I am assuming I'm not the only one who got a long private message from one of the Catholic ladies hanging around these parts. Her unsolicited diatribe just happen to catch me on a day when I was feeling unusually mellow (even for someone living full time on a sailboat – a decidedly mellow way to live). I actually took some time to author a response, only to discover she had blocked anyone from replying. I kind of liked what I wrote though, so I thought I would post it here, maybe catch what others think about such things...
“How could you not realize that your diatribe contained nothing original, insightful, or even particularly interesting? What would you think the response would be other than offense or amusement? All you will manage is to reinforce the opinions about religions and believers that most on this forum formed long ago; counter productive to say the least.
Which, I fear, is a string words that will have no meaning to you.”
“How could you not realize that your diatribe contained nothing original, insightful, or even particularly interesting? What would you think the response would be other than offense or amusement? All you will manage is to reinforce the opinions about religions and believers that most on this forum formed long ago; counter productive to say the least.
The main reason that I stopped debating with religious people is that we simply don't speak a common language, making it impossible to communicate. Human kind has evolved, not fallen from some exulted plain of perfection. Humanity's gods don't exist outside of human imagination. No one needs saved from being tortured forever in a hell created by a vengeful god. Your claims are, and I mean this as literally as I can, nonsense; words strung into sentences that contain no meaning.
I know Catholics who are much better educated than you appear to be (including some priests), who are much more compassionate than your words on this forum make you appear, and who are much deeper thinkers than your diatribe would indicate, who would find your claims of hell equally insipid and shallow. For some of them hell is a metaphor used to encourage each person to grow into their full potential as a human being. The sacraments emphasize the need of community and compassion, the rituals a way to reinforce living each day faithfully. While I consider their approach quaint and somewhat dated, it is also helpful to some and harmless to any.
Others think of hell as a place of no consequence to people. For them a loving god is capable of, and has provided for, the salvation of every person. They treat the world with compassion, forgiveness, and understanding because their god has set the standard. Why the hell exists at all is a bit of an unnecessary complication, a question of doctrinal trivia that is also harmless. Catholics I know who hold these positions have the exact same opinion of a hell used by a wrathful god to torture billions of souls for eternity just because they offended it as I do; childish and immoral on its face, harmful and irresponsible in its effects. Worshiping such a god would be impossible for them, as it should be for anyone with a heart and a mind.
Sadly, all you have evidenced with your words is that you have betrayed your own humanity and made yourself deaf to the compassion and wisdom that others have found to be part of the god you think you follow.
Which, I fear, is a string words that will have no meaning to you.”
