fett on 17/4/2009 at 00:12
Join usssss....join ussss noooowwww!!!:sly:
Kolya on 17/4/2009 at 01:25
I don't see what this pity for the poor heathens has to do with faith. Where's the love in that, when you're obviously just ego tripping.
Jenesis on 22/4/2009 at 20:03
Quote Posted by fett
For the issue about "degrees" of sin, the doctrine reads in such a way that sin is sin is sin. The worst mass murder and the little white lie both nailed Jesus to the cross, therefore, everyone is on equal footing when it comes to sin. It's like the sentiment, "But for the grace of God, there go I," but taken to a ridiculous extreme and applied practically within the community. To which I respond, "Never there goeth I. Haveth I no intention to rapeth and killeth little girliths."
Surely it's much more about (
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%205&version=31) Matthew 5, in particular vv21-22. It's not individual actions, be they murder or fibbing, that are the problem, it's our attitudes. The latter half of Matthew 5 shows up our dismal attitude in the horizontal - to those around us - and we have an even more serious problem in our attitude to God. This is the core of the issue, which is why the Bible talks about the fundamental problem of 'sin' as well as 'sins'.
Sure, on the outside I may be a fairly respectable dude, but I know that on the inside my heart is blacker than coal in the dark. I know that far better than anyone else, because frankly I'd never dare tell anyone all the hideous things that go on inside my head.
That's why I deserve to go to hell, not because I once made up an excuse for not having done my homework or something. And when I say to God 'I'm really evil, aren't I?', he replies, 'Actually, no, you're far worse than that, but I love you anyway, which is why I sent Jesus'.
fett on 22/4/2009 at 22:43
I used to think that about myself, but then I realized I had been faithful to the same woman for 15 years, was a good dad, a responsible citizen, and hadn't ever cheated anyone, and I decided to stop finding things to feel guilty about. It's like being born again, except without the self-condemnation and absolute joy-sucking responsibility to save the world. :cool:
Kolya on 23/4/2009 at 00:27
Thoughts are free and a dirty mind is it's own reward.
SNAFU on 23/4/2009 at 05:24
Quote Posted by Nicker
Scarier still is the trail of emotional reaction that can lead from feeling anguish at the imminent suffering of others (soon to be cast into the pits of hell), to resentment at the pain they cause you.
Goddamnit, but this just speaks to me.
I attended private, Roman Catholic schools and academies all through Kindergarten to the 12th grade. My father, who only recently retired from the Navy, insisted upon me receiving a 'high-quality' education no matter where we were stationed. Every 2 years, a different school, a different teacher, a different classroom, different church, different pastor, same Christian tenets, doctrine and parables on love, forgiveness, sin and damnation.
Do you have any idea how it affects a mind to actually believe that everything,
everyone you love must be baptised in the Faith or else they are forever lost to an eternity of pain, damnation and suffering?
And is it any wonder that I grew attached? That the only constant in my life during my developing years was a call- nay, a
duty to bring the light of Christ to the world? To be Christ-like in all ways: loving to friend, foe or stranger, gentle yet unbreakable and the harbinger of forgiveness.
A duty. I've yet to find anything else I would use that word to describe.
Ironic then, that the only suffering I've found is my own. Lost in my own neurosis. You can't make people change if they don't want to. But when you love them what can you do? All they're doing is hurting themselves, right? That makes it ok, doesn't it?!
Love conquers all?
I'm only 22 and I've attempted suicide twice (three times if you count me enlisting in the marines, which didn't last long when they found out I had been hospitalized for my second attempt 3 months before I joined) for exactly this. What good could Heaven possibly be without your family, your friends? What else could possibly matter to a caring, empathetic person?
Its such a painful, self-flagellate lifestyle. I feel now as fett must've felt when he realized that no matter how much you try to emulate Christ, it doesn't make it so. I'm still trying to walk away from it, but that quiet desperate need to reach out and truly touch someone, even a perfect stranger; that creeping singular doubt that I've rejected not just any truth, but THE Truth; those periods of rationalization where I try to tear away the dross and search for meaning that will better me as a person without turning me back into a Bible-thumping 'Come-all-ye-to-Jesus evangelist... its all so hard to turn your back on. Especially when you feel as if you have nowhere else to turn.
How much whiskey will make it go away? :(
Vasquez on 23/4/2009 at 07:54
For some reason I keep reading this thread...
I quietly thank God for every individual who's been freed from the tyranny of church.
Rogue Keeper on 23/4/2009 at 07:59
Quote Posted by Vasquez
End all religions.
That's not a solution for natural human stupidity, psychoses and obsessions.
Vasquez on 23/4/2009 at 08:58
Quote Posted by Rogue Keeper
That's not a solution for natural human stupidity, psychoses and obsessions.
No, but it would take away the holier-than-thou excuses for them.
Rogue Keeper on 23/4/2009 at 09:05
Such excuses would pop out elsewhere in the society. If you want to end religions, you should put an end to politics as well.
