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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:36 pm
(December 11, 2015 at 7:30 pm)Thena323 Wrote: (December 11, 2015 at 7:06 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Dr Fuzzy brought Christianity into the discussion, so my post was to him.
Dr. Fuzzy is a her.
Thanks for letting me know. Sorry Fuz!
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:43 pm
Hehe if people thought I was a girl it wouldn't bother me at all.
Unless they're a strictly heterosexual hot female who would find me hot and I'm missing out because they think I'm a girl!
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:46 pm
Hahaha! You never fail to bring chuckles, Evie.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:48 pm
Awesome.
Happy to make you chuckle.
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:49 pm
(December 11, 2015 at 10:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: If forgiveness is a moral duty than it's value is greatly lessened, imo. It's something you have to do - rather than something you elect to do. I don't believe that there is such a duty..and I certainly don't think that jesus gave quality advice about how to deal with enemies..judging by the supposed circumstances of his death.
If there was ever a guy that needed to beat a plow into a sword...to -not- turn the other cheek....to refuse his enemies love, it'd be a guy who got crucified by the state.
Would you say the same thing about Socrates?
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 7:57 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2015 at 7:58 pm by Excited Penguin.)
(December 11, 2015 at 10:50 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Hello heathens.
So I watched this 20/20 documentary the other night about a little girl who was abducted, raped, and murdered. The little girl's mother, through her faith, made the decision to forgive her daughter's murderer. She starts talking about it at 12:30 on the video below.
"I made the commitment to work towards an attitude of forgiveness. I tried to think positive thoughts for him - let the weather be good for whatever he's doing today, if he's traveling may he not have any car trouble."
She prayed for him and was also against the death penalty for him. Once he was found and imprisoned, he killed himself in his cell, and she reached out to his mom and they laid flowers together on his grave.
Loving and forgiving our enemies is a fundamental Christian teaching, coming from Jesus Himself. So the question to you guys is, do you agree with this teaching? Do you guys think loving/forgiving our enemies, even the people who have done the worst things imaginable to us, is something we should strive to do? Or do you think a person has no moral duty whatsoever to try to forgive people who have done such heinous things?
Why or why not?
Here's the documentary if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB1g4TxdhoE
Let me ask you something, CL. Say a rapist kidnaps you and you know for sure he's going to kill you after he has his way with your body. And say you get a chance to kill him first and that's the only way you're making it out alive out of his basement(or whatever). Do you turn the other cheek or do you stab him until he's dead?
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 8:09 pm
False dichotomy.
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 9:32 pm
(December 11, 2015 at 7:30 pm)Thena323 Wrote: (December 11, 2015 at 7:06 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Dr Fuzzy brought Christianity into the discussion, so my post was to him.
Dr. Fuzzy is a her.
Eh . . . doesn't matter.
I liked CL's response, even though I'm no longer Christian. In fact, at the time I was writing about, I thought the same thing - god would know whether I was truly wanting to forgive or not. We may be describing the process differently, but that's because it's such a complex thing, really. It's ok.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 9:38 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2015 at 9:41 pm by Athene.)
(December 11, 2015 at 9:32 pm)drfuzzy Wrote:
I hadn't read what you guys discussed yet. I was just telling her that you're a gal.
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RE: Loving and forgiving your enemies
December 11, 2015 at 9:43 pm
(December 11, 2015 at 9:38 pm)Thena323 Wrote: (December 11, 2015 at 9:32 pm)drfuzzy Wrote:
I hadn't read what you guys discussed yet. I was just telling her that you're a gal. ![Wink Wink](https://atheistforums.org/images/smilies/wink.gif)
![Cool Cool](https://atheistforums.org/images/smilies/cool.gif) Yep. Thanks Thena!
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
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