<p>I have been a pious Christian during my Middle school years, but hen that fire and passion for God died gradually until I did not read the Bible for months.
now, I'm trying to struggle to my feet in my spiritual walk. But then, as you can imagine, I am a very different person right now than I was in Middle-school. I'm no longer the innocent, ignorant kid. Now, I'm an adult that have withstood the blows of science preaching Big Bang and Evolution. I've pored and drunk deeply at the well of athesitic manifestos. </p>
<p>the problem is not that i question God and have a fancy for evolution. I've already settled the question: science has too many problems and feeble conjectures; religion is right. but, now I am beaten with trillion times more terrible blows of religious heresy: arianism, catholcism, and...of course...the influence of Greek thought such as those of plato and plotinus. I'm utterly despairing. my faith in shambles...how should i put all these shards and bits of pieces scattered about the world for two milleniae together?? </p>
<p>should i acknowledge plato? can i acknowledge the authority of the Church, but still retain my Protestant faith? </p>
<p>"I've already settled the question: science has too many problems and feeble conjectures; religion is right."</p>
<p>Do you mean to say religion is right, or that there is a God? Religions depend on God, but God does not depend on religion. If your beliefs are different than christians it does not imply your faith is any less genuine. In fact, I would be inclined to think it is more genuine.</p>
<p>Although, I am an agnostic leaning towards the atheistic side, so interpret what I say however you like. (I'm not trying to make this a debate about god since you have clearly expressed your faith. Within the context of of your post this is my thought.)</p>
<p>I read the title and assumed that somewhere, some college-aged male, had just taken an existentialist class and gotten ditched by his girlfriend for smelling like the local bum from too much videogaming and too little showering</p>
<p>Catholicism is not a heresy. If anything, Protestantism is. By the way, which one of the over 30,000 Protestant denominations (most preaching different things about Christ and Salvation) do/did you belong to?</p>
<p>yes, i don't feel comfortable being a protestant. it's too individualistic. it excellent in the way that it teaches people that God is loving, but it fails to inculcate the other half of God: the God of JUSTICE, the Wrathful God or the zealous God. in Catholicism and many religions of the East, the individual is made small and GOD IS MADE GREAT. it's a small wonder that Rome was the capital of Baroque art which was all about the grandeur, the greatness.. in the Church everyone must submit to higher authority and to question the authority figures is VERY inappropriate. this sense of subordination makes the latin cultures so Eastern. i don't think there are any cultures around the world like the germanics centring on individualism</p>
<p>I'm atheist. Organized religion is, well, too mainstream. I think it's silly to put my fate at the hands of some presumably benevolent being that apparently lives up in the sky. Well guess what? I fly a lot, and I assure you, THERE'S NOTHING UP THERE! Proof of existence of god notwithstanding, I think I'm disillusioned by the messed up world that I live in. I wouldn't be surprised if our generation decides that life is meaningless and becomes a generation of chainsmoking beret-wearing coffee-sipping existentialists (maybe skip the smoking part....tobacco's jsut gross)</p>
<p>the main problem right now is application. i can't bring myself to trust God. i have so many things in my hands right now and i'm so afraid...both myself and God. i'm not capable, but even if God is more than capable, would He makes things go the way i would want?</p>