Challenges to Faith: Web Assignment
Challenges to my faith
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There are many challenges to my Faith in God that I confront everyday, but the major challenges to my Faith are the challenges I need to overcome to remain devout to God. Major challenges to my Faith in my life are Atheism, scientism, dehumanization and the media, peer pressure, and an overall busy lifestyle. First and foremost, Atheism serves as a great challenge to my Faith, mainly because Atheism denounces the very God whom I put my Faith in to. Atheism suggests that there is no God, no objective values, and no Heaven. Atheists don't believe in God because he is a mystery and is unproven. Atheists maintain that there is no evidence to support His existence. As a human possessing reason, thoughts that there is no evidence or proof of God have naturally crossed my mind. At those times, I seem to drift toward the Atheist way of thinking, which in itself is challenging my belief and Faith in God. Furhtmore, the Atheist belief in relative morality and values challenges my Faith, because relative morality seems to exist in different parts of the world. I believe in tolerance, and it is a fact the some native tribes practice ritual cannibalism. Even though this is wrong in mymind, I tolerate the fact that they live and believe in different ways that I do. However, if I truly do have Faith, then I should be able to overcome the arguments and beliefs of Atheism, and up to this point in my life I believe that I have succeeded.
Another challenge to my Faith in God is scientism. Scientists and scientism seek to learn about and explain the unknown, such as creation and God. I've always supported science, and am thannkful for all it has accomplished, but there have been times when scientific hypothesis have challenged my Faith. Science has discovered a separate explanation of how humans exist, this explanation being Darwinism and evolution. Although this challenges my Faith in God by asserting that he didn't create us, I have to admit that evolution makes sense, and that I do not fundamentally believe in the Creation Story. However, I do believe that God is the basis of our existance. Although science seeks to explain the unknown, such and God, and challenges my Faith with its arguments, I believe that it is impossible for a human to disprove God.
Dehumaniation, consumerism, and the media serve as challenges to my Faith that don't necessarily deal or challenge God directly, but nonetheless challenge my Faith in God. The media and consumerism aim to exploit me as a person, in order to cause me to conform to an advertised ideal and buy a product. In many cases, ads push and pressure people to smoke, drink, party, and have sex, and there is rarely, if any, God present in ads. I see such ads and sometimes wish that I could do those things, but sin comes to my mind. My conscience battles advertising, and my conscience usually wins. Nevertheless, ads often challenge me to not worry about God and act in a non-Catholic manner, which tempts my Faith. Moreover, the media and consumeration dehumanize us, and take away the gift of humanity that God gave to us. Dehumanization often causes people to live without religion and not think for themselves, which challenegs my Faith in God to remain true to him. Dehumanization also relates to another chalenge to my Faith, peer pressure.
As a teenager, there is a lot of pressure from classmates and friends to be cool, and coolness can come in terms of prejudice, alcohol, sex, drugs, and apathy. Much of peer pressure comes with an abcence of God, so it challenges me to sin, conform, and live without God, or contrary to His will. Thus, peer pressure dehumanizes me and challenges my committment to God and my Faith in Him.
Finally, I believe that my busy life is a challenge to my Faith. As a SLUH junior and athlete, I am required to do my best, and doing so takes practice, time, and training. When I'm not doing schoolwork, I am training for footall, and after training, I try to relax with music, computer, or television. I try to go to mass every Saturday, but that is sometimes difficult, and I work on Sundays, and immediately do homework afterwards. Due to such a busy life, I don't make the effort to pray or thinik about God all the time, and can not go to Church consistantly. This business slightly separates me from God, not through sin, but through lack of thought. However, I do make an effort to go to Church, and pray and examine myself during the Examen, but nonetheless I am sometimes too busy for God in a literal sense and this challenges my Faith.