(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best christian living books

You cheated and that can't be taken back. I would suggest you do research in the phsycology behind why you felt the need to cheat. Most couples can satisfy about 80% of their partners needs and wants. You may have felt compelled to cheat because the other woman offered the 20% your wife doesn't and it feels shiny and new. That shiny newness will go away eventually. Chasing the "golden haired woman" is a mistake. You are most likely not in love with this other woman. You probably have a love for the newness and the heightened levels of dopamine your brain gives you for finding a new mate. Again that will go away.


10 years ago you loved your wife enough to commit vows to spend a lifetime together. Think about that. YOU LOVED SOMEONE SO MUCH THAT YOU VOWED TO STAY WITH HER TILL DEATH! That woman is still there. Taking your marriage to a non-monogamous point just so you can continue your affair is very shady and doesn't solve the real problem. It will most likely tear you two apart due to the mistrust, and there is no guarantee that your wife will be open to non-monogamy.


Divorcing your wife would be a mistake as well. First she didn't do anything wrong so you shouldn't want to hurt her. Second your kids deserve better.


This will be an unpopular opinion but NEVER TELL HER YOU CHEATED! Why? Because it will tear her heart out. I've been cheat on before. It hurts... A lot! Don't put her through that, and don't pull the I need to clear my conscious BS either. Breaking her heart so you can feel better is despicable. And don't for one second think leaving your wife for this other woman will somehow be a better option. She has already shown you she is OK with cheating because she knows about your wife. Plus she knows you are a cheater and the whole relationship would be built on mistrust.


You need to leave the other woman and go back to your wife and family. Be the man she deserves and put effort into re-igniting the passion that you had when you married her. If you are feeling the flame dim on the passion and romance you better believe that she does too. Talk to her. Find things you can do to bring that flame back.


Here are some starter suggestions
-Does she like shopping? Take her shopping! Go with her. Yeah its boring to be a man in a Woman's shoe store, but I bet you did it while dating. Its not about spending money its about spending time.


-Is there an activity she wants to do but you don't like IE: hiking or swimming or a road trip. Do it for her. I'm not saying do something you will regret, but something small that she is into and you have declined in the past.
Real life example: My wife wanted to drive 400 miles on a particular freeway because it was a "scenic drive". I hated the idea and she knew it, but she loves that I did it anyway for her. I'm not saying be a pushover and do everything that she wants all the time, but let her have those moments from time to time.


-Do you have a little extra padding? Start exercising and very subtlety let her know its because you want to look as sexy as you can for her. Do not suggest she join your exercising but do invite her if she asks to join. Do not try to be her coach. Let her make any fitness mistakes she wants if she joins your routine. Unless of course she is doing something that will hurt her.


-Sit down and have a long talk about how you feel. Be careful not to verbally attack her. This is where "I" statements help.
"I feel that we could have more passion", "I want to know what I can do to strengthen our relationship", "I feel like we could do more to strengthen our bond", "I want to [any action or result] and want your help/opinion to achieve [said action or result] ect. If you use the word "you" then that talk may turn into a fight. Example of what not to say- "You never do [ ] anymore", "You do [ ] to much", ect. you get the idea.


So much can be achieved when couples just sit down and express what they are feeling inside. What to take a giant leap of faith? Ask her this question " What is it like being married to me"... I know terrifying. Then shut up and listen. Do not argue and do not interrupt. No "yes buts". Internalize what she tells you. Acknowledge what you have done wrong and express a desire to work with her as a team to resolve anything.


-Couples/ Marriage counseling or similar third party interventions. Most couples shy away from this sort of thing but it helps. You don't have to go for long periods of time. Even one session will go a long way towards helping. Here is a book that I think would help. http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Heart-Revised-Updated-Discovering/dp/1400200393 and here is the female side http://www.amazon.com/Captivating-Revised-Updated-Unveiling-Mystery/dp/1400200385/ref=pd_sim_b_1 You should read them both. Yes they have Christian ties but even if you are not a Christian the ideas and principles are still very valid. There is also a boot camp that goes with the book and if you can attend/ afford it you and your wife should go. Here is the link. http://www.ransomedheart.com/allies-home . I promise you the bootcamp it not a touchy feely lets hug and have a talk about our feelings event. It is a "this is how to be an awesome man" fun filled weekend. Campfires, cigars, gormet meals, archery, guns, and outdoor man movies to go with what they teach. Whatever you choose to do don't be embarrassed to seek guidance from a professional.


-When you two have sex do you make love passionately? or are you just masturbating inside her? Don't use her for sex... Give her what only you as a loving husband can give to her. Massage her body, caress her legs, smack that ass, run scratch marks down her back, whisper sexy dirty things in her ear, dust off your tongue and give without receiving. I don't know what she likes but you do. If for some reason you don't then ask her to guide you. Make her feel like a sex god. I challenge you to only penetrate when she is so turned on that she won't take no for an answer.


-Kids taking all your time? Get a sitter or send them to summer camp or a similar event that gets them away from you for several days. Your kids are important but so is your wife. A loving healthy relationship with her is great for your kids to see. Don't put your kids before your wife! She should hold more importance. Set a weekly time that you spend with only your wife. No kids allowed. It can be as simple as one night a week that the kids can't be in the living room while you two enjoy the TV (or other activities) just the 2 of you. And be firm if they try to butt in or suddenly start doing things to get your attention. Same goes for pets. Get them away.


There is a ton of other things but these are the basics and the overall idea is to spend more time with your wife. If you are having trouble finding that wonderful person you fell in love with then you better search harder. If you can't find gold with a shovel then you better get a bulldozer.


I promise you any effort you put into your wife and marriage will be reciprocated in full. It probably won't be instant, but she will respond in kind. This is about you too. You are going to feel fantastic knowing you can offer her your strength and power and love as a man.


Last point- Non-monogamy in all its forms is not a bandage that fixes troubled relationships. It is an experience that two loving people choose to do together to enhance what is already a healthy strong relationship. If/When you bring back that flame and you start seeing your wife as the "golden haired" woman then you can try non-monogamy. Do it as a team, together as a loving trusting couple. My wife and I swing. Not because we need things from other people, but because we enjoy sharing the experience.


I hope this does not come across and condemning or condescending. I believe in redemption and I wish you the very best of luck.



TL:DR: Don't take the easy rode. Fight for your wife.

Thank you for the indepth reply.

God has revealed Himself through creation:

>For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Rom 1:20)

I won't discuss a generic creator or pantheon because those are not my beliefs. Just the Christian God to which denomination doesn't matter provided the person accepts that they are a sinner and that they may receive the gift of freedom from sin and it's consequences through Christ alone.

Do you ever feel out of place? Or like things are wrong? Christians agree! We believe that because of sin, creation is corrupt bringing about all kinds of pain and frustration. This is another way that God reveals Himself to some people.

But really, existence is a pretty good argument for God. We exist in the "Goldilocks zone" that is one of very few places in the known universe that can support life. Not only that, but life actually appeared here. Just having the ability to support life doesn't automatically make it happen. In addition, we have intelligent, self-aware life. The math for this to occur is impossible. it can't happen. And yet we're here.

The debates are only necessary because God loves you and called His people to love you as well. There wouldn't be a debate if nobody cared.

God isn't a trickster nor an angry child not careless. His perspective as Creator and master of creation is wildly different from ours but always perfect. That includes a perfect love and a perfect sense of Justice.

If you want to know more about the reliability of eye witness accounts of Christ, I'd recommend Cold Case Christianity where an evidence-based approach is used on the gospels and supporting data. Man, Myth, Messiah also touches on this (and if only $1.99 on Kindle right now). And I understand that The Case for Christ written by an investigative reporter also looks into this but I haven't read that book myself yet.

Religious people don't have that much power. People who claim to be religious might. While 70% of Americans claim a "Christian heritage" only 40% of those people attend church. And only 45% of church attenders read the Bible away from church. Believe me, if more people who claimed to be Christian, actually knew the tenants of the faith you wouldn't have any problem with them being in power. The basics for Christianity start with: love God, love your neighbor, and love your enemy. Christians aren't called to hate gays, but to love them just like everyone else.

The instances of Christians being anti-science is mostly media hype. The scientific process began in the church as a method to explore and understand God's miraculous creation. The Bible isn't a science textbook, it's a collection of books and letters that form a singular narrative. It needs to be read and interpreted from that context.

And science has a lot of holes to be filled, including internal contradictions: quantum mechanics says the Big Bang is bunk, for example. Scientists and philosophers have been working for decades on a way to unify those pursuits called "the theory of everything". Science has faith that will happen. Some of what's called "science" really isn't. For science to be accurate it needs to be observable and repeatable. Here again, the Big Bang fails the test. I'm not anti science, and I suspect the Big Bang is valid, but I see it in Genesis:

> In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [...] And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Maybe that describes Big Bang? Maybe not.

As to how well I know Christ the answer is, "not well enough." Christ followers start by accepting Christ as our Lord and savior for the forgiveness of our sins. Then we change. That change is called sanctification and it happens by getting in relationship and learning from Christ. I mean this literally through prayer and by studying the Bible. God wants to be in relationship with us. The change is to make us more Christ-like. You assume Christ is unaccessible which isn't true. He's alive right now, today. And I am constantly surprised by him and his compassion and sacrifice.

There's a lot of misconceptions about the faith. I'm considering a project to combat that both in popular culture and within the church. That's why I started this thread.

First of all, welcome back, brother. I am especially touched that your fiancée would even suggest to find a Catholic Church. (As an aside, you're not a convert; you're a revert since you're already baptized into the Church. I thought maybe you'd appreciate that factoid.)

​

>I am looking for information about your Church, whatever you think is important to know.

There is a lot to know and many here would recommend a million and one things to study, especially since it sounds like you enjoy a good intellectual pursuit. I'm not going to discount others' recommendations, but I do want to highlight one thing: learn more about Jesus first. Find out what He taught, who He is, what His disciples and closest friends said about Him, what the Old Testament said about Him, etc. To that end...

​

>I am looking for recommendations for a Catholic-approved version of the Bible, geared towards someone who appreciates philosophy and prefers something close to the original translations, or the most accepted by the Church.

First thing to note, all Catholic Bibles have 72 books. Protestants have 66. If you can't get a hold of a Catholic Bible, a Protestant one will do for now until you do get around to buying a Catholic one. Now, as for Catholic Bibles, if you speak/read Latin you can't go wrong with the Vulgate Bible. It's a Bible that was translated by St. Jerome who was fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; he had the original manuscripts -- some of which are lost to us today -- so his translations are widely accepted as authentic and faithful.

There's also the English version of the Vulgate Bible known as the Douay-Rheims. It's an almost word-for-word translation of the Latin so the English will sound archaic to our modern ears. It's not as frustrating as, say, reading Shakespeare but it's pretty close. I personally prefer (and currently use) a Douay-Rheims Bible that has the Clementina Vulgata beside it. It's essentially Latin and English side by side. You can find one here.

If want one with plain English, the New American Bible Revised Edition would suffice. (If you use this website, let me know. I have a discount code from my last purchase.)

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>I know nothing of the culture or norms of the Church, or what to expect as a new member.

One major rule to remember is that you can't receive Holy Communion until after you've gone to Confession. Given your situation, I would recommend setting up an appointment with a parish priest so he can give his full attention to you and your needs.

​

>I do not know how to introduce myself to the congregation

There's usually no need to introduce yourself to the congregation since parishes tend to be big. If you would like to formally introduce yourself, however, give the parish priest a call and set up a meeting with him. It would also be a great chance to speak with him about your situation and get some pastoral guidance.

​

>or tell a good Catholic church from a lesser one

Many here would recommend a more traditional parish. If that's not available, I'd say any Catholic church would do. If you're unsure about a particular church's standing, just give us the details on this sub. I'm sure someone here would be able to double check for you.

​

>I know nothing of the Saints or the miracles, or what has been confirmed by the Church and what hasn't.

These are things you can learn later on. Focus on Jesus first. Rebuild your relationship with Him. Start with the basics; if you don't, you might burn yourself out. There is A LOT to learn about the Faith. Some say it's a lifelong endeavour. :P

​

>I am also looking for a reading list to explore Catholic philosophy beyond those you typically encounter in standard philosophical reading, such as Aquinas or Pascal.

Hmmm... this depends on what sorts of things interest you. A good one that lightly touches on philosophy is Socrates Meets Jesus by Peter Kreeft (anything by this guy is pretty good, by the way).

A book that may be more pressing to your current situation is Why Be Catholic? by Patrick Madrid and Abraham Skorka, Why We're Catholic by Trent Horn, as well as Why I am a Catholic by Brandon Vogt. (They might need to work on a more original title, though :P) Since you have an Evangelical background, Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray might be helpful (although it can be a bit dry; also, it mostly deals with the Church's teaching on Baptism and the Eucharist) as well as Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn.

You can never go wrong with classics such as a collection of C. S. Lewis' works, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, and Confessions by St. Augustine.

If you want a historical examination of Jesus and the Early Church, a good place to start is The Case for Christ by Brant Pitre, The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine by St. Eusebius, and The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin. I'd like to thrown in Jesus, Peter, and the Keys by Scott Butler, Norman Dahlgren, and David J. Hess. This last one pertains to the Catholic claim regarding the papacy (and which I think is one of the strongest arguments in favour of the Catholic Church being the original one that the Lord founded).

Finally, there are YouTube channels you can follow/binge watch such as Bishop Robert Barron and Ascension Presents. Also, an amazing video about the Catholic Faith is a series made by Bishop Barron when he was "just" a priest called Catholicism.

I'm sorry if that's overwhelming but you raised some good questions. :P Anyway, I imagine it may be a lot right now so take it slowly, don't dive in through all of it at once. Find a local Catholic church, call up the priest, set up a meeting, then take it from there. And remember, you can always pray; God's always willing to talk with you.

> I really like this. Will be posting in here from now on instead of my monthly updates!

Awesome, welcome to OYS Phil!

>Physical / Lifting: 200 Bench, 260 Squat, 360 DL, 165 OHP

Great job!

>Diet: Absolutely terrible. My living situation allows me access to free food, but conversely I don’t have much ability to store or make anything of personal choice at home. So sometimes healthy is available, but most of the time it’s not. Open to suggestions or ideas on what to do in this case.

>Diet Goals: I want to hit 10% BF, and get my weight to 200. I’m thinking about just eating at chipotle, or some other healthy restaurant once a day, if anyone has any recommendations.

If you want to hit 10% BF, you will have to make some changes. I think Chipotle can be a good idea, actually. I would use that as a sometimes thing.

Eat the healthy food when it's available at home for sure.

If something is served that is in the middle between healthy and unhealthy, portion control is key to winning here.

When the really unhealthy stuff is served, that's a good time to fast for weight loss. Maybe buy some protein powder to use during this time. You can also buy some vegetables and keep them in the fridge for times like this - probably nobody else will want those anyway, so you can fill up on a vegetable you like and get your nutrients in.

>Spiritual: Raised in the church, still struggling to make my faith my own.

>Assurance of Salvation: 5. I really struggle with this. It’s a constant on and off.

>Evangelism: 2. I am trash in this area. I’ve had some opportunities arise in the past few months that I have taken, but I do not actively seek it out, or feel qualified, which I realize is stupid, and something I’m working through.

Are you born again? If you aren't, or are not sure, I have more to share with you. If you're simply struggling in this area, then here's some good videos to watch (or you can listen to them in the car too, the video part isn't essential to grasping the concepts):

• The Firefighter
  
  
• Hell's Best Kept Secret
  
  
• True and False Conversion
  
  >Asked a girl out last week and got rejected, but she’s still involved with a lot of church things, and is definitely flirting a lot still, so not sure what to do, as we were decent friends.
  
  From the Book of Pook: "A friend she sees, a friend you be." She's a friend, but she'll flirt just enough to keep you on the hook. You're a beta orbiter to her. I would just stop spending time with her, unless you truly value her friendship enough that you want to still be around her. My guess is that "friendship" was your planned path to a relationship - this is classic Nice Guy^^TM thinking. Don't be a total jerk to her, but make it clear you're moving on. Make some male friends instead.
  
  >I make enough to survive, but I could be doing a lot better if I cut down unnecessary expenses.
  
  Read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover so you can get your financial situation straightened out while you're young. I would have given ANYTHING to have had this book when I was your age and still single!
  
  >I used to be a big gamer, but over the past couple years that has dwindled to almost nothing. I’m conflicted however because gaming was great way to spend time with family and friends across the world.
  
  You're conflicted because you don't have anything to replace it. Figure out some different ways to make that connection. Here's a comment that will help get your mindset straight on this (obligatory vulgar language warning - use Christian discernment here).
  
  >I’m working with younger men and leading them in a bible study, and it’s scary when 3 minutes of focus and attention without phones or meme references is a good day.
  
  This is awesome! If you're having a problem with attention and focus, ask them to put their phones on a shelf while class is going. Use paper Bibles instead.
  
  >What they think is cool and aspiring does not line up with what I see biblically, and it’s something missing in their life. I want to be that something in their life. Cool, but pointing to God and living by his word if that makes sense.
  
  Yes, this is a good goal. Evangelism will be a very important part of this - you will have to share your faith at some point if you are to make progress. Watch or listen to those videos, they will really give you a good foundation for sharing the Gospel.

Great question. Part time missionary here, headed towards full time someday. I'd like to share some about my experiences on short term trips (2wk) and some of what several of my Full Time missionary friends have told me. Full Disclosure: I haven't fully read the other responses to your post, so I'm probably repeating at least something.

First off, let me break down the $2k. It is a lot of money. Know that most of that money is to get you into the area. The last flight I booked to Guatemala was $1200 a seat -- group rate, booked 3 months in advance. My most recent trip, to Eastern Europe rang in at over $1600 -- single ticket, booked 4 mo ahead. Now, I'm single, so I don't have to think about doubling that like you do, but just know that $2k isn't some number they pull out of the air. By the time you roll up airfare and food alone, you're pushing that budget. Throw in ground transportation and lodging and you're going to need a miracle. That said, before you go short or mid term with any organization, get a cost breakdown of where your money is going. The team leaders should be fully financially supported, as well as the rest of the organizational infrastructure. ( I ran a HipMunk search on Denver to Cairo, because I live in CO and I picked Cairo, and came up with estimated airfare of $1200, for Nov1 - Nov15 ).

In the thread currently at the top, you mention "it would be more beneficial to just send that money to those in need." You're probably right, especially if you're thinking of paying for this out of pocket yourself. But you shouldn't be doing that. A HUGE part of missions is fundraising, and so sharing your experience with people that don't feel called to go, but instead to send (Romans 10:15ish). Fundraising is hard, but it is a huge blessing. Your church should be a part of this. (You are a member of a church, right?) I also believe that you should contribute a nontrivial percentage of your trip funds. Paul was a tentmaker and he payed for much of his ministry by working hard, but not all of it.

Second, a note about the duration of trips Short term -- the 2wk variety -- is more about you than the people you're serving. Its about getting out of the comfort of your daily life and witnessing God work in the lives of other people in different ways. You work for the people you're visiting, but 2 weeks is far to short to have a lasting spiritual impact. Mid term -- from 3 months to 2 years -- is starting to shift the focus. If your target is 3 months, then you'll be on the ground just long enough to start to understand what is going on and what needs you can fill when you leave. Not long enough to do language school, and not long enough to really get to know people. Beyond that, well, you get the picture. Most 3-month programs are "Summer programs," but they're not exactly geared towards college students.

Third, how I would go about it given my today-knowledge

• Make sure you're both members at a church...one that already supports FT missionaries is preferable. If you're not, Start now! Go, do the membership class, sign the statement of faith, and attend the services.
  
• Get in contact with missionaries. Send them emails, care packages, money. (Peanut butter goes a long way to winning the heart of many expats.) Most missionaries have emails they send out monthly or weekly and they're stoked to add you to their list. This is important as it keeps missions right in your face even after you go and have your missions-honeymoon-hoorah. If you're at a church that supports missionaries, ask for a list of email addresses and just fire off 10 emails asking to be put on their email lists. If you want a list of missionaries looking for people to send letters to, PM me, I know many -- no donation to me or them required.
  
• Decide where you want to go. For help here, read 'Before you go', by Hempfling and 'Just do Something' by DeYoung.' Both are short, 100ish page books. If you only read one, I prefer Just Do Something. Some like Africa, others prefer Central/South America. Some want risky and opt for some Christianity-prohibited regions in Asia (or wherever). Personally, I'm finding I prefer the Eastern Europe region, but I haven't yet been to Asia.
  
• Decide what you want to do. Not "I want to build 3 houses for orphans turned widows now supporting ex-military kids" type of decision, but Medical vs Construction vs Language vs Social work.
  
• Ask the missionaries that are now sending you letters if there are teams coming to help them, or if you can do a mid-term trip to help them. They're the ones that know how you're going to best further the Gospel by your service, they're on the ground doing the work day in and day out.
  
• If you must, Scour google. Unfortunately, missions organizations aren't usually known for their web presence. Its far easier to find teams going where you want if you can first get ahold of a missionary that is already there, but sometimes its just difficult to do that.
  
  Edit: Link formatting, Hipmunk link.
  Bottom line - Get out there and do it, because way too many people just let it slide by and always think, "I should have XXX." Your personal Faith will be better off for going. The people you serve, including the missionary, will have a new house, less dental problems, better english skills, or whatever and, hopefully, will see Jesus in your heart of service.
  
  If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM directly.
  
  Yay missions!

The book I always recommend people start out with is Sophie's World, not because it's the most in-depth, but because it's the most accessible for a newcomer. It's also the most entertaining I've read. If you want something more in-depth, Russell's History of Western Philosophy is generally this subreddit's big recommendation, although I personally wouldn't say it's a great starting point. His reading of some thinkers is not great, and he's not quite as good at dumbing down certain ideas to an introductory level.

A good summary of philosophy will help you for a couple reasons. One, it will give you enough information to find out what thinkers and ideas interest you. If you're interested in a particular question or thinker, then that's obviously where you should go. Philosophy of religion? Logic? Aesthetics and art? Language? There's plenty written on all these topics, but it can be a bit overwhelming to try and just attack all of philosophy at once. Like any other field, there will be parts of it that click with you, and parts that don't really seem all that appealing. Find your niche, and pursue it. In addition to giving you an idea of where to go, a good overview will put ideas in context. Understanding Augustine and Aquinas will make more sense if you know that they're working with a foundation of the Greek thought of Plato and Aristotle. Descartes wrote his meditations during the enlightenment, and was a major contributor to much of the emphasis on reason that defined that era. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard's existentialist ideas become more powerful when you realize they're critiquing and challenging the technicality of Kant and Hegel. Ideas don't exist in a vacuum, and while you can't be expected to know all the details of everything, your niche area of interest will make more sense if you understand it's context.

As for easier texts that I'd recommend trying out (once you find an area of interest), here's a few that are pretty important and also fairly accessible. These are texts that are generally read by all philosophy students, due to their importance, but if you're just into this for personal interest, you can pick and choose a bit. Still, these are important works, so they'll be very good to read anyways.

Plato - Apology: not terribly dense, but an accessible text in which Socrates basically defends his pursuing philosophical thought. I'd recommend this as an accessible introduction that will get you to feel like philosophy matters; think of it as pump-up music before a big game.

Plato - The Republic: this is arguably Plato's most important work. In it, he talks about the nature of men, politics, education and art.

Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics: a text that deals with leading a life in accordance with virtue. Aristotle's style is a bit dry and technical, but he's also very important.

Augustine - On Free Choice of the Will: a dialogue similar to Plato's in which Augustine argues that the existence of God does not conflict with man having free will.

Aquinas - Selected Excerpts: he wrote a lot, so you don't wanna try reading a whole one of his works. This selects his key ideas and puts them in bite-sized chunks. He's a big Christian thinker, arguing for the existence and goodness of God and related theological concepts.

Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy: Descartes uses reason to prove he exists, along with some other things. Pretty easy to read, although it sparked a revolution in thought, making epistemology a central problem of philosophy.

Kant - Grounding for Metaphysics of Morals: one of his easier works, but it's still one of the more technical works I'm recommending, in which Kant demonstrates that morals are a priori.

Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling: one of my favorite books, Kierkegaard writes about the nature of faith using the story of Abraham and Isaac as his starting point. A huge critic of Kant's obsession with pure reason, he is generally considered to be the first existential thinker.

Nietzsche - Beyond Good & Evil: Nietzsche is one of the more controversial thinkers in history. Also a critic of Kant, he is one of the most profound critics of religion. This book is one of his more important, in which he talks about his problems of religion, the culture around him, and at times points us in the direction he wants us to go. Know that he doesn't write in a terribly direct manner, so if you choose to read him, come here for assistance. He's a bit different to read, and can be challenging if you're not ready.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and having a good reference to help you along will be very helpful.

If you're looking for literary resources, first off I recommend a good study Bible. With scripture alone you can discover some incredible things, but we are fortunate that plenty of people smarter than we have gone through some of that effort for us. (I should mention that while I don't agree with all of John MacArthur's theology, I use this Bible and find many of his notes fascinating.)

Mere Christianity is a short and rich read by a great (albeit sometimes difficult to understand) author and you already have it, so certainly, you should read it. It boils many things down into easily digestible points.

Another resource I recommend is Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Think of it as Apologetics 101. It covers some basic Who, What, Where, When, and Whys of scripture and historical accuracies. Strobel has a franchise of books that similarly covers several topics for those looking for insight into Christianity (Creator, Faith, Resurrection, etc).

There are plenty more resources that I haven't personally read that you might want to look into. Here are some authors I would sugest learning more about: Francis Chan, Chuck Smith, Ray Comfort,

Additionally, you may find some interesting (and free0 resources online. Just like book authors, you should use discernment when pursuing authors as plenty of people take some crazy liberties with scripture, but I would recommend Blue Letter Bible and Reasons To Believe. The first has a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. It can even replace a study Bible if you wanted. As I use it, I read scripture and then expand the tools to 1) understand the original Hebrew or Greek words at a glance, and listen to or read commentaries by a number of people. The second link (Reasons) has been an interesting place to investigate more modern questions I have regarding science and faith. It's mostly a resource for specific questions, but I've read some really thought provoking things there. Again, please use care not to take anyone's opinion whole (my own included!) and pursue truth and what is right and good.

Lastly, I recommend you pray. If you're seeking God, then talk to Him. Ask Him to help. Keep an open mind and expect to be challenged and surprised along the way! I pray something mentioned above helps someone, somewhere in some way.

EDIT: I also wanted to mention Gary Habermas whom I've seen speak and whose work I've read some of. His expertise is apologetics and he identifies some great points. :)

There is a person in the Bible who says to Jesus, "I believe. Help my unbelief!" (you can find that story and the context of the phrase in Mark chapter 9). I always thought that was a profound sentiment, and it's a phrase I think about whenever I experience doubts.

I would say that most or all Catholics probably experience doubts about the faith at some point in their lives. I wouldn't let concerns about whether you could believe in God hold you back from Catholicism if you really thought you wanted to join the Church.

There is a somewhat famous Catholic, Blaise Pascal, who even said that unbelievers should basically "fake it till they make it"; they should basically try living as a faithful Catholic and see what it does to them and their thoughts. He thought that if someone regularly went to Church and tried praying to God, that they might start to feel a connection with God, and that would make it easier to believe, and that they might actually start believing it all. After all, why should we expect someone to believe in God and find it convincing if they never give it a shot? The only other way to acquire any amount of belief at all, that I can think of, would be through some kind of convincing argument.

I think that idea from Pascal makes sense. If God really does exist, then it would make sense that trying to reach out to God in some way would probably do something. God has not promised everyone a miraculous sign or proof of His existence, but you also never know how God will choose to react to people's prayers and inquiries. All you can do is try and not expect too much since we know that even for the best Catholic saints in history, a lot of them only got vague visions at best (edit: after thinking about this more, I realize in the bible it does say to pray expectantly. so maybe "don't expect much" is wrong, too. i still need to understand all this stuff better myself, it seems). I am Catholic and I can say I've never even experienced anything like that. I pretty much believe because I have studied some Catholic apologetics and I was convinced by the arguments, but also because I was raised Catholic and I have practiced the religion for a while now, and I have sometimes felt a connection to God in a kind of esoteric or abstract way. I think more proof about this stuff would be great. But we are not entitled to proof.

Maybe apologetics would help you to believe. Since you studied science, maybe those kinds of logical arguments would help you. There are plenty of options. One option that comes to my mind is this book by Ed Feser. I know a lot of people here like Peter Kreeft; I did a quick search on Amazon and found this book by him. I know Kreeft has talked about the beauty of Catholicism before so maybe his writings will appeal to you. Some other names you could look into would be C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton.

I actually fell away from Catholicism for a bit in my college days, and came back through Protestantism and some Protestant philosophers. I was very influenced by William Lane Craig, who has a lot of great apologetics works. You could check out writings and podcasts on his website or one of these two books: 1, 2.

I probably don't have any good advice to offer about the situation with your boyfriend. I have very little relationship experience myself. Maybe if one day you do really get into Catholicism, and learn more about it, you could debate theology with him and see if you can convert him. I think that Church history is a good way to try to convert people. In my experience, a lot of Protestants never even think about the fact that the Catholic Church claims to be the Church established by Christ, and that the Bishops today have been ordained by previous Bishops, going all the way back to the original disciples of Christ through a process known as Apostolic Succession. In addition to stuff like that, there is also the fact that the transubstantiation of the Eucharist is a concept that existed in the very early Church as well, and the Catholic Church is the only Christian Church which has preserved this tradition.

I ended up writing a novel too. Anyway, good luck to you. Feel free to reply and ask questions if you want any more info from me. I was happy to read your story.

I think it really depends on what you want to get out of reading it. I think pretty much everything people have suggested could be/is a good choice, but interestingly they are all going to give you a very different impression of Buddhism.

What the Buddha Taught is simple but dry. Imo, doesn't convey much of the "spirit" of buddhism, but it does get the ideas across pretty directly. When I was about 18 I read this... it was pretty confusing at the time, being one of the first things I read on the subject.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a classic and also written in short essays, iirc. However that's from (obviously) a Zen perspective. It's going to have some pretty different things to say about Buddhism than Walpola's book. Also, Zen can be rather enigmatic. So don't expect any kind of direct explanation if you go that route.

Awakening the Buddha Within might be a pretty good choice. Das is good for a mainstream audience. He's light and fun to read, but also gives a lot of good information on the subject.

Siddhartha is probably the suggestion I like the most. It's literature, but also pretty short, and quite interesting. I think it probably is going to give you the best idea of what Buddhism is "about."

I would also throw out there a personal favorite, [The World is Made of Stories by David Loy] (http://www.amazon.com/World-Made-Stories-David-Loy/dp/0861716159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323643538&sr=8-1). This book makes for some very light reading and it's fun, but also very profound, imo. It's totally anecdotal, in that the whole thing is a collection of unrelated quotes strung together to convey a concept. However, don't expect any real talk about Buddhism. It really is just quotes.

Another thing that I think is worth mentioning, and might be a good choice, depending on your mentality is [Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor] (http://www.amazon.com/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527071/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323643708&sr=1-1). This book probably isn't for most people. For one thing its very polemic! And I don't necessarily agree with his ideas about the "historical Buddha" (a pretty lame concept in general, if you ask me) but reading this would definitely give you a good idea of how the western mind deals with some of the less appealing aspects of eastern thought. I think it can also show you what is at the core of Buddhism, what makes it worth translating into another culture.

Anyway, hope that helps!

Hey, I've been there before. It's not as worrisome as you think it is. A church (or christian) interact with God mainly in 3 different ways: fellowship, study, and worship.

For fellowship, you should probably look for a spiritual father or family for yourself. This is a individual or group who you come to about christian matters, but specifically it is better to find someone to be a father figure in Christ. Someone who can not only show you how to work him into whatever stage of life, but also to show you how to grow closer to God.

For studying, set aside time to read bible and grab any christian book you can find! Right now I have around 30 book ranging from The Shack to The Prophet's dictionary. From reading, i discovered my spiritual gifts, and how to receive words of knowledge from him. I put some suggested books at the bottom.

Also worship, its about just showing him the joy of being with him in the way you find best. Like during worship in church, some people lift there hands and in more liberal churches they wave banners and dance and laugh. But also worship is a lot more than that, you can show worship through the things you do, through sports, writing, wood work, metal work, or whatever you want, even the work you do at your job. Just by thinking or meditating on the things of God while doing something, we worship.

Wild at Heart by John Eldridge, which is about calling out the masculine soul of a man. He talks about the importance of a father, healing wounds from our fathers, and seeing God as our father. I cried over soemthing i read in that book many times, also i was able revive the relationship with my Dad. And later after reading this one try Captivating which is for girls, but it shows a lot about who a girl is.

The Supernatural ways of Royalty by Kris Vallotton is an awesome book! Its about bringing us out of being orphans and seeing that we are sons and daughter of God. Though it might be better so start with When Heaven Invades Earth b Bill Johnson. Both authors are from the same church, so they have the same mentality and this book will blow your socks off.

The Final Quest by Rick Joyner. This book is a compile of visions this guy had. It paints a really interesting picture of spiritual warfare and dynamics of the spiritual world. I thought of the part in this book when he is on the mountain when i read your post.

The Shack by William Young. This book is fiction, but it paints a wonderful picture. Now, some will say this is a bad book because some details the author uses isn't bilbical exactly. But that aside it shows how far God would go to show just one person how much he loves them.

There’s a lot of good responses here already but I wanted to offer some resources and ideas that have helped me.
First of all, despite what the new atheists say, you don’t need faith to believe in God, which is why there are so many deists in academia. The weight of the scientific evidence alone is enough to conclude that there must be some kind of intelligence behind reality. This includes the fine-tuning argument, a variation of which convinced Antony Flew, a life long atheist academic and strong critic of religion to change his mind about God and embrace deism, and quantum mechanics, which doesn’t prove God’s existence but rather undermines materialist assumptions about the fundamental nature of reality. These findings have convinced others in the scientific community such as lifelong atheist, Richard Conn Henry, a professor of theoretical physics at MIT to embrace deism.
So just based on what’s happening with physics, it’s reasonable to believe that there’s some kind of intelligence behind reality. However, this in no way proves the existence of the God of the Bible.
To support the Christian view of God you can look at the evidence for the reliability of New Testament accounts. This is where faith comes in. You have to decide whether or not you believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Obviously, there isn’t a scientific way to definitively prove whether or not an historical event happened. But if you want support for the idea that miracles happen and are relatively common, even today, I’d recommend Craig S Keeners magisterial 2 volume work “Miracles” which details hundreds of modern day miracle accounts.

Other reading:
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard who was a professor of philosophy for many years at USC, helped me to understand my faith at a deeper level, which has helped immensely. It turns out it’s much easier to believe in something when it actually makes sense to you.

On Guard by William Lane Craig explains many of the logical proofs that other commenters have offered here, which are great but can be really difficult to understand without spending a good amount of time with them.

Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart: Hart is a leading Orthodox theologian and philosopher who spends a lot of time talking about the logical incoherence of materialism. All his stuff is great but it’s difficult.

This is just a small sample of what’s out there in terms of apologetics but it’s a start. There’s enough that you could spend your entire life reading compelling arguments for the God’s existence. However, the most effective way to strengthen your faith, in my opinion, is to see how effective the teachings of Jesus are for yourself, to ACTUALLY DO what he says and see how it transforms your life first hand. This is how you make your faith unshakable. Nothing beats personal experience.

Do you want the intentionally vague and obscure answer that most people want when they ask about existentialism? "It may be true that there is no ultimate purpose to life. But that is irrelevant either way since it is fundamentally unknowable."

The big idea is to seek out your own purpose, to find something bigger than yourself and devote yourself to it. Whether that something is an established thing like a religion, or if it is something like bringing vaccines to areas of the world without them, BOTH of those options are pretty big ideas. Can't find an already existing idea that is big enough? I guess you'll just have to create something.

>There's nothing bigger than myself to dictate my actions, and I haven't found anything that really ignites my passions.

That just kills me. Nothing? Really? There's NOTHING bigger than yourself? I'm not sure how much of an ego you've got on you, but it sounds like you have no problem finding a passion. It is just a selfish ambition that ignores that there are other people to be concerned about. If you REALLY think that there is NOTHING bigger than yourself out there, and there are no other people to be concerned about, no other events to get involved with, then existentialism and philosophy as a whole would like you to kindly remove your head from your hindquarters.

Is the study of philosophy not big enough? Or do you already encompass it? Is writing a novel something too easy for you that you can bang one out with no troubles?

You could devote yourself to becoming the Ubermensch, but why? You still need to answer the question for yourself "why bother?" What makes that your ideal goal instead of the Knight of Faith? Why become either when you can merely float along and exist? It would certainly be easier.

Why are you assuming that the bigger thing would have to dictate your actions? They can influence, or guide you, but you can also influence the ideas and help form them. Some big ideas are SO formless that they don't seem like a coherent thought at all. You could jump in and help clean them up.

I generally don't recommend reading existentialist texts. Especially to help find a purpose. I'm sure there is some great stuff out there, but it also helps give philosophy a bad name. Read someKant and devote yourself to being abel to understand what the hell he was trying to say in this. If you absolutely MUST read existentialism, read Kierkegaard or something. I don't know. Existentialism is one area that I just steered clear of because everything I read in there just sounded like a lot of angsty teenagers.

Your examples aren't really drawing a clear picture.

> My car is pretty dirty, so I should probably for 30 minuts or so take up the cause of cleaning it. But why bother if I don't really care?

You ought to bother because if you live anywhere that puts salt on the roads, regular cleaning will help maintain your car better. Also, if you ever go to pick someone up, it is SUPER nice to be able to get in and out of a person's car without getting the bottoms of your pants dirty.

>I could make a point to really try and be the best man I could by working out and dressing nice, etc. But I just don't care enough. So what if I'm skinny as hell and just wear jeans and a tee-shirt everywhere?

Working out and dressing nice makes EVERYTHING a lot easier. Until you do it, you have no idea how much easier it is to move around, open heavy doors, carry groceries, breathe, etc. And dressing nice makes people want to talk to you more. If your T actually fits and goes with your pants and is maybe even clean, that goes a LONG way to making you more approachable. And once someone approaches you, then suddenly you get to talk to them about philosophy!

So it isn't really about YOU at all. A good chunk of what we do, including philosophy, is to make you a more complete citizen. And there is never a city with only 1 citizen. You need to make a bigger choice of whether it is a society you want to be part of, or not. If not, are you going to devote yourself to changing it, or are are you going to turn tail and remove yourself from it?

If you are praying Morning, Evening, and/or Night Prayer, I'd recommend you starting with Shorter Christian Prayer. It's the one I started with before moving on to [Christian Prayer](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0899424066].

The St Joseph Guide to Christian Prayer is very helpful in navigating this book (note that there is no St Joseph Guide for SCP).

Christian Prayer gives you room to learn how to more fully pray the Hours. You'll also be able to pray a one-week psalter for Daytime Prayer. There's also a four-week psalter for the Office of Readings, but the 1st and 2nd readings are just a selection (I use iBreviary for the OR). You'll also learn how to use the ribbons and learn how to flip around the book. Not too hard to learn, but it takes patience and experience to learn how to get through certain seasons (such as the period between Christmas and Ephiphany -- though the St Joseph Guide helps a lot).

There is, of course, the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours, but I wouldn't recommend that for beginners. I've been praying the Hours on-and-off again for about fifteen years and I still don't have a copy of it; I'll probably get one when the revisions are done sometime around/after 2020. I use Christian Prayer for MP, EP, and NP and iBreviary for everything else (Office of Readings, Daytime Prayer -- though I recently acquired a standalone book for Daytime Prayer that has the 4-week psalter).

Praying the Hours through an app is great. iBreviary is excellent and free and super easy to use.

For more about the Hours, I'll recommend three books: Daria Sockey's Everyday Catholic's Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, which is a nuts and bolts approach to it (her blog Coffee and Canticles is good reading); Fr Timothy Gallagher's Praying The Liturgy of the Hours: A Personal Journey, which is a great testament to the power of this prayer; John Brook's The School of Prayer: An Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians, which is a bit of nuts and bolts but with a commentary on all the psalms and canticles of MP, EP, and NP -- it also deals with the spirituality of the Hours and more topics.

Note that my recommendations are assuming that you are attending the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The Mass is the jewel, and the Hours are its setting. If you go to the EF, you'll probably want to get the older form of the Hours, which I don't have a clue about.

EDIT: link

tldr The Bible writers always expressed the eternal heaven and earth will be concrete/material/earthly etc. The doctrine of resurrection means the old human bodies that will be resurrected will get replaced with perfect concrete bodies, these bodies need to live somewhere and since concrete bodes must live in a concrete context and God says Christians will be in Heaven forever it follows that eternal Heaven and earth is concrete

---

Some key scriptures

Mark 10 [biblehub.com] Matthew 19 [biblehub.com], hundredfold>
>29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life

John 14 [biblehub.com], dwelling places>
>2 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you

Revelation 21-22 [biblehub.com], is filled with material descriptions of the New Earth primarily focused on a city called New Jerusalem and God coming down to earth>


>1Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God

1 Corinthians 15 [biblehub.com], immortal bodies>
>53For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality

Romans 6 [biblehub.com], resurrection>
>5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his

Romans 8 [biblehub.com], resurrection body>
>23...but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies

In my understanding there are two reasons why the eternal Heaven and eternal earth will be material/earthly.One, the language used in the bible. Two, the definition of resurrection

---

I've drawn these points from Heaven [amazon.com] by Randy Alcorn [en.wikipedia.org] and the Bible of course

language

Throughout the bible and especially in the New Testament, Jesus and his followers continually describe the eternal Heaven and earth with material concrete language while they hardly attempt at describing them in ethereal spiritualized terms. Jesus says he's preparing many rooms for his disciples and that his followers will receive land and families in eternal life (see above verses). Also, The language in Revelation is emphatic in describing the eternal Heaven and earth as concrete places. The writer describes Heaven coming down to earth and God dwelling on the earth with people. (many bible academics will tell you the technical meaning of Heaven is God's dwelling place, or God's throne. So, if God's throne is on earth then this means that Heaven is on earth because God's throne is the definition of Heaven). Indeed, if you read the Bible without any secular influence it is clear the writers are anticipating an eternal state that is material concrete and earthly, yes this includes Heaven. You must "read into" the Bible to believe the new Heavens and New Earth aren't concrete or material

resurrection

The doctrine of resurrection is essential to understanding our eternal state. Our resurrection is a central theme in the Bible, topical bible entry [biblehub.com]. Christians are constantly told we are to be raised from the dead in resurrection and that our bodies will be resurrected in glory, that we will be resurrected just as Jesus was and that we will be like Jesus.

So, what is resurrection? Here's googles definitions [google.com]

> - restore (a dead person) to life
> - revive the practice, use, or memory of (something); bring new vigor to

Resurrection has to do with restoring things, to bring them back to original form or a better form. In the case of Jesus he died in a body and since his body was resurrected Jesus returned in a body, the old body was restored/resurrected to a new body. If Jesus was "resurrected" without a body would this be called resurrection? No, just by the definition resurrection means his body would have been restored to another one. So if Jesus was resurrected without a body then he was in fact NOT resurrected because there was NO body

Since Christians have been promised many times that we are going to be resurrected just as Jesus was then we can anticipate we will have concrete bodies and we will live in these bodies forever. Since we have concrete bodies it follows they need a concrete place to live, we call this place earth which can also mean the universe (concrete bodies in a spiritual realm cannot exist and cannot make sense). And since these concrete bodies will live forever the universe will also live forever, and since Heaven/God's home is coming down to the New Earth then Heaven will quite literally be on earth FOREVER

misconceptions

• There is only one Heaven, but it exists in two states. First, Heaven is in some temporary state at the moment and will not change until the resurrection of the dead (it's kinda funky and we don't really know if it's concrete or not), I'm calling this temporary Heaven (some say this is Sheol, but I haven't deeply researched this and can't really comment on it). Secondly, Heaven will come down to earth after the resurrection of the dead, this is Heaven's eternal state and I'm calling it eternal Heaven
  
• People get confused when Christians "go to Heaven" but then we also say Heaven will be concrete. Clarification> at the moment Christians go to Temporary Heaven but eventually they will go to the concrete Heaven. Temporary Heaven and eternal Heaven are not the same. If we separate the two we should clear the confusion

You have reached the very foundational elements of the faith that are a very large part of why I am a christian, or at least remained a christian once i sought out what the bible had to say about these exact questions.

So philosophically or more so existentially, the truth of why or what it all means has to be an open playing field so to speak. Fatalism, Nihilism or forms of Pessimistic thought have some implications that seem unpleasant or off putting to some, but ultimately hold water within their own logical frame work. Just because an idea is initially off putting does not make it wrong. The difference between those schools of thought vs. Christianity is that they are not built on a foundation upward, but rather a foundation is kind of the conclusion drawn out from an evolving argument. Christianity has a much higher burden in terms of it's foundational consistency.

Instead of being the product of reasoning, Christianity is a product of ancient documents ranging in literary style from history, poetry, theology, personal letters, and prophesy. Out of those documents a cohesive understanding of the universe and the existential impact of that understanding form the religion. That means the documents have to be the source and need to have not changed over the years to support new philosophies. (at least if you're rational)

So if Christianity is true, then the best way to test it would be to examine the most accurate understanding of these ancient manuscripts alone. That's everything from fields of archeology, historical and textual criticism to (what we are touching on in this thread) doctrinal and theological cohesiveness. Do these ancient manuscripts actually form a cohesive philosophy, without the aid of reasoning from a foundation outside of the documents? Also the documents examined have to be the most original copies of these documents along with the most accurate understanding of the way the original authors and readers would have understood them?


It's no easy task and definitely not something to exhaust on reedit. I hope i've given you a better understanding of some deep theological ramifications of biblical christianity and the kind of philosophical impact they have on hypothetical questions. I will now answer your questions, and the answers will no doubt seem trite and unhelpful. But i think i've reached the end of what i can say to a stranger on the internet, having no clue what background you have in biblical study and no idea where to start:

>So the point of Christianity is to glorify God? And if you fail to do this you suffer in hell for an eternity? This seems like a rather conceited concept does it not?

yes it does seem like that within the framework of human interaction and affections. So the way this idea works is not something to understand within the framework of human interaction and affections. God is not human and so again, it's an open playing field. The question is, does the answers the bible gives make any sense?

>So god is willing to punish those who have absolutely no control over whether they survive long enough to reach an age where they could even possibly understand Christianity? Or do you mean he will only punish the babies that would have never become christian?

I have no idea if either of those are true but the plausibility that they remotely could be is built off the theology (a study of the nature and character of god) in the bible. The biblical documents do not flinch in their explanations of seemingly paradoxical ideas. Paradoxical ideas crop up everywhere in the search for understanding meaning, morals, or truth in reality, it's up to you to judge what you think about the answers the bible gives.

>So god is responsible for saving you from a punishment he himself created? The way you depict it makes it sound like what you do is irrelevant in regards to being saved, by this reasoning, is there even a point to try and do ethical actions, since regardless of what you do, you are already saved or damned.

I can defiantly say "trying to do ethical actions" has nothing to do with being saved or dammed. And as far as the seeming paradox of god creating the punishment (what exactly this punishment is is debated between christians) that he himself saves you from? The ultimate purpose is that he gets more glory if he did it this way then just created beings already perfect and ready for eternity with him.





_

Some book ideas about what I talking about.

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist answers how God's Glory works for our benefit from the bible.

The Reason for God answers some of the seemingly off-puting or paradoxical ramifications of biblical theology.

Thank you for giving me some insight into your story and background. And I definitely do understand the concern regarding emotionalism as a basis for truth. I agree with you wholeheartedly - at the end of the day, emotion is a terrible standard by which we judge truth.

There are several intellectual and reasoned arguments for the faith. Jesus Christ was a real man. Several hundred eyewitnesses saw Him risen from the dead. There are excellent resources out there that address the historical facts and claims of Jesus. For example:

• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
  
  
• Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
  
  However, as a former Mormon, I'm sure you are aware of these resources and arguments.
  
  At the end of the day however, salvation in Jesus isn't found in intellectual arguments. It's not found in reasoning and logical deduction. It is found in a personal relationship with a living and breathing God.
  
  I know as a fact that Jesus is real and Jesus is God. I don't say this based purely on logic. I say it based on my experience. I have personally witnessed unquestionable miracles at the name of Jesus. I have seen incurable medical conditions disappear immediately at the name of Jesus. I have witnessed dead limbs come to life during prayer in the name of Jesus. I have trusted in God's Word which says things like "God will provide for all of your needs" in times when I had no money in the bank account - and God worked miracle after miracle. In one situation, I calculated that I would run out of money in one month but said, "God I trust you". And literally that second I received an email. My university sent me an email saying, "we billed you incorrectly - here's $1,100".
  
  I understand the skepticism to this type of personal experience. Even many Christians doubt that God is real and knowable in an experiential way. But don't take my word for it - here is a medically documented case study in which 24 deaf and blind people were healed immediately during prayer. These are medical doctors and PhD researchers doing scientific studies to see if this is true: it is. It's dense academic writing, but the bottom line is that at the name of Jesus the deaf are hearing and the blind are seeing.
  
  So my challenge remains. I have never once seen God not be faithful to His Word. I have never seen a bridge that Jesus won't cross to bring His children home. Jesus loves you. Jesus wants you to accept His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave as your only hope for salvation. Jesus wants to speak to you right now and give you a life of adventure. I think a really good place to start is this: are you open to Jesus appearing to you in a dream, vision, or very strong impression and telling you that He is the only way? Do you believe that if Jesus is God, then He can do this? A simple prayer to God like this can express your openness:
  
  "God, I really want to know You. Jesus, if You are God, please show me. I am open to whatever way You want to speak. If you're real, I must know. If you're God, I must know."
  
  I know of a Muslim man who prayed this prayer for 3 days straight while fasting. At the end of the 3 days he came to my missionary contact and said that Jesus appeared to him. My contact asked the Muslim what Jesus was like. And the Muslim began describing Jesus straight from the Bible: "He is the image of the invisible God. It was like I was seeing the exact representation of His being!" So this stuff is real - the only question is: How open and hungry are you?

1. God loves you unconditionally and gives more grace than we could ever deserve.
   
2. You aren't alone. I felt this exact way when I found out I was attracted to guys when I first started college.
   
3. Don't give into pressure to choose one side or the other right away or even soon. This is a process of learning and growth and it probably sucks right now, but lean into the tension. Coming out / being 100% confident of your sexuality really soon is something that is, in my opinion, overhyped. Take your time.
   
4. I don't know how much research you have done yet, but I would recuse yourself from your currently held position and take a stance of neutrality. It's important as a Christian to figure out why you believe what you believe. This can be hard to do, but see what the Side A (Affirming) crowd's arguments and experiences are. Take notes. Understand why they genuinely believe that they are not acting against God. See how and why they counter their opponents' arguments. Once you have fully done that (and by fully I mean take your time and do it for a few months), then look up the non-affirming (Side B, Y, and X) positions and do the same. Even if this doesn't help you come to a conclusion right away, this still is a healthy practice of understanding the why behind the what.
   
5. This process of testing the foundations of your beliefs is/should probably extend to issues beyond LGBT inclusion in the church. One main pillar behind any LGBT/church argument is a stance on if Scripture is inerrant or not / what does it mean for something to be "inspired by God" / Should we hold to the same values as people 2,000 years ago (we've already expanded / moved on some from that)?
   
6. Remember to take breaks from this. Be diligent, but don't let this pursuit of the truth consume you.
   
7. Find non-judgmental friends who won't try to preach at you and can support you in your time of discernment and beyond.
   
   If you would like to PM me and ask more questions, I'm always happy to help people who were where I was 4 years ago.
   
   ​
   
   Here are a few good Affirming (A) resources to start out with:
   
   Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-VS-Christians Debate by Justin Lee (A)
   
   God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines (A)
   
   Modern Kinship by David and Constantino Khalaf (A)
   
   Blue Babies Pink by Brett Trapp / B.T. Harmann (A)
   
   Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex Relationships by James Brownson (A)
   
   Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation by Dale Martin (A)
   
   Risking Grace, Loving Our Gay Family and Friends Like Jesus by Dave Jackson (A)
   
   ​
   
   I'm compiling a list of other good resources / bad ones (from all perspectives, not just ones I disagree with), so let me know if you're looking for something more specific.

It took me quite some time before I shared with my wife, and it was a few months after that before we shared together with our children. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. The best advice I was given was to "just be Jesus to her." Even before that advice my wife later said she had noticed a positive change in me. She could tell something happened for the better and yet at the same time wondered if I was detaching myself from TSCC.

Take this time to study and have a replacement ready so when you do talk with your family they're not just left hanging and without direction.I've been where you are. My search for the existence or non-existence of God consumed me and lasted for years as I had no one to initially guide my efforts. I would not be duped again! As a result I am now chasing a PhD in philosophy of religion. Philosophy of religion and philosophical theology are two academic disciplines that utilize the philosophical method for examining the evidence for God and examining the truth chains of religion. Top universities throughout the world have departments that specialize in it. After years of study, I have come down on the side for the existence of God. Our family is now a part of Protestant Christianity, although not tied to one denomination.

Below are some good sources for beginning. Reasonable Faith is a great website with lots of information, I would take some time looking through it. It also has a podcast titled "Defenders" under "Media" that will really begin to ground you in a mature understanding of the topic. "On Guard" is an excellent book to get you started as well. Try not to get caught up in the cynicism that plagues so many of us who have left the TSCC. Healthy skepticism is ok. It merely says that you want sufficient reason to believe something is true or more plausible than not. Cynicism on the other hand is a bitter and unhealthy hyper-skepticism that is shut off to further examination.

I hope everything goes great for you. If there is anything further I can do or any questions you have please don't hesitate to ask.

Al my best, There's success on the other side of this.

https://www.reasonablefaith.org

https://www.amazon.com/Guard-Students-Thinkers-Guide-Christian-ebook/dp/B00U894IGA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520306101&sr=8-3&keywords=on+guard+william+lane+craig

https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-Lewis-Signature-Classics-ebook/dp/B002BD2UR0/ref=pd_ybh_a_13?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ET4M1H0BNR1J0S4RA6ZW

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Religion-Basics-Jargon-Free-Beginners-ebook/dp/B0088DXG2A/ref=pd_ybh_a_19?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ET4M1H0BNR1J0S4RA6ZW

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Religion-Anthology-Louis-Pojman/dp/1111305447/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1520385625&sr=8-22&keywords=Philosophy+of+religion

Jesus ascended into heaven in a glorified body. When he rose from the grave, he looked different. Some suspected he was a ghost (i.e. purely spiritual), but he made clear that he was not a spirit. He was phyiscal, and yet he did not have an earthly body but a heavenly resurrected body.

The bible clearly tells us that we will one day join him and be given similar bodies:

"The Lord Jesus Christ... will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians 3:20-21)

"As just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bare the likeness of the man from heaven". (1 Cor 15:49)

Therefore the type of things Jesus was able to do after his resurrection are things we can expect to do in heaven (e.g. eat, talk, walk). When he ascended, he did not materialize into some ghost like spirit, but kept his physical resurrected body. Just as Jesus ate on earth, we are promised to eat and drink in heaven. Do not be tempted to think of Heaven as completely spiritual and void of all matter. It is in many ways a physical place with physical bodies, physical food and physical houses.

If you are interested in further study, I highly recommend:
Heaven - Randy Alcorn
It smashes many of the myths that Christians (and thus popular culture) have developed over the centuries regarding heaven by examining the bible over traditional stories.

> I want to start going again, but dealing with his anti Catholicism and New Atheist Facebook posts, etc as a practicing Catholic just sounds emotionally exhausting. Plus I'd have to attend church alone with our toddler, who tries to make a break for the altar every time she's set loose.

Going to mass without your husband is better than not going at all. Moreover, other people should not inhibit your ability to practice the Faith. Concerning the New Atheist Facebook posts, if your husband finds that kind of material even remotely convincing, I would recommend he read Edward Feser's The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.

> Then I start wondering what the point even is because she will probably just end up being an atheist because of his example.

Set a better example than your husband and make an effort to show your child that there are good reasons to be a Catholic. Read and study apologetic books like William Lane Craig's On Guard and/or Trent Horn's Why We're Catholic: Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love so that you are better equipped to defend the Faith. When your daughter is old enough, she can read these books and other apologetics books for herself. Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea for your husband to read these same books. Although, William Lane Craig's On Guard for Students was written specifically for non-Christians; so it might be a better option than On Guard, which is intended for Christians.

> You can only pray for the same thing over and over so many times with no change before it starts feeling hopeless.

Keep praying. If you are not already doing so, pray the Rosary. Even if God is not granting you the request(s) made in your prayers, know that there is a good reason for doing so. The reason(s) may never be known during your time on earth, but do not allow this to damage your relationship with God.

> The prospect of returning just feels so lonely. Our parish is huge and no one ever says a word to me. Does anyone have any advice or encouragement?

Many parishes have bible studies or meetups of some kind that would give you the opportunity to meet other Catholics. It is better to feel lonely and do what is right than not feel lonely and fail to do what is right.

Maybe I'm crazy, but Simply Christian by N.T. Wright is, in my opinion, a beautifully composed book explaining the Christian faith. It's in the same vein as C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity in that Wright doesn't deal with anything denominational. He merely explains why we Christians have become so and the beauty of the beliefs that comprise the core of our faith.

Here's a link to it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Christian-Christianity-Makes-Sense/dp/0061920622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374349814&sr=8-1&keywords=simply+christian

It's a pretty short read, especially because the language and style are simple.

I hope that all works out for you and your girlfriend for the glory of God's Kingdom, man.

P.S. He also expounds on three different lenses through which to view God's relation to the world. The first two he is trying to refute, them being pantheism/panentheism and dualism. The third, which he propones as more accurate to the Christian/Judaic faiths, is that Heaven and Earth are not the same, as the pantheist might posit, or that they are completey separate (so says the dualist), but that they are somehow closely intertwined. Anyways, I like this book. You should check it out even for yourself.

Sorry to be harsh but it seams like you don't have an income problem but rather spending one. First, your car brings up red flags. Since you have 11k left on it, and it breaks down often and repairs are that much it leads me to believe that you drive a luxury car. Also your car is very inefficient, just to get you around GTA spending $200+/mo is something you can't afford. So what I'm saying right now, your car is your biggest preventer from your future financial freedom and you need to sell it like, yesterday! Yes I know you'll end up owing money on it, but it has to go! I cannot stress this enough.

Good news is that you can get out of this within 2-3 years, but it all depends on you! I went through the same situation, and guess what, I also made stupid decisions and also drove a car which basically ensured I stayed broke for manny years.

I'd recommend you do same things I did to get out of this:

• 1 - Make a budget and STICK TO IT (Remember, your future depends on this)
  
• 2 - Sell your car now and talk to your lender to see what they can do for you if anything.
  
• 3 - Look into getting a transit pass, or save up $1000 and buy a car that will get you to work and back (You need to forget about what people think about your car. Hint: most people don't give a shit what you drive)
  
• 4 - Save up at least $1000 for emergencies and keep it in your bank savings account, not invested. (Very important)
  
• 5 - Start your snowball repayment plan (I recommend you use this free spreadsheet, it's awesome! https://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html) Pay off smallest debt balance first then roll that money into next debt.
  
• 6 - Once you're debt free (you'll get there trust me, if you're committed) expand your emergency budget to about 6/mo of your monthly expenses.
  
• 7 - Only now you should start thinking about investing and retirement, and at this point you'll be so stoked, and hopefully not tempted to make stupid decisions again, you'll end up investing and saving more than 15%.
  
  It is a long road, it'll take you a few years, but it is VERY VERY doable. I've done it with similar parameters as you, and it feels great my friend. I'm now debt free, have a brand new house and I'm on the path to have it fully paid off within 8 years.
  
  Good luck, and remember, your future self depends on your younger self!
  
  Edit: I forgot to mention the book which really changed my mind and how I think about debt. It's by Dave Ramsay, look him up on Youtube, and buy his book, it's only $12 on digital. https://www.amazon.ca/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial-ebook/dp/B00DNBE8P6/ref=sr_1_2?gclid=Cj0KCQjwh6XmBRDRARIsAKNInDFqnTVZREntH0J2VwWYYj1adNKVIJ4WmK1iopd9iovz8Txo4bPADHoaAqB8EALw_wcB&hvadid=284818070799&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9000724&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=15846815893330762740&hvtargid=kwd-287159694&hydadcr=16957_10238107&keywords=dave+ramsey+baby+steps&qid=1556707872&s=gateway&sr=8-2
  
  Edit 2: Ok I just noticed that it's not a luxury car in your comments, but regardless you can't afford it right now.

First, I think it would be an excellent idea to contact your chaplain friend about what you are thinking. It starts with relationships, and you have one there ready-made to leverage.

Second, start perhaps just by "belonging" to a place. Find a Anglican community nearby and just start going. Then, DO something with them. If they have a ministry in the community somewhere, just pitch in. Belief is the work of a lifetime, and it is the consequence of relationships and doing... belief is the LAST thing to come... not the first. If that sounds a little strange, here's an article at my Parish's website titled "I've never even BEEN in a church..." that might clarify what I mean by this: http://www.stjamesnl.org/ I know that's not your particular case, but you ARE approaching faith for the first time as an adult... and it will seem like you are starting right from the beginning.

One of the exciting things I discovered in my own, very similar journey, was that God turns out to be "fractal", rich, and immensely interesting... so very different than the God I thought I understood as a child.

A book I would recommend for you is Simply Christian by NT Wright. Wright is the author of dozens of scholarly and popular books on Christianity (and is a CoE Bishop (ret)). His work is immanently readable. It may help you to frame things up. http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Christian-Christianity-Makes-Sense/dp/0061920622

Happy to help if I can...

Ron

I'm sort of similar to you. Except I was never a Christian before, I've recently taken up an interest and a desire to learn about it. So far, I've learned a LOT, and whereas before I would call myself probably an agnostic? Now I would say that I believe there is a creator, and that if that's true, it's probably also true that Jesus died and was resurrected..

Anyway, that's beside the point. What I was going to suggest is that reading the bible is great, and of course is the most important thing. But may I suggest some other things that I've read and watched alongside it that helped me understand? It really helps to listen to some arguments from historians, scientists, and people that have spent their lives researching these matters.

For me, I was very concerned about the historical reliability of things etc, such as when the gospels were written, who by. I'm a person that places value on evidence and really struggle to just "believe" things... I wish it wasn't so, but there you go.

Of course, I can only suggest things I've read and watched so far so admittedly this.

The Case for Christ. A journalist sets out to disprove Christianity by interviewing many well respected scholars, and ends up becoming a Christian. There's also a movie based on this which was very good.

More Than A Carpenter. This talks about the life and evidence for Jesus, as well as the reliability of the gospels.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict Admittedly I haven't read much of this yet, its the next one I'm going to tackle. It's quite a difficult read and has a LOT in it.

Cold Case Reliability of the Gospels. A video where a Cold Case detective discusses whether the gospels would stand up to the same scrutiny that he applies to cold cases. Very interesting if a bit long (I urge you to power through the beginning, I was a bit put off when he started talking about his daughter being a Marine).

Hugh Ross. If you have a more scientific mind and struggle to come to terms with Genesis and the Flood etc, Hugh Ross is a great man to watch. He's an astrophysicist that became a Christian, and has many scientific ways to back up whats stated in the bible. There's many videos of him.

From there, you could find many more sources and things to read. By reading Case for Christ, I've decided to read some of the books that are mentioned in it (although I'm still waiting on delivery). I bought a couple of Hugh Ross' books, although only one arrived yet and its very scientific and I don't think its quite what I need to read right now, I'm awaiting another one "The Creator and the Cosmos" and I'd love to read his "A Matter of Days" too which talks about the Genesis days. I also ordered This yesterday which I'm excited to read.

Sorry for the overly log post but I hope it helps. Also this is my first time putting hyperlinks on reddit so I really hope it works properly!

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but if you are looking for a good "intro to Buddhism" book that puts great emphasis on cultivating bodhichitta (the aspiration to attain enlightenment/buddhahood in order to best help infinitely many beings), then I can recommend 3 of my favorite books by the Dalai Lama, and one book by the famous 8th century Bodhisattva Shantideva:

• An Open Heart
  
• How to practice: the way to a meaningful life
  
• From Here to Enlightenment
  
• Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva
  
  I ordered the books from lightest to more dense reading. Shantideva's text is all poetry, I derive great inspiration from it but I admit that it may be somewhat difficult to read for someone less familiar with Mahayana Buddhism.

My most honest answer possible: Probably, but maybe not right now. It's going to take some planning and work on your part.

You will find that if you use other people's money to make a home purchase, whether it's grants towards downpayment or some sort of discount, there will be strings attached. You may find the terms not as desirable as you first thought. For example, you might find you can get a half price house, but only if you buy certain properties in less desirable neighborhoods.

While it's true that some lenders will let you buy with credit scores around 600, you will get a much better rate if you can get your score above about 680. While it's true that you might find programs to help you buy without having a bunch of money in the bank, you should probably count on having both a downpayment and closing costs saved up. While you might think you are "dumping all your money into an apartment," the fact is that the landlord is taking on risk you aren't, and will always send a guy to repair whatever breaks in a timely fashion without sending you a huge bill you have to put on your credit card.

So you might think about talking to a mortgage person just to see what's actually possible. But you also seriously need to head over to /r/personalfinance and get some tips to raise your credit scores, pay off your debt, and put together some savings. They may recommend a book like this.

Good luck.

Sartre presented a lecture called "Existentialism and Humanism," which can now be found in print as Existentialism is a Humanism. It's almost like an Existentialism manefesto, per se. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus is a good treatise on existentialism (Absurdism, really, but it'll do).

I would not hesitate to start reading fiction novels that have Existentialist themes. Camus' The Stranger, Sartre's Nausea, and Dostyevsky's Notes From the Underground are just a few that will find your studies well.

As for secondary literature, the only text I can knowledgeably recommend is Existentialism For Dummies, as I'm currently working my way through it. It's actually not as bad as you might think coming from the "For Dummies" series. It doesn't go too in-depth, and ideas are very concise and oftentimes humorous.

I have also heard good things about David Cogswell's Existentialism For Beginners, though I have never read it myself.

If your niece feels comfortable with this level of writing and philosophical examination, it is almost imperative to read Kierkegaard's Either/Or and Fear and Trembling, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, and Sartre's Being and Nothingness, among others. It is good to have some background understanding of Kant and perhaps have a few essays by Schopenhauer under your belt leading up to the more rigorous academics like Heidegger and Hegel.

Good luck, and happy reading!

Yes, all RUF pastors are ordained ministers with seminary training. I'm friends with a bunch of current and former RUF pastors as well as other staff members (interns, the intern coordinator, assistant to an area director, etc). RUF's an awesome ministry and I'm a little jealous they it wasn't on my campus when I was in college. I'm sure your meeting with the pastor will be fruitful.

As for your concerns. Yep. That happens. Spiritual disciplines are hard. Fortunately we serve a God who knows that. Jesus died for us knowing full well most of us were going to be forgetful, sluggish people who neglect what we've been taught a good portion of the time and don't like to or want to repent. The fact that this troubles you is good! It's evidence of the Holy Spirit working in your life!

So, how do you fix it? There are some ways to become better at spiritual disciplines. Set aside a specific time each day to read scripture and pray. Using a devotional/Bible study guide might help. It's okay to pray printed prayers (The Valley of Vision) is one good source). Being in fellowship with other believers and being intentional about your interactions, talking about spiritual matters, praying together, etc is also helpful. There are tons of strategies. But also remember that these things do not save you (Yes, you almost certainly already know this. But as people we're really good at forgetting things.) There's a good quote from a book by Dallas Willard; "Grace is opposed to earning, not effort."

I don't think the works are primarily a proof of our faith to ourselves but a witness of the authenticity of our faith, already known by us, to those around us. At least, that is what I think James is talking about.

Self-witness, I feel, comes from continuing acknowledgement of Biblical truths to your self, growing desire to obey God's commands, and continual turning away from sin.

I would also add that both the easy-believism and works-based crowds have a higher perceived assurance because they are both point towards actions the have take as opposed to actions God has taken. The Reformed position is indeed less straight-forward but that is because we reliant on God's mercy... and I honestly believe that the recognition of the full need for Jesus to be our righteousness to be very comforting to me personally.


I would recommend getting a copy of [The Valley of Vision*](https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Vision-Collection-Puritan-Devotions/dp/0851512283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523284721&sr=8-1&keywords=the+valley+of+vision) as this has been very helpful for my own assurance and encouragement.

Shingon and Zen are both practices that, in my opinion, benefit greatly from some preliminary understanding of Buddhism. There is a lot of info out there and you already have a great start with Suzuki. In my opinion, you'll want to get a feel for the Buddhist approach to inquiry, teaching, and the importance of spiritual friends. accesstoinsight.org has some fantastic material from the Theravada tradition, which (again in my opinion) serves as an excellent foundation for the Mahayana tradition if you so choose. I personally am Mahayana but learn so, so much from Theravada.

Inquiry: The Kalama Sutta

How to recognize the Dharma

The importance of spiritual friends

Access To Insight Study guides

If you feel you have a good handle on the basic concepts like the Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Noble Path, Stream Entrancy, etc., then Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva is a sublime text no matter what tradition you end up calling home. Good luck!

> I think I am scared of the idea of living forever, in which my mind is never at peace. I am a Christian and know that we will be glorifying God forever and adoring Him in the new heaven/new earth, but perhaps that just feels too vague or something.

I find that most people have a really weak understanding of Heaven. There really is a good amount from the Bible on what Heaven will be like. And on top of that, there is a considerable amount of speculation based on scripture, which can give us a pretty good picture of what we might expect in Heaven. Some of the problem is our limited imagination.

For one, you can know with 100% certainty that you will not be in a situation as a Christian where you live forever, but your mind is not at peace - one of the things granted to us in Heaven is peace and rest in Christ.

I second Heaven by Randy Alcorn.

He also has a fiction series that deals with some of those themes, too.

An introduction to Christian doctrine and what Christians believe is completely different than an introduction to the Bible.

For a free, online, scholarly introduction to the Bible I suggest OpenYale's courses on the New Testament and Hebrew Scriptures available here. Both Christine Hayes and Dale B. Martin are excellent. Biblical Literacy by Timothy Beal is an excellent accessible and mostly moderate[1] introduction to the the Bible for someone who's never read it before.

As far as both doctrine and the basis for doctrine go, that'll differ drastically from denomination to denomination. Most Protestant denominations claim that they believe in "sola scriptura" or "scripture alone", but perhaps the biggest blow to this statement may be the fact that you can't read the Bible and instantly divine everything there is to know about Protestants. Understanding the history of Protestantism is necessary. Even within the realm of Protestantism you'll find a diverse spectrum of beliefs. I personally have more in common theologically with some Muslims than I do with fundamentalist Protestant Christians.

Catholic and Orthodox traditions both explicitly state the importance of the church and church tradition, and so simply "understanding the Bible" won't get you very far there.

I'm tempted to offer Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright or the famous Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, but I cannot overstate the fact that even given their wide acceptance among the vast spectrum of Christian traditions, they are speaking out of a very particular perspective (they're both Anglican). A fair question, asked by Lamin Sanneh, is, "Whose religion is Christianity?" There are completely separate articulations of Christianity that have nothing to do with the Western culture it is so much associated with today. In his book he explores Christianity beyond the west. C.S. Song's book Jesus, the Crucified People: The Cross in the Lotus World covers specifically ways in which Christianity has risen across Asia.

I've got to run, but last I want to suggest Houston Smith's The World's Religions. He does a great job of highlighting the best of each of the world's major religious traditions.

__

[1] When people say "moderate" they don't mean "I believe in it moderately" but rather "In the spectrum from conservative to liberal interpretations of the Bible I fall somewhere in the middle".

Oh man.

Okay, so when I was younger, I went to a big church - and I mean a big church, like ~700-800 people each in two services when we started going, and that was when I was in fourth grade (it's probably at least four times that size now). There were... I want to say four youth pastors for about a hundred and fifty high schoolers and a similar number of middle schoolers.

Two of those pastors, one of whom I was very close with, started getting into some "radical" stuff by the time my freshman year rolled around - stuff like "what if Jesus actually meant all that stuff He said about selling your possessions and giving to the poor and bringing the Kingdom of Heaven down to earth?" Eventually they got bold enough to ask questions like whether the Gospel really stopped at the part about being born again so you could go to Heaven when you die - the problem being "that doesn't cover too much of life. The word 'Gospel' means 'good news,' and if that's the Gospel, that's not really good news, because it doesn't do anything for here."

And let me tell you, to this day I have never felt so alive, so excited by what the Bible had in store for my life and the lives of everyone around me than I was when I was learning about how Jesus' commands could actually be put into action, making a difference in the world around me - not just learning about how to increase my own sense of piety and self-righteousness.

Well, long story short, the leadership didn't like their take on things, and they were both let go. The one I was close with is involved with a Mennonite church in Chicago (a denomination I would strongly suggest you check out); not sure what ever became of the other one.

I really think you need to read a book by Shane Claiborne called The Irresistible Revolution. Haven't seen one person read that book and come away from it anything short of brilliantly excited. (I managed to find a very long interview with him on public radio that you can either read or listen to if you want; it gives a pretty good sense of who he is and what he's about).

Hope you can find a better church than the "churches" you've been to. Please do keep us updated on how your search progresses. :)

I know your questions were rhetorical but I'd like to get a bit of insight into this.

> Also there are a lot of stories in the bible that have been proven factually inaccurate. If it's wrong about those why would I trust it's stance on whether or not there's a god, or who it is?

The majority of Christians don't believe in the bible literally. Specifically, Catholics make up about 2/3s of Christians and they treat large sections of the Old Testament as allegorical, symbolic, etc... A typical example would be the story about Jonah and the Whale. How do you feel about that, and about those Christian denominations?

> And lastly, as a westerner I can easily dismiss all religions besides Christianity because they were never presented to me as fact. If they're obviously false, what makes Christianity special?

I'd like to answer this question and then have your reflections. Christianity is different from religions like Islam and Mormonism. In those religions the main vehicle for revelation comes from a man who is claiming that God speaks directly to (usually) him and he is just reporting it. For Christians, the main message is coming from a guy called Jesus who claims he IS God, and then does stuff to prove it. A pretty good analysis of this is presented by Lee Strobel in The Case for Christ. While this isn't peer review evidence, the author provides many other sources and further reading. There is ample evidence for establishing the historicity of the New Testament, both from inside and outside the bible. If we can find that Jesus didn't perform those miracles he reported then it is easy to say he lied about everything. But if there is evidence that they occurred, wouldn't that require more attention?

I would suggest two things:

1. Read. Read your bible. If Christ is true this is the way you will gain faith, just like it says in the NT faith comes from hearing the word. Also try reading some apologetics, an easy and quick one is "more than a carpenter" you can find it on amazon here.
   
   
2. Get out and actually do what Jesus would want you to. Go give money to homeless people, talk to them about life, show them you care. Go out of your way to do things that inconvenience you to help others. Actually doing what god wants is the only way to mature beyond simple faith.
   
   You can PM me if you want more book suggestions, some good ones are free on amazon if you have prime.

Infinite regress is a problem because you just keep pushing the problem one level further. Take for example, the World Turtle of Hinduism. The World rests on the World Turtle. What does the World Turtle rest on? An even larger Turtle. What does that even larger Turtle rest on? Another even larger Turtle. And on it continues. What holds up these Turtles?

Circular reasoning is when you make two statements that depend on one another for their veracity. It is similar to infinite regress in that what was sought (justification of the first statement) is ultimately grounded in the first statement (which was never justified, so no justification was ever actually done).

1. X is true because Y.
   
2. Y is true because X.
   
   It usually isn't quite as obvious as this and is hidden with a few steps.
   
   A common example in Christianity is:
   
   The Bible is true because God says so. How do we know God says the Bible is true? God said it in the Bible!
   
   (This is a bad argument. The Bible is true, but not because of this argument.)
   
   We've moved well past your original question and are now in the realm of general philosophy and structure of sound argumentation. While I am glad to answer your questions, you would be better served if you seek out some introductory books or courses in philosophy or logic. If you have questions about Christianity, you are always welcome to post them here in the subreddit. (After doing some homework! A well-researched question always garners better answers.)
   
   

• "On Guard" by William Lane Craig is an intro book in philosophical arguments for Christianity. Craig discusses infinite regress quite a bit in the chapter on the Kalam argument.
  
• /r/philosophy/wiki/readinglist has a good list of introductory resources.
  
  While there is a wealth of good resources online, I would highly recommend finding a class or philosophy group to discuss things face-to-face. Philosophy gets deep very quick and when you are face-to-face with someone, you can simply ask "What do you mean by that?" and get further explanation right then. With a book, you don't get that luxury. (Not saying to avoid books, but merely augment books with real conversation.)

Holy shit. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. You are a good person and didn't deserve any of that.

I'll echo what's been mentioned in some other responses; therapy would probably be really helpful for you. Not because you're "broken," because you're not, but because you've been traumatized, badly, by terrible people. Therapy will help you understand why their manipulation and lies have worked in the past, and will give you the tools to start disassembling the influence they had on you and start assembling your own life. It'll equip you with skills to begin healing the damage you never deserved to suffer.

Fancy-pants therapists cost a lot of money, but social workers can often connect you to a therapist who's willing to work cheap or free, or do some therapy work with you themselves. In the meantime if you can scrape up about $25 I suggest you get a copy of Mind Over Mood (or hit the local library and start working through their copy), which is a book that teaches the tools a good therapist would. Leaving The Fold is another book that will help you inventory what you've been through and what the road map of issues to deal with will look like.

It will be daunting. You got thrown in a pit and then had garbage dumped on you, which wasn't fair, and now you have to be the one to dig yourself out of the pit, which isn't fair either. But you can do it. It's not easy or fast, but it's doable. The biggest challenge you're probably going to face, I think, is a voice in your head that tells you to quit or not start because you don't need or deserve to heal. That what you deserve is to suffer, not smile.

So what I'd like to suggest is that you say, out loud, "I deserve to heal." It will be hard to do. And if you're anything like I was, you won't believe it the first time you say it. That's fine. Just say it. And tomorrow, say it again. Replace your old habit of praying with just saying "I deserve to heal." Say it before meals, say it when you go to bed, say it when you sort of instinctively clutch for God. "I deserve to heal." It will help remind you that you want to heal and that you don't want to quit.

I hope your life gets better. I think you're a good person and deserve to be happy. I know you're capable of amazing things, including healing from what you experienced. I believe in you.

I would recommend two books, Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge. They are both amazing books which talk about the needs and natures of both the man and the woman in regards to relationship.

I have not found any literature that does a better job of talking about the unique needs and strengths of both the man and the woman. He is a Christian author, though, and his faith informs his writing to a great degree, so it would depend on you tolerance for religious writing. Still, I would encourage you to read both together.

Wild at Heart: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Heart-Revised-Updated-Discovering/dp/1400200393/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=wild+at+heart&qid=1565098503&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Captivating: https://www.amazon.com/Captivating-Revised-Updated-Unveiling-Mystery/dp/1400200385/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=captivating+by+john+and+stasi+eldredge&qid=1565098553&s=gateway&sprefix=captivating&sr=8-1

Join a Christian community and read the Bible. You do not need to read the Bible from beginning to end, it's okay to start in the middle because the Bible is an anthology. Most Christians recommend starting at the Gospels in the New Testament because those witness to the significance of Jesus' identity. The Bible is best read with others, in conversation and community.

Oh yeah, and Jesus. If there is anything at the center of Christianity, it is that Jesus shows us what God is like. We believe God's character is marked by a terribly deep and unfathomable love. Christians believe that God wishes to transform the world and human relationships through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Two accessible introductions to Christianity I really enjoy are by Rowan Williams: Being Christian and Tokens of Trust. The first book introduces Christianity through four key practices of Christians, and the second book introduces Christianity through an popular statement of belief called the Apostles' Creed. So I think they're complementary because one focuses on practices and the other focuses on beliefs.

John Stott's Basic Christianity and NT Wright's Simply Christian are also very good.

Sorry that I'm throwing a billion books at you. Best of luck in this journey.

A trusted source I go to daily is John Piper's ministry, Desiring God. (www.desiringgod.org.) Mr. Piper is theologically sound in my opinion and clearly loves the Lord. He maintains a heaviness about him, almost as if he carries a burden to help others love Christ more dearly.

He and his team reassure me, edify me, provoke me to think deeper, follow more closely, and in general help me cultivate a stronger love for the Lord, daily.

I am currently reading Desiring God by Mr. Piper

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1601423101/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481574814&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=desiring+god&dpPl=1&dpID=41JpAZeSpAL&ref=plSrch

But another one that might be just as applicable would be When I Don't Desire God by the same author.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1433543176/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WYJ2YRD6WW39FQ3SXD0J

"Ask... seek... and knock. And all things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 7:7-12 and Matthew 6:33.)

God bless!

>I'd love to do the Vedas or the Tripiṭaka, but from what I'm reading, these are almost impossible to understand without the formal training and would take more than a year to complete (if you can even find English translations of them).


The Tripitaka actually has a lot of very accessible parts -- reading the entire thing would be a massive undertaking (this would be thousands and thousands of pages), but the Majjhima Nikaya (the middle length discourses of the Buddha) and the Digha Nikaya (the long length discourses of the Buddha) are IMO extremely accessible and cover most of the non-Mahayana Buddhist teachings. Both come with very good forwards which serve as a good introduction for understanding the rest of the text.

For Mahayana Buddhism, there are a number of sutras translated, but probably the most foundational/important would be the Bodhicharyavatara (the way of the Bodhisattvas) which is amazing, but really needs more unpacking to fully appreciate. For that I'd recommend The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech which is an excellent and detailed commentary on it.

I grew up Baptist but became an atheist when I was 17. After 20 years I came back this summer. One thing that really helped me was the new Testament scholar N.T. Wright, he has a book, Simply Christian which I will recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Christian-Christianity-Makes-Sense/dp/0061920622

He has a lot of lectures on youtube and the like, easy to google and also commentaries on various books of the New Testament. If you aren't used to reading the Bible it might help to have a commentary to help with the many things that can seem unfamiliar or strange to a modern reader.

I agree with the earlier poster who warned about the King James. The King James is a beautiful translation and a foundational work of english literature but might be a poor choice for a modern reader seeking to understand content. For that I might go with one of the various 'RSV' translations like RSV, NRSV, ESV, RSV-CE, RSV-2CE etc.

Another thing that is helpful is what is called the 'lectionary' which is basically the Bible broken up into readings throughout the church year on a three year cycle. It is easy to follow along on a daily basis and helps get you into sort of a pattern. The lectionary is used by many churches, Roman Catholic, Episcopal/Anglican, Lutheran, some Methodist and Presbyterian, etc.
Daily reading: http://www.dailylectio.net
Full lectionary: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/
There are also lectionary apps for your phone.
Also if you decide toattend mass/service at a church that uses the lectionary you will basically be following along.

I find reading the Bible every day and praying does change you, maybe in ways you won't expect.

Right. "Three modes of generating an altruistic intention to become enlightened are described--like a king, like a boatman, and like a shepherd. In the first, that like a king, one first seeks to attain a high state after which help can be given to others. In the second, like a boatman, one seeks to cross the river of suffering together with others. In the third, like a shepherd, one seeks to relieve the flock of suffering beings from pain first, oneself following afterward. These are indications of the style of the altruistic motivation for becoming enlightened; in actual fact, there is no way that a Bodhisattva either would want to or could delay achieving full enlightenment. As much as the motivation to help others increases, so much closer does one approach Buddhahood."

"The last two analogies only indicate the compassionate attitude of certain types of practitioners; in actuality there is no case like the boatman, of everyone attaining enlightenment simultaneously, nor like the shepherd, prior to oneself. Rather, enlightenment always comes in the first way, like a monarch, since Bodhisattvas eventually decide to become enlightened as fast as possible so that they can more effectively help others on a vast scale."

> How have you, experienced minimalists, handled situations like this?

I've been a minimalist for 5 years and I've experienced the same.

Many of my friends just didn't get it, so they attacked the idea. I figured it's a typical response to attack what you don't know or understand. At first I talked a lot about it, but for most people that didn't help. However, over time they say I was happier, and that they couldn't argue with. After a while I just stopped arguing with them, or trying to explain it (unless they asked), but rather showed them my life being better for it.

They could still text me to invite me to events. I did miss a few events (no FB) and heard about them later. I just simply asked that they would text me about them next time. If they didn't, or felt that was too much to ask, then I didn't complain. I decided if I wasn't worth texting (or calling) about an event then I didn't want to go, because I wasn't wanted enough. Why spend time with people who don't want you. With that my friends shifted a bit and I ended up with less 'friends' but better relationships.

Now, I've been traveling for the past 2 years and my friends have shifted again. Many of the people who's events I missed I don't even talk to anymore. I have made new friends, again less 'friends' and stronger relationships with the real friends who stuck around and new friends I've made.

I never recall ever being unsupported by family. Though my parents have been packrats since I was born. I haven't seen them for much over the last two years, but I heard two month ago that my mom read a book I suggested and now is giving away a bunch of stuff every week to thrift stores, so that's a huge plus!

TL;DR I exchanged my big group of 'friends' for real friendships with a smaller group.

There’s nothing wrong with being stubborn, skeptical or having strong opinions. It’s never to late and I assure you that you don’t have to tie half your brain behind your back to be a Christian. One of my favorite quotes is, “The god an atheist does not believe in is usually not the God of the Bible.” (Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God) I would ask your friend if she could recommend a Pastor to meet with and perhaps discuss some of the major issues you have with Christianity.


It is true that Christianity comes with a built in support system and religion focuses on concerns outside of the self, such as helping others and serving. Potentially self-sacrificing virtues such as forgiveness, love, and gratitude are also highly valued within religious communities. Throughout human history the role of Christianity has been instrumental in who we are today. The Christian church has been a major source of social services, education, literacy, education, theology, philosophy and arts & culture.



Just remember that faith is not opposed by reason; faith is opposed by fanaticism – which is an abuse of reason.


Edit: Oh, and if you want to prepare a little (and you seem like the type) before you talk to someone, I recommend reading some introductory things. Of course it'd be great to read through the New Testament or in the least read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) but I also I recommend something like C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity.

My pleasure! I apologize if I came across as rude in my first comment; it's been one of "those" days today. Feel free to reach out to me at any time if you have any other questions or are looking for any kind of resource. If do you end up really wanting a book to read that will help you with this, I'd really recommend The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva. It's absolutely beautiful to read, and there are good talks on YouTube which examine this text in-depth. Hope you have a beautiful day! :)

I ran across a book recently that spoke to this: Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. by Kevin DeYoung. The author is a Calvinist, so despite how the title might sound, he's not at all casual about God's will.

From a review posted a couple weeks ago:

> DeYoung offers some welcome wisdom to Christians paralyzed by an absence of divine guidance, or by conflicting omens. Instead of guessing at the hidden divine meaning of circumstances (essentially a kind of divination) or gullibly taking every passing thought or imagination as a Word or Vision From God... DeYoung suggests making intelligent decisions in accordance with what we know from scripture to be godly goals and wisdom, and then working out those decisions with diligence. Radical, huh?

> He distinguishes between God's secret will (or will of decree), God's revealed will (will of desire) and God's will for our lives (will of direction). God's will of decree is his secret will, ordained from all of time--a will that is going to come to pass and that no man can thwart. God's will of desire is his will as revealed in Scripture--a will we sometimes obey and at other times disobey. God's will of direction is the one that answers those questions we have about jobs and spouses and houses and all the rest. Here's the real heart of the matter, according to DeYoung. "Does God have a secret will of direction that He expects us to figure out before we do anything? And the answer is no." Though we are free to ask for his direction and though we ought to be devoted to prayer in all matters, God does not burden us with seeking his will of direction ahead of our decisions. "God does have a specific plan for our lives, but it is not one that He expects us to figure out before we make a decision." "Trusting in God's will of decree is good. Following his will of desire is obedient. Waiting for God's will of direction is a mess."

You might or might not feel like buying the book But do read the comments at Amazon - you're not the only one who's had these questions, or who's got stuck in a place of guilt or paralysis by people who teach God is a secretive micromanager.

Some of these have been mentioned in this thread, but I wanted to make a thorough list, so here goes:

• Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn (as you've already experienced)
  
  
• Evangelical Exodus by Douglas Beaumont
  
  
• Crossing The Tiber by Steve Ray
  
  
• Evangelical Is Not Enough by Thomas Howard
  
  
• Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David Currie
  
  
• The Protestant's Dilemma by Devin Rose
  
  
• Navigating The Tiber by Devin Rose
  
  
• Why We're Catholic by Trent Horn
  
  
• Surprised by Truth: Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, compiled by Patrick Madrid
  
  
• No Price Too High by Deacon Alex Jones
  
  If you would like books on various topics (The Eucharist, Mary, the Sacraments, etc.), let me know and I'd be happy to provide. Also, feel free to PM at any time. :) I'll say an extra prayer for your journey right now!
  
  DK
  
  
  

Source [amazon.com] Heaven by Randy Alcorn (and the Bible of course)

Heaven will be earth without sin period.

When I say heaven will be earth I mean it. Heaven will be the manifestation of "heaven on earth." This means be our actual physical present earth, the one your feet rest upon at this moment will be heaven (where God lives). It will be all of the good of the present earth without any of the bad. If you Imagine everything good in this world without corruption you may have a glimpse at what heaven will be like for the Christian

I understand the objection. But I would say that God's self love is not like our self love, for two reasons. One, is that God deserves it far more than we do, and more importantly, God's self love shares that satisfaction with others in a way that we cannot.

I would encourage you to check out John Piper's The Pleasures of God, or even his Desiring God. Dr. Piper explains the concept far better than I ever could.

Two well-argued pieces by gay Christians at http://www.gaychristian.net/greatdebate.php. One believes in marriage, one in mandatory celibacy, but the important thing is that they're both sincere gay Christians.

And hopefully you'll read God and the Gay Christian.

But don't stick to reading webpages and books. Get into an a supportive church of flesh-and-blood Christians.

Then give yourself time to process the thoughts and pray. You'll be OK. God bless you!

I'll say my books aren't expressly feminine. They're more about dynamics, relationships, motivations, which have helped to prevent me from going wild with aggressive masculine approaches despite my surroundings and peers. Thank goodness I found these so early :)

I loved Captivating, which is about women from a Christian perspective and it's counterpart called Wild at Heart, which is about men. Neither of them were too overwhelmingly Christian, IMO.

Another book with Christian influences, The Servant is a book about leadership theory that's been very helpful to me stepping into a more nurturing and deferring approach.

Five Dysfunctions of a Team is my very favorite book ever, and it discusses the reasons teams (be it a couple, sports team, friend group, or work group) fail and how to prevent that. Very helpful in learning why vulnerability, an important feminine trait, is so important.

I admire the way you're going about this! It's really wonderful to see people critically exploring belief systems. As a Christian, I have admittedly not done as much research on other faiths as I can, but I have enjoyed learning what I have. It's really incredible to see the similarities and nuances among them!

So to the point, I believe that the Christian Gospel is so simplistic and selfless that no human or demon could have imagined it.

That a perfect being was born as a human, exposed to diseases and hard labor, and endured the full human experience is absolutely mind-blowing to me. He didn't just walk among us and laugh and be divine; he wept and felt pain with us. The death he suffered was completely selfless and was entirely for us. It's beautiful and simple.

I'm sure other Christians can explain this far better than I. I'm still learning my own faith, so I'd love to hear what others have to say, too.

As far as reading material, More Than a Carpenter is great. It's only about 100 pages, but it packs a punch and is one of the go-to Christian 101 type books.

Plenty of Christian apologists were convinced by Christianity. What do you think would cause a staunch atheist to convert?

>Why do we distinguish between apologetics and philosophy?

Often we don't, and oftentimes a philosopher is an apologist and vice versa.

> Why are so few philosophers theists?

This wasn't the case for most of human history, and I don't think it's fair to draw the conclusion out of the current state of secularization in academia.

>If you think you've got something good then by all means share it, but I don't expect to be surprised.

Have you read the following?

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - Lewis was an atheist for most of his life, but later became the most well-known Christian apologist. You might also want to read his autobiography, Surprised by Joy.

The Reason for God by Tim Keller.

The Language of God by Francis Collins -
This one is more about how science and religion relate, and it's written by one of the leading scientists of the modern day.

Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas This is the original apologetic. If you're alright with some more-serious reading, this would be a great book to have read, both from an intellectual and historical perspective.

Descartes' Meditations While I'm not really convinced by his arguments, Descartes is known as the "Father of Modern Philosophy" for popularizing rationalism, or the use of reason/logic as the chief source or test of knowledge.

Pascal's Pensees

The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant This is known as "one of the greatest works in the history of philosophy" Quite the opposite of Descartes, Kant actually argues against the notion that we can use reason alone to understand the universe.

Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard - This is definitely not apologetics. However, he was an incredibly Christian philosopher, and is known as the Father of Existentialism (interesting that the founder of existentialism was a devout Christian, though now it is often associated with atheists such as Sarte and Nietzsche).

I see your article and raise you an entire book: The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus https://www.amazon.com/dp/0310345863/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_rp0YAbAB552XY

I've read this book, enough of the Bible, your article, and many others, to know that there is so much out there and so many conflicting views that eventually you just have to go with what you feel is the right answer. I feel that I've had my prayers answered, I feel that the miracle of life is more complex and amazing than can just happen without a divine creator, I feel that there are things out there that just can't be measured by science like love and happiness that we know are real. We could go back and forth forever and never come to an agreement, hence what faith is for.

Now I also have plenty of skepticism and doubt over what's in the Bible. I take what works, makes sense, and is applicable and helpful to my life, and forget the rest. For example I don't believe that there's anything wrong or sinful with homosexuality, or that Noah put all those animals on one boat. But there's plenty in the Bible that are good lessons and good reminders to take with you in your day to day interactions.

I appreciate the article, I do. But I'll continue to say that it just doesn't seem plausible that so many of the people of that time claim to have met this man that we now base our entire standard of telling what year it is off of how long it's been since he lived.

You have asked here and not on /r/zen, so here's some Tibetan ;-)

The later meditations in Lam Rim include matters such as Exchanging Self with Others, and Giving & Taking
Try to do them all 'in order' if you have the opportunity, and ideally try to find a teacher. Mine took us through beautiful and powerful visualisions - one a week - which I would guess are quite different to Zen-style meditations. Some dharma centres offer courses/retreats where they are all taught/practiced over a long weekend.

And obviously you're an aspiring Bodhisattva (might already be one?), so no harm giving Shantideva some time? http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Bodhisattva-Shambhala-Classics/dp/1590303881
(do Look Inside at the table of contents, and check out the Dalai Lama quote at the top of the front cover).



> they have even furnished a small closed-door room in their chapel with a rug and cushion for me to practice zazen during my breaks!

wowwww :-)

With metta.

People have different theories of heaven. Some believe hell is separation from God. Along these lines, some also believe you can be in hell in the present, while alive. Maybe you are, maybe you don’t notice, maybe that’s okay for you right now. For many people of a spiritual/religious tradition, talking to an atheist - no offense - is like a flying bird talking to a flightless bird about being airborne and the associated benefits. If you don’t buy into the idea of flight, why are you even concerned about it? Why should we talk about the clouds in any depth when you only see them from the ground and even then as an obstruction to enlightenment?

Christ says salvation is available to all who believe in and follow him. No Christians are perfect and that’s implicit in the understanding of corruption. You aren’t expected to be perfect. But if your heart is open to God and you see the world for what it is and desire to hear and be closer to God, the book of John is a great starting point, I think. Or the book Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.

Like yourself, I am an ally. I, too, found it to be a huge weight in my attempt to "be a good Christian" and also recognize that homosexuality is not a sin. I'm a feminist as well, but because I haven't done my Bible research yet regarding feminism, I'm going to keep to my own experience with homosexuality and the like.

From my own my own experiences, I feel that you have two major options in order to reconcile your faith and your convictions - two options in which God will support you and guide you in whatever you choose.

The first might be to find another church, another denomination, or both. Some churches still oppose homosexuality, but are much less aggressive, meaning that you get the occasional "homosexuality is a sin," but who are much more respectful of it. This is the type of church I attend. And while their stance is annoying, they actually manage to discuss it in a loving manner so that I can tolerate it. There are also churches who are completely open to the LGBT community. Times are changing, albeit slowly.

Your second option, and probably the most terrifying one, would be to "come out" to your community. One of the problems (IMO) with the "homosexuality is a sin" stance is that they don't know any better! Some people have lived in this bubble all their life. They don't know any differently, and haven't heard the Biblically sound evidence that it isn't wrong. You don't have to start protesting sermons or get a soapbox. But it could start with "I don't agree with that, can we please stop talking about it?" A simple phrase like this almost sounds like you aren't helping by not talking about it, but it can begin to open their hearts and minds to the idea of questions and discussion. In this scenario, knowledge is power; I've suggested this book before, and I'll suggest it again. By knowing and confirming your own beliefs on a very fundamental and Biblical level, I think it will help you navigate any discussion regarding the LGBT community and their place in the church.

I think a lot of the advice here is great. If I can recommend a great little book to get you oriented, I'd recommend Christ's Call To Discipleship It's short, to the point, and very helpful. I'd also throw in a book that helped me out, Desiring God The christian life is about joy, this book will explain why. It will also make you think.

Welcome! I appreciate your genuine curiosity to learn more about Catholicism from Catholics.

I would recommend Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray. Steve has a Baptist background as well and wrote that book to explain why he was converting to Catholicism. I really enjoyed it and it combines Scripture and Early Christian's writings to support his reasons.

​

God bless!

Here are a few books I would highly recommend for men (and women as well):

• Wild at Heart by John Etheredge. For Men. The companion book for Women is Captivating. These are Christian books, discussing God's design for men and women. Even if you are not a Christian and have no desire to be, I think you may find some of the discussion very revealing or at the very least intriguing. These are not so much good "learn to communicate" books, as they are "understanding who I really am on a basic level" books.
  
  
• Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. Another Christian Book, this one on the biblical view of marriage. Again, if you're not a Christian, I still recommend it as a resource for marriage. There are some fundamental principles of marriage that transcend religion that can benefit both spouses. For men and women.
  
  
• Codependent No More by Melanie Beattie. This book is required reading if you or your partner grew up in a household with an addict (parent or sibling), an abusive parent, or single parent/divorced home with high conflict. It is not faith based, for men and women.
  
  
• The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. This is a great book that breaks down how we're all different, and we get our needs in a relationship satisfied in different ways. Understanding what your partner needs is fundamental to having a healthy relationship.
  
  
• The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work by John Gottman. This is another great resource for understanding effective communication within an intimate relationship, whether you are male or female.
  
  After that, if you have more specific issues in your story, like childhood trauma, there are more specific routes to go down. I also strongly encourage enlisting the aid of a counselor, therapist, and/or pastoral counselor if you or your partner are struggling with childhood baggage.
  
  

Hello,

This book is a robust examination of the Christian faith, looking not only at doctrine but the evidence for the truth claims of scripture.

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Case-Christianity-Homicide-Detective-Investigates/dp/1434704696

I greatly respect your attitude towards your husbands faith. The fact that you're here asking this speaks volumes.

edit: bonus recommdations

https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Carpenter-Josh-McDowell/dp/1414326270/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/New-Evidence-That-Demands-Verdict/dp/0785242198/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

>What is the general consensus on things such as the Little Office of Our Lady?

As a layperson, you can pray any office you wish. I love the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially the one from Baronius Press.

I started praying the LOTH with Shorter Christian Prayer. It's a good way to get into it without all the page flipping. I know priests who use this as their travel edition. ;)

Universalis (app or website) is a good resource for praying the office. There's 6 times per day that a professed religious stops and prays the psalms in the Office, but for laypeople the best ones are probably Lauds (in the morning), Vespers (after work), and Compline (before bed).

Breviaries like this one can help laypeople pray the office.

Personally, I think there's a lot of garbage, namby-pamby advice in this thread.

As Venerable Fulton Sheen said, "There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing."

If you believe the Catholic Faith is true, then presumably your end goal is their conversion. If it's not, it should be.

Perhaps the initial explanation won't go well. That's fine. Whatever happens, don't burn any bridges. Unfortunately, since it's today there's not much more prep you can do.

The best advice I can give is to come armed with what they think they know. Beyond the initial, emotional reaction, they will have arguments. Maybe not today, but they'll come. They already know what they're going to say. They already have their "Catholicism is the Whore of Babylon Talking Points" on a 3x5 index card (even if it's just a mental index card.) So what do you do? Surprise them. Steal their lines. Ask questions that they aren't expecting. Since you already know all of the anti-Catholic talking points, you are (hopefully) well prepared to counter them with clarity and charity, using Holy Scripture as your guide.

Also, remember you're not alone in this. LOTS of fantastic people have made this conversion. Here are a few book recs that are relevant.

Catholicism and Fundamentalism

Rome Sweet Home

Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic

Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church

I haven't read this one yet, but it also looks awesome. Dr. Brant Pitre also writes on this topic:

The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross

Josh McDowell's book "More Than a Carpenter" documents all the archeological evidence he found when he researched in Europe. Chapter 10 is dedicated to proving that the Resurrection happened, although I recommend reading all the other chapters before it, otherwise some things in Chapter 10 won't make sense.

You can get a used copy of that book for as little as five bucks on amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1414326270/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

To wet your appetite, here's the prologue of that book in PDF format: https://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/firstChapters/978-1-4143-2627-6.pdf

Pages 15-17 state in pertinent part...

> I knew that if I could uncover indisputable evidence that the Bible is an unreliable record, the whole of Christianity would crumble... I spent months in research. I even dropped out of school for a time to study in the historically rich libraries of Europe. And I found evidence. Evidence in abundance. Evidence I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes. Finally I could come to only one conclusion: If I were to remain intellectually honest, I had to admit that the Old and New Testament documents were some of the most reliable writings in all of antiquity... I want to share with you the core of what I learned in my months of research so that you, too, may see that Christianity is not a myth, not the fantasy of wishful dreamers, not a hoax played on the simpleminded. It is rock-solid truth.

Simply Christian by NT Wright.

From the back cover:
Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? N. T. Wright argues that each of these questions takes us into the mystery of who God is and what he wants from us. For two thousand years Christianity has claimed to answer these mysteries, and this renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop shows that it still does today. Like C. S. Lewis did in his classic Mere Christianity, Wright makes the case for Christian faith from the ground up, assuming that the reader is starting from ground zero with no predisposition to and perhaps even some negativity toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. His goal is to describe Christianity in as simple and accessible, yet hopefully attractive and exciting, a way as possible, both to say to outsides You might want to look at this further, and to say to insiders You may not have quite understood this bit clearly yet.

Edited to add: I see that someone else suggested this. I guess I should have read through suggestions first before suggesting a book.

2nd edit: If you do read this, I would love to hear an atheist's perspective on it.

I just read this book a couple days ago. It short and sweet, and it hooked me in so I ended up reading it all in a day.

Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers by Joshua Harris and Kevin L DeYoung

I'll try and summarize it:

God has a sovereign will for our lives, not a single man, or animal, or atom deviates from this will.

But God does not expect us to try and sense what this will is via feelings/dreams/signs and obey it. If anything this way of living is not a life of faith; a life of faith is to say that "I do not know what my future hold but God does, and I trust that what is in store for me is good". We live by faith, not by sight.

God does not give us instructions every day of what decisions to make (toast or cereal, TV or conversation, walk by or intervene), He instead gives us wisdom and His Word which we should mull over and struggle with so that with the Spirit it transforms us into someone whose desires are Gods desires.

Gods will is the sanctification of our souls, not just for us to make all the correct choices now.

EDIT: I can answer any question you have on the subject that the book covers if you want.

I've gone through a similar struggle recently. My pastoral care at my church directed me to read a book called "Just Do Something" found here. Essentially the point is there is not one solid path you have to travel in life which if you veer off you're screwed. Whatever decisions you make, God will find a way to work them into his plans. There are not always sign posts along the way. God has a plan that he often doesn't reveal to us and we only see it's shape in hindsight. More often than not with life matters, I've had to pray and place my trust in God and then take a leap of faith by making a decision.

Best of luck on everything either way!

You're right to an extent. My view is that your husband is spouting the typical atheist mumbo jumbo that you find too much in here (and elsewhere). The atheist position does incur the burden of proof despite what the "weak" atheists would like to believe.

But that doesn't mean that one cannot come to a rational reason to accept that God doesn't exist (or most likely doesn't exist). Here is one such method:

1. There exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
   
2. An omniscient, wholly good being would prevent the occurrence of any intense suffering it could, unless it could not do so without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
   
3. (Therefore) There does not exist an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being.
   
   This is called the Evidential Problem of Evil by the atheist philosopher of religion William Rowe. This is not a rock solid proof of God's non-existence and there are other philosophical proofs that come to the same conclusions from different directions. However, you'll note that there are also no rock solid proofs of God's existence (though there are very strong arguments for God's existence). From my point of view, it seems things are at an impasse and one can find perfectly rational reasons to accept that God does exist and perfectly rational reasons to accept that God does not exist (and, further, perfectly rational reasons why we cannot have any rational reason to believe in the existence or non existence of God, to boot!). Confused? I know I am and I suspect a lot of other folks are far more confused than they either know or will admit.
   
   I'm a bit concerned that your husband has bitten off on the /r/atheism style of thought that are proudly (sadly?) on display in many responses to you in this very post. That would be a shame, but it's very common. I can tell you this if your husband has gone down that rabbit hole, there is no amount of arguing with him about God's existence that is going to change his mind. It'll only make him resent you and it will make him consider you stupid and he'll be able to make your life quite miserable. That's the fact of the matter, the typical internet atheist has a massive superiority complex and considers even the slightest wavering from the atheist dogma to be an indication of mental retardation.
   
   So how would I approach it? That's a tough one. NOT through anger or guilt trips (a la "you committed to a Christian relationship and are backing out without my consent") or debates. Maybe try a simple discussion. Hear him out with a willingness to really listen and absorb all of his thoughts on the subject. Just hear what he is saying and try to understand where he is coming from. That, at least, is a good start and it generally is worthwhile for any time your marriage gets a bit rocky. If you're lucky and if your husband is truly a good person, he'll come around to being open to listening to why you believe what you believe. So now would be a good time to start brushing up on that. From the sounds of it, your days of lackadaisical acceptance of Christianity are behind you. There are plenty of resources for you to learn about how a belief in God is rationally justified. Here are a few books and websites that you might want to start reading:
   
   

• Reasonable Faith
  
• On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision
  
• Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism
  
• The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism
  
• See what kind of thinking you're up against from this blog post
  
  Anyhow, I can't imagine that this is going to be a lot of fun for you any way you slice it. You can at least mitigate the pain by not playing the hypersensitive christian part that he is being indoctrinated that all religious people are. Stay rational and loving and caring above all else and demand that he do the same. You can work this out, but it'll take effort from both of you.

Oh god yes. I confessed all the time. I went on my mission without a whole lot of conviction but during it did my best to obey so I could be worthy of the spirit and a testimony. Boy, was this a perfect recipe for psychological distress. I constantly wondered whether my thoughts were prompting from the spirit or not and I always wondered why I wasn't getting the testimony and burning conviction I'd been promised. "Well, better step it up," I'd think. Probably because I spent 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes writing email. Probably because I thought sexual thoughts. Probably because I had Josh Groban on my iPod. And later, probably because I have an iPod. I kept stepping it up. I wanted so bad to be worthy of god's prompting and dod everything I could to merit it. When I didn't measure up to these unrealistically high expectations, I would step it up. I was ALWAYS confessing and whenever I felt a huge wave of relief, I would think it was the spirit. Nope. Just OCD. I would "sin" like maybe seeing something scandalous on late-nite TV that was sexually arousing. But I wouldn't feel guilty about it, true contrition. So I took seriously D&C " 42 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.
43 By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them." So I would confess in order to create embarrassment, shame and guilt so that I could feel godly sorry and truly repent of my seems because after all "...our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence." (Alma 12:14)

OCD/Scrupulosity can be a real bitch but it is possible to overcome.of this, I testify (without hesitation). : ) It will take work. Expect to do a lot of reading. In addition to these books below, I recommend finding a therapist.

Learning about mindfulness really helped. I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Eight-Week-Finding-Peace-Frantic-ebook/dp/B005NJ2T1G.

I also recommend this: http://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-Go-There-Are/dp/1401307787.

This: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Not-Your-Brain/dp/1583334831

This: http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Fold-Marlene-Winell/dp/1933993235

And this one:http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Shame-Binds-Recovery-Classics/dp/0757303234

That Mormon Stories podcast really helped me. I think there's a few of them. It put a name to something I'd just thought was normal. I just remember thinking "That's me!" If only someone had had the wherewithal to say "Young man, all this confessing isn't ok. Let's get you some help." I was consumed by guilt and shame all the time, never measuring up. So I'd step it up. The idea of "worthiness" was incredibly harmful to me. We are all worthy of love, of respect, and acceptance.

I also struggled with assertiveness so for what it's worth here's a discussion and some book recommendations and a discussion from last week.

Recovery is possible. I have completely gotten over all that guilt. I learned o get over that nagging guilty feeling or even that feeling like "oh shit! I left the stove on". I've had so many of those. But now I don't. I just started ignoring them. "Fuck it. Let my house burn down." What I once thought was the spirit, I now know was just my brain. Now I don't feel that. My brain has rewires so that those feelings don't come up anymore. And now I have done everything I always feared and "far worse"--I've had sex outside marriage (I was never married) and so broke my "covenants" from the temple, I've smoked weed, drank (though I don't anymore). No guilt, no shame. I'm not saying you need to do those things to get better, I'm just saying that if you'd known me a decade ago, you'd have not believed I would have ever done anything so "wicked".

My point is there's nothing objective about that guilt and shame we felt. It's only because it was instilled in us from an early age. It's a learned response and can be unlearned. We just took the Church and its truth claims and hell and punishment seriously.

Best to you. Feel free to PM me any time. Know that there's hope.

First off, welcome! I'm glad you're here. But I'm sorry for what you're going through right now, and for the loss of your parent. What a hard situation. I'm not exactly sure what to say for each of your three points (except I totally agree with you on the 3rd - those thoughts pop into my head too). But I just suggested these two books for someone else on here, and I'm going to recommend them to you too. They were both helpful to me in sorting out what I was feeling, and why. Good luck!

• [Leaving the Fold] (http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Fold-Marlene-Winell/dp/1933993235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464644226&sr=8-1&keywords=leaving+the+fold), by Marlene Winell.
  
  
• [Recovering Agency] (http://www.amazon.com/Recovering-Agency-Lifting-Mormon-Control/dp/1489595937/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464644338&sr=8-1&keywords=recovering+agency), by Luna Lindsey.

I've only read two works by Kierkegaard (so I'm no expert) but I do have a few thoughts to consider and a recommendation.

1. First, being cited by a false teacher does not make one a false teacher by proxy. The Biblical authors are often quoted by heretics, and yet the Biblical authors themselves were not proposing heresy.
   
   
   
2. Second, remember that Kierkegaard is a philosopher first and foremost. Just as we wouldn't read the Psalms in the same way we read Romans, we shouldn't read Existential Philosophy in the same way we read Reformed Theology or Christian Apologetics. Kierkegaard's goal in much of his writings is to take his reader on a thought experiment, and so that should be remembered when pulling quotes from his works or reading them at face value.
   
   Now as far as what to read first I'd recommend "Fear and Trembling." It isn't a long read and it deals with the familiar Biblical account of the binding of Isaac. It would be a good introduction to Kierkegaard and would be helpful in seeing if his works are for you. This was my first Kierkegaard book and I liked it enough to pick up "The Works of Love."
   

There are great books out there for beginners.

It sounds like something that you would really benefit from is structured practice. For me, it's meditation in the morning and evening. Whatever it is, be consistent.

Until you find a real life community, you can join an online one. If you use the Insight Meditation Timer app, there are some pretty awesome communities on there, too (less-moderated though) but def a cool way to connect.

I also recommend downloading some dhamma/dharma talks or discourses from reputable Buddhist teachers. They're like spiritual podcasts.

A really great book to read that touches on this topic very well I think is Heaven by Randy Alcorn. It's well researched, though he is clear on areas of speculation, for instance the reason for marriage not being in heaven is that there would no longer need to be a legal covenant, relationships would simply continue to develop on a higher level... if I remember correctly, it's been years since I read it. It's an excellent read though, I highly recommend it.

First off, think of Minimalism as a tool. A tool can be used for good or bad. Example: A hammer can build a house or bash in someone's head. So yeah minimalism can be bad.

Secondly, You can only change yourself. You can encourage others by showing them the way you live makes you happier, makes life simpler and easier, but it's up to them to adopt that lifestyle too.

Thirdly, Imposing any belief or lifestyle on someone is a slippery slope. If you push your boyfriend too hard he may start to dislike you to the point of ending the relationship. Remember he has feeling too, just because you've learned quickly to live a certain way doesn't mean he will.

Example 1: My extended family tried for 20 years to get my packrat mom to realize her house is full of junk. Oddly enough the thing that convinced her was a book written by a guy in a simple living community I lived in while traveling. Nothing we said I've those 20 years changed her mind and actually it just made her come up with more reasons justify the junk. Finally an outside perspective worked. After about a year of decluttering, tons of bags donated, we can finally see progress in my parents house, but they've got a ton more to do.

Example 2: Lastly, when I started becoming a minimalist 9 years ago my friends thought I was crazy. I tried to argue why, but it didn't work. In the end I gave up on arguing and decided to show them why. A year later I had a couple friends, who originally thought I was crazy, now defending why I'm a minimalist, because they see how much happier I am.

Edit: Since 3 people asked me here's a link to the book I mentioned:
The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Last year I was fascinated with eschatology and found a rather extensive book on this subject. Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Some of the content of the book is speculation based on verses concerning this throughout the Bible, but as a whole it's an extensive overview of the afterlife. I grew up thinking the afterlife was heaven, a non-temporal realm as it's portrayed in the media.

I don't know how highly contested the new earth theory of the afterlife is among Christians, but from reading the verses associated with it I can't come to any other conclusion.

Anyways, good article. Wright is always a good read.

Anyone claiming that Jesus was invented or that the Jesus worshiped by Christianity today is an accumulation of legends has to at least contend with these facts:

1. The mountain of manuscripts. The extant documents comprising what we now call the New Testament number upwards of 5,600 in the original Greek. Hundreds of these are from the first few centuries AD. When you add in translations to Syriac, Coptic, and Aramaic, you have more than 25,000 documents available. Simply put, there is more attestation for the life and teachings of Jesus than any other person of that era. If you believe Alexander the Great was a real person based on what little we have left of his early biographies (which were written centuries after his death), you have to accept the New Testament accounts of Jesus. For questions on the historical reliability of these documents, see Craig Blomberg's Historical Reliability of the New Testament.
   
   
2. The early dates. Christianity was flourishing within a few years of Jesus's death in (of all places!) Jerusalem, the city that saw him publicly crucified. If these events never occurred, it would be absurd to start a religion in the very place that was best equipped to refute your claims. Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language is a great overview from the start of Christianity all the way up to the modern era.
   
   
3. The spread of Christianity in spite of violent persecution. This in and of itself does not prove the truth claims made by Christianity, but it does show that the early adopters sincerely believed what they were preaching. And since many of them claimed to be eyewitnesses of the events in question, we would have to conclude that they were either lying, delusional, or telling the truth. I think the third best fits the evidence.
   
   
4. The lack of contemporary rebuttals. If Jesus never existed or if he were a collection of legends on top of a failed Messiah that everyone forgot about, it would have been much easier to start a religion after everyone of that time had died and could no longer refute your claims. But Christianity started in the 30s AD! Why then do we not see refutations of the events surrounding Jesus's life, death, and resurrection? I would think that even in the first century it would be nigh impossible to start a religion based on historical events if those events never actually took place.
   
   These are just some of the points in favor of the actual, historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth. If you want to dive deeper, Lee Strobel's Case for Christ is a favorite of mine and is a book that I like to hand out to our local missionaries.

If they would be receptive to something written by an evangelical biblical scholar who is gay, I recommend God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines. http://www.amazon.com/God-Gay-Christian-Biblical-Relationships/dp/1601425163

He tells his personal story AND addresses all the biblical texts that have been used against gay people. He makes a very convincing case for an inclusive and affirming faith that's based in scripture. He also gives a compassionate account of his father's experience of coming to accept him as a gay Christian.

I am a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. This is different then Theravada Buddhism in many ways, but both have the same core teachings of the Buddha, also known as Shakyamuni Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhism, we believe in other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. For example, Manjushri, Tara, Medicine Buddha, Chenrezig and many more. We also recite mantras as a form of meditation. Some good books are anything written by the Dalai Lama and other Lamas. I will be happy to assist you through your journey if you ever have any questions that i might be able to answer.

This is a very good book...
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Practice-Way-Meaningful-Life/dp/0743453360

Really enjoying the book Leaving the Fold right now. It helps realize more clearly the negative impact religion may have had on you and helps normalize what you are feeling. There are also optional exercises at the end of each chapter to process the material.

Then there is the Recovering from Religion website with articles for different topics. A live chat as well with someone who can help point you to resources & see if there is a anonymous support group in your area.

Marlene Winell, the clinical psychologist who developed the idea of Religious Trauma Syndrome, wrote a great book called "Leaving the Fold." It focuses on the emotional impact of leaving your faith, and it has a number of excellent insights into the psychological effects of being raised religious. It also has psychological exercises for recovering from various aspects of religious indoctrination. I found it very helpful at the beginning of my deconversion. Highly recommended.

I’ve been really enjoying this for daily readings before my Bible time: Daily Readings-the Early Church Fathers https://www.amazon.com/dp/152710043X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I2VEAbY526C09

Also this for help with prayer: The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851512283/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_33VEAbQ0FRS8S

Check these out! Hope they prove useful to you.

>I don't really know if there's a god

A really excellent little book I can recommend is More Than a Carpenter, by Josh & Sean McDowell. On that Amazon link, the first review is by someone who was raised as a Catholic, which you might relate with. I hope you find this helpful in reconnecting with God; having Him as your anchor helps when your life is a stormy sea.

I find your wording confusing . . . I mean I went through a similar period of doubt but after much study came to the conclusion I could choose to believe in Christianity or not, but I knew it would be intellectually dishonest for me to not. It wasn't really a matter of making myself as if I was doing something against my better judgment.

To comment on your specific example, those instincts would be focused on the in group, not humanity in general. So you would cooperate with your group sure but would be fine with treating others poorly. Indeed, we see this in much human behavior. Yet most of us instinctually know that's not right and the Bible certainly demands a higher standard than that.

Anyway, a book that helped me a lot is Don't Check Your Brains at the Door and I'd also recommend the "Case" books by Lee Strobel.

Leaving the Fold
~ Marlene, Winel

My ex left the church of her father (a minister) and she recommended that I read this to understand the repercussions of her leaving her family's faith. Perhaps 'Leaving the Fold' will help you understand what challenges lie ahead.


Product Description From Amazon

This book by psychologist Marlene Winell provides valuable insights into the dangers of religious indoctrination and outlines what therapists and victims can do to reclaim a healthier human spirit.... Both former believers searching for a new beginning and those just starting to subject their faith to the requirements of simple common sense, if not analytical reason, may find valuable assistance in these pages. -
Steve Allen, author and entertainer

http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Fold-Marlene-Winell/dp/1933993235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261167841&sr=8-1

Pay off your loans, then build an emergency fund, and only then invest. If market declines (which it will one day), you'll be in a horrendous financial position, with debt bills that must be paid but funds that are losing their value.

Your loan interest rate may be 4.4% and the average market may be a higher rate than that, but those mathematical numbers do NOT take risk into account. If you account for that, mathematically, you're better off to take the guarantee return of paying off the loans sooner rather than later.

My advice: Get on a ridiculously aggressive plan to pay off the loans in 2-3 years. What you save on interest & risk will yield greater returns than taking a risk in the market.

Would highly recommend this book for help--it changed my life and will hopefully prevent you from making the same mistakes I did:

Steve Ray was formerly this type of Evangelical/baptist. He is now a devout apologist for the Catholic church. He wrote a book entitled "Crossing the Tiber." If you read this then you will learn the points that likely can get your type of Christian friend thinking outside of his very comfortable and judgmental box. Have fun.

A link to a used book sales summary on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0898705770/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

If you are looking for good reading on Buddhism, I cannot recommend enough a book called, "The Way of the Bodhisattva", by Shantideva.

Another favorite is, " Gates to Buddhist Practice ", by Chagdud Tulku

( an excerpt )

Best of luck.

Could it be you disagree with the particular strain of Christianity in which you were raised? There's nothing that says we must forsake science or reason to be Christian. Some of our greatest thinkers were, in fact, believers.

​

Take it for what it's worth, but maybe you could start with some reading about Christianity; its history, its teachings, etc. There are a couple of things I'd suggest (full disclaimer: I was raised Baptist but converted to Eastern Orthodoxy):

​

Lost to the West, not a Christian history book per se, but more an overview of how Christianity, among other things, helped shape the West.

​

Mere Christianity, which maybe you've already read. It helped pull me away from the ledge of my youthful agnosticism.

​

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, a podcast, admittedly from the Orthodox point of view, providing an overview of all the varied flavors of Christianity.

​

I hope this is in some way helpful.

[Crossing the Tiber](http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Tiber-Evangelical-Protestants-Historical/dp/0898705770 "Also available for Kindle!"), by Stephen K. Ray. It's very well researched; sometimes the footnotes and references take up most of the page!

dessinemoiunmouton referenced this elsewhere in the thread, and I agree: [Faith of the Early Fathers](http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Early-Fathers-Three--Set/dp/0814610250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320271030&sr=1-1 "Also available for Kindle!"), by Jurgens. It's a three-volume set, and best used as a reference, instead of a straight-read. Of immense value is the doctrinal index, which lists various elements of theology, and then points you to the relevant historical writings!

The Puritans practiced a form of discursive "meditation" (think of Augustine's Confessions and how he talks to God while thinking through something) that has been getting some much needed attention lately. David Saxton's book "God's Battle Plan for the Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation" is a great book on the subject.  Joel Berke also has a great summary (in less depth), for free here.

Another Reformed classic is Matthew Henry's A Way to Pray, which is online here. Henry takes the strangely novel approach of creating a "prayer book" composed entirely of Scripture.

Another absolutely essentially "prayer book" is "The Valley of Vision."  Just get it.

Finally, not to be to self serving, but I have setup an online liturgical website who's sole intention is to help Christians pray either regular morning and evening services (Psalter once a month), or even the classic hours (Psalter in a week).  I created Reformed and Evangelical services that try to combine Matthew Henry's method of using Scripture as the prayers while retaining the classical western liturgical tradition (similar to the Book of Common Prayer) but modified to remove the repetitions and keep the non-biblical content to an absolute minimum. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

One last thing, I'd personally stay away from things like the Jesus Prayer if you're Reformed. There's nothing wrong with the prayer itself, but it's practice in the East is tied into the mystical practice of hesychasm, which is itself tied to the asceticism of the Eastern Orthodox, which is in turn, tied to a very un-Reformed view of salvation as the synergistic healing of the nous (which was just damaged in the fall) through the asceticism of the church, rather than as spiritually dead people being saved by God in spite of themselves and through no action of their own.

Have you considered going through The Valley of Vision, perhaps following a daily guide?

Not only do I enjoy and benefit from praying the old Puritan prayers, they also help and encourage me to consistently pray personal prayers.

I understand your point and disagree. But really my intent was to use the BCP in private worship and devotions; the RPW only pertains to corporate worship.

I have a copy of The Valley of Vision which is a collection of devotions and prayers of the Puritans. Some have used it for their own devotions. Would you also consider that inappropriate?

There's also this book about a prayer of a guy named Jabez; I think I should try that out for sure. ;-)

I've actually visited a place like this called The Simple Way in Philadelphia. It's pretty cool to see the work they do as a community of believers living together. There's actually a book about it if anyone cares called The Irresistible Revolution

In the same vein, check out The Holiness of God.

Also, recently coming to terms with the sovereignty of God leads me to believe that you haven't read much Piper. John Piper is one of the greatest Bible teachers alive. His book Desiring God changed my life. Please read it.

Also, Desiring God's website is worth checking every day. Always edifying, soul-nurturing, God-glorifying stuff.

There's one called Leaving the Fold that I haven't read yet but am interested in reading myself. Looks to have good reviews and seems appropriate for my own situation, may also be helpful for yours.

Edit: formatting

This is why it is called Grace. Grace is something that is given, not earned. It is not deserved or it would be called a reward. I highly recommend reading this book from John Piper called Desiring God. It really dives into this concept.

As /u/Kdjsins points out, this deviates a bit from the original question. If you are genuinely interested, I would recommend Lee Strobel's 'Case For Faith' or C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" for a more philosophical perspective.

There is empirical evidence for many faith systems. For example, there is excellent evidence that Buddhism is very beneficial in Palliative Care, because of their understanding of suffering. Likewise, there was a universal belief that Hittites were not a people group and this comprised evidence for the lack of historicity of the Old Testament, until the last century when other documents were found and archeological digs discovered an entire Hittite city. Finding like this (and there are many) are a great point of evidence for the Bible being a historically reliable document.

I am not saying that faith cannot be unfounded, I am saying it is not necessarily unfounded, and in the case of Christianity specifically, it is definitely not unfounded. You can dispute the evidence and any reasoning person should, but you can't deny its existence.

> Does he not find me sexy?
> Obviously I'm not a good enough woman, I can't turn him on
> There must be something wrong with me
> Am I getting fat?
> etc.



Here's the thing some of us have a past where those were the actual problems. Or we had eating disorders. or we were told that we were the ugly sister, or whatever. So those are real questions that we actually need the answer to. Especially if we think we aren't you type if we know who you've dated before.


Clear communication is really important. Sometimes it needs to be repetitive. Anything that you can do to build trust in those situations is important. If we are continually getting rejected, and by someone that we love, that gets really hard on a persons ego. It can take the most confident person and turn them into a pile of quivering sadness.


A good book that talks about this is (and I hate this book but it's really good for perspective on this situation) ["Captivating" by Eldredge] (http://www.amazon.com/Captivating-Revised-Updated-Unveiling-Mystery/dp/1400200385)

EDIT 2: Please don't call this crazy. It's not ok. People in this situation need support and love, not being called "crazy" for trying to figure out what's wrong.

Maybe talking about guidance is a good way into sola scriptura. Everyone (especially a youth group?) wants to know what God wants them to do - so if you work through the principles in a book like this you end up with a strong case for sola scriptura, and you also give them something practical to think about as well - keeping it a sermon, rather than a lecture.

I got a book recently for my birthday called Just Do Something, written by a young pastor named Kevin DeYoung. It does a decent job of arguing that praying for, say, employment, instead of getting up and finding a job, isn't actually Biblical and doesn't fit with God's will for man.

I certainly sympathize if the job market is tough and if your health situation is difficult, and I think it's valid to pray to seek God's will, but if you're actually feeling like you're wasting your life praying for things to happen -- as in, you could have been doing productive things -- then that's something else entirely, and whether or not you're praying to something imaginary, you are wasting your life. We can talk to God all we want in Heaven, but we can only use our body to work in this life.

Get Shorter Christian Prayer and start praying Compline (Night Prayer) -- there's even a book with just Night Prayer in it. Once you get into the habit, add another hour, such as Morning or Evening Prayer. When you get comfortable with this, you may want to get Christian Prayer, which has more page flipping involved.

Or you could pray The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's very simple and lovely. All the hours are the same for each day. There is a slight variation during Advent and Christmas.

I've done both the LOTR and LOBVM. Currently I pray LOBVM's Matins/Lauds every morning and Vespers most evenings. I used to pray Compline, but I haven't done so in a while.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to say the LOBVM Matins/Lauds and about 10-15 mins for Vespers.

Wild at heart and Captivating are about the masculine and feminine roles respectively. They are written by a couple, John and Staci Eldredge. So if you're a guy I'd suggest Wild at Heart but read both of them if you can.

These books have a lot of valuable insights into gender roles, sex, lust, marriage, the growing role of porn, etc. I'd check them out.

> [I] regard Jesus as an enlightened (divine) being the same as a Bodhisattva. Can you make any suggestions for books that will help me to undertand more about Jesus' teachings from this perspective?

I think you'll struggle to understand Jesus from that perspective. A lot of his teachings just won't make sense. You'd be better off approaching him from the perspective of 2nd Temple Judaism, which NT Wright is quite good at explaining http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Christian-Christianity-Makes-Sense/dp/0061920622/

For learning how to do things they should have taught you, I recommend the following:

• for cleaning, unf-ckyourhabitat
  
• for money issues, regardless of your views on religion, Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover
  
• For legal issues, Cornell's Legal Information Institute I use it as a lawyer/investigator.
  
• For auto repair, I found You Tube extremely helpful. Just search the make, model, and year of your vehicle.
  
• For helping me not react to my parents' and brother's bullshit, I have been trying Jon Kabat-Zinn's meditations.
  
• I haven't really found much mental health stuff that's helpful to me out there. I know ASCA (adult survivors of child abuse) has a website, as do a few other groups. Anyone have good suggestions for that?
  

Go read Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. It's fairly short and will completely make you change your mind about how you view God's will.

God doesn't send neon arrows from heaven. He doesn't send THE ONE to our doorstop when we are doing nothing. We are supposed to pray and seek His guidance. We are also supposed to actively pursue the direction we feel led.

It's also a bad idea to think that there is only ONE person for each of us. As long as the person you marry is a Believer and equally yoked, God is good with it.

I would suggest the shorter form of the Divine Office for starters! It can be found on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Shorter-Christian-Prayer-Four-Week-Containing/dp/0899424082.

I personally have loved it.

I'd recommend Psalm 51 as a guide for prayers of confession.

You could also look at The Valley of Vision, which is a collection of Puritan prayers. They could be a good supplement.

Also, there are studies through the prayers of the Bible, such as in The Prayers of the Bible. You could work through something like that, and then use certain ones that impact you from that study.

I'll throw Randy Alcorn's Heaven in the mix. Its a little long winded and has a candid evangelical slant but his attitude agrees with you, if not all of his theology. He emphasizes stewardship as well as pointing out there will be work to do when heaven comes to earth. It won't be all harps, clouds and singing songs.

A few other books you might want to add which fit nicely with the Bible (in no particular order):

• The Satanic Bible
  
  
• The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of Grimm Brothers: The Complete First Edition
  
  
• The Qur'an
  
  
• The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
  
  
• Deities & Demigods (Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 Edition Roleplaying Supplement)
  
  
• How to Practice: The Way of a Meaningful Life
  
  
• Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

If you're interested, I found his book Irresistible Revolution to be a really interesting and entertaining read. He basically tells a series of stories about what life might look like if we took many of Jesus' sayings that are commonly ignored and put them into practice.

While not directly about leadership, I think Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung was the most "leadership inspiring" book I've ever read. Incredibly edifying, and a pretty quick read. It's short, about 100 pages iirc, so I'm not sure if that would fulfill your time requirement.

Thank you friend.

It was inspired by reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution

Actually, this format box on Amazon might be the solution. I remember having this problem with Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard because there were two different Penguin Classics covers. The format box seems to show the distinction between the one with the portrait of Kierkegaard (http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Trembling-Soren-Kierkegaard/dp/B000K1PPZO/ref=tmm_pap_title_9) and the one with the painting (http://www.amazon.com/Trembling-Penguin-Classics-Soren-Kierkegaard/dp/0140444491/ref=tmm_pap_title_4). Thanks very much for the help!

The St. Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer really won't be of much help since it is for Christian Prayer and OP is using Shorter Christian Prayer. If I was ambitious I would put together a short .pdf guide for Shorter Christian Prayer for Lent next year, since that seems to be when everyone gets interested.

"Thank you for sharing that reading with me earlier. I also have some reading I was hoping we could sit down and look at." http://www.amazon.com/God-Gay-Christian-Biblical-Relationships/dp/1601425163

Sorry your parents are being jerks. Hopefully they'll come around.

Two experts come to mind:

Dr. Marlene Winell specializes in what she calls Religious Trauma Syndrome and wrote the book Leaving the Fold about recovering psychologically from fundamentalism. I also like her articles on the website Journey Free.

Dr. Valerie Tarico is great, too. Loved her book Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light.

Both are former evangelicals but get pretty deep into analyzing the effects of their learned patterns; their work is well-researched and insightful, perhaps more on the social sciences side than what you were asking for.

Can I suggest a book or two? I just finished this one:. It answers a lot of questions and is a really good "primer" on non-sectarian Buddhism.

Also, the Dalai Lama's How To Practice is not bad and is a good intro to Tibetan Buddhism, if that's your thing.

I have never had the pleasure of hearing him in person, but I have read The Irresistible Revolution which is a worthwhile read if you ever get the chance.

Thanks for this... will definitely check out more.

I have been reading this book... it is geared more to conservative evangelicals but I think there is much overlap... Of course it doesn't get into the details of the JW org, though. https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Fold-Marlene-Winell/dp/1933993235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492974859&sr=8-1&keywords=leaving+the+fold

I recommend the divine office, a.k.a. the Liturgy of the Hours. Mainly because praying Morning, Evening and Night Prayers tend to keep you through the day. If you add a rosary somewhere to that, you'll be in good shape. Here's an online link: http://www.divineoffice.org.

and of course /r/divineoffice

Good resources, but I'd recommend picking up a copy of this:

http://www.amazon.ca/Shorter-Christian-National-Conference-Catholi/dp/0899424082/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411429333&sr=1-2&keywords=shorter+christian+prayer

...because it has Morning, Evening and Night prayer and you don't need to go online. Just avoid going online as much as possible, if you know where it's going to head when you do.

This, confession, and jogging.

Part 3: Book recommendations:

If you want to dig deep into this topic, here are some book recommendations. Perhaps you would want to read N.T. Wright's Christian Origins and the Question of God series (this is very heavy, scholarly reading). N.T. Wright is the foremost scholar on the New Testament and this is possibly the most thorough literature on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and the Apostle Paul:

https://www.logos.com/product/37361/christian-origins-and-the-question-of-god-series

Anything by N.T. Wright is well worth reading (Simply Christian and Surprised by Hope would be good introductions). Likewise, anything by Ravi Zacharias.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona: https://www.amazon.ca/Case-Resurrection-Jesus-Gary-Habermas/dp/0825427886

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Nabeel-Qureshi/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ANabeel%20Qureshi

No God But One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi: https://www.amazon.com/God-but-One-Investigates-Christianity/dp/0310522552/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517050609&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27%3ANabeel+Qureshi

On Guard by William Lane Craig: https://www.amazon.ca/Guard-William-Lane-Craig/dp/1434764885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526542104&sr=8-1&keywords=on+guard+william+lane+craig

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel: https://www.amazon.ca/Case-Christ-Journalists-Personal-Investigation/dp/0310339308

Bonus reading: Heaven by Randy Alcorn: https://www.amazon.ca/Heaven-Randy-Alcorn/dp/0842379428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526542237&sr=1-1&keywords=randy+alcorn+heaven

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: https://www.amazon.ca/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926

Read anything by G.K. Chesterton, especially, The Everlasting Man


Answers to Common Objections and Questions:

Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins: http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/jesus-resurrection-and-christian-origins/

The Evidence for Jesus: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/jesus-of-nazareth/the-evidence-for-jesus/

The Resurrection of Jesus: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/jesus-of-nazareth/the-resurrection-of-jesus/

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ as Christianity's Centerpiece: http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/The_Resurrection_of_Jesus_Christ_as_Christianitys_Centerpiece_FullArticle?fbclid=IwAR0oE22vtBvR2u--R78tSyW-51OpIbWBfWDNH2Ep8miBc9W6uUJMwMsz0yk

Origin, Meaning, Morality and Destiny: http://rzim.org/just-thinking/think-again-deep-questions/

Accompanying video to the link above: Why is Christianity True?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5qJPZySo7A

How Do You Know Christianity Is the One True Way of Living? | Abdu Murray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ze_SVg-0E&app=desktop

What makes Christianity unique among the world’s religions? Verifiability is a Christian Distinctive: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/verifiability-is-a-christian-distinctive/

Is Jesus God? (Feat. Craig, Strobel, Habermas, Licona, Qureshi...): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dLoKCyDDAg&app=desktop

How Can Understanding Eyewitness Testimony Help Us Evaluate the Gospels?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tCDDsPXQSQ&app=desktop

Historical Evidence for the Resurrection - Can a Scientist Believe in the Resurrection? - Nabeel Qureshi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hD7w1Uja2o

‪Questioning Jesus: Critically Considering Christian Claims with Dr. Nabeel Qureshi‬: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UpuEDp4ObA

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? | Yale 2014 | William Lane Craig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NAOc6ctw1s&app=desktop

Historical Resurrection of Christ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Dc01HVlaM

‪Are The New Testament Documents Historically Credible?: ‬https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgdsIaqFAp4

Are the Gospels Accurate?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxrDy_G8h88

(Answer to the common objection: ‘the gospels are anonymous’)
Gospel Authorship—Who Cares?: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P40/gospel-authorshipwho-cares

What is the Evidence That Jesus Appeared Alive After His Death?: https://youtu.be/96WIa3pZISE

On Extra-Biblical Sources for Jesus' Post-Mortem Appearances: https://youtu.be/-Dbx7PPIIsQ

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead Or Was It A Hoax By His Followers?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aELRKdxV7Wk

Follow up to the previous video: ‪Did Jesus rise from the dead, or was it hallucinations by his followers?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29224I3x_M0&feature=youtu.be‬

‪Did the Disciples Invent the Resurrection?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHUWsNDPZc‬

‪‬Facts to show the Resurrection is not fiction, by William Lane Craig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AduPVkqbis

‪‬Did Paul actually see the risen Jesus, or did he simply have some sort of vision?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNdynwqtWI&t

What Do You Mean By ‘Literal?’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQpFosrTUk

Evidence For Jesus' Resurrection: https://youtu.be/4iyxR8uE9GQ?t=1s

Death, Resurrection and Afterlife: https://youtu.be/HXAc_x_egk4?t=1s

Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?: https://youtu.be/KnkNKIJ_dnw?t=1s

4 Historical Facts That Prove Jesus Really Did Rise From The Dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmKg62GDqF4

‪What About Pre-Christ Resurrection Myths?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrCYVk6xrXg‬

Jesus and Pagan Mythology: Is Jesus A Copied Myth or Real Person?: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/jesus-and-pagan-mythology/

Zeitgeist - Is Jesus A Myth: https://alwaysbeready.com/zeitgeist-the-movie

Did Greco-Roman myths influence the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pt9rlG7ABo&app=desktop

‪Does the Resurrection Require Extraordinary Evidence?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLN30A0vmlo‬

Moral Argument For God’s Existence: How Can A Good God Allow Evil? Does Life Have Meaning?: https://youtu.be/it7mhQ8fEq0

‪Are there Inconsistencies Between the Four Gospels?: https://youtu.be/sgdsIaqFAp4‬

‪Why Are There Differences in the Resurrection Accounts?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtz2lVGmXFI‬

Don't the Gospels Contradict One Another?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gt9kCwttVY

Why Differences Between the Gospels Demonstrate Their Reliability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zimP8m3_hCk

Why the Gospels Can Differ, Yet Still Be Reliable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An5wU2hxIfM

Four Reasons the New Testament Gospels Are Reliable: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2015/four-reasons-the-new-testament-gospels-are-reliable/

Find Contradictions in the Bible All You Want: https://www.thepoachedegg.net/2019/05/apologetics-find-contradictions-in-the-bible-all-you-want.html

The Case for the Historicity and Deity of Jesus: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/the-case-for-the-historicity-and-deity-of-jesus/

Bart Ehrman is one of the world's most renowned ancient historians/New Testament scholars, and he is an atheist. Listen to what he has to say on the matter of Jesus' existence: ‪The Historical Jesus DID Exist - Bart Ehrman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mDuIN5-ww‬

‪Bart D Ehrman About the Historical Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6U6TJ4cwSo‬

Extra-Biblical evidence: In addition to the gospel accounts and the letters from the Apostle Paul, we have sources outside the New Testament with references to Jesus in the writings of Josephus, Tacitus, Thallus, the Jewish Talmud, etc:

http://coldcasechristianity.com/2017/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/

Is There Extrabiblical Evidence About Jesus' Life?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzP0Kz9eT_U&app=desktop

How do we know Jesus was really who he said he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ksvhHEoMLM&app=desktop


YouTube Channels to browse:

William Lane Craig - ReasonableFaithOrg: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReasonableFaithOrg?app=desktop

drcraigvideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/drcraigvideos?app=desktop

Ravi Zacharias - Ravi Zacharias International Ministries: https://www.youtube.com/user/rzimmedia?app=desktop

J. Warner Wallace - Cold-Case Christianity with J. Warner Wallace: https://www.youtube.com/user/pleaseconvinceme/featured?disable_polymer=1

The Bible Project: https://www.youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject

Unbelievable?: https://www.youtube.com/user/PremierUnbelievable

David Wood - Acts17Apologetics: https://www.youtube.com/user/Acts17Apologetics

Nabeel Qureshi - NQMinistries: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCepxnLs6GWAxAyI8m2U9s7A/featured?disable_polymer=1

Randy Alcorn - Eternal Perspective Ministries with Randy Alcorn: https://www.youtube.com/user/eternalperspectives?app=desktop

Frank Turek - Cross Examined: https://www.youtube.com/user/TurekVideo

Brian Holdsworth: https://www.youtube.com/user/holdsworthdesign

If you really want to learn a lot about the differences, go to YouTube and start listening to Steve Ray and read his book Crossing the Tiber. I have a friend who grew up in the Church of the Bible and they switched the Catholicism. He said this book along with listening to Steve Ray, and another book called Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating really helped him understand Catholicism when he was still surrounded by Protestant friends.

haha I did it despite Steve Ray trying to convince me not to.

Your 3 purposes for sexuality make a lot of sense - especially in light of proverbs and song of solomon. Thank you very much!

As to your point about the Roman Catholic Church having too narrow a view of sexuality, do you think that is somewhat a result of the influences of gnostic thinking? Throughout my upbringing in studying the saints and R.C.C. teaching, gnosticism seems to pop up over and over again. For example, Augustine's view of sexuality.

Here are some books I recommend. Some are free on kindle. Check out a library. They will have these books.

Read the 4 Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Just read them.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-St-Augustine-Saint-ebook/dp/B00AQM75SC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408113491&sr=8-2&keywords=st+augustine+confessions

http://www.amazon.com/Aquinass-Shorter-Summa-Thomass-Theologica/dp/1928832431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408113525&sr=8-1&keywords=st+thomas+aquinas

http://www.amazon.com/When-Church-Was-Young-Fathers-ebook/dp/B00LWIU1EE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-2&keywords=early+church

http://www.amazon.com/Orthodoxy-Moody-Classics-Gilbert-Chesterton-ebook/dp/B00DEUQ9GW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408113746&sr=8-1&keywords=gk+chesterton

http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-Lewis-Signature-Classics-ebook/dp/B002BD2UR0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1408113766&sr=8-3&keywords=cs+lewis

http://www.amazon.com/The-Screwtape-Letters-C-Lewis/dp/0060652934/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1408113766&sr=8-4&keywords=cs+lewis

Great book. I'm reading Bachelor's latest Confession of a Buddhist Atheist and having like moments. He's a stellar teacher.

New Evidence that Demands a Verdict

More Than a Carpenter

Cold Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels On my to read list.

Faith on Trial: An Attorney Analyzes the Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus

The Case for Christ

The Case for Faith

The Case for a Creator

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus On my to read list.

The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ On my to read list.

Besides the apologetics books, you can watch John Lennox on YouTube. He is a very well-spoken and kind (doesn't attack the other debater) debater. Very well thought out responses. The Dawkins vs Lennox debate was awesome! Ditto Gary Habermas as well.

I don't know of any AA type groups, but I know there are meet up groups in various places, especially Utah.

Also, the psychologist who coined the term Religious Trauma Syndrome came up with this workbook to help people with the transition: Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933993235/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_rQ5HDbTQVQ4X2

I'm considering giving it a shot. Maybe it could help you?

If I were absolutely convinced of it, yes. I doubt I will ever have an Abraham-type experience though. My favorite book on the matter: http://www.amazon.com/Trembling-Penguin-Classics-Soren-Kierkegaard/dp/0140444491

Beautiful quote :-)

As a reference, it was Shantideva who wrote this in the The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara)

A book that helped me a lot was “Leaving the Fold”

Good luck on your journey!

I think that this will give you a basic overview better than I ever could

For further reading (if your honestly interested) I'd suggest:

• Bible, Gender, Sexuality
  
• God and the Gay Christian (This one is written by a man who self-identifies as 'conservative' if that seems more up your alley)

Leaving the Fold

Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists

Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

Why I Am Not a Muslim

Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships

In Search of the Light: The Adventures of a Parapsychologist

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

This book combined with both you’re husband’s full cooperation and being dedicated to financial discipline may be helpful.

The Case for Christ (the [book][1], although the [film][2] adaptation wasn't horrible) and Cold Case Christianity would probably be good reads for you.

Case for Christ was written by an investigative journalist and legal editor for the Chicago Tribune. It details his transition from Atheism to Christianity, and how his attempt to debunk Christianity lead to him coming to Christ.

Cold Case Christianity was written by a detective who solved a number of high-profile cold cases. He has a similar story, as his book details his conversion from Atheism to Christianity through the use of cold-case investigation techniques.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0310345863/

[2]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6113488/

Padmakara Translation Group revised edition for the translation: https://www.amazon.com/Way-Bodhisattva-Bodhicaryavatara-Shambhala-Classics/dp/1590303881/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518685960&sr=1-1&keywords=bodhisattva


The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech for a traditional and detailed commentary https://www.amazon.com/Nectar-Manjushris-Speech-Shantidevas-Bodhisattva-ebook/dp/B005LQYQJO/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518685934&sr=1-5


If you want a lighter commentary maybe the Dalai Lama's, or Pema Chodron's.

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche also has a great video series/course on it: https://bodhicharya.org/teachings/courses/bodhicharyavatara/

you should consider giving up on 'religion'... i hate the term, and what it's become. I agree with your perception of 'religion' atleast from this perspective.

I consider myself christian, but don't believe in the pope at all. In fact, where I go to church... the pastors dress just like I do... jeans and a button up shirt. They're nothing special, they're just trying to point you towards the one who is 'special'.

try reading The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical