Which is worse:

  • Thread starter Thread starter JanSobieskiIII
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JanSobieskiIII

Guest
Murder or intentionally leading souls away from Catholic teaching, possibly leading to eternal damnation.
  • Murder
  • Leading souls away from the Church
0 voters
 
Grave sin is grave sin.

ETA reminds me of my mom saying “dead is dead no matter what killed ya”.
 
Last edited:
Murder implies more intention and murder is irreversible so I guess I’d say murder?
 
Last edited:
I am going with murder. If I murder someone, they had no choice. If I try to lead souls away, they may resist, or they may not, it is up to them. They have a choice.
 
Fear not those who kill the body Matthew 10:28 or Luke 12:4.
 
Basically what spurred the question was the churches dealings with heretics in the past, which in many cases was turning them over to state authorities for execution.

That leads me to believe that leading souls into eternal damnation is worse than killing someone. (I know what the church and the state did does not constitute murder)
 
St. Thomas Aquinas thought that killing people’s souls by spreading heresy was worse than murder and therefore warranted the death penalty. Not every saint thought that heretics should be executed, though.
 
Leads to some interesting followup questions. For example, is it better to murder a Catholic than a non-Catholic? If the former is a follower of the true Church you’d expect they’d be more likely to end up in heaven, and you wouldn’t be denying a non-Catholic time on Earth to discover church teachings.

(Kind of a ridiculous scenario but it kind of fits given the context I think 🙂 )
 
The wording of the question changes the answers. I think you should tighten up the question.

I think God probably views them with equal disdain as mortal sins.

However, murder is killing the human body. The soul is free for salvation if it is not in a state of mortal sin.

Willingly leading a person away from God, places that person’s soul in jeopardy of damnation. What can be worse than that?

Given that the Old Testament could be renamed “this is what happens to you when you disobey the 1st commandment.” I’d say the value of the soul is greater than the value of a human life.
 
I think that question is too difficult to answer without some idea of what type of murder and situation you’re talking about. But on the whole, I’d have to say they are both mortal, grave sins and equally, terribly wrong.
 
Fair enough. But I guess the point of that is that we should fear displeasing God more than getting killed by men. A person can not lead you away from the Church without your consent and not irreversibly but they can murder you without your consent and do so irreversibly.
 
JanSobieskiIII said:
That leads me to believe that leading souls into eternal damnation is worse than killing someone. (I know what the church and the state did does not constitute murder)
Click to expand...
You’d first have to assume they were right to do so. Even if you do think they were right, and that heresy was a crime which merited execution, how does that apply to murder (the killing of innocent people)?
 
Last edited:
The second is very bad, but the table might turn, as long as the person is still alive. Once the person is dead/murdered, it’s done.
 
Last edited:
Lost said:
The second is very bad, but the table might turn, as long as the person is still alive. Once the person is dead/murdered, it’s done.
Click to expand...
I wonder how it would alter the results if we switched murder out with abortion…
 
Good question. Personally, my thinking will be the same. That’s the same as murdering.
 
Lost said:
Good question. Personally, my thinking will be the same. That’s the same as murdering.
Click to expand...
Right…but I’ve gotten the impression that many Catholics here don’t seem terribly convinced of the evil of regular ol’ murder. Back in March there was a thread where quite a few people insisted than porn is a greater evil than murder. My jaw hit the ground so hard it almost broke through my downstairs neighbors’ ceiling.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top