Christian tropers, join together!

Santa is a corruption of Saint Nicholas, but of course most of the traditions came later, but at the same time, it teaches kids about giving and is fairly harmless.

Yep. Plus one of his names is Saint Nicholas for a reason, if people say "Santa is a pagan idol" which I've read anecdotes about.

The Treasure in Tomb 7.

@The Librarian Yeah it's silly. Santa Claus-Saint Nicholas, oh well.

Hi everyone. Most of you know me, maybe? I'm Cail, if you don't. I was raised very, very Catholic so I know the Catechism forwards, backwards, and upside down. I'm agnostic leaning towards atheist now, but every once in a while I have a complete religious crisis, like right now. It all started when I started mulling over this question, about the story of Moses:

According to the Bible, the Children of Israel were slaves in Egypt for 430 years before Moses shows up and frees them. So many people were born, lived their lives, and died in slavery. We’re meant to believe that God will help any person who is suffering, but about those people? When you pray, how do you know that you’re going to be helped within your lifetime? What if you’re one of those people who lived in the middle of those 430 years? Maybe your descendants 100 years from now are the ones who are going to be saved.

I've been sitting here with a thousand yard stare for a while.

In an eternal sense, Death Is Cheap. Everyone is brought back to life and God does the just thing to rectify any wrongs that others did to them. Yeah I know I pretty much said to just trust God that He will do the right thing.

I think crises of faith are a normal part of any religious person's life. Faith can be a difficult thing to hang on to, but I'm sure you'll pull through. I think you should express your concerns to God, through prayer, and open your heart as much as you can so you can perceive his answer. I'm certain he won't hold it against you if that's difficult for you to do.

Remember that our sins (or more specifically, the sinfulness inherent in human nature) keeps us separated from God, and susceptible to temptation by Satan. When horrible things happen, it isn't that God is ambivalent to our suffering, it's that we've rejected him by giving in to our baser, animal natures. Sometimes, that means that innocent people suffer, which is not God's will.

I've been where you are lots of times (I wasn't raised Christian; I'm a convert from atheism as of about six years ago), and I'm pulling for you.

Christmas Lights.

Ahh, Christmas lights. I love 'em. Seriously they're great.

There are Christmas lights all over my neighborhood now. (We're an Italian-American neighborhood, so very Catholic) We put lights up for every holiday, including some Feast Days like Anthony and John the Baptist, where we have street festivals to celebrate. Saint Anthony is probably going to make another appearance soon. (He's our favorite saint. We love that guy.) Here's a picture◊ of him hanging out on the street during a fair (sorry about the blurriness) from what if I remember correctly was the Feast of John the Baptist last spring. You can't see it in the horrible quality picture, but there are donated dollar bills taped by people on one side of the statue.

Wow, it sounds exciting having all that for stuff like Feast Days.

We also have a carnival with rides, games and deep fried oreos

Sounds awesome

Constant Kindness.

If I get to suggest another site, it's manipulative-people.com by George K. Simon.

His writings concern character and he himself is Christian, though he hasn't specified what kind of Christian. He often talks about character through some very negative examples, by talking about people, who don't possess desirable virtues like honesty, conscientiousness and so on. He does bring up positive examples, too, though.

I heard about the site from a friend, who'd been reading his articles for some time.

Just in case you might appreciate.

Beautiful Unity.

Surround Sound.

I myself had a crisis of faith around a year ago that actually resulted in me starting to cry. I do still get tense on occasion but nothing like that since (seriously, then I was having trouble sleeping and my stomach was constantly upset until I aired my grievances with my brother). It's difficult to keep faith sometimes especially when everything God promises seems so improbable.

Isn't that the point of faith though? I mean you guys believe in improbable things like zombies and walking on water.

edited 8th Dec '16 10:17:10 PM by RAlexa21th

The Gift of Encouragement.

@RAI Revival from the dead is not quite zombies, even if zombies are dead revived, they tend to be a specific type. Also I should probably argue with you on a theological level and not a nerd one but.

Okay, I take it back, reviving the dead is probable, even humans can do it.

Wounds from a Friend.

Serving God with Prayers.

The Money.