Agnostics, Atheists, and the Next Life

Now that I’m over 60 years of age, I think I have some knowledge of people.

More than 30 years ago, my father used to say that he was a student of human nature. Naturally, being in my twenties, I scoffed at his pronouncement. I probably didn’t even have a reason to doubt what he said. When you’re in your teens and twenties, you doubt whatever is said by anyone older than you … unless they’re famous and long dead.

Of course, it turned out that I became what I consider a student of human nature. Anyone older than 50 has had experience with many personalities. Most of us absorb and contemplate — even on a subconscious level — what we’ve seen and learned about people.

And, what I cannot comprehend is how people can not accept that we have a Creator –– a power far more immense than we are –– and, especially, an afterlife.

I understand that people may think that they are smarter than the “sheeple” who follow a faith, especially if they were raised to think that this current existence is everything and that there is nothing afterwards.

But, if these same people open their eyes to everything that surrounds them and everything their bodies can do, isn’t there a shred of wonderment?

When a loved one dies and they see butterflies plunge into their faces, cardinals appear in their yards, birds hovering nearby, light flashes in their homes, electronics or electricity acting oddly, or feel pinches on their bodies, don’t they at least wonder?

Why would someone be so close-minded as to deny hope? I guess that’s what I wonder about the most.

I just wish people who don’t believe in an afterlife had hope. If this is all that there is, there are times when you’re tempted to give up. But if you look around for proof of an afterlife and find it, then you’ll know that this is just a trial period. When you start a new job, you realize that you’re on probation for a certain amount of time, and you plough through, trying not to think about it, but doing your best so that you’ll be kept on permanently.

That’s what I consider this life to be. No matter how great a life someone else seems to have, he or she is undergoing huge trials. We may not know about their problems, but none of us get through this life without experiencing pain. Doesn’t it make sense to think that it’s all for a purpose? Otherwise, some of us would skate through life. But nobody does.

And, whether you believe in an afterlife or not, you have to believe that your behavior affects others. As a person of faith, I have learned that nothing is more important than love. As trite as that sounds, it just means to consider and respect others, even if you don’t understand them or like them.

I’ve found that the people I know who have no faith in God or an afterlife still want to be good people. I suspect that they just want to contribute positively to the future, which is an admirable desire. I just wish they knew that they were also contributing to their future in the next life.

But, maybe they are not ready to acknowlege that. There’s always the next life.

This Week Doesn’t Count

The time between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day doesn’t count … according to a close friend. I am more than happy to agree with her. Of course, I know that the day of reckoning will come soon enough on January 2. But having a respite is nice. It’ll be short-lived, but I hope I’ll enjoy the time while it lasts.

The thing is, time is elastic. It can be short, or it can be excruciatingly long. Or it can be both. I think back on terrible times and they seem like they occurred yesterday, or years ago when they actually happened. Happy times have the same elasticity, too. I’ve often wondered about the veracity of quantum physics, but I don’t know enough about it to understand how it works. So, I’ve decided to believe in it, like faith.

So much in life is based on faith, like love and like God. I know many people who are fervent believers in God, but the majority of the United States thinks it is too educated to believe in a higher power. I wonder why. If they believe in love (which can’t be seen), why can’t they believe in God (who is also love)?

As is often quoted, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” why don’t desperate people turn to God? Even if you don’t believe in God, why wouldn’t you beg Him for what you need when you have nowhere else to turn? Even if you’re denied your request, what have you lost? But, if you receive what you asked for, will you write it off as luck, or a coincidence? It’s up to you to believe or not. God give us all the chance to believe. It’s totally up to us.

Moving On

“In my opinion,” Karen said, ” Atheists are idiots.”

“I don’t think you should say that in public,” I said.

“I’m not in public, for the love of God,” Karen said. “I’m in your damn kitchen and I can say what I want.”

“Of course you can,” I said.

“I am so tired of everyone saying that God doesn’t exist, when it’s so obvious He does.”

“I know,” I said. “Every prayer I’ve ever said has been answered, and sometimes the answer was ‘No,’ or ‘Later,’ but it was always, without a doubt, answered. But why are you hung up on Atheists, right now?”

“Because I posted ‘Thank God’ on someone’s Facebook page when she said she was cancer-free, and someone responded, ‘No, thank the surgeon.’ Excuse me, but the surgeon was the facilitator, but God make it happen.”

“You and I believe that,” I said, “but a lot of people don’t.”

Karen shook her head, and lifted her wine glass. “But, how can they not see that God exists?”

“You know,” I responded, lifting my own glass,  “I don’t know, either. We were raised with a belief in God but many weren’t.”

“But, how can they not see God in their lives?

I had to think. “Well, if you weren’t told that God existed when you were young, how would you even know about him?”

“I totally get it,” Karen said. “But once you became a thinking person, wouldn’t you realize that there was something greater than you that created everything?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s a great belief among many people that we evolved into what we are, and will turn back into nothing.”

More to come …

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Become Childlike So As To Enter the Kingdom of God

I didn’t want to join our church’s Bible study for women. I always thought Bible study was something Protestants did, especially Born Again Christians.

It’s rare to hear a Catholic quote Scripture, whereas it’s obligatory to memorize Bible passages in many Protestant religions.

Evangelism isn’t high on the list of Catholics, either. Whenever I go to Ohio and am asked if I’m saved (at least several times a day if you venture outside of your house), I know I’m not being addressed by a Catholic.

Why are Catholics so reluctant to proclaim their faith to all, regardless of whether they’ve been asked or not?

Maybe if we read the Bible more, we’d see that spreading the Good News is what we’re supposed to be doing, according to St. Paul. It probably says so elsewhere, too, but I haven’t gotten too far in my study of the Bible.

Anyway, back to my Bible study group: I didn’t want to join. I didn’t want it thought that I was a Bible-thumping zealot, because I’m not. My faith is quiet. I like to think that I live my faith instead of shout it, but that’s not even close to the truth. I don’t live it. I go to church weekly and pray at night. Once in awhile I give a dollar to a homeless person or do a good deed. But nobody would ever think to emulate me because I was such a good Catholic/Christian. Most wouldn’t even know that I was Catholic. I had been fooling myself.

Tonight, at Bible study, we learned that Jesus said that if were embarrassed by him on Earth, then he’d be embarrassed by us in Heaven. That hit home.

I believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I just don’t proclaim them. Why? Because I fear being patronized, condescended to, or outright ridiculed by those who think they’re too intelligent to accept what they can’t see. These people claim that only simple, uneducated, or dim-witted “sheeple” are attracted to religion because they can’t think for themselves. These self-proclaimed intelligentsia are rather high and mighty about their belief –– or rather, non-belief.

I think that’s one of the reasons Catholics don’t shout their faith from mountaintops. We don’t want our faith to be sullied or ridiculed. And we don’t want to be ostracized or thought of as being not bright enough to think for ourselves. We think for ourselves, and we know that God is real. And we know that the reason we’re here is to work our way back to Heaven, where we came from.

Jesus said those who lose their life for him will gain their life. I don’t think He meant we had to actually die –– although He didn’t rule that out. I believe He meant we had to either die for him physically or spiritually, i.e., get ridiculed and condemned in His name, if necessary, in order to get to Heaven.

This blog post will never end if I write about everything I’ve discovered about myself, and how my faith has grown, from attending the very classes that I fought to escape from.

And perhaps this will be the first post of many on the subject. I have resolved to talk about God from now on. I am not ashamed of Him and I can’t fear the reactions of flawed humans and dismiss the desires of my unflawed God.

The most important thing I discovered, I discovered tonight. We had read that Jesus said we had to become child-like to get into Heaven. I had heard this many times. If I thought about it all, I just thought it meant that we have to become innocent and trusting and have faith. But tonight, a woman in our group said that God was our father, and just like when we were children and held our own fathers’ hands and were filled with trust and peace, we need to hold God the Father’s hand, and know that He will take charge and take away our worries. He knows where we need to go and he’ll take us there safely. We only have to have utter trust in Him.

Quite truthfully, that blew my mind. It made so much sense. God is our father. If we get out of the way, He will put us on the right path. There will be challenges and struggles, but we only need to give them to Him. He’ll help us get through our darkest days and bring us out the other end to the light. How we act during the hard times will be a testament to our faith. If we accept God’s grace and travel through the worst days with faith, instead of beating our breasts and crying out about the injustice of it all, then we will be acting as God wants us to act.

And He will not abandon us. We need to trust that God has a solution to every problem we bring him. That’s what we did when we were little. We can do it when we’re not so little, too. Only this time, the Father we bring our problems to is all-powerful, knows what is right for us, and will help us prevail.

It’ll all make sense one day. In the meantime, we just have to believe.

 

 

Holy ….Water!

The other day while ice skating (for the first time in 30 years), I fell on my right side and sprained my hand and wrist. The top of my right hand was grayish-blue and swollen. My wrist was slightly swollen and painful.

Today, after Mass, I went to the holy water dish in our church and liberally doused the top of my hand with holy water. In front of my eyes, the color returned to normal and the swelling went away. I could see the bones in my hand again.

I was marveling at the miraculous recovery of my hand in the car, on the way home. I showed my husband and he said that my hand looked normal again but my wrist was still swollen. I agreed and said that it still ached, too. Then I remembered that I hadn’t applied the holy water to my wrist at all. I’m going back to church to finish the job.

Have faith and look for little miracles in your life. They’re God’s way of showing you that He’s with you, even if He didn’t grant your wish to win the lottery. After all, God’s not a genie.