Struggling with my faith

[Brokenbad]

I was raised in a Christian environment. My mother is a heavy duty church lady.

I always liked church and had a lot of good times there as a child. To this day, Christian music and church songs bring a great amount of comfort to me.

I am sad to say how I feel about Christianity today. I believe it all started about a year ago. I saw a bumper sticker on a beat up car with an old lady driving it. The sticker read "Warning: In case of rapture this car will be unmanned!!!". I thought that bumper sticker was the silliest thing I had ever seen. The sticker came off as arrogant and laughable.

The sticker was just the starting point of my apprehenion towards Christianity. The sticker was referring to the Chrisitian believe of the return of Jesus, that all Christians will float into the sky and be with God's son. Although Christians strongly believe this, even with all of the advancements and technology today, Christians criticize and mock the idea of 72 virgins for Islamic believers. Christians put down Buddha and Confuscious, when in all actually it doesn't seem any more farfetched that people floating off of the earth.Today, the ideas of Zeus and other mythical Gods are believed to be fiction. I am not saying those Gods were real, but Christianity is what, 2012 years old? The earth has been around for billions and billions of years, so why are 2000 year old actions regarded so highly?

Besides the rapture, how silly does it sound that some Anti-Christ figure will appear and influence everyone to do what he demands. Do you realize how selfish people are these days??? Not to mention that it seems no on can agree on anything at all, so why would everyone unite for one dickhead?

The thought of Heaven also confuses me. There is no such thing as total agreement in any faction of any sort. How is arguing avoided in Heaven? Christians have little (or big) fights and arguements and cliques in churches ALL the time.

Another thing I have against Christianity is the way it became mainstream. Christianity became very popular after the fall of the Roman Empire. A lot of highly regarded pagan believers agreed to accept Christian vows, just so they could open up trade oppurtunities with Christian believers. Shortly afterwards, Christianity was seemingly forced upon everyone. Crusades were held and the inquisitions started. In the inquisitions, people were brutally tortured and killed based upon the fact that they were suspected of being a non-believer. The so-called "Christians" discovered the new world and immediately slaughtered the beautiful civilizations in modern day Mexico. Most modern day Hispanics have Native American ancestory and speak Spanish, even though they live in Mexico. I also noticed that a lot of modern day Hispanics are heavy believers of Christianity, I wonder why.....

The last thing I have a problem with is Christian attitude and behavior. In my opinion, a good Christian should open about his faith and testify to others. This does not mean go around telling people they will burn in hell for not believing. If someone doesn't want to accept God, or already has another religion, just wish them a good day, dont harrass them until they are angered.

I know God works in mysterious ways, but why can't I ever seem to get any answers?

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me?

[Panthro]

Own your religion. Do not let it own you. The problem with religion is that it is run by man...

My goal - Live right, help others, and leave this world a better place then when I got here.

[SCP]

Faith

[Jangler]

[cookinwithgas]

Looks to me like you are finding your own way with this just fine.

[Wyank]

I know God works in mysterious ways, but why can't I ever seem to get any answers?

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me?

Pray for help. Maybe someone will come along that has the answers you are seeking. Just don't push them away before listening and having a discussion with them.

[LifeisaGarden]

I struggled with my faith until I let go of trying to make every one else's religion work for me. I never knew I could have my own beliefs, I thought I had to believe what every one else believed. The religion of liag suggests that I can believe in a power of MY own understanding and I don't have to follow someone else's religion

. It certainly made things so much easier. I have a huge faith in my God today.

[4Corners]

tl;dr

[Epistaxis]

I think it is great that you are willing to question.

Don't let some outside perception of what religious belief "should be" cloud your judgment.

Find what works for you, and go with it.

I did the same, and wound up at de facto atheism.

You may find yourself on a path back to Christianity, or somewhere else, who knows?

Just don't get bent out of shape trying to fit yourself in to some mold or formulaic definition of proper belief.

That can lead down a bad road, IMO.

[Mvp2014]

Can we float up to the sky and have 40 virgins? I like both of them

[Wyank]

Remember not all Christian denominations believe the same thing. If your questioning somethings that you were taught, see what other christian religions believe. Not all believe in rapture, hell, anti-christ, trinity, or that everyone is going to heaven.

[CarolinaNCSU]

Own your religion. Do not let it own you. The problem with religion is that it is run by man...

My goal - Live right, help others, and leave this world a better place then when I got here.

Exactly how I feel. I can have my own personal relationship with God do more for me than listening to (many times) ignorant preachers.

[SpeedOFLight]

I normally steer away from discussions like this but here we go. It's good that you are looking for answers for what you were taught. You can't believe everything that is pushed in your face since birth. You have to find out on your own. In that journey, I believe you will find what you are looking for. I tend no to use the word religion. To me religion is a set of rules, ideas and traditions that people are afraid to challenge. What helps is when you throw all those things out of the window and focus on just a pure relationship with God. I believe if you focus on that , you will get all the answers you seek. As me? I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior. Everything else to me is trivial. The problem is that a lot of "Christians", doesn't know what it means to be Christ like thus you encounter most of the people you've happen to cross oaths with.

[j2sgam]

There is a book called Conversations with God that might help you, it did me when I needed it. Like its been said before, you need to find what works for you...

Me? My faith is intact and I rarely attend church and I believe the Bible has some good lessons, but has too many flaws to be law. It was written a long time ago and things are completely different. And the Bible we read today is somebody's interpretation of somebody's interpretation of somebody's interpretation of what was really written. You & I can read the same sentence at the same time and get 2 different meanings, let alone a 2000 year old Book...

As long as you & Him are good, you shouldnt let anybody question it...