[Serious] For former Christians only, why did you leave your faith?

[Ahriman]

I never knew what to say during Confession, as I never felt guilty for anything, so I always just said I was touching myself. You would think that after hearing about my masturbatory habits for the hundredth time, the priest would figure I wasn't going to stop.

[arewethereyet]

If you wanted to avoid spiritual consequence for bad deeds, you should have remained a Catholic. The whole confession/absolution thing is kind of a ‘Get Out Of Hell Free’ card.

Boru

That is not what Catholic theology teaches, not in the slightest.  In Protestant Christian theology, one has neo-Calvinism ("Onced Saved, Always Saved") versus Arminianism, which believes that an individual, once saved, can lose his/her salvation.

The Church makes a distinction between venial versus mortal sins, and the simple act of confessing one's sins does not necessarily remit those sins.

Going to confession and doing the assigned penance is the get out hell free card.  The key there is that you have to do the penance...ours was typically something along the lines of saying an Our Father, a few Hail Marys, and an Act of Contrition.  

And yes, there is a distinction in the 'level' of sin.  The worse the sin, the more you have to pray.

Of course, it helps to have received all the sacraments along the way.

[Jehanne]

That is not what Catholic theology teaches, not in the slightest.  In Protestant Christian theology, one has neo-Calvinism ("Onced Saved, Always Saved") versus Arminianism, which believes that an individual, once saved, can lose his/her salvation.

The Church makes a distinction between venial versus mortal sins, and the simple act of confessing one's sins does not necessarily remit those sins.

Going to confession and doing the assigned penance is the get out hell free card.  The key there is that you have to do the penance...ours was typically something along the lines of saying an Our Father, a few Hail Marys, and an Act of Contrition.  

And yes, there is a distinction in the 'level' of sin.  The worse the sin, the more you have to pray.

Of course, it helps to have received all the sacraments along the way.

It's difficult to know what the Church teaches these days, and I cannot help wonder why anyone, myself included, would even care. In any case, the official teaching is as follows, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition -- Ha!!):

1456 Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly."

[Jehanne]

I never knew what to say during Confession, as I never felt guilty for anything, so I always just said I was touching myself. You would think that after hearing about my masturbatory habits for the hundredth time, the priest would figure I wasn't going to stop.

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned..."

[arewethereyet]

Let's not forget that there used to be purgatory where you would be sent to suffer enough to cleanse those sins off that weren't already cleared by your local priest or were a little too bad to just pray away.

Oh, and limbo for those poor unbaptized babies who died because they weren't able to get to a priest in time.

[Jehanne]

Let's not forget that there used to be purgatory where you would be sent to suffer enough to cleanse those sins off that weren't already cleared by your local priest or were a little too bad to just pray away.

Oh, and limbo for those poor unbaptized babies who died because they weren't able to get to a priest in time.

Venial sins would send one to Purgatory, mortal sins to eternal Hell. And, yes, a big about-face on the Limbo of the Infants here recently.

[Ahriman]

Let's not forget that there used to be purgatory where you would be sent to suffer enough to cleanse those sins off that weren't already cleared by your local priest or were a little too bad to just pray away.

Oh, and limbo for those poor unbaptized babies who died because they weren't able to get to a priest in time.

Wouldn't it be really fucking cool if those places were real? I mean, it would be interesting, wouldn't it?

[arewethereyet]

Let's not forget that there used to be purgatory where you would be sent to suffer enough to cleanse those sins off that weren't already cleared by your local priest or were a little too bad to just pray away.

Oh, and limbo for those poor unbaptized babies who died because they weren't able to get to a priest in time.

Venial sins would send one to Purgatory, mortal sins to eternal Hell.  And, yes, a big about-face on the Limbo of the Infants here recently.

Repenting and being absolved by a priest keeps someone who has committed a mortal sin from going to hell.

What sort of Catholic were/are you?

Apparently at the Basilica, we were taught differently.

[Jehanne]

Let's not forget that there used to be purgatory where you would be sent to suffer enough to cleanse those sins off that weren't already cleared by your local priest or were a little too bad to just pray away.

Oh, and limbo for those poor unbaptized babies who died because they weren't able to get to a priest in time.

Wouldn't it be really fucking cool if those places were real? I mean, it would be interesting, wouldn't it?

It's like asking if Atlantis is real. Yes, I suppose that the existence of the invisible Atlantians would be sort of cool.

[HappySkeptic]

I was Anglican, and left the faith because I flat-out couldn't say the creeds or even the Lord's prayer without knowing I was lying to myself and those around me.

What led to that point was discussions on the Amazon Religion Forum (RIP) and a realization that God (if It exists) doesn't, in fact, do anything.

When everything in the world goes well, it is easy to push all the contradictions in Christianity to the back of one's mind. When a senseless death happens, it becomes harder to accept the idea of an omnipresent good god who doesn't do anything, or an absentee god that still actually exists. Neither make any sense, and even if one were true, it doesn't correspond to the God of Christianity who is supposed to actually do things for those who believe.

When I realized that Christianity was not just partly false, but completely false, it felt like a weight was lifted. There is a burden to all that cognitive dissonance.