St. Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe.”

I'm a simple person. I practice the sacraments and pray the rosary daily and haven't experienced doubt of God since I became Catholic. When I was an atheist I was riddled with doubt, my monkey-brain wasn't calm. I have let go of that completely by the grace of God and my guardian angel. I no longer over-analyze or marinate in deep and complex theological or secular ideas as I don't see the point of it. Not saying there isn't a place for it for others...just that there is no place for it within me, it wasn't productive or spiritually edifying for me.

Love Plato!

“Love has reasons of which reason does not know.” -Pascal Not to throw out this wonderful conversation - the Catholic tradition of philosophy (heck I’ll even throw Kant a bone!) is entirely fascinating - but truly the mystery of life does not begin to speak until we acknowledge Jesus lifted up on the cross drawing all men to Himself in an act of supreme love. Great video, praying for your ministry!

This was perfect timing. I have really been doubting myself and my belief. I needed this!

I always remember that wishful thinking always CUTS BOTH WAYS. Atheists too can have MANY underlying motives for wanting God to not exist. So no point in overly-psychologizing each other or ourselves.

I really appreciate this discussion. Our world is starving for the encounter with God both personal and intellectual. I have encountered God in a very direct way many times in my life and sadly, to my great shame, I have fallen away from God wandered and confused unable to resolve the world and faith, only to run right back into the God that cannot be denied and pursues us in love. It was not until God revealed that I was meant to be a Catholic, all my life, and was directed to that end did I find the connective parts of my theology that completed me. It was like a whole universe of reason, completion and truth was revealed in the Catholic faith. I was like so moved and moved by how I found the consistent and powerful truths of life in the faith. It is not that my life became perfect, it was that I could see the perfect God who created me and in his Son my redeemer a universe whole and wonderous and my path became straight and the goal more knowable and resolute in my heart, to journey to God, with God. Keep teaching, keep talking, the world is dying from a lack of these beautiful conversations. Peace be with you

Maaaaan I have been dealing with this exact thing for a while now. Could not have come at a better time

Wow. Needed this. Glad to hear someone better explain what i myself have been thru and go thru

so this is clearly a common thing to worry about - but what i cannot believe is the TIMING of this video. i've been thinking about this for the past few days!!

I literally just prayed for God to guide me and quell some of my doubts. I literally just spoke to Him about my own questions surrounding my reason, and whether the last year and a half in my life coming to know Him has just been one of my new “obsessions”, or that I actually just want to live the Christian life due to external reasons. This video in my feed is itself proof to the contrary. Thank you for this!

wow and here I am thinking I'm the only one, just never able to articulate it this well. Thank you Matt, this has helped me so much

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world-to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37

Man says "Show me, and I 'll trust you." God says " Trust me, and I'll show you."

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

I think I’m as far from the life state(s), worldview and opinions of these two men as it’s possible to get. I’ve never related to religion in any sense whatsoever. Ever since I was a little kid, I can remember attempts at praying to or contacting God and the feeling of emptiness I always received in return. Even as a child I never believed in Christianity, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to define myself as an atheistic Buddhist-a lifelong atheist who nonetheless has found a lot of comfort in the teachings of Buddhism, so I’m influenced by that religion but do not follow it. And even though I think Christianity is nonsense, I keep being drawn back to Catholicism. I’ve been watching this channel for almost two years, I think. Since I was fourteen. I’m sixteen now. I just can’t stop watching it. I think theology is utterly fascinating, and some of the things talked about on this channel even upset me-everything I disagree with, pretty much-but I’ve spent hours of my life on it because I feel something in it tugging at me. I feel like if I don’t figure this out, the rest of my life will be meaningless; that if I don’t decide one way or another there is no purpose. This question troubles me. Just a statement of my thoughts on this clip.

That hurt my brain

THANK YOU for this, your devils advocate at the beginning is exactly me, his response was exactly what I needed to hear

I converted to Catholicism a long time ago and I feel like I’m still unpacking my gifts at Christmas. Of course, living in liberalism means that we are assaulted by doubt. But one of the many things I do is behold the rich, joyful civilisation Catholicism producedImagine if we once more lived in an officially Catholic culture.

I love this video, thank you for sharing!

When doubts assault me, I need not think of what convinced me personally, I don´t need elaborate theological arguments, all I need to do is look at history. A bunch of obscure illiterate Jews who followed a fringe crucified rabbi in a forgotten corner of the world converted the most powerful empire on earth in a span of 3 centuries without shedding a drop of blood. I am in Brazil and I believe in the God of Israel. As every single messianic prophecy in the Bible said would happen. Look around. The world has been shaped by Christianity. And the principal claim of Christianity, from the beginning, is that the world would be shaped by Christianity. History makes it undeniable.

This dude brings it down to my level

I totally understand this point he made. I’ve been having these incredibly stupid thoughts of “were the Pharisees right, was Jesus possessed or something”. I can safely say that that is NOT true and I really want to believe that Jesus is my lord and savior because I KNOW he has to be, but I can’t help but have these weird and unreasonable thoughts

I went thru the phase of “well, I am a Catholic because I always have been and it is where I am comfortable.” Thank God for conversations like these because they opened me up to really accepting the Truth.

I find Father Ripperger immensely helpful in his exposition of the Catholic faith and the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. I also find him trustworthy for three reasons. 1. He's obviously not insane. 2. He's obviously not a liar. 3. He actually talks with demons.

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:42 🌌 Doubting one's faith is akin to the indifference towards extraterrestrial life; it's not necessarily about being convinced it's wrong, but a lack of personal investment. 01:23 🤔 Doubts about religious beliefs may stem from emotional experiences and acceptance of arguments that weren't critically examined, leading to a potential self-constructed narrative. 02:05 🕊️ Making Christianity coherent doesn't necessarily make it true; addressing philosophical challenges and theodicy (problem of evil) doesn't automatically validate religious beliefs. 04:26 🧠 Choosing between mythologizing and embracing reason involves a critical decision; rejecting reason entirely can lead to a life driven solely by emotions and personal preferences. 06:30 🤝 In an era of diverse spiritual beliefs, the challenge arises from doubting one's religion due to exposure to various perspectives, leading to a perceived epistemic parity among religions. 10:56 🕵️ Natural theology involves integrating disparate facts and experiences into a rational explanation, akin to Sherlock Holmes piecing together clues to deduce a conclusion. 11:37 🤷‍♂️ Personal experiences of God can be a foundational aspect of belief, even in the face of skeptical introspection, making Christianity true in the context of a holistic worldview. 13:58 🔄 Beliefs, initially formed through complex inferences, can evolve into properly basic beliefs through lived experiences that validate and integrate those beliefs into one's worldview.

I appreciate that Matt gives voice to the fact that those moments exist, because I think it does assist in having empathy towards atheists and not rejecting them as bad faith actors who secretly do believe but 'just want to sin'. I'm in the camp that I am satisfied that entirely natural, non-spiritual explanations for the "big questions" exist and that in some cases we've started to pull them together. At that point, the addition of an entire supernatural realm with attendant entities, rules and meta-history (or as I would call it, mythology) is not only unnecessary, but just sounds a little too much like a fantasy story. I think I don't have much of a choice but to rely on reason because frankly I don't have a better choice; but I also think that Godel's incompleteness theorem shows that there will always be some questions we can't definitively answer.

I'm not doubting Christianity, but we can all use things which bolster our faith.

“Let’s do LSD and watch SpongeBob SquarePants” 🤣😂

LSD and Spongebob squarepants! LOL Matt! 🤣

Holy guacamole! What a great name for a philosophy professor! Salutations, (Dr.) Plato!

“Let’s do lsd and watch SpongeBob SquarePants” 🤣🤣

I am struggling with skepticism, nhilism, apathy and assent, lately. Someone please recommend resources for the sake of my faith & sanity.

I dont always agree with u matt - but i do appreciate your raw honesty. thank you.

Doubt is good.

Wow This popped up randomly and summed up my crazy misleading thoughts recently.. 🙏

Great Video mate.

All you can do is the best you can do. You can't worry about "What if I'm only Catholic because of some underlying psychological reason, and not because I'm actually convinced of the arguments". Look at the arguments and evidences. To the best of your ability, judge whether or not those arguments convince you. And then stick to that until new arguments or evidence changes your conviction. This is the real Paschal's Wager - do your best, which is all you can do. And then hope that your best, and your honesty, is good enough for God, even if it turns out that you had the wrong religion all along. -An ex-Catholic

I thought of Richard Rohr and Audrey Assad and others that have left or changed the faith Bc they seem to shrug their shoulders at the religion they were brought up in Bc of this hatred for reason. It sounds more like self hatred. I totally suffered from this before I converted to Catholicism.

So good.

Great vid

Personally, I consolidated my faith the moment I felt that it did not depend on miracles or the promise of eternal life.

Lately, I have been having doubts due to stuff on Reddit and Quora. I let people get to my head. There are those who say that critical thinking leads to Atheism and that is an enemy or incompatible with faith. I feel as if I just want to believe, I feel as if they're right. But I don't want critical thinking to destroy my spiritual views. Can someone help me?

I started to believe in God when i thought about the Universe. If you travel in any direction in space you would never come to a boundary or end. It goes forever and we think we are at the center but we are a random dot in an endless place called space. If you think it through, space goes on forever and ever in every direction with no end and if there was an end what could it be and if it was created what was here before it was created. It had to always be there and it is so big because God is also so powerful and infinite. How could space have a starting point and how can God have a starting point. They were always there and God needs a place to exist as much as we need a place to exist. The other world is all around us. We just don't have the ability to see it. The brain evolved with limitless potential but why is it stunted. The brain actually has the ability to halt aging, stop sickness and see beyond this world. Some people have a photographic memory of every book they have ever read, some people can play instruments without ever a lesson... For some reason it is retarded but for some people they can see the other world and it is because of their brain that enable that.

Smart fella!

What if your doubts are because you don't feel God is there, that prayers seem unanswered? Or you can't discern if a prayer was answered or not. You see all these Christians getting answered prayer and you feel so distant from God. I have many health problems, I don't believe in health, wealth, prosperity gospel, but at the same time, God feels so distant and its led to doubt. God-bless

I have had these thoughts to

Geez Matt that first 2:30 where you went on a roll, I mean Day*m, hahaha 😂. Talk about playing Devil’s Advocate. …”I don’t care… I could care less…”. Sheeesh 😂

Just watch Fr Ripperger lol. Matt you should have him on!

Very interesting! Not sure what he means at the end about belief in God BECOMING properly basic. If it's believed via abductive inference, isn't it an inferential belief?

What's the difference between skepticising and refuting a proof??? If you can identify an unfounded assumption, you have refuted the proof.

But what about the constant search for empirical evidence for the existence of God? That’s the main hang-up for people. Given that we use empirical evidence to confirm things in most facets of life. I ask this because this is the main objection my agnostic friends have. They won’t budge on this until I give them proof of God’s existence, something you can observe and see and touch, etc

In Layman’s termas please!😂😂

Isn’t he basically saying, at the end of the day, Christianity is more plausible?

Shall I as a Christian turn to never ending animal sacrifices that never satisfies the infinite righteousness and glory of God Almighty that Gods justice should fail/be flawed in that no all sin is punished and paid for in full once and for all? Shall I go with no sacrificial system that doesn’t pay the debt of sin once and for all that Gods justice should fail against sin, that sin shall be set free from punishment? I tell you NO! Only in Christ Jesus, we see perfect righteousness justice in that all sin is punished and paid for in full once and for all since Christ Jesus is God “the Son” who is infinite in worth who can pay the debt of sin in full once and for all for any amount of humans of any amount of sin. He also demonstrated the greatest act of love for us in that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us! Paying the debt of sin in full once and for all, all the while demonstrating the greatest act of love for us since God the Son “Jesus Christ/Messiah/Savior” is infinite in worth, took on the exact opposite of His nature “evil/sin” into Himself for us who committed the sins in that all who believe in Him that He died for us because of our sins and bore our sins upon Himself and rose from the dead for which we receive His perfect righteousness so that when we approach God on judgement day, we are perfect and righteous before God and so we are able to enter into the Eternal Kingdom of God Almighty only because of what God did for us in Christ Jesus in the shedding of His perfect righteous blood we are saved by the grace, love, mercy of God not of ourselves but of Gods love for us. No greater justice, no greater love! I shall never turn away from the True God of the Bible “The Holy and Blessed Trinity!” God bless you all in Jesus Christ’s Holy Name!

I'm a bit bothered by the claim that people who think that people claim equal plausibility of religions when they think that, if they had grown up in another religion, they would probably be following that relgion. This idea is not based on equal probability, but on the observation that children typically keep their parents religion, irrespective if what that religion is. The question then remains what this observation implies. So basically, the proposed argument is a bit of a straw man.

I find this bemusing: the thesis/atheist divide is not that relevant. The great majority of folk are indifferent to whether there be a God or not. The folk who assert a strident thesis or atheist position are the very small minority. I imagine this is what atheist and theist are troubled by most: that We don't care. They avoid that facet and never go there.

👍✝️🇻🇦🙏

14:05 beautifuł

I left Christianity when I found a self contradiction in the bible. I still believe in God but I can't truthfully call myself a christian if I can't call the bible inerrant. I still believe in pretty much the same God as before, I even still believe Jesus rose from the dead, I just don't believe the bible is inerrant and so can't call myself a Christian. According to the Bible (acts 17 and the unknown God) I worship in the same God as the Christians. I've been considering shamanic practices lately just to have a connection with a real faith tradition instead of just making things up as I go along.

Do you think you can live in a whale for three days? Do you think burning bushes can talk? Do you believe that graves are opened and corpses walk the streets of Jesusalem? Do you believe you can walk on water?

I thought Vatican II (Dignitatis and Nostrae) said all religions are equal and conscience trumps tradition and orthodoxy?

Anyone with sufficient intelligence *eventually* comes to the realization that there's no such thing as magic. And that's exactly what religion is: belief in magic. How did God create Earth, did he use construction equipment and contractors? Nope, he used magic. It's absurd. It's very obviously absurd.

The Gospel: Plain and Simple “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” - 2 Corithians 11:3 Ask someone today if they are saved and you will most likely hear responses like these: “I have accepted Jesus into my heart.” Or “I have made him Lord of my life.” “I’ve been baptized.” “I said a prayer.” Sounds all good and churchy don’t it; but it is difficult to de-termine whether or not a person actually knows the gospel that saves them. These use￾less phrases don’t describe a thing about what the gospel is and has left a devastating effect of people not knowing what it is that they are saved from nor how they are saved; which leaves a more serious effect of people ques￾tioning their salvation. Let’s not muddy the simplicity of salva￾tion that is in Christ with vague church sounding phrases that do not communicate anything. But rather present God’s word with clarity and assuredness. So here is the gospel: plain and simple. Sin was passed upon all men by one man Adam, and death is a consequence of this sin (Rom 5:12). Mankind has an eternal destiny of condemnation and wrath - Hell - because of this sin (Rom 6:23). No matter what good works one might do we are still found sinners in the sight of our Creator God. And all un￾righteousness and those who follow get in￾dignation and wrath. We cannot be found righteous for by God’s law we are found sin￾ners (Rom 3:19-20). If we have broken even one law we are found guilty. It is for this reason of not being able to create our own righteousness and being born in a sinful flesh that we need a savior (Titus 3:5). Christ is that Savior, God manifested in the flesh, sinless, died in our place on a cross 2000 years ago. Taking upon him the wrath and judgement that was intended for us sin￾ners. And it is through his bloodshed, burial, and resurrection on our behalf that we are able to have peace with God and forgiveness of our sins (1 Cor 15:1-4, Col 3:14). This good news is unto all but only those that believe in it are made righteous in Christ (Romans 3:22). It is then after we have heard this good news of Christ’s righteousness available to us freely, that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and we are now part of Christ’s body the church (Eph 1:13) There is nothing that we need to do, no good works that are required, and no bad works that can separate us from our new po￾sition in Christ (Romans 8:35-39). Faith and belief in this information from God’s word is the gospel. The gospel is not accepting Jesus into your heart. The gospel is not making him lord of your life, it is not saying a prayer and it is not being baptized with water. So next time someone asks you if you are saved. Give them the clear assured answer “Yes! And let me tell you why!” Find more free resources at: www.graceambassadors.com