There Cannot Be A God

[TheresaThoma]

171 this seems so out of character for you. Please find someone you can talk with, a pastor, a chaplin a school counselor, someone. I'll be praying for you and if you want to talk about anything PM me.

[mysisterisalittlesister]

Evil in the world is an obscure and painful mystery. Even the Crucified asked his Father, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mt 27:46). Much about it is incomprehensible. One thing, though, we know for sure: God is 100 percent good. He can never be the originator of something evil. God created the world to be good, but it is not yet complete. In violent upheavals and painful processes it is being shaped and moved toward its final perfection. That may be a better way to classify what the Church calls [i]physical evil,[/i] for example, a birth defect, or a natural catastrophe. [i]Moral evils,[/i] in contrast, vome about through the misuse freedom in the world. "Hell on earth"--child soldiers, suicide bombings, concentration camps--is usually man-made. The decisive question is therefore not, "How can anyone believe in a good God when there is so much evil?" but rather, "How could a person with a heart and understanding endure a life in this world if God did [i]not[/i] exist?" Christ's death and Resurrection show us that evil did not have the first word, nor does it have the last. God made absolute good result from the worst evil. We believe that in the Last Judgment God will put an end all all injustice. In the life of the world to come, evil no longer has any place and suffering ends.

-Youcat, Part 1, Chapter 1, #51

The171, I really, truly hope this helps. We are all praying really hard for you, and are extremely worried. This is not something to take lightly, and you should probably see a priest or counselor. I hope and pray your week takes a turn for the better

Edited September 20, 2012 by mysisterisalittlesister

[the171]

i just cant believe. im sorry.

[Ed Normile]

I doubt you will get any " concrete answers " faith is not like that. Right now you seem to have faith that there is no God, you have no proof of this you just believe, true faith. I suppose you are young and I do not know if you have children, but if you did would you control their every move or would you give them a good set of rules and be an example and hope they would choose to follow them? Along those lines if they chose to be obedient you would reward their goodness and if not you would punish them. In a way God rewards us for our goodness here on earth by the joy we receive as christians in the good we do and the consequences of that good, and we actually punish ourselves by the bad we do. God is a forgiving and merciful God, and even the worst criminal can repent and be forgiven. That is the goodness of God. Some people exhibit this same type of goodness, Pope JPII forgave the man who shot him, I have seen murderers forgiven by the family of those they killed. These people are truly acting God-like, and great will be their reward. Bad things happen through the choices bad people make not through the will of God. He loves us enough to allow us to choose our fate, He is not a dictator in the sense that He lives our lives and makes our choices for us. This freedom to allow us to choose Him is the only way we could ever truly love Him, could you love a God that would force your hand, would make you to adhere to his set of rules by force ? No more than you could force a person to love you, it just would not work.

ed

[4588686]

[quote name='the171' timestamp='1348113882' post='2484542']
i just cant believe. im sorry.
[/quote]


That's ok. I forgive you.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1348099226' post='2484412']
Why not? Who told you that life was going to be easy and everyone was going to like you and be nice to you? So what if someone screwed you over. That has happened to everyone. My husband had a sister steal $200,000 from him. My mom prevented my dad from having life saving surgery. My foster son's older brother stole every possession he had practically except the clothes on his back.

Everyone here has similar stories in their lives. It wasn't that God let it happen, we let it happen because we are human. We are lazy and greedy and self-centered unless we choose to live differently.

When I was 29 years old, a man stabbed me numerous times, pushed me head first down a marble staircase, then slammed my head repeatedly on to the floor while strangling me into unconsciousness. God wasn't responsible for that. An individual was, and his hate was responsible. I could have allowed hate to ruin my life too. Instead, I forgave him and broke the cycle. That's free will in action too.
[/quote]

i flooping love you, CatherineM. you flooping rock.

[LinaSt.Cecilia2772]

Just over a year ago, I had one of my closest family members move into my home because she needed a place to spend her final months on this earth. She was my aunt, Her name was Mari, and she had stage four breast cancer that spread to her liver, lung, and bones. She had had cancer for four, almost five years. She went through hell and back at least three times. There were many times where we thought she wouldn't make it through the next treatment, but she still fought it.

Before she got cancer, she had renounced her Catholicism when she was very young. She was an actress, did various Broadway shows in New York, co-founded a theater company in Chicago, traveled all over the world, ran with the bulls in Pamplona Spain, did some movies and television work in Los Angeles, always ate well and took very good care of herself because of her work. She was the LAST person that we thought would ever get an illness. She was 48 when she passed away, but she was they type of person that NEVER let a minute of her life to go to waste.

She and I were very close, and to have someone that close come into my home to watch die, at 17 years old, was VERY hard, and at times I was questioning the same things you are right now. How could God stand by and let this happen, to let her suffer the way she did? Why did He make me grow up too fast seeing the trauma of someone dying a very painful death in my home that I thought was a perfect place? It was one of the hardest and most confusing things I have ever gone through in my life. But I was still there taking care of her because it was the right thing to do, to give her a place where she could find peace, feel love, be with the people that made her happy, to give her LIFE even though she was on her deathbed. I saw God working in her, because when her cancer started getting really bad, she started going to church with me and my family. She started to feel God's love for her, He called her to go on A "Christ Renews His Parish" retreat, and when she came back, She had found God in her life again. She told me one day that she had found God through her illness, the cancer that had caused her so much pain, the illness which took her life. To this day I still think about all the suffering that I go through, and that it is no where as near the suffering she went through, and I realize that our God isn't a God who punishes, or let's suffering happen. By mine and my family's free will and actions of giving her LIFE on her deathbed was God working in us, to ease and take away the pain and make her as comfortable as possible. And all of our friends who relentlessly prayed for all of us, brought us food, took me away when I needed to, came and helped with the little things that made a huge difference, and who kept taking me to Church when I felt totally lost, to youth group and to places that actually let me be a kid, that was their free will to help all of us, they didn't have to do that. But they did because they knew that they wanted to do what God would have done to help ease the suffering. Even when I was questioning, God NEVER left me, because He was the strength in me that I didn't know I had, and He was the love and compassion in everyone that helped my aunt, my family, and me. Through all that pain, hurt, loss, grief, and suffering, I found God again, because I realized that He was holding me in His arms the whole time through the work our friends and I were doing. When I look back on it, I still don't know how I even made it through all that and school at the same time. But when I think about it, God had carried me through it. I know my aunt is in heaven, watching over me and my family, and I realize that God took away her suffering of the earth so she could be with Him forever.

One last thing. Evil is the work of the devil, not the work of God. There is a God, He lives in all of us.

I know where you are coming from, and know that I'm praying for you.

[mortify]

[quote name='the171' timestamp='1348113882' post='2484542']
i just cant believe. im sorry.
[/quote]

Humans are very irrational beings and our god given free will is rarely used. Most of our decisions are motivated by strong psychological and social pressures. That's why before we think ourselves into believing (or disbelieving) something, we need to analyze what is going on within and around us. God has given us the grace to believe, this is a reality, if there is a darkness that makes us doubt, it is only temporary and illusionary. I suggest giving it some time, whatever you are going through let it pass first and then you can give some serious thought to these matters.

[ACS67]

[quote]
When John Paul II got shot, what did he do once he recovered? Did he get mad at God? "Hey, God! I'm the floopin' Pope! Why did you let this happen?" I bet that's what part of him wanted to say..
[/quote]

I'm the floopin' Pope! That is hilarious!

the171, this is going to sound really harsh but unless you offer some specifics, I think you are just having a teenage mood swing. So...I'm "sorry" too.

P.S.
I'm terrible with kids/young people. And although I was one at some point in time, I truly don't understand how their mind works. It's melodramatic and mysterious. I don't get it.

[the171]

"My little way is a way of trust and love." -St. Therese of Lisieiux

these past two years have been the hardest of my life. today might have been the worst, or the worst might be yet to come. I dont know. what i do know is what i remember. i remember three years ago when i had my conversion. i remember that peace i couldnt explain. i remember feeling like there was a God up there who loved me and cherished me. i remember a year after that when my closest friend, a big brother to me, betrayed my trust and used me. i remember the shame of that moment. finally, i remember yesterday. i remember sitting with father chaplain for hours as he listened to my questions. i remember his face, filled with fatherly affection and tender compassion.

i dont believe in god right now, but i have to have faith that he is there. as much as i am angry with him, he should be so much more angry with me.

i have to trust i guess. as pissed off as i am, i have to trust.

i want to believe. i really do. right now i just cant. i cant pray because i am just too angry with god and i am pretty sure i will blaspheme if i do.

i am not sure if i will continue to have faith. i am not sure if i will believe. but i want to try. i hope that god will love me even though i am mad at him. Thank you all for putting up with me. Especially you, Catherine. I said some hateful things. At least I thought they were hateful. I'm sorry.

[the171]

ha, if this is a mood swing, then this mood swing has lasted for two years and I need meds.

[Nihil Obstat]

If you can't pray right now, then it is up to us to pray for you.

[Lil Red]

dude...you should have heard some of the things I've said to God when I'm pissed off. Better out than in

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' timestamp='1348115108' post='2484560']
If you can't pray right now, then it is up to us to pray for you.
[/quote]

and that's what this phamily is here for....and done for many people.

[arfink]

[quote name='the171' timestamp='1348115084' post='2484559']
ha, if this is a mood swing, then this mood swing has lasted for two years and I need meds.
[/quote]

Be patient, and healing will come. I will be praying for you.

[the171]

i have come to the conclusion that there is a God, but I am just really pissed off at him currently.

But he loves me and I am trying to love him.