Confused about Inquisition(s). Please help

[MerlinPharmacy]

I hope it wasn’t for the objections that you’ve raised in this thread that you lost your faith. Some Catholics are quick to admit that they made mistakes while others wrongly justify the actions of those who came before them. If it is, I hope you reunite with Christ and know that He never taught to harm others for rejection!

Luke 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? " { Some manuscripts add b as Elijah did b }

55 But he turned and rebuked them and he said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man came not to destroy people’s lives but to save them

I was received into the Catholic Church at age 17. My understanding of theology and history then led me to Catholicism. The inquisitons and sex abuse had little if anything to do with me now being “religious none”. I’ve been this way since around age 26 and am almost 30 now.
I minored in anthropology in college and have since been interested religion and have read texts of many religions (Bible, all sorts of catholic theology , Koran , Hadith, Rig Veda, etc). So far I can’t believe in anything divine. And I can’t choose a religion without knowing everything about every single religion that ever existed.

Thank you for your kind words. I noticed you are an evangelical Christian. It’s people like you that gives me hope in religous and non-religous people alike.

Peace.

 

[dronald]

I was received into the Catholic Church at age 17. My understand of theology and history then led me to Catholicism. The inquisitons and sex abuse had little if anything to do with me now being “religious none”. I’ve been this way since around age 26 and am almost 30 now.
I minored in anthropology in college and have since been interested religion and have read texts of many religions (Bible, all sorts of catholic theology , Koran , Hadith, Rig Veda, etc). So far I can’t believe in anything divine. And I can’t choose a religion without knowing everything about every single religion that ever existed.

Thank you for your kind words. I noticed you are an evangelical Christian. It’s people like you that gives me hope in religous and non-religous people alike.

Peace.

I’m glad I could help if only a little; you made me smile with your kind words. If you don’t mind I will say a prayer for you tonight! Keep searching for truth.

 

[MerlinPharmacy]

Spoken like a true atheist. After all there is no absolute truth is there. If a new idea comes along then embrace it for it is like all the rest. Isn’t it??? But your fallacy is that no one was trying to "enforce a homogeneous society’ as you claim. On the contrary, society was diverse just as government, politics, language, customs, food and a host of others items were diverse. It was only theology that was held to be universal. Heresies could be deadly on their own. Some held to a dualism which in different forms held that the material (physical) was evil while the spiritual was good. So suicide was a noble act as it freed the spiritual soul from the evil body.

I can’t understand why atheists waste their time trying to convert christians to their system of unbelief. After all they have only this life to accomplish anything and it is a short time at best so should they not be trying to accomplish something so that maybe someone will name a bridge or a building or a highway after them. Let’s face it that is the only immortality that they can hope for.

Yes I know the homogeneity refers only to theology. I was actually replying to the second reply to my original post that actually used the words “homogenous society”.

 

[Randy_Carson]

1. People can choose to follow heretics.
2. People can’t choose whether they are raped and murdered.
3. Therefore the two are not comparable.

True. But not relevant to what I said.

 

[MerlinPharmacy]

1. People who commit murder cause the loss of life of their victims. That’s bad.
2. People who commit heresy cause the loss of eternal life of their followers. That’s worse.
3. Eternity is much longer than this life.
4. Therefore, heresy is worse than murder.

NOW do you understand why heretics were treated so harshly?

Good for you. Seems like you approve of the interrogation and harsh treatment of people with differing beliefs.

Were the deaths in the inquisitions justified?

 

[MerlinPharmacy]

Spoken like a true atheist. After all there is no absolute truth is there. If a new idea comes along then embrace it for it is like all the rest. Isn’t it??? But your fallacy is that no one was trying to "enforce a homogeneous society’ as you claim. On the contrary, society was diverse just as government, politics, language, customs, food and a host of others items were diverse. It was only theology that was held to be universal. Heresies could be deadly on their own. Some held to a dualism which in different forms held that the material (physical) was evil while the spiritual was good. So suicide was a noble act as it freed the spiritual soul from the evil body.

I can’t understand why atheists waste their time trying to convert christians to their system of unbelief. After all they have only this life to accomplish anything and it is a short time at best so should they not be trying to accomplish something so that maybe someone will name a bridge or a building or a highway after them. Let’s face it that is the only immortality that they can hope for.

Thank you.

The combine church/state during the inquisitions should have dealt with the dangerous ideas you mentioned by other means than death. Tell me, were the deaths justified?

See above regarding what I really meant by “homogenous society” ( theology). Perhaps the combined church/state of that period was like(though not identical) what the islamic theocracies (Saudi Arabia) are today? Now that Christianity is older, it matured?

And regarding your best wishes for my immortality, thank you. I am very content without living my life without religion. Frankly, the possibility of no afterlife is somewhat grim but I deal with it. Even if there is an afterlife, many thousands of religious traditions existed before Christianity with their own view of the afterlife.

 

[cottice]

Thank you.

The combine church/state during the inquisitions should have dealt with the dangerous ideas you mentioned by other means than death. Tell me, were the deaths justified?

See above regarding what I really meant by “homogenous society” ( theology). Perhaps the combined church/state of that period was like(though not identical) what the islamic theocracies (Saudi Arabia) are today? Now that Christianity is older, it matured?

And regarding your best wishes for my immortality, thank you. I am very content without living my life without religion. Frankly, the possibility of no afterlife is somewhat grim but I deal with it. Even if there is an afterlife, many thousands of religious traditions existed before Christianity with their own view of the afterlife.

First of all there were very few deaths and you seem to share this idea, common among people to day that the Inquisition (the Spanish Inquisition} was a Church ordered thing. It wasn’t. King Ferdinand’s government was being infiltrated by Moslems to the point that he could not trust his own government. He ask for and received permission to set up an Inquisition run by church officials (the Dominicans, I think) as these were people the king could have confidence in. As in every, government people swore an oath to the king. If they were found to have violated that oath they were guilty of treason for which the penalty was and is today, death. The Spanish Inquisition stopped the Islamic imnvasion of Europe in the West just as the crusades did so in the East. And you should be thankful for that because Islam would have spead over Europe like it did over North Africa by converting people with the sword and ‘infidels’ like you would have been beheaded. But then, it just occurred to me, how can you be thankful when you deny the very Being that you need to thank?

P.S. Atheists have killed more people in the last century than all of christianity in two millenia. Just to put it all in prospective.