad things that have happened in their life, but those are the people that truly do not understand what life is. Everything on this Earth has a time and place. Although sometimes we think lives are cut too short we usually tend to miss the larger picture. Everything grows from young to old, lives and dies with a never ending circle. I have come to see that everything that has happened in my life has made me the person that I am today. Every hard moment in my life has taught me something. The purpose I believe for these trying times in life is to pass along the lessons we have learned to our children and the younger generation. With out them we could never survive as the human race. Keep your faith my friend not in your church, but your personal relationship with God. And as far as Mother T. there is nothing wrong with her questoning her faith. It is wrong however that her most private thoughts were published. Every human on the planet has thought about heaven and hell, and everything in between. It is not the ?'s of faith that is wrong, but giving up entirely is where the mistake is made. We will all stumble through out life with questions about our faith. But it is how we pick up the pieces and move on that makes the difference. And that is what we will be held accountable for in the end. And Mother T. had so much doubt but yet she held on to what she believed. Gathered all the strength she had to give and kept walking down the path that she believed was right and that is what mattered most. And we must do the same no matter the situation.

[RockyMt]

Yeah, if she only didn't have a "butter face"! Ya know I could go for some HOT christian icon, maybe like Uma Thurman or sumptin'..........Get back to me on that one, my faith is in the balance.

-Rocky-

[Area 51]

Crisis of faith?

No faith, no crisis.

[raceghost]

Edit: This may be personal or be taken personal by some of you. It also may piss you off. I am not trying to do either, just offering the poster an opinion, that is such an opinion as to bewhilder me each day. I only share my thoughts here, and don't mean any disrespect for anyone...

I would be interested in your thoughts, opinions, and personal experiences regarding religion.

Hipocrits! Every religion I have seen, read about, or even looked at, has it's hipocritical side. You watch around the world as some of the oldest origins of religion, kill each other in the streets. Society is nothing more than a bunch of information whores. All of us, searching for meaning, some using that meaning to radicate the world. It seems every day as the science offers some new logical explanation for those "Miracles", it becomes more of a pissing match as to why/why not each side is wrong. Our entire history is nothing more than some moron, leading a bunch of followers one way, and some other moron, leads a different way, and when they crossed paths, war breaks out. As a species and our never ending quest for information and answers to our own riddles, every religion who once accepted, now outcasts others based on views. Weather they do it openly or behind your back. Whores. Every whore has a price, some higher than others. And god bless the U.S.A. opened up the biggest whore house in town. With our capitalistic views, we dominate anything in our path that doesn't beleive in the almighty $$$. I don't know which way is right, and I am not saying that at times, I am victim to my own frustration when some person thinks there way is best, but can't see the person there pissing on with there "best way". I also am not trying to say that at certain times, we shouldn't protect ourselves from being slain or killed, or better yet, flown in to a steel structure, by some moron that our society empowered. Our species started with 0 information, and as we have studied and built on this interpreted knowledge, killed to defend most of, and then sold it out for newer better knowledge. In the sell out is where the real raping goes on. This is where those beliefs from this knowledge let you down. With the capitalist view, it is only a matter of time before your buddy, who introduced you to a belief becomes the salesman of another, and then you have loyalty issue's with your own belief. As you watch over time, the never ending train of change, makes your beliefs outdated, unwanted, and sometimes, they pass laws to keep you from practicing. Whores. All of us, all the time. Sale to Gain.

Just to bring context to the Mother Teresa read. Look at the timeline of when she was involved with the church. Technology was advancing at a rapid rate, we exploded 300 +, Nuclear Weopans in the Atmosphere, and also started testing several "Fringe" sciences, that effected the entire world. Any moralistic, religious goer, watched in amazement, as there entire beliefs and backgrounds were being changed every minute as the Sale of Information was used to gain protection. I would be in a deep dark slump as well. I would also not trust anyone, and be weary of anyone I chose to trust any info to. Prior to the last century(1900's), do you know how many religious concpiracies there were, by every religion, that dictated the sale of knowledge, and information?

Our species has a nasty nack for condoning religious control, to the point where a bunch of Quakers, hopped a boat, and headed for a new land. You think then religious dictation would be the last thing on their minds.... Hell no, when they got to that new land, they decided to dictate to the locals, who, what, where, and when. Hipocrits!

Believe in what you want, just save your preaching/reasoning/practicing for your self.

[Macx]

Raceghost I want to share a website with you: Gimp-Russian-Roulette
Wow man, just wow.




But back on topic - Yeah people have crisis of faith from time to time, maybe even in a ratio to how much they think and how much they do. It is easy to have a steady faith and never waver if you never think and never take any risks on behalf of your faith. Mother T on the otherhand, thought a lot and risked a lot. There is no shame in having feelings about what is going on when the going gets tough. I have found that mind and soul help me though this. . . times I feel the faith, times I think it, sometimes both, never neither.

[raceghost]

Macx, enlighten me in a PM. I don't understand, and don't want to take you out of context with your

Wow man, just wow

remark. And of course, I checked out the site you sent me too. What is so important about the gimp, and what is the message?

[Area 51]

Yeah, wow what?
Someone is dumb enough to shoot themself in the head. So?

[sburns2421]

I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. As I alluded to in the original post, recently I have found myself contemplating things more and more. I will say that for some time I have been "on the fence", and have decided it is time to jump one way or the other.

A little background is that I have been going to Church basically every Sunday for the last decade (since marrying my wife, a lifer). Both of my parents were raised going every Sunday, but when they went to college both stopped going. Interestingly, when their generation was out of the house, both sets of grandparents also stopped going. So it could be said that while I wasn't raised in Church, I did have somewhat of a background. If that makes sense.

Anyway, over the last decade my knowledge base of the New and Old Testaments has obviously increased. I am certainly no expert, but my reading comprehension and retention are good. What I have found is that there are basic questions I ask myself and others, and most of the time the answers I receive are inadequate and usually predicated on you believing first, only then will their answer seem reasonable.

I think this is compounded by changes in the Church I attend. We have had a new young pastor who is a fantastic preacher. I would not be surprised if he is famous someday, he is that good. He wants to grow the Church by really any means necessary, and in my opinion has been reckless with the reputation and sanctity of this 150 year old Church. Tithing has become his most favorite topic, to fund sexy projects that IMO are not needed and will ultimately hurt the Church overall. I recently have told one of our Deacons that perhaps we need to worry about Church a little less and God a little more. But I digress.

So many times it seems that in order to "believe" you have to disconnect the logical part of your brain. Matters of faith to me are whether such and such event happened as described. It is NOT accepting answers that are implausible, or contradictory to another passage.

One of these is of course the topic of money. In one place you have the rich young man, told to give away everything. The camel through the eye of a needle passage. On the other hand you have Job. Rich and pious guy that God lets Satan destroy and take everything Job has as a test. After passing the test, Job is rewarded with twice the wealth he had before. So is wealth/money good or bad?

Another more basic question regards Jesus himself (or is it Himself?). The Jewish establishment had a general idea of what they thought the Messiah was going to be like (great leader, strong political & military, noble birth, etc). Jesus was about as far from that as possible, born in the most humble of places and lived the most humble of lives. The result is that the vast majority of "His" people rejected Him. So my question is that if God can do anything He wants, why would He choose to deliver the Messiah in such a way as to make His authenticity questionable?

This leads to perhaps the most difficult question. Why is the Bible written in riddles open for interpretation?

I could go on, but I am out of time tonight.
Steve

[Area 51]

Originally Posted by sburns2421

Why is the Bible written in riddles open for interpretation?

If it were understandable then we wouldn't have to read it over and over. It's the ultimate deception (except for the U.S. tax code).

[speed]

Originally Posted by sburns2421

I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. As I alluded to in the original post, recently I have found myself contemplating things more and more. I will say that for some time I have been "on the fence", and have decided it is time to jump one way or the other.

A little background is that I have been going to Church basically every Sunday for the last decade (since marrying my wife, a lifer). Both of my parents were raised going every Sunday, but when they went to college both stopped going. Interestingly, when their generation was out of the house, both sets of grandparents also stopped going. So it could be said that while I wasn't raised in Church, I did have somewhat of a background. If that makes sense.

Anyway, over the last decade my knowledge base of the New and Old Testaments has obviously increased. I am certainly no expert, but my reading comprehension and retention are good. What I have found is that there are basic questions I ask myself and others, and most of the time the answers I receive are inadequate and usually predicated on you believing first, only then will their answer seem reasonable.

I think this is compounded by changes in the Church I attend. We have had a new young pastor who is a fantastic preacher. I would not be surprised if he is famous someday, he is that good. He wants to grow the Church by really any means necessary, and in my opinion has been reckless with the reputation and sanctity of this 150 year old Church. Tithing has become his most favorite topic, to fund sexy projects that IMO are not needed and will ultimately hurt the Church overall. I recently have told one of our Deacons that perhaps we need to worry about Church a little less and God a little more. But I digress.

So many times it seems that in order to "believe" you have to disconnect the logical part of your brain. Matters of faith to me are whether such and such event happened as described. It is NOT accepting answers that are implausible, or contradictory to another passage.

One of these is of course the topic of money. In one place you have the rich young man, told to give away everything. The camel through the eye of a needle passage. On the other hand you have Job. Rich and pious guy that God lets Satan destroy and take everything Job has as a test. After passing the test, Job is rewarded with twice the wealth he had before. So is wealth/money good or bad?

Another more basic question regards Jesus himself (or is it Himself?). The Jewish establishment had a general idea of what they thought the Messiah was going to be like (great leader, strong political & military, noble birth, etc). Jesus was about as far from that as possible, born in the most humble of places and lived the most humble of lives. The result is that the vast majority of "His" people rejected Him. So my question is that if God can do anything He wants, why would He choose to deliver the Messiah in such a way as to make His authenticity questionable?

This leads to perhaps the most difficult question. Why is the Bible written in riddles open for interpretation?

I could go on, but I am out of time tonight.


Steve

Gee wiz!!! there is no god ,read the book the god delusion as a start .

[RockyMt]

All I can say is put 99% of these guys in a foxhole, and they'll "find" God in a hurry (no matter what form that God may be......) Argue all you want, I only speak from personal experience.

-Rocky-