You know, I think one of the problems Christianity (and all religions) have is that they end up having a section of followers who behave in such a way as to make that religion more and more unpopular; give it a bad name, so to speak. It's just like how, say there's a small town somewhere, most of the citizens are good, law-abiding folk. But there's a small group of people who cause havoc in the place frequently. Which type of people are more likely to be heard of from people outside the town? I'll bet it isn't the peaceful ones.
So it's the same for Christianity, just because there
are people like what some of you have described (over-zealous, believing that someone killed himself by the will of God, etc) doesn't mean that's what they
should be like.
I myself am Catholic, and yes, I believe in God,
but I consider myself to be fairly open-minded about it. I
believe God exists, but I'm open to the possibilty that may not be true. If someone gave me sufficient evidence that God
doesn't exist, I
would drop it and move on. But at the moment, I have too much evidence that a God does exist, and yes, possibly not in the way I believe He does, but I'm fairly sure there's
something out there (I find it hard to believe that the world, the universe, came into being and just put itself all together the way it is by random chance).
And I think a lot of scientific laws and such can be the same way, we believe they are true, but we're open to the possibility that if someone came along and proved a law we believed was true was actually false, we'd drop it and move on, wouldn't we?
While I'm on those lines, I'll also point out that science and religion are
not, or
should not be, as opposed as people seem to think. For instance, the Catholic Church does not actually oppose the theory of evolution, as some people seem to think. There's even a document by one of the popes that speaks about this, but I haven't been able to find it for a while (if anyone
really wants to read it, I'll have a good search for it, I know there's a copy around here
somewhere...).
For instance, in reply to Havoc's comment about religious people trying to explain everything and saying everything that can't be explained is an act of God/miracle; I have yet to see something that I would class as a miracle. I've had some occasions not unlike what Skillya_glowi described, but I would more describe them as perhaps an influence of God than a miracle. That said, I do believe miracles are possible, but I'd be very hesitant to say something was a miracle unless I had very good reason to believe that was the case. And I know it's possible those occasions where I've thought it was an "influence of God" might have been purely coincidental, but I've had them just too many times for me to pass them off as that. If someone was to prove to me they were simply coincidences, I would change my mind, but until then... you get the idea.
As for the comment about a religious person saying their brother shot themselves in the head by God's will, that really does sound like complete crap to me. For one thing, that goes against the concept of
free will, and Christians (or at least Catholics, I'm not sure on this one) do not condone suicide. If someone decides to kill themself, I don't believe it's by God's will; more likely because of something like depression or low self esteem.
Which is sad, but not what this thread is about, so I'll move on.
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And most certainly don't take trust in it that 'he' will sort your problems out for you, because he won't. That's your bussiness.
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Unless I'm mistaken, Catholic teaching actually says do
not expect God to do everything for you. You've got to be able to work things out yourself. It doesn't hurt to ask for
help, but if you're not prepared to do
anything yourself, well... need I say more?
And once again I'll say, it's possible that in times where I've thought I've received help, I know it's possible that it's just all in my head and if it was proved to me that that's all it really was, I wouldn't suddenly crumble away. Afterall, if I could get through hard times simply believing I was being helped and I really wasn't being helped, wouldn't that show that I didn't
need help?
There's probably more I can say on this topic, but I think this post is quite long enough all ready, so I'll just finish with a quote by St. Francis of Assisi that I rather like:
"Preach the gospel at all times. Use words only when necessary"
Whoa!
