Piety made me insane. Religion is a brain-devouring cancer.

[Perry Staltic]

There wasn't a formal 'Church' related to JC until one of the Big meetings around 200AD.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "formal 'Church'". All of JC's churches before about 67 AD were under the Jerusalem church, which Jesus' brother led.

 

[Peater]

uncircumcised-in-heart

U wot m8

 

[Perry Staltic]

U wot m8

Sounds weird doesn't it? There's a lot of weird stuff in the bible

 

[yerrag]

I would say that humans are flawed, or rather deluded, and we become more whole by facing our dark or negative side, and then growing.

Very much so. It is in facing our fears that we overcome it. And we become more integrated, wiser, and become more of what God desires of us - to be like Him.

Light where there is darkness. Where there is darkness, we rely more on high priests. And high priests prefer us to be lost in the delusion of humility in thinking we should accept mysteries as such, and not ever try to understand them. The concept of the Trinity is just as hard to understand as the existence of virus.

 

[ThazMYchocolate]

Sounds weird doesn't it? There's a lot of weird stuff in the bible

it sounds weird but it is simple. Uncircumcised for men means that the feeling is numbed on their most tender part (at least while it is covering it- not gonna be more graphic). Having a circumcision exposes the sensitive area to all stimulus constantly, at least in concept, I am not a man.

Having an uncircumcised heart is being apathetic about evil, it doesn't affect your heart.

 

[Chad_Catholic]

This is very sad and dumb, frankly. God himself gave Moses and the Jews a religion, and Jesus, God made man, gave us a new religion or church and pathway to salvation. Jesus gave the reigns to this church to Peter and the Apostles, and and it has been passed down through successors up to this day. This church would be named Catholic and would be responsible for the salvation of millions of souls, and there is no salvation outside of this church.

 

[ThazMYchocolate]

This is very sad and dumb, frankly.

really? you feel good about saying this about your fellow man?

 

[worrywart]

This is very sad and dumb, frankly. God himself gave Moses and the Jews a religion, and Jesus, God made man, gave us a new religion or church and pathway to salvation. Jesus gave the reigns to this church to Peter and the Apostles, and and it has been passed down through successors up to this day. This church would be named Catholic and would be responsible for the salvation of millions of souls, and there is no salvation outside of this church.

Okay. Forgive me for pouring out my heart. I'm sorry that my plight offends you. Thank you for your banal summation of what Catholicism is all about. I had never heard any of those facts. Do try to spell "reins" correctly the next time. Thank you for being an example of Christian charity and compassion. You would make a great confessor.

In other words go f%ck yourself. You're the kind of person I'm talking about in my post. Scuttle back to 8chan or whatever den of cringe you crawled out of.

 

[worrywart]

Otherwise thanks for all the replies. It means a lot to me. I'll address some of them soon.

 

[worrywart]

I guessed I failed to be the gentleman in that exchange up there.

But I'm spilling my guts here and the dude has the gall to barge in and say "this is all very sad and dumb" and to do it in the name of the Church.

Not my first interaction with arrogant Catholics, mind you. That hauteur and cruelty are nothing new to me.

But I've met some real sweetheart Catholics as well, to be fair.

 

[ThazMYchocolate]

perhaps people that put others down in these situations are just deep down super jealous of the candor they aren't capable of. it's insecurity driving the arrogance, it got you to react a bit, it happens

 

[worrywart]

I love Jesus. I don't ever want to renounce Him. I just wish I could be religious without being so neurotic.

 

[DBCoast]

No traditional Church and foundation = moral relativism, in-fighting, dilution, fragmentation, and scattering in the wind.

This is exactly what your enemy wants.

Think about why you hate the Church.

 

[worrywart]

No traditional Church and foundation = moral relativism, in-fighting, dilution, fragmentation, and scattering in the wind.

This is exactly what your enemy wants.

Think about why you hate the Church.

I love almost everything about Christianity/Catholicism. It's the scrupulosity part that makes life unbearable.

 

[worrywart]

Paul was an effing genius. How anyone can turn copying software into sin using 1 Corinthians 13 boggles my mind. It would be like saying you're sinning if you sing a song someone else wrote.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecies, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I be burned, but I do not have love, I am not profited anything. Love has patience, is kind; love is not envious; love is not vain, is not puffed up; does not behave indecently, does not pursue its own things, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Love quietly covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be caused to cease; if tongues, they shall cease; if knowledge, it will be caused to cease. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect thing comes, then that which is in part will be caused to cease. When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant, I thought as an infant, I reasoned as an infant. But when I became a man, I caused to cease the things of the infant. For now we see through a mirror in dimness, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will fully know even as I also was fully known. And now faith, hope, and love, these three things remain; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13

Romans, dude. lol.

 

[worrywart]

Paul was a master shitposter and much smarter than your pastors.

The Irony of Romans 13
Novum Testamentum. Jul 2004;46(3):209-228. Carter TL.

This is excellent, thank you. I research this subject now and then. I have a folder of academic theological studies about Romans 13.

The problem is how can we be certain it's irony or posterior textual insertion? The consensus throughout Christendom has largely been that we have to follow the "laws of the land" (how I hate the very phrase) because of that dang chapter.

One aspect of my neurosis (and perhaps of neurosis at large) is that it tends to follow social consensus, or the consensus of the particular social group to which I belong (Christians in this case). I'm sure that's what Lacan meant when he wrote about neurosis and jouissance. The neurotic will deeply internalize society's prohibitions and feel guilt when he tries to enjoy himself. Other kids at school were always more disobedient (but discreetly disobedient), I was almost always a goody-two-shoes, but prone to having anti-authority meltdowns. Same as I am now.

 

[worrywart]

I can feel where you are coming from, and I agree with your conclusions. I have sought answers to the same questions, though from a different path. And I would share what few answers I found if you wish to consider them.

I certainly do man. You can PM me if you want.

 

[yerrag]

I love Jesus. I don't ever want to renounce Him. I just wish I could be religious without being so neurotic.

Why would you want to renounce him? He sets a good example. Even if you're not Christian.

Didn't he tell us that laws should serve man? Then and now, it applies.

I consider him to be a very holy man, full of wisdom. But if he were to be in our midst, though, he would just as easily be cancelled and denied a livelihood. A modern equivalent of crucifixion.

 

[worrywart]

Why would you want to renounce him? He sets a good example. Even if you're not Christian.

Didn't he tell us that less should serve man? Then and now, it applies.

I consider him to be a very holy man, full of wisdom. But if he were to be in our midst, though, he would just as easily be cancelled and denied a livelihood. A modern equivalent of crucifixion.

Yeah I guess I'm a black-or-white kind of guy. "Baby out with the bathwater" and all that. I oscillate between piety and rebellion.

 

[worrywart]

perhaps people that put others down in these situations are just deep down super jealous of the candor they aren't capable of. it's insecurity driving the arrogance, it got you to react a bit, it happens

I'm not proud of my candour, I feel selfish for rambling about my problems, but I'm at my wit's end and I could really use some feedback.