(I’m not keen on Evil people of other faiths either, but since I will be mentioning the 7 deadly sins, I’ll refer this OP just to Christians)
Why is it that there are so many evil people with strong religious faith? Specially those Christians who seem to base most belief and importance in the existence of Hell for the sinners are the ones that most often seem to indulge in the greatest number and severity of the 7 deadly sins.
Pride
Avarice/Greed
Envy
Wrath/Anger
Lust
Gluttony
Sloth
Why are humans like that, what makes such a person tick, do they want to go to hell at some deep psychiatric level?
Is it to give Jesus the Chance to show his infinite mercy in forgiving them that they partake in sin on purpose, or do they believe they live righteous and holy lives?
I don’t know that there are many more evil Christians, percentagewise, than there are evil people of any other religion, or no religion, and certainly, most of them don’t think that they’re evil.
True the deadly sins are a Pope’s idea, but I havn’t heard of any Christian denomination considering them to not be sinfull behaviour.
I do not know if they are considered universily sinful by other faiths, nor am I aware of individuals from other faiths who both believe in hell and seem eager to ensure there place in hell, though Muslim extremists seem to be doing a similar thing, as do some Hindu tantric practitioners, I simply have never met such people within faiths outside of Christianity.
No, but where I live (and presumably the OP) there are so many more Christians here than anything else…it’s considered the norm for people to be Christian. So of course we see more evil Christians, percentagewise.
I’ve been thinking of starting a Pit thread all on this subject, but I’ll just hijack your title to tell my short anecdote.
Last Wednesday, I did a presentation for a couple of high-school classes on animal cruelty. We began by dividing into small groups, with each group assigned a type of animal cruelty to discuss: intentional cruelty, neglect, animal hoarding, and animal fighting. I asked whether any student in the class had ever witnessed a dogfight, so I could put them in the appropriate group, but nobody raised their hand. So I divided them up randomly.
It turned out that one girl randomly assigned to the dogfighting group had been to see a dogfight. When I asked her more questions about it, she told me that she and some friends had arranged to go see one last summer. She was all giggly about it, like there was nothing wrong with paying money to see two animals bred for psychosis tear each other apart for entertainment.
How’s this relevant? She was wearing a Jesusfish shirt, with the caption, “God is Good.” I cannot tell you how much rage it filled me with; I think I bit straight through my tongue.
Thanks Left Hand of Dorkness but I’m not sure that goes with the guist of my OP. Since I don’t think there is anything in Christian doctrine to show that dog fighting is a Christian sin, and doing such would send one to the Christian Hell. My OP is more concerned with Christians who seem to be trying to get into Hell by acting in ways directly against Christian doctrine such as not casting the first stone, ignoring planks in their own eyes, etc.
So maybe your own OP would be suitable, I don’t know…
I’m finding several sites that suggest it is. It was certainly my understanding that Christianity advocates stewardship over nonhumans that led me to such rage at her blithe hypocrisy.
…and so I gave in to in-law pressure and allowed my kids to be taken to “Sunday School” at the Lutheran church they attend.
I was raised a Catholic, and thought, what the hell, how bad could it be? I managed to see through the nonsense, blah, blah, blah… I was stupid, wasn’t I?
My sweet little daughter, a few weeks later, started asking me searching questions about how hot the flames of hell really were, and how long forever really was, and…what about that devil guy? Was he real?
…and so I investigated. The classes were taught by whackos, with no real curriculum other than to inspire fear in the minds of impressionable children.
I was pissed. My kids have not attended anything of the sort since then. A few weeks back one of them asked her mother, “Mom, what’s a sin?” I think they’ve recovered.
The people who treat children in that way are like child molesters.
I pit evil Christians too, and they most certainly exist.
I guess you’re right about denominations. I don’t know but a very few of them. But speaking for myself, I don’t consider any behavior to be sinful. To me, sin isn’t about behavior, but about obstruction. How can it be a sin to suck a man’s penis if the man loves you for it, and God is love?
heh heh…in that spirit, should YOU say word one to the OP? Cuz it looks like you deemed his OP in violation.
That story has always intrigued me…because it seems that in that one episode Jesus basically says–Mind your own frickin’ business, apply God’s laws only to yourself, and let some other person hang him/herself if they so choose." Was that His message thenceforth? Or did he continue to teach the old ways of stoning the sinners?
Hey, if somebody’s evil in the first place, what’s to stop them from claiming/pretending to be Christian if they think it’s somehow to their advantage to do so?
If you think of it as Christian people acting evil, it doesn’t make much sense, but if you think of it as evil people acting Christian, there’s nothing surprising.
I believe very few people are Evil or want to be Evil, I may be naive. I also don’t believe many of the 7 deadly sins are evil except in the most extreme of cases.
I just find it very hard to understand how a person can believe in a Hell, and believe that such sins as listed in the OP will hasten them to hell, and yet still act in a way that is apparently very sinful. This dichotomy of acting against your beliefs is what confuses me.
Maybe Thudlow Boink is correct and these people are only apparently Christian. I would like to think that is true, since I am Christian myself and don’t like to be associated with such apparent hypocrites.
Yes, you and I are I susspect outside the group of Christians who define a Hell, and the ways of getting there. And so safe from the risk of acting in the ways of ‘damnation’ which we would define.
