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2/14/2018 5:16 pm  #11


Re: Somedays God doesn't exist

FrenchySkepticalCatholic wrote:

I forgot to say : when such thoughts happen, come and share them with me. I've been dealing with them more and more, so I'm kind of getting used to how to tackle them. ;)

Sure thing FSC. Also that was great advice you gave me. Such thoughts really don't stand up to scrutiny.

 

2/14/2018 5:16 pm  #12


Re: Somedays God doesn't exist

Jason wrote:

I find regular time in prayer helps in building a lasting relationship with God. One of the things I would recommend is mental prayer, for an introduction seeĀ https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/fr-white-op-introduction-to-mental-prayer-feb-2017-bloomfield-ct . I found it very helpful in my journey hopefully will help you as well.

Thank you I'll give it a listen.

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2/14/2018 5:18 pm  #13


Re: Somedays God doesn't exist

Miguel wrote:

I know the feeling sometimes, but I never really take it seriously. To me it's just absurd to entertain brute facts -- if they were possible, things should be poppin into existence all the time, but they don't, and not only that but the whole world is just so orderly. It just makes no sense. And then there's the fact that the human mind has spiritual, transcendental powers -- to grasp universal concepts, to reason on their basis, to directly reflect on itself reflecting, etc. God's non-existence is just a bizarre and absurd idea.

But moving beyond these formal, intellectual reasons, well-known to us in cosmological arguments and arguments from the soul etc., there's just something else about the idea of nihilism that makes it instantly ridiculous to me. It just doesn't conform to how life really is. It doesn't. Evil really is evil; there are things that really cry out to heaven as wrong; there is a way things that things are supposed to be. A normativity in the universe. C. S. Lewis once said that if the universe had no meaning, we should not have been able to find out that it had no meaning, just like if there were no light we should never know it was dark, as dark would have no meaning. I think this is more than just saying that it would be pointless to say that life has no meaning; I think of it as really pointing out that it would be extremely queer if we could somehow know that life was meaningless if it really were meaningless. And it should not affect us the way it does. No one really ever embraces nihilism. Of course, this is all rather informal, but that's the point. I think it's something in between arguments from desire and moral arguments. Too often people dismiss our "hunch" of the way things are, but it just seems so clear to me. Personally I cannot really take nihilism seriously at all, it just seems like bullshit to me on every front.

This is good advice. I remember reading that CS Lewis quote. Also I think the one where he says he used to be mad at God for not existing is very poignant.

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