Religion - a respectful discussion, for those interested

Once again, the first thing you said is a common misconception, and sadly why a lot of people abandon their religious tradition. The age old question "why does God allow evil in the world?". The answer is simple, really....Free Will. We are all free to choose good or evil, and we are free to choose how we want to live our lives. God even respects the freedom of those who turn to evil and persecute His church. So he didn't intervene to strike down those perverts who infiltrated the Church as Priests, or the mentally ill people who were admitted into seminaries back when the Church was not as careful and vigilant about who it let in. He wants us to correct these problems ourselves, and sometimes inspires the good works of his people, but he never blocks the evil deeds of those who oppose the good. It's all in the name of freedom. We are free, ALL of us. God wants us to "figure it out" on our own; he has given us plenty of help along the way, most notably entering human history Himself during the time of Christ Jesus. Sadly, as a human race we have been slow to learn.

In addition, we have made some crucial mistakes in recent decades, most notably the disastrous "Sexual Revolution" of the 1960's, which was really a backsliding into the errors of previous civilizations, like Sodom and Gomorrah and the Roman Empire. Both were undone by sexual perversion. Paradoxically, the "Sexual Revolution" has killed freedom and happiness. It has killed freedom because it has made us slaves to our base desires, our animalistic sexual urges. It has led to the evils of pornography and abortion, which both lead to misery and abuse. We have regressed, or devolved, from what makes us truly human. Our advanced intellect allows us to "rise above" lower animals and have more control and freedom over our instincts and our bodies. When we give in to our primal urges with little or no restraint, we become addicted to them (sexual addiction and pornography addiction are real problems today, along with the obesity epidemic). We have discarded the wisdom of our ancestors in favor of the juvenile, adolescent pursuit of short-term pleasures. Instead of building virtuous lives that will lead to sustained happiness, joy, inner peace, and contentment, we have given in to dangerous vices and flock to psychologists as a result. Past generations didn't have these problems, at least not to the extent that we do today.

And sadly, even some Priests, Rabbis, and Pastors have fallen victim to sexual abuses. It all stems from the erosion of family values that the "Sexual Revolution" touched off. If you don't believe me, there are plenty of statistics to back it up. ....also, Priests are easy targets, because of the vows they take and their radical, celibate lifestyle. That's why people may have been targeting Priests with bogus allegations of abuse, instead of the Trumps, Bush's, and Goodell's of the world. Again, a tiny number of Priests were ever accused of misconduct, and of those, how many were legit? We don't know, but again, the Church is known to have money, and people kept digging up these old cases from as far back as the 1960's after the "witchhunt" began in the early 2000's. Seems kind of suspicious to me; these so-called victims stayed silent for 40 years, and only now come out with their stories, conveniently, after it has become "trendy" to accuse Priests and sue the Church....hmmm.

 

It's not like they waited 5 or 10 years while getting treatment or therapy, we're talking in some cases 40 years. It seems like if you were molested by a Priest you would want to nail the bastard before then, no? Plus the fact that virtually all of the alleged abuses took place between 1960 and the 1980, and yet not one case was made public until many decades later, when the cultural climate and media climate was such that there was a "demand" for stories like these. If you don't think there's been an agenda by some in the media, particularly the NY Times, to smear the Church, then you haven't been paying attention. It's ridiculous how biased and propaganda-driven these reports have been. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these "victims" not only received large cash settlements from the Church, but under-the-table payments from reporters, paparazzi-like, looking for a big story. Don't be naive. I'm not saying there's any proof that these things happened, I'm just speculating here....and the church has never suggested any of these things; it has humbly apologized and issued monetary settlements. But it seems to me that all of the ingredients for corruption are there.

 

Please stop with your lies already! I disproved all of your bogus statements earlier in this thread, stop repeating yourself in an attempt to mislead people.

 

LOL at "culture of child rape..."

That's the story, and the Catholic bashers out there are sticking to it. Propaganda-spewing hate mongers have no use for facts or the truth.

 

Masturbation is a fleeting pleasure that leads to unhappiness and even despair. It's unhealthy even from a non-religious, psychological perspective. Sex outside of marriage leads to emotional attachment that is quickly broken, resulting in depression and despair. Science has shown that the brain releases "bonding chemicals" during sex that cause a psychological and emotional attachment between sexual partners. It is designed to consummate the marriage bond between a man and a woman. It's part of nature and evolution. When a person jumps into bed with multiple sex partners, he or she is forming and breaking emotional/psychological bonds over and over again, weakening one's capacity to love and weakening the ability to really bond with subsequent partners. Studied have shown that this kind of behavior leads to increased incidents of divorce and marital discord/infidelity. As for drinking, we all know that excessive drinking leads to impaired judgement, including an inability to make good, healthy moral choices.

As I have gotten older, I have become more and more aware of the wisdom of Christianity and Catholicism in particular. The teachings that we used to think were just oppressive rules are actually guidelines for healthy living, both physically and psychologically. These are inspired rules for life that lead to human fulfillment, peace, joy, happiness, and ultimately heaven which begins on earth when we progress spiritually. And medical science has backed up all of this....amazing that God, who created everything, would gives us rules for living that coincide with our human nature and are in harmony with nature....nice how that works huh?
...and as for guilt, that's actually a good thing, it's our conscience telling us what is right and wrong, what is compatible with our human nature and what is not, and it leads us to choose behaviors that are healthy and fulfilling. Sin leads to unhappiness and despair, so if I feel guilty after committing a sin, that's a good thing because it helps me to make better choices in the future. And the Catholic Church has a wonderful tool to help us called Confession, where we admit our wrongdoing and hear those beautiful words from the Priest "I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". A weight is lifted off our shoulders, and we truly have a clean slate to start over. And we can go to confession as often as we need, and the more we do, the more grace we receive to avoid sin in the future. Like going through a spiritual car wash, we come out feeling great, like we just got out of the shower, squeaky clean, resolved to try and do better next time....the more we make use of the sacraments of the Eucharist (our spiritual food) and Confession (our spiritual cleansing), our lives slowly but surely become filled fill joy, inner peace, and contentment. We still have problems in our lives, but it becomes so much easier to cope and "roll with the punches". It's truly life changing! If only more people would discover this for themselves....and of course it's not just me that has experienced these amazing benefits, I know so many Catholics who are full of joy and peace as a result of devotion to their Faith.