In chapter 2 of his book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life<\/a> He deals with this early on in the book because he does not assume everyone reading it believes in God\u2013and since the book is about Ignatian spirituality, he wants to lay some groundwork.<\/p>\n Each path, Martin tells us, has benefits and pitfalls. Maybe one or two resonate with you. I think I know people in every category, or some combination.<\/p>\n 1. The Path of Belief\u2013<\/strong>\u201c\u2026belief in God has always been part of their lives. They were born into religious families or were introduced to religion at an early age. They move\u00a0through\u00a0life more or less confident of their belief in God\u2026.Their lives, like every life, are not free from suffering, but faith enables them to put their sufferings into a framework of meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n The benefit of this path is that \u201cfaith gives meaning to both the joys and struggles of life. A pitfall is \u201can inability to understand people on other paths and a temptation to judge them for their doubt or disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. The Path of Independence\u2013<\/strong>These people \u201c\u2026have made a conscious decision to separate themselves from organized religion, but they still believe in God. Maybe they find church services meaningless, offensive, dull, or all three. Maybe they\u2019ve been hurt by church.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne\u00a0strength\u00a0of this group is a healthy independence that enables them to see things in a fresh way\u2013something their own\u00a0religious\u00a0community often desperately needs\u2026.The main danger\u2026is a perfectionism that sets up any organized religion for failure.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. The Path of Disbelief\u2013<\/strong>\u201cThose traveling along the path of disbelief not\u00a0only\u00a0find that organized religion hold no appeal for them (even if they sometimes fins its services and rituals comforting), but have also arrived at an intellectual conclusion that God may not, does not, or cannot exist. Often they seek proof for God\u2019s existence, and finding none, or encountering intense suffering, they reject the theistic worldview completely.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe cardinal benefit of this group is that they take none of the bland assurances of religion for granted. Sometimes they have thought more deeply about God and religion than some believers have\u2026.They also have a knack for\u00a0detecting\u00a0hypocrisy, cant, or lazy answers\u2026.The main danger for this group is that they\u00a0sometimes\u00a0expect God\u2019s presence to be proven solely in an intellectual way.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. The Path of Return\u2013<\/strong>\u201cPeople on this group typically begin life in a religious family but drift away from their faith. After a childhood in which they were encouraged (or forced) to attend religious servies, they find them either tiresome or irrelevent or both. Religion remains distant, though oddly appealing. Then\u00a0something\u00a0reignites their curiosity about God\u2026.Thus begins a tentative journey back to faith\u2013though it may not bet he same faith they knew as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/paths-to-god.jpeg?ssl=1\" "\\"paths")
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