Let's Start Over, I'm Blackrook and I'm Here to Get Some Answers to Important Questions

[Blackrook]

Anyway, let's start over.

My name is Blackrook and I'm a Catholic in crisis and I'm here to get some answers to some questions I have.

Catholicism has been a great comfort to me when I had feelings that I didn't want to live, and felt like killing myself.

I felt God's presence, literally reaching out to me and telling me I was loved.

Even now, in my current state of pessimism, I can look forward to something better after my bitter struggle in this world is complete.

What can atheism offer to replace that?

Ironic. My experience was the exact opposite. I saw some of the pain and unfairness and suffering in the world and couldn't understand how such a benevolent, all powerful god could allow it all to happen. That led to doubt which led to a deal I've made to any supernatural being out there: you reach out to me, I'll believe in you. So far, nobody has taken me up on that bargain.

Anyway, if Catholicism brings you comfort, that's all good for you. If it helps you feel better and you don't hurt anyone else because of it, you can believe in whatever you want (even if it is factually incorrect). Just don't try to push it onto me, ok? I'll respect your right to believe as long as you respect my right not to believe.

Right, well I'm not here to try to convert anyone to Catholicism. Catholicism is so complicated and difficult to approach that you almost have to be born into it to fully understand it.

The evangelicals have a big advantage on us because they offer over-simplified solutions to difficult problems. They tell people that they can be "saved" simply by asserting that "Jesus is my personal Lord and savior."

Any way, in RL I get along much better with atheists than I do with evangelicals.

However, on the internet, atheists really let their pants down and show a side of themselves that they would not dare in RL.

What I'm saying is this. Treat me like this is not the interent, but RL, and I will do the same.

I admit I am thin-skinned so I'm just going to put on the ignore list anyone who gets ugly with me. The reason I'm thin-skinned is because a lot of people hurt me when I was a kid and as an adult I have made a promise to myself not ever to tolerate it again. The bullyng didn't stop for me until I became tough and that has carried over into my adult life.

But I will not be mean here if I can help it. That does not mean I'm going to stop making threads that point out the problems with atheism.

My main problem with atheism now is that it offers me absolutely nothing. I am disenchanted with Catholicism right now, but there is absolutely no reason to become an atheist.

First, I can't intellectually accept the notion of a self-generating physical universe.

And second, I can't intellectually accept the notion that life is totally without meaning and efforts to be a good person are in vain because we all end up dead in the ground, with no distinction between the evil and the good.