This is a defense of our Catholic faith that is taking place on our Catholic Brothers For Christ Youtube account where we posted the videos from the 2015 North Texas Catholic Men’s Conference. Father Larry Richards’ “Be A Man” video seems to be causing quite a bit of controversy.
25EllisDee25 response to +Catholic Brothers For Christ: “Sorry it took so long to Sorry it took so long to” no hurry. life gets hectic. youtube is low on my list of priorities. the comments wait, unless they disappear due to high traffic or downvotes. “Ultimately, without God giving you the gift of faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, atheism is your best choice.” why do you assume i have not experienced these things? i was raised in a large irish catholic family. went to a catholic school until grade 9. was an altar boy around grades 5 and 6…ive had the hold spirit experience. more than once. it was just like everyone describes. but the faith thing? god knows i tried. for years. but in the back of my mind, it just all seemed wrong somehow. you know that feeling morpheus talks to neo about in the matrix? that
feeling that something just wasn’t right? have you ever felt it? when you look into the vacant eyes, and vapid smiles of the congregation? even the words they used would make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. words like RECTORY. egad. what a horrifyingly apropos word. even words like eucharist gave me the willies. ok, ralph. time to wake up. ive been there, right where you. many atheists have. we recovered. we broke the spell. it is a hoax. brainwashing, mindcontrol, whatever. i asked you the other day what you would do if i showed you proof. you of course laughed it off like i had offered you a free pass to teleport to the north pole and take a tour of santa’s workshop. i didnt say i had the proof, mind you. i asked you a what-if question, and again, you conveniently overlooked answering it. why is that? could it be, you have been conditioned to not even THINK about the possibility of god not existing? i dont often ask rhetorical questions.
+Catholic Brothers For Christ response to +25EllisDee25: I have followed a similar walk. After being raised Catholic, I turned from the Church away because of the guilt caused by my sins of masturbation and desire to have as much sex as possible with willing female accomplices. I did not want anyone, especially representatives of a religion, telling me that I could not fully experience all the pleasures of life in whatever abundance I could achieve.
So because I wanted complete freedom to do whatever I wanted, I dumped God and his Church to become an avowed atheist. Unfortunately, atheism is not the panacea or cornucopia I thought it would be.
Unlimited sex with many women, the best drugs and most awesome material possessions were very gratifying for a while. But, soon, to get the same level of initial enjoyment, I needed greater quantities and diversity of each. The more I had, the more I wanted. My appetite was insatiable. It was not long after I became jaded to pleasure.
Then hopelessness set in. As an atheist, with pleasure as my focus, there was not enough in the world to fill my lust for pleasurable experiences. With no eternity to anticipate, life was pretty meaningless. If pleasure was all there was in a life of being totally self-centered and focused on personal gratification, it fell far short of my original expectations.
As far as the what-if question, there was no reason to answer. There is no proof to support atheism, just as there is no concrete proof that God exists.
Atheism is closest to being your own god but denies the existence of the real God. Most of Islam is based Koran which has a foundation in the scriptures. Those who follow Islam and any other religion can enjoy eternal life as long as they follow the conscience God places in every heart, even atheists. The Catholic Church teaches that if a person follows the conscience God gives each of us, we can be saved.
All religions require faith and many demand blind allegiance. However, God gives us free will and the desire to understand ourselves and lives with the scope of our inability to have much impact on the vast universe.
I know because I searched endlessly for the truth when I was an atheist. I was desperate to make sense of the ups and downs of life. I could find only subjective truth with no meaning other than what I could provide from my own experiences. It can be pretty frightening when you are god and you have to take credit for everything, both good and bad.
As an atheist, life has little value because it is all about you. It is a lonely existence. You are buffeted by the tidal waves of life without any way to find value or meaning in the suffering we all experience.
As god in your own universe, everything is up to you. You have no excuse for anything. The ball is always in you court. The endless self-rule was oppressive.
When a dear friend I respected shared his conversion story with me, the Holy Spirit filled my soul and opened my heart. I repented of my sins and experienced a true personal relationship with Jesus. Everything changed instantly. I found a reason for existence and purpose.
Now my eternal goal is to know, love and serve God by loving and serving every person God places into my life. If I can help only one other person come to have a saving relationship with Jesus, my life is a success. The forgiveness of my sins was the relief of a huge burden that was weighing down my spirit.