Yeah that’s a real knee slapper. Death and destruction wrought by religious belief is always a hoot.
Do you have any idea, at all, who the Albigensians were?
the Catholic Encyclopedia**:
The dualism of the Albigenses was also the basis of their moral teaching. Man, they taught, is a living contradiction. Hence, the liberation of the soul from its captivity in the body is the true end of our being. To attain this, suicide is commendable; it was customary among them in the form of the endura (starvation). The extinction of bodily life on the largest scale consistent with human existence is also a perfect aim.
As generation propagates the slavery of the soul to the body, perpetual chastity should be practiced. Matrimonial intercourse is unlawful; concubinage, being of a less permanent nature, is preferable to marriage. Abandonment of his wife by the husband, or vice versa, is desirable. Generation was abhorred by the Albigenses even in the animal kingdom. Consequently, abstention from all animal food, except fish, was enjoined. Their belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, the result of their logical rejection of purgatory, furnishes another explanation for the same abstinence. To this practice they added long and rigorous fasts. The necessity of absolute fidelity to the sect was strongly inculcated. War and capital punishment were absolutely condemned.
Sound familiar? Vegetarians, promiscuous, unfaithful and infidelitous, opposed to war, starved themselves, suicidal…
… By Jove, it sounds a lot like many modern, secular people!
“Cultural Catholicism” means nothing. Are you a Catholic, or aren’t you? If you don’t believe, you are an atheist. If you don’t practise, you’re probably in spiritual danger or are in league with the demons. To be a Catholic (or any faith for that matter) you have to believe AND practise in line with that faith.
I apologise.