The biggest challenges to my faith/Faith are rationalization and reason, materialism, and suffering in the world. As a culture, we are drawn away from faith/Faith by atheism, dehumanization, and scientism.
Rationalizing and reason both present challenges to my faith/Faith. I reason things with faulty premises but then rationalize my false conclusion to justify it. For example, say every time I let someone use my pen I expect to get it back, but they always take it. I might reason that every time I give my pen away, I shouldn’t expect to get it back. So if I want to keep my pens, I shouldn’t lend them out to people. Then the next time someone asks to borrow a pen, I’ll say no and rationalize with this reasoning. Even if that person really would have given it back that time. I lose faith in other people to give my pens back because of a limited experience and using this to rationalize my distrust.
Materialism is constantly drawing me away from God. I always want more things even if I don’t need them. I allow these things to get in the way of letting God become a major part of my life. I could use the money I spend on other things which actually matter, such as helping others who are in need or donating it. I shouldn’t let my want for material things on earth get in the way of my eternal life after death. But the immediate gratification in me wants these things, so I go get them. I need to step back at what I’m getting and ask myself I really need to get it. There isn’t anything wrong with getting nice things, but it’s when it grabs such a hold of you that it’s all you think about.
Seeing suffering in the world is the biggest challenge to my Faith. It is always hard for me to believe in an all loving God when I see and hear about so much suffering in the world. People are starving, dying from diseases, there are hurricanes which destroy cities leaving so many people without homes, and there are wars where hundreds of thousands of people die. These people aren’t bad people, and they don’t deserve the suffering they have to bear, but it still exists. This became a huge detriment to my Faith when I experienced it first hand with my dad and my family. But what helps me get through it is to realize that God is there suffering with us, and He is always sending other good people o help. There were countless numbers of people who would help us; it was amazing. God does not want u to suffer. But it is part of our condition, so He is right next to us helping us get through it.
I get too wrapped up in material goods and
lose sight of what's really important.
picture from this site
Our culture has become far removed from Faith in God. Our government can’t even mention His name it seems without being attacked. Atheism can be a major challenge to our faith. It presents some very convincing arguments, and if we do not already have a strong Faith, we may lose ours all together. Also, practical atheism is n easy way out for people. They say they believe in God to make themselves feel better, but He has no role in their life at all. They get distracted by societal values, especially the advertising we are bombarded with today, dehumanizing us by turning us into products which companies try to sell us. Companies start selling a symbol rather than the product itself and it appeals to us. Scientism can also be a big challenge to our faith because it often seems to directly contradict religious beliefs. Especially today with all the technological advances, we are discovering new things which answer old questions which used to be explained using religion. It almost seems that science is starting to take the place of religion and Faith. But science deals with empirical knowledge, the physical world. God transcends our physical world though. He works through our physical world, but He is not part of it. Science cannot even attempt to explain something that does not exist in the field it deals with.