Alright, I double-majored in both Religious Studies and Catholic Studies in college.
First: you guys are being highly offensive. Why do you stand up for Muslims but not for Catholics?
Second: If you REALLY want to know what the church said, don't read news articles, read what the Vatican released. ...
after a lot more scourging of the news, I have found nothing about it in official church documents. Evidently all this came from an interview with the 2nd place guy in the city newspaper. This is not dogma, people
Third: I think that a truly wise person would try to find out WHY people believe these things before passing judgment on them. Otherwise, you lose all credibility in a debate with a knowledgeable person.
Stingray24 wrote:
If you research the authorship of the Bible you will find it to be quite consistent. The "new rules" continue the idea that there are sins that God is unable to forgive, which is false. The old and new "mortal sins" set by the Catholic Church were off base from the beginning. Either God can forgive all sin or He cannot. Anything in the middle is not logical.
now. Stingray, your point is actually a really good one, which is why I quoted it.
God can forgive all sins. Any sin that is unforgivable is unforgivable because, by its nature, the person committing the sin rejects God's forgiveness.
What this means is, Forgiveness is not something that is GRANTED, it is something offered that we must accept. Asking forgiveness is an act of humility. Demanding forgiveness isn't a sincere request.
For example, to believe that whatever it is that you have done is too bad to be forgiven is, logically, unforgivable. It means that you truly believe that God's love, compassion, and forgiveness are finite, and that you have managed to basically outperform God. This is (ironically) immensely prideful, not repentant.
Another example is the sin of presumption. That is to say, "eh, I can do this because I can always ask God's forgiveness and He has to forgive me." This, again, is you thinking you have outperformed God. Naturally, if you are not truly sorry, you cannot be forgiven.
In an earthly perspective, we've all met highly obnoxious people. And if you can ever get them to apologize for anything, they definitely only say it to get you the hell away from them because you're breathing their oxygen.
One needs to be repentant to be forgiven. Like I said, it is not a demand we make of God that he has to deliver. It is a gift that He offers us that we often reject. The concept of repentance involves penance. The humility we feel in genuinely asking forgiveness is a penance. To be prideful is the opposite, and this is why it is unforgivable.
An unforgivable sin is called that not because of what God lacks, but because the forgiveness does not happen due to an insincerity on our part.
I hope that makes more sense to you.
And one more thing. All of us were given the gift of free will. We are blessed to be able to choose what we want to believe and what we do not want to believe. However, there is an objective truth. What we believe or do not believe does not change the truth. We all search to find this truth. Many of us are still in school, and we look that way. Once we leave school, we are all still students of life, looking for that truth. Some call it fulfillment, some call it happiness...call it what you will. You can choose to agree or disagree with the Church. That's fine.
However, understand that the Catholic Church has done WAY more research, and collectively knows WAY more about these things -
SCIENTIFICALLY, as well as spiritually- than you do. It is foolish to assume that you know more.
Do not be a victim of your own emotions. If the Church's position on experimenting with the human body offends you, learn more about it. It may offend you because you take that personally. However, if you just leave it at that, all you are saying is, you feeling good about yourself is the ultimate good.
Is it?
That's a question we all ought to answer.