Are atheists held to higher standards regarding mortal sin?

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oh no a personal complaint! Stop being immature Carl, I’m in a Catholic forum in a Non-Catholic thread giving my opinion just like everyone else. If you don’t agree with me, tell me why instead of laughably attempting to reprimand me.

You know why those are awful things to say? Because it’s assuming that all atheists are intrinsicly wicked and evil, not to mention murderers. Is that not an awful thing to say? Is that not an ignorant assumption?

Please point out where i’m wrong… But for now i’m off to kill some people.
 
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Carl:
Why are they irrelevant? Your answer is lazy in the extreme. Flesh out your thoughts.
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Why? So you can twist them around and report me? You are like a child. Nice dodge by the way. If you have a point to make, then make it.

PS - Grow a thicker skin.
 
I would wonder how they would be looked upon with regard to the requirement that they know the sin to be grave. It seems to me that this is predicated on a belief in God and the acceptance that there are such things as sins. It would certainly seem to be a form of doublethink to imagine that a person could simultaneously (1) not believe in there being anything like sin, but (B) recoginzing a particular sin to be of a grave matter.

:twocents:
Fred
 
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Booger:
Squirt,
I don’t know much about the Catholic religion, so I hope this doesn’t sound stupid. Can you apply your original question to Protestants? If so, then what? If not, then why?
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Yeah. You can apply it to any group. The point being, that according to Catholic theology, God judges individuals according to the state of their souls, not according to which group they belong to.

At a very basic level, Catholic doctrine teaches that only those who are willingly in a state of mortal sin can be subject to hell. In some sense, sIn can seem like a weird concept for atheists because basically it is an offense against God.

There are two types of sins: venial and mortal.

For a sin to be mortal, (i) it must be a grave matter.

For example, killing someone out of anger or telling God to go take a hike.

(ii) the person must know it’s a grave matter.

I.e., the person must know in their conscience that it is wrong. They must understand that it is wrong. (Of course, it is the responsibility of the person to inform his or her conscience to the best of his or her ability given the resources available.)

(iii) the person must do it with full consent of the will. They must want to do it and then go ahead and do it.

So, to say that any particular act or any particular group is ‘automatically’ something that involves mortal sin is a very strong statement.

I don’t know if this is the type of info you’re looking for … and I have to get back to work … break time is over … so let me know if this is the type of thing you were looking for
 
Squirt, that seemed good. I’m just trying to make sense of Catholicism and salvation by combining this with other comments that I’ve seen in different threads. For instance, I’ve seen others mention that you have to be a Catholic to be saved. If not, then you’re damned. I think that is a blanket statement that goes against your idea that God judges the individuals. And what is the sin (mortal or grave) in not being a member of the Catholic church that would warrant the punishment of Hell?
 
Hi Booger,

One of the best resources for a summary of what the Catholic Church teaches about its understanding of God and salvation is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It’s available on line at:

vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm

It’s also available at major bookstores in an inexpensive paperback edition.

Looking and seeing for yourself what the Church teaches might be a little more ‘reliable’ that what you’ll get from a bunch of well-meaning strangers on the forum.
 
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