A
alongexpected
Guest
Hello, just had a few thoughts here…
Does everyone really believe the whole concept of mortal sins? I mean, how in God’s name could masturbation, skipping Church, fornicating, etc., be on par with murder, rape, stealing, and many others? NO ONE is getting hurt with the first group, and, of course, the second is extremely hurtful. You have to admit that makes zero sense.
Secondly, do you really believe that these “mortal” sins are a Hell-sentence (if left unconfessed)? If that’s true, then, I’d say…maybe 95% of people are damned. Does that seem logical/right to you?
Also, think about this. The majority of younger people (20-somethings) tend to be less religious and pious, while older people (50+) tend to be much more religious and pious. So let’s say there’s a 22-year-old who’s a good human being, but breaks some of those Catholic taboos like missing Mass and fornicating. He dies suddenly with unconfessed sins. Then, there’s an older couple who looks back on their life when they were younger and they think about all the sex they had before they were married (yes, the VAST majority of Catholics, and all people, have sex many times before they’re married. Probably not the vast majority of the people posting on this forum, but we do not represent the average Catholic) and all the Church they had skipped over the years. Because of their advanced age and how they’ve settled and calmed down more over the years they confess those “sins”. So they’re forgiven and are good to go? What if they had died suddenly years earlier when they were “wilder” like the first guy? Can you see the absurdity of such a line of thinking?
Why can’t people love others, do a good job at work, have good fun with their friends, not go to Mass, live with their significant others, and treat others like they’d want to be treated? How do we KNOW that such acts will condemn one to Hell? Because of what’s said in the Bible? If you ask me, almost everything in the Bible cannot be taken literally or be applied to today. Don’t even get me started on the Old Testament. Slaves should be obeying their masters, women are subservient to men, guys can’t sit on chairs that menstruating women had sat on, incest, Joshua’s army killing/enslaving everyone inside Jericho…should I continue? Those books were written very long ago and those things were common then and not ok today. As for symbol stories revealing truth about God’s plan the OT is fine, but when I hear that the evidence for homosexuality’s “wrongness” comes from Leviticus (don’t lie with a man like a woman, it’s an abomination), that’s stupid, because, well, the OT also tells you to kill/enslave your enemies! Instead of using a 2000-3000 year old book to resolve current social issues, use something else: common sense.
Fine, you say. The Old Testament is outdated and shouldn’t be taken literally. The New Testament, though, is rooted in absolute fact and should be taken literally. Maybe. I have a couple of problems, though. One is about the “committing lust with your mind” nonsense. I’m sorry, but again, if this is a really bad thing to do then, yes, the VAST majority of all people are committing grave sin. Think about this one, too. Murder is equal to thinking about having sex with someone a lot. DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE!!?
Also, I was reading about the Resurrection in the Gospels and I noticed discrepancies in them. Matthew says “As the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb…there was a great earthquake…an angel came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.”
Mark says “Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb. When they looked up, they saw that the tomb had been rolled back.” No mention of angels visibly rolling it back.
Luke and John are very similar to Mark in that the stone was already rolled away.
Finally, (I just noticed this!) Mark says how the women were so scared about what they had seen, that they didn’t tell anyone about it, while in Luke and John they immediately go tell the apostles about it!
So…comparing Matthew to the other three about the stone, only one (or none, actually) can be right. Ditto with running to tell the apostles. We’ve determined that there at least two errancies in the Gospels. What else could be erroneous?..
The way I see it, no one can be absolutely sure that there is a God, or that masturbation is wrong, or that a man named Jesus was killed and then lived again, or breaking a commandment is a grave sin, etc. No one has seen God (don’t bring up Moses), no one has talked to God and asked him if cohabitation or going to Europe with your boyfriend for 3-6 months is a sin. No one knows if Catholicism, or any religion is the “right” one and the way you should be living your life.
What you probably should do is treat others the way you want to be treated, thank and respect God for the blessings in your life, don’t be so judgemental of others or worry about if missing Church on vacation is really bad, and remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees (what people in this forum seem to be doing), how they were living too much by the letter of the law, and not enough by the spirit of it.
God Bless.
Does everyone really believe the whole concept of mortal sins? I mean, how in God’s name could masturbation, skipping Church, fornicating, etc., be on par with murder, rape, stealing, and many others? NO ONE is getting hurt with the first group, and, of course, the second is extremely hurtful. You have to admit that makes zero sense.
Secondly, do you really believe that these “mortal” sins are a Hell-sentence (if left unconfessed)? If that’s true, then, I’d say…maybe 95% of people are damned. Does that seem logical/right to you?
Also, think about this. The majority of younger people (20-somethings) tend to be less religious and pious, while older people (50+) tend to be much more religious and pious. So let’s say there’s a 22-year-old who’s a good human being, but breaks some of those Catholic taboos like missing Mass and fornicating. He dies suddenly with unconfessed sins. Then, there’s an older couple who looks back on their life when they were younger and they think about all the sex they had before they were married (yes, the VAST majority of Catholics, and all people, have sex many times before they’re married. Probably not the vast majority of the people posting on this forum, but we do not represent the average Catholic) and all the Church they had skipped over the years. Because of their advanced age and how they’ve settled and calmed down more over the years they confess those “sins”. So they’re forgiven and are good to go? What if they had died suddenly years earlier when they were “wilder” like the first guy? Can you see the absurdity of such a line of thinking?
Why can’t people love others, do a good job at work, have good fun with their friends, not go to Mass, live with their significant others, and treat others like they’d want to be treated? How do we KNOW that such acts will condemn one to Hell? Because of what’s said in the Bible? If you ask me, almost everything in the Bible cannot be taken literally or be applied to today. Don’t even get me started on the Old Testament. Slaves should be obeying their masters, women are subservient to men, guys can’t sit on chairs that menstruating women had sat on, incest, Joshua’s army killing/enslaving everyone inside Jericho…should I continue? Those books were written very long ago and those things were common then and not ok today. As for symbol stories revealing truth about God’s plan the OT is fine, but when I hear that the evidence for homosexuality’s “wrongness” comes from Leviticus (don’t lie with a man like a woman, it’s an abomination), that’s stupid, because, well, the OT also tells you to kill/enslave your enemies! Instead of using a 2000-3000 year old book to resolve current social issues, use something else: common sense.
Fine, you say. The Old Testament is outdated and shouldn’t be taken literally. The New Testament, though, is rooted in absolute fact and should be taken literally. Maybe. I have a couple of problems, though. One is about the “committing lust with your mind” nonsense. I’m sorry, but again, if this is a really bad thing to do then, yes, the VAST majority of all people are committing grave sin. Think about this one, too. Murder is equal to thinking about having sex with someone a lot. DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE!!?
Also, I was reading about the Resurrection in the Gospels and I noticed discrepancies in them. Matthew says “As the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb…there was a great earthquake…an angel came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.”
Mark says “Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb. When they looked up, they saw that the tomb had been rolled back.” No mention of angels visibly rolling it back.
Luke and John are very similar to Mark in that the stone was already rolled away.
Finally, (I just noticed this!) Mark says how the women were so scared about what they had seen, that they didn’t tell anyone about it, while in Luke and John they immediately go tell the apostles about it!
So…comparing Matthew to the other three about the stone, only one (or none, actually) can be right. Ditto with running to tell the apostles. We’ve determined that there at least two errancies in the Gospels. What else could be erroneous?..
The way I see it, no one can be absolutely sure that there is a God, or that masturbation is wrong, or that a man named Jesus was killed and then lived again, or breaking a commandment is a grave sin, etc. No one has seen God (don’t bring up Moses), no one has talked to God and asked him if cohabitation or going to Europe with your boyfriend for 3-6 months is a sin. No one knows if Catholicism, or any religion is the “right” one and the way you should be living your life.
What you probably should do is treat others the way you want to be treated, thank and respect God for the blessings in your life, don’t be so judgemental of others or worry about if missing Church on vacation is really bad, and remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees (what people in this forum seem to be doing), how they were living too much by the letter of the law, and not enough by the spirit of it.
God Bless.
If you search the forums, you’ll find many threads already exist that discuss these issues at length.
:doh2: