Hi everyone,
I’m writing this with a genuine intention to understand. I’ve been struggling with belief in God for quite some time, and I’d really appreciate thoughtful responses from people who believe and are willing to engage with these doubts seriously. I’m not trying to offend anyone — I’m just trying to make sense of things.
Here are the main issues I can’t reconcile:
a) Omniscience vs free will
If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, I struggle to understand how free will can truly exist. If God already knows everything I’m going to do, then in what sense am I actually free?
For example, Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times before sunrise, and that is exactly what happens. If it was known with certainty beforehand, how could Peter have acted differently?
Similarly, the betrayal of Judas is also presented as something foreseen or part of a plan. If Judas’ actions were already known (or even necessary), in what sense was he free to choose otherwise?
b) The problem of hiddenness (personal point)
This is more personal, but I find it difficult to accept a God who could easily resolve doubts about His existence but chooses not to.
If belief is so important that disbelief can lead to punishment, why make belief so difficult? It feels like being judged for something that was made inherently unclear. From my perspective, it almost feels like being created with doubt and then punished for it.
c) Seemingly arbitrary religious rules
There are also aspects of religious teaching that feel culturally or historically driven rather than divine. For example, I’ve read about rules or teachings (like in certain epistles or traditions associated with the Vatican) that considered things like eating oysters in the Balkans to be sinful.
Why would something like eating oysters be a sin, and why would it depend on geography? It reminds me of dietary rules like the prohibition of pork in Islam, which seem to have practical or cultural origins. This makes it feel more like population control than universal moral truth.
d) The Church as an institution
Separately from the idea of God, I struggle with the history of the Church as an organization. It has been involved in many scandals and controversial actions throughout history — from selling indulgences (essentially paying to be absolved of sins), to the Crusades, to more modern cases like the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, and many other issues.
It’s also one of the wealthiest institutions in the world. Given all this, how should someone separate belief in God from distrust in the institution that represents Him?
e) Creation, evil, and Satan
Going back to the idea of an all-knowing and all-powerful God: if God knows everything that will happen, then when creating Adam and Eve, He already knew what they would do.
Even considering Satan, God would know exactly what Satan would do as well. If God is truly all-powerful, why allow this? And if He cannot stop it, does that contradict His omnipotence?
It also raises another question: how can God be all-powerful and all-knowing, yet still allow Satan to operate and lead people astray?
f) Multiple religions and conflicting truths
Another issue I struggle with is the existence of many different religions, all claiming to hold the truth. Often, what someone believes seems heavily influenced by where they are born.
For example, if I had been born in a different country or culture, I would likely believe in a completely different religion with the same level of conviction.
This makes it difficult to understand how one specific religion can be the absolute truth if belief appears to depend so strongly on geography and upbringing.
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I’m genuinely interested in hearing well-thought-out perspectives, especially from people who have struggled with similar questions and still found reasons to believe.
Also, I used ChatGPT to make this text more clear and structured, since English is not my first language.
And I completely understand that these are many questions at once — so I’m more than happy if someone prefers to respond to just one of them in depth rather than all of them.
Thanks to anyone willing to engage seriously.