Original Sin?

Ace ultimately I'd probably say all things are only possible through God, but I will grant you that you never thought about God throughout your touching story. It is because you are a good person and as has been shown many times on this forum and in real life, you do not need to be a Christian or even believe in God to be a good person. A famous theologian named Karl Rhaner once described this phenomenon as being an, "anonymous Christian". The idea is that without recognizing it or knowing it you are acting Christ-like, it is as if Christ is anonymously present in your life.

Quote: FrGamble

Ace ultimately I'd probably say all things are only possible through God, but I will grant you that you never thought about God throughout your touching story. It is because you are a good person and as has been shown many times on this forum and in real life, you do not need to be a Christian or even believe in God to be a good person. A famous theologian named Karl Rhaner once described this phenomenon as being an, "anonymous Christian". The idea is that without recognizing it or knowing it you are acting Christ-like, it is as if Christ is anonymously present in your life.

I was accepting of the compliment until, ultimately, you still attributed my good deed to Christ behind the scenes

Come on what did you expect?

Quote: FrGamble

it is as if Christ is anonymously present in your life.

Behind every good deed, Jesus is lurking
there, like it or not? That is a truly frightening
thought, but Christians say the same thing
about his counterpart, Satan. Behind every
evil thought and deed, there lurks the
devil. This way of thinking gave the peasants
excitement in their lives, made them think
they were part of some spiritual war. Worked
for over a thousand years, but the luster has
worn off that old fairy tale. We're stuck with
common sense now, and better off for it.

Quote: FrGamble

Come on what did you expect?

At least God gave you a sense of humor padre

When criticizing nationalism, Asimov used to say: "They believe anything good in other countries was borrowed from them, and anything bad invented elsewhere or was corrupted from their good invention."

What does common sense explain or tell us about the common phenomenon of struggling with temptation?

Quote: Face

I knew you'd find your way there, and I just knew that Nareed was going to pounce and a bloodbath was going to commence.

Gee, you write one little (long) post about "What's Wrong with Religion," and suddenly everyone thinks I'm against all religion.

Oh, wait. ;)

Quote: aceofspades

At least God gave you a sense of humor padre

I mind this attitude that "if it's good it came from God," particularly troubling.

As I said elsewhere, Christians do seem to think everything that's good comes from God, whether their deity is involved or not. This has all sorts of unpleasant consequences. But the attitude goes further. they seem to think they invented ethics and morality, discounting literally thousands of years of ethical and moral traditions of other, earlier religions and general philosophers.

Like they insist marriage is a "sacrament." It may be in their religion, and I wouldn't dream of objecting. but marriage 1) is a civil and legal matter as well which has nothing to do with religion and 2) marriage existed for thousands of years before Jesus. To claim ownership of it is simply insane. To dictate laws and limit civil rights of entire groups due to that claim, that's just plain cruel.

I agree Nareed in the sense that God was at work long before Christ was born. Even in religions outside of Judaism one can see the sparks of divine truth all around in ancient religions and philosophers. In my mind it is all preparation for the revelation of Jesus Christ, but even He stands on a strong and proud history of faithful reflections on ethical and moral principles. It's often a sign of antisemitism to fail to acknowledge that Jesus was often rephrasing or repeating teachings from the Hebrew Scriptures.