People who use confession as a get-out-of-jail-free card

People who use confession as a get-out-of-jail-free card Aug 6, 2018 19:06:31 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 19:06:31 GMT

Aug 1, 2018 14:35:32 GMT CrepedCrusader said:

I'm an atheist, so I don't see confession as much more than a way for people to ease their conscience about bad things they've done. But let's just say, for the sake of argument, that there is a higher being hearing confessions and forgiving sins. There is still a glaring problem I see with the way some people use it. I would think that a large part of receiving forgiveness would be a genuine realization that what you've done is bad (not "I'm confessing because I know there's a rule against what I've done", but rather "I'm confessing because I feel bad for doing this thing"), and a real desire on the part of the confessor to avoid doing that thing again. But some people don't really feel all that bad about what they've done, and know very well that they are going to continue doing it. An example: I read an interview with a porn star once in which she talked about how she was a devout Catholic. She said that she knew God forgave her because she confessed every Sunday. But if that confession is made with full knowledge that she has no plans to change her behavior, why would God be forgiving?

I believe the official position is that he wouldn't - if you're not showing repentance for your sins and making an effort not to repeat them, then god won't forgive.

Of course, like anything in religion individuals or groups sometimes have a different take on it. I've little doubt the woman honestly felt that she was operating within the rules, or had genuinely deceived herself into thinking that she was.

You see that kind of behaviour in people all the time. My favourite is when you see a car that's parked in some horribly illegal way so that the person can go into a shop or something. And they've put their hazard lights on. Somehow, in their minds, the fact that they "won't be long" and they've put their hazard light on means that they're not actually breaking the law and don't deserve to get a ticket.

It's really just a rationalisation so that they can do something immensely selfish and avoid feeling any guilt about it. Humans are fantastic at that kind of thing. Hell, a variant of it is probably why we invented confession (and religion) in the first place. "I did something bad, but I'm sorry for it - and I've had the magic words said by the priest, so it's okay."

Likeswise, over the years I've read articles where they'll talk to people involved in narco trafficking, and again, people are like, "Sure, I behead people who stand in the way of me pushing my drugs...but I always tell God I'm sorry, so I'm pretty sure I'll go to heaven."

Whole societies engage in this. Nations whose population is like 80% christian, a religion which has "thou shalt not kill" as a pretty important rule... but they're happy to engage in wars on a near constant basis. Why? They come up with reasons why it was okay to ignore the rule. "Oh it didn't mean kill, it meant murder, and it's only murder if I admit that it is. Which I don't. So I'm fine."