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Confession is good for the soul?

Religion and Philosophy
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we are introducing this on a trial basis and that respect for other's views is important e.g. phrases like "your imaginary friend" or "you will go to hell" are not appropriate
beeswax
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Confession is good for the soul?

#67876

Postby beeswax » July 17th, 2017, 12:32 pm

So its said...

But is that true? For religious people it can be probably and even the non religious are seen to benefit when we can clear and get things of our minds that troubles us possibly on a daily basis. Psychiatry seems to be part of this and so anyone any opinions on this? Of course the Catholic Church has its confessionals with a Priest and people do say they feel better when they have done that and so who can say its not good for the soul whatever that means to the non religious?

Penance anyone? I know my wife gives me hell if I have forgotten to buy some things she asked me to get...;)

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#67881

Postby GrandOiseau » July 17th, 2017, 1:02 pm

"Confessing" means you deal with the situation and move on. Holding on to secrets will invariably cause feelings of stress, regret, a burden.

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68423

Postby bungeejumper » July 19th, 2017, 5:14 pm

Psychiatry seems to be part of this

I think you probably mean psychotherapy rather than psychiatry, but I get your point. My wife is a psychotherapist at what you might call the deep and heavy end of the trade - her clients are usually messed up in some very creative ways ;) , and it can really help them to spit out whatever's on their minds so that they can move on with their lives.

Sometimes they might not even recollect what it is that's holding them back! and it can take a lot of slow and patient work to find the source of their problems. But once it's been spoken out loud, and properly acknowledged, the way is generally open to set it all behind them.

Does that sound a bit mystical? A bit airy-fairy? I can understand that, but honestly, that's how it's done, and as a rule it works.

The difference, of course, is that there's no religious element involved there, and that what they're "confessing" might not be their fault. The cause of the problem might be something that somebody else has done to them! And let's remember that they're not asking anyone to absolve them. That will be a crucial difference for a Christian.

I have no religious convictions myself, but I did once manage to 'talk' my way out of a depressive spiral by simply writing some difficult and confusing stuff down and then reading it over and over and over again until I'd come to terms with it. A sort of auto-confession, if you like. That worked as well! ;)

The time I get bothered is when I see someone who's cheating on his wife, cheating his customers, and generally behaving like a Christian shouldn't - and who then goes into confession and comes out feeling all washed clean so that he can do it all over again. It's all very well accepting that we poor sinful humans are lost and weak and misguided, but if confession becomes a substitute for making real change,s then that makes the whole thing rather a waste of time.

BJ

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68427

Postby Dod1010 » July 19th, 2017, 5:29 pm

BJ

You should note that all Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics. It is only the Catholics (as far as I know) who go to confessional to seek absolution. In the Reformed Tradition essentially the Protestants, there is no such thing as the confessional so when you write of Christians you should really say Catholics. That is not just pedantry. It is why we had the Reformation.

Dod

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68430

Postby bungeejumper » July 19th, 2017, 5:39 pm

Dod1010 wrote:You should note that all Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics. It is only the Catholics (as far as I know) who go to confessional to seek absolution.

Well yes, I was assuming that everybody else knew that as well. It was one of the things that our Anglican priest had to juggle very carefully when he assured us Sunday Schoolers that the Church of England was a Catholic church. Eventually we got the hang of it.

That is not just pedantry. It is why we had the Reformation.

There were a lot of reasons why we had the Reformation, such as transubstantiation. But I'll leave that to those who care about such things. Peace.

BJ

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68452

Postby beeswax » July 19th, 2017, 6:26 pm

Good points there and mentioning about Christians getting 'absolved' or think the term is 'forgiven' and getting the right side of God in the process and a great point about all Christians not being Catholics but not sure what non Catholics would make of the NT text where Jesus said to his disciples that whatever is forgiven on earth will be forgiven in heaven and what is not forgiven on earth will not not be..Not sure how Protestants deal with that and so maybe they would get forgiven by their Anglican Priest or Pastor if someone asks them to? Its a mess and why many Priests used that as an excuse to carry on abusing kids and then no doubt thinking God was forgiving them each time. They of course seem to ignore the other saying of Jesus that anyone who harms the little ones, it would be better had they not been born and that blows a huge hole in the Church's teaching that ALL sins are forgiven by God and any deathbed conversion as well.

What is clear is the Catholic Church used that statement by Jesus a a great way of getting money from the rich and powerful including Kings and Queens in the past and even the Crusades was a means of coercion by the Church and shows how powerful it was back then. I'm glad to say its almost an irrelevance today. If Islam could just learn the same lessons we would be making progress.

May I ask if being a Psychotherapist and dealing with people's problems can be very depressing and many go on to commit suicide or leave their profession and indeed why some Doctors do that too as all they are doing is seeing 'sick' people?

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68544

Postby bungeejumper » July 20th, 2017, 8:54 am

beeswax wrote:May I ask if being a Psychotherapist and dealing with people's problems can be very depressing and many go on to commit suicide or leave their profession and indeed why some Doctors do that too as all they are doing is seeing 'sick' people?

Sorry Beeswax, a short answer (because my computer swallowed my long one). :evil:

Yes, it can be a professional strain for a psychotherapist to have all that grief loaded onto their heads every day, and they need to have channels through which they can get rid of it, or at least dilute it to the point where it becomes bearable. Properly qualified therapists spend a few hours a week 'counselling' each other! (The technical term is "supervision" - I call it "jobs for the girls" when I'm being flippant.)

Nothing flippant about the need, though. Psychotherapists spend their days with people who are right on the edge. Some clients have had dreadful things done to them, and others are themselves the perpetrators. (Yes, the courts will sometimes send clients for assessment, or as a last-minute alternative to prison.) One of my wife's colleagues was counselling a woman who walked out of the session and went home and murdered her 11 year old son - you can imagine what the therapist felt like? And it's worse still for Samaritans call staff (who aren't psychotherapists), and who have to reckon with the possibility that every phone call might be followed by tragedy. :|

Some psychotherapy clients are there because they're considering gender reassignment, which can be a personal challenge for some counsellors. But most are ordinary people dealing with extraordinary stresses - damage, bereavement, break-ups, bullying, and (yes) incapacitating guilt. A properly set up service will provide enough backup to get the staff through what may often be a very tough professional experience. I am pretty proud of my wife.

BJ

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#68595

Postby beeswax » July 20th, 2017, 11:58 am

bungeejumper wrote:
beeswax wrote:May I ask if being a Psychotherapist and dealing with people's problems can be very depressing and many go on to commit suicide or leave their profession and indeed why some Doctors do that too as all they are doing is seeing 'sick' people?

Sorry Beeswax, a short answer (because my computer swallowed my long one). :evil:

Yes, it can be a professional strain for a psychotherapist to have all that grief loaded onto their heads every day, and they need to have channels through which they can get rid of it, or at least dilute it to the point where it becomes bearable. Properly qualified therapists spend a few hours a week 'counselling' each other! (The technical term is "supervision" - I call it "jobs for the girls" when I'm being flippant.)

Nothing flippant about the need, though. Psychotherapists spend their days with people who are right on the edge. Some clients have had dreadful things done to them, and others are themselves the perpetrators. (Yes, the courts will sometimes send clients for assessment, or as a last-minute alternative to prison.) One of my wife's colleagues was counselling a woman who walked out of the session and went home and murdered her 11 year old son - you can imagine what the therapist felt like? And it's worse still for Samaritans call staff (who aren't psychotherapists), and who have to reckon with the possibility that every phone call might be followed by tragedy. :|

Some psychotherapy clients are there because they're considering gender reassignment, which can be a personal challenge for some counsellors. But most are ordinary people dealing with extraordinary stresses - damage, bereavement, break-ups, bullying, and (yes) incapacitating guilt. A properly set up service will provide enough backup to get the staff through what may often be a very tough professional experience. I am pretty proud of my wife.

BJ


Many thanks for that BJ, very illuminating and another world out there and brilliant there are people like your wife that will take it on and so agree you can be very proud of her...

ATB

Mike

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#69352

Postby GJHarney » July 24th, 2017, 10:45 pm

Some sort of confession is common in many religions, even the more extreme Calvinist Protestants do it, it is just that they cut out the middle man (priest) and go straight to God to confess their sins. Needless to say the CofE half-way house (between the Catholic Church and Protestantism) does it in a corporatist manner via a number of set collective services, which is befitting of a nationalised industry (Henry's conversion to the Protestant cause was very much political and economic rather than theological, and with the dissolution of the monasteries providing a massive financial windfall for the English state it was pretty naked in its economic drivers).

It is interesting though that the rise of psychotherapy seems to mirror the decline in the role of the Catholic style confessional in modern life. In mental health terms that probably isn't coincidental, although equally I doubt that the lonely atomised individual in the middle of a crowd that is all too common in modern capitalist society was a concept that would have been understood in the middle ages, and where confession was I think far more linked to a form of social control rather than private individual mental wellbeing.

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#137214

Postby bruncher » May 6th, 2018, 8:20 am

The thread is quite old, but I read it this morning and thinking that perhaps the word catharsis could be helpful. So we could ask: Is confession cathartic?

I would agree that holding secrets can be unhealthy, make someone unwell, depressed etc. and that the pathological secret could be (1) personal guilt of culpability of something bad done to someone; (2) something witnessed but never spoken of; (3) something suffered and silence imposed by the perpetrator or family/community.

Sometimes someone has forgotten the secret, or repressed it, and this is where psychotherapy can be particularly useful - where someone feels there's something wrong and they are depressed or anxious, but they do not know why.

In my experience, Anglican clergy do offer confession, but the sacrament of confession has a higher profile in the Roman Catholic church. Interestingly, in the early church, confession was communal/congregational rather than private and confidential.

As to whether 'all Catholics are Christians', I would defer to Kierkegaard who asks "Are there any Christians in Christendom"? There is institutional and cultural Christianity, but are the participants Christians?

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#141119

Postby beeswax » May 25th, 2018, 12:33 am

bruncher wrote:The thread is quite old, but I read it this morning and thinking that perhaps the word catharsis could be helpful. So we could ask: Is confession cathartic?

I would agree that holding secrets can be unhealthy, make someone unwell, depressed etc. and that the pathological secret could be (1) personal guilt of culpability of something bad done to someone; (2) something witnessed but never spoken of; (3) something suffered and silence imposed by the perpetrator or family/community.

Sometimes someone has forgotten the secret, or repressed it, and this is where psychotherapy can be particularly useful - where someone feels there's something wrong and they are depressed or anxious, but they do not know why.

In my experience, Anglican clergy do offer confession, but the sacrament of confession has a higher profile in the Roman Catholic church. Interestingly, in the early church, confession was communal/congregational rather than private and confidential.

As to whether 'all Catholics are Christians', I would defer to Kierkegaard who asks "Are there any Christians in Christendom"? There is institutional and cultural Christianity, but are the participants Christians?


Yes its an old thread, just like the Old Testament and even the New...;)

Jesus didn't actually start a new religion as he was preaching the OT law and rituals where he himself allowed his disciples to buy a lamb to sacrifice at the Temple at the passover and therefore Paul and others claiming Jesus was the lamb of God who's death was an atonement for human sin and is the only way to heaven and appease an angry and vengeful God was clearly nonsense. The Church held the power of heaven and hell over human souls and human dignity and made them subservient to them. The confessional was a great way to hold sway over people with an assumed and misguided power of forgiveness. It was also a great way to raise money to finance their luxurious buildings like the Vatican and Palaces and gave them a better living than most of their congregations.

ie Followers of Jesus should be Jewish and there should be no NEW testament...

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.. ;)

Jesus said quite clearly they were all living in the end days when God would judge the world and he Jesus would be coming back in his generational timescale...

That never happened but the Church keeps preaching that tale..Vested interests spring to mind!

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#144856

Postby paulmiller » June 10th, 2018, 6:55 pm

Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.


Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145223

Postby beeswax » June 12th, 2018, 3:34 pm

paulmiller wrote:Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.


Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.


My intent is not to insult anybody but to get people to do as I have done and that is to THINK about what it is they believe and what is the evidence for that belief. It is not dishonest to argue that in ancient times very few people were literate, some figures suggest just few percent. It is a fact that most of the disciples including the chief one Peter was an illiterate man and that is not to condemn what they 'believed' but for intelligent far greater educated people to assess what that is...

It took me 50 years as I never really gave it much thought and possibly was not really a 'Christian' as many are who believe every single word of the bible and the words attributed to Jesus which experts suggest were made up later by vested interests, eg the stoning of the Prostitute and go and sin no more stuff.

The big difference is that we can hear and read stuff online and do our own research to what is myth and what is not and its obvious most is myth and Jesus said 'apparently' that he was returning in that generational time and Paul preached that too..Many Preachers down the ages have prophesied the end of the world and Jesus was just 'another' one that got more publicity and followers that's all. The Mormons are just as culpable.

He did, Jesus was wrong, Paul was wrong and anyway the wrath of God and sending a Saviour based on Adam who never existed in any garden is not true and so if we substituted Santa Claus throughout the bible of all the prominent names in there, that would have made the same sense..

God would not forgive us unconditionally which is against all human experience and yet Christians say that his love and forgiveness knows no bounds...

I would hope the whole world would read my posts and then start to THINK about their faith and not just Christians, Muslims, Jews and others..

I hope we have moved from the olden days and pagan times of human and animal sacrifice which was the hallmark of the ignorant but alas people are entitled to think what they like on ONE condition. And where most religious faiths have failed and are failing the test.

ie Not to harm ONE single person in any way with their belief.

Believe in ANY God you want but keep to that golden rule and so there needs to be not ONE death due to religion and that is my sermon for everyone.

Saying somebody is ignorant is not insulting as I am ignorant of many things...

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145237

Postby beeswax » June 12th, 2018, 4:24 pm

Saying somebody is ignorant is not insulting as I am ignorant of many things...

I wanted to amend the text but had to leave my computer but wanted to add..another sentence..

I am definitely NOT ignorant where Christianity is concerned as spent more hours on thinking and studying it than I care to admit and possibly could have got a Ph.D +++++ in the time and that is probably more than 95% of all the Christians that have ever lived....;)

Free free at last from all that religious stuff that is clearly designed to manipulate, control and emasculate/subjugate our minds and our bodies when all we need is one thing!

Be kind, be compassionate, be tolerant and be generous and do no harm to any other person, no matter how we feel..I have to add that I don't always comply with that statement myself. But its always an aspiration to do better.

Now tell me what does religion offer us those words don't? and in one single sentence too and yet millions of religious text has been written to do what exactly? As I said above, its all about power and control and nothing else.

No need for any holy text or men of 'God' to tell us what to wear, what to eat, how to pray and who to and to forgive all others, whom to die for, no condemnation and no promise of hell or heaven and no judgement day.

In all the conversations I have had with Christians and there have been plenty, every single one has been defeated if that is the right word by reason, by logic and by common sense at which time they all do the very same thing and walk away as they really don't want the challenge...ignorance is truly bliss..Oddly or maybe not but I've lost more friends that way not by my choice but theirs, such is their determination to continue as before. If you are not with them they are against you...The way some of these so called Christians' have treated my MIL who spent all her life going to the same place of worship so poorly, would make you pretty mad actually. But I won't add to that here...TBH I don't expect anything else. They are truly the biggest bunch of hypocrites you will ever come across. I don't ever want to meet them ever again, in heaven or hell...

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145241

Postby paulmiller » June 12th, 2018, 4:43 pm

Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.

Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145255

Postby ReformedCharacter » June 12th, 2018, 5:14 pm

paulmiller wrote:Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?


I assume the OP is using the forum as an outlet for his personal problems because - whatever his beliefs - he cannot surely expect to change anyone's religious attitudes by posting derogatory and insulting comments even if he does profess his own ignorance.

RC

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145285

Postby beeswax » June 12th, 2018, 6:42 pm

ReformedCharacter wrote:
paulmiller wrote:Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?


I assume the OP is using the forum as an outlet for his personal problems because - whatever his beliefs - he cannot surely expect to change anyone's religious attitudes by posting derogatory and insulting comments even if he does profess his own ignorance.

RC


Pardon?

My own personal problems? I am NOT ignorant where Christianity is concerned and would pit myself against ANY believer any day of the week for what that was worth. I'm ignorant of lots of others stuff but obviously that point was missed.

What derogatory and insulting comments are those? That would not be allowed on this forum anyway.

I have just posted what MY opinion is on religion and what MY advice is to ANYONE who is a believer who wants or expects (as they do) to convert other NON believers to their point of view? Generally the routine is to tell people they are sinners and therefore NEED forgiveness from God and that is only achieved by ACCEPTING that God sent his only Son to be crucified on a cross for us and they preach there is NO other way of redemption and worse. If they don't accept that, they WILL be sent to eternal hell fire and damnation.

Now, if that isn't an insult to our intelligence and unacceptable preaching to every human being on this planet, I don't know what is...Its actually abuse of the worst kind because its force fed to children who have no other place to go.

I doubt I will convince anyone as I've said, believers don't want to hear or read ANYTHING that contradicts their religious faith. And why this board with a couple of postings every few months won't achieve that anyway and so my soul is not in peril and I cannot believe that it took so long for me to realise what a CON job they have done over the centuries and are still doing that. It is MY belief looking at the history of religion that its been a force for evil and not good. Most progress in the world on equal rights for women, homosexuals, divorced couples, same sex marriage has taken place by secular governments where the church has either been absent on all these issues or has objected. It is not that long ago that gay men like Oscar Wilde was put in prison and so that took 1900 years and longer and most of these faiths still won't accept any of that all and ONLY because its in their religious text. If there is any derogatory and insulting needed then just you need look no further than religious text.

ie Shooting the messenger is what they are really good at..

How does a young boy or girl go on today that may be homosexual and yet have these religious parents? I would say it must be hell on earth for them until they grow up to say FU but damage has been done to their lives and their minds because of this indoctrination and why my own quest is for people to stop and THINK what and why they follow religious faith and I'm probably in quite a small group of ex believers especially of so many years when I can say to anyone who tries to convert me back again to FU too..

I would go further and say religious indoctrination is one of the worst kind of abuse that a child or an adult can have...

Just my opinion...I expect 99% of religious people to disagree with me, what's new. I'm free from all that claptrap and apologies to LF but cannot think of a better word at the moment. One may come to me eventually..

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145290

Postby beeswax » June 12th, 2018, 7:08 pm

paulmiller wrote:Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.

Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?


Sorry I didn't answer this last post and question arising.

Where have I used anti-semitic and islamophobic language? Or are you doing the usual by using ANY adverse comment about religion as an excuse to shut down public debate? Been quite successful I grant you...

Christophobic? Is that a new word then?

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145311

Postby paulmiller » June 12th, 2018, 8:38 pm

beeswax wrote:
paulmiller wrote:Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.

Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?


Sorry I didn't answer this last post and question arising.

Where have I used anti-semitic and islamophobic language? Or are you doing the usual by using ANY adverse comment about religion as an excuse to shut down public debate? Been quite successful I grant you...

Christophobic? Is that a new word then?


That is exactly my point. You say you despise all religions. You are happy to make all kinds of insulting remarks on a public website about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, remarks that are extremely insulting to Christians, and yet you do not seem to make any insulting remarks about any person or any thing or any book which is considered sacred or important to Jews or muslims. Rather strange that don’t you think ?

So I asked you why is it that you only feel comfortable insulting Christ and the Christian faith on a public website ? Why do you not feel so comfortable and relaxed about insulting Jews and muslims on a public website ?

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Re: Confession is good for the soul?

#145329

Postby beeswax » June 12th, 2018, 11:17 pm

paulmiller wrote:
beeswax wrote:
paulmiller wrote:Beeswax wrote:

I remain convinced that the whole lot was a means of subjugation and was and is a bunch of untruths without one ounce of evidence and all so called holy text written or conveyed at the time by ignorant men, including Jesus, with NO special insight or access to any heavenly entity...50 years a Christian repenting his ignorance and his innocence.

Beeswax,

You say you were a Christian for 50 years and now you seem to have no problem at all with insulting all Christians in the world by using very anti-Christian and Christophobic language on a public website for the whole world to read. Very sad.

I wonder are you as comfortable with using anti-semitic and islamophobic language on a public website as you are with using your anti-Christian and Christophobic language ?


Sorry I didn't answer this last post and question arising.

Where have I used anti-semitic and islamophobic language? Or are you doing the usual by using ANY adverse comment about religion as an excuse to shut down public debate? Been quite successful I grant you...

Christophobic? Is that a new word then?


That is exactly my point. You say you despise all religions. You are happy to make all kinds of insulting remarks on a public website about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, remarks that are extremely insulting to Christians, and yet you do not seem to make any insulting remarks about any person or any thing or any book which is considered sacred or important to Jews or muslims. Rather strange that don’t you think ?

So I asked you why is it that you only feel comfortable insulting Christ and the Christian faith on a public website ? Why do you not feel so comfortable and relaxed about insulting Jews and muslims on a public website ?


Just to make it clear, I don't 'despise anyone be them Christian, Jew or Muslim. I'm not sure what you mean by 'insulting' remarks about Jesus or the Christian Faith but you are correct that many people of faith don't like being criticised for their beliefs and that is perfectly understandable. Even though the Monty Python comedy sketches of Christ on the Cross were in bad taste they were allowed to be shown. Maybe today they wouldn't as we have moved into an age where even legitimate concerns like I have said about the indoctrination of children into things that are obviously not true in religious text and so how can that be achieved. Jesus was wrong or was he when he said (apparently) that he was going to return in that time frame or not. He made a claim that Christians repeat often that Christ is divine and is the only way to God. The bible makes outrageous claims about sin and about homosexuals and the Law that put many people to death including children for swearing at their parents and that menstruating women are unclean and need to make a sacrifice in the temple for being so...Heaven and hell and Jesus giving the keys to the Kingdom of heaven enslaved Kings and Queens and millions perhaps billions s to the will of the Church.

All of that is despicable stuff and is an affront and an insult to people's intelligence who still very much believe the bible is the word of God and when I have put such things to prominent Christian Leaders, they make some excuse or don't reply. Why should I care? Because the truth matters and everyone including homosexuals and women should be treated with respect and dignity and today 2000 years later the Christian Church still won't apologise. Jesus said (apparently) that divorced people should not remarry as that is living in sin even though some may have suffered mental and physical abuse an many had to stay with such men because the Church and Jesus said so....I mean what nonsense is this? OK many have left the church for all these reasons but the text is still there that enslaved people for centuries. I sincerely believe that IF Christians, Jews and Muslims thought deeply about all their religious texts they would inevitably come to the very same conclusions as I have and BTW, I very much still believe in a Creator of the universe and the very fact that 'my' God makes no distinction between anyone be they any faith or non faith or any sex or homosexual seems to be a far better belief system than those...

In my humble opinion and the whole point is nobody needs to tell me what to eat or what to wear or how much charity I need to do...I can think that all out for myself. I just ask others to do the same..

I have criticised Islam and Sharia Law many times but not here...


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