The ridiculousness of sin
Stumbled across an article about a very silly thing in SC. The notion of denying yourself the very thing which keeps you in touch with your deity because someone else thinks that someone you voted for has views that might lead to sinful acts on the part of others?
Sure, I get the 'wrong' angle, and I'm not unsympathetic to the root of Father Newman's distress, but how fucked up is your life if you're afraid you've damned yourself to Hell (which has yet to be demonstrated to exist) for voting for a candidate whose words can be twisted to sound as though he supports the wholesale slaughter of babies? How does Father Newman know that this vote in particular is especially sinful? My answer so far: because 'sin' as a metaphysical concept is arbitrarily rationalizable to whatever values the speaker has.
Is Hell really the reason to not do evil acts to this mindset? Where is the notion of good for goodness' sake?
The Scientologists may be terrible, but at least they have standing to claim some measurable way of determining your status with respect to the Hereafter. :P
Sure, I get the 'wrong' angle, and I'm not unsympathetic to the root of Father Newman's distress, but how fucked up is your life if you're afraid you've damned yourself to Hell (which has yet to be demonstrated to exist) for voting for a candidate whose words can be twisted to sound as though he supports the wholesale slaughter of babies? How does Father Newman know that this vote in particular is especially sinful? My answer so far: because 'sin' as a metaphysical concept is arbitrarily rationalizable to whatever values the speaker has.
Is Hell really the reason to not do evil acts to this mindset? Where is the notion of good for goodness' sake?
The Scientologists may be terrible, but at least they have standing to claim some measurable way of determining your status with respect to the Hereafter. :P