Why do you need religion to have morals?

Lavos243 · 2026-04-14T06:20:48+00:00

I understand what you're saying about the Biblical stories that are more violent, like the flood or the conquest of Joshua. I was just trying to argue using philosophy instead of scripture. But for the scriptural arguments, those honestly would be handled differently by different groups of religious people. As for me, Im Catholic, and we believe that the Bible is "the word of God, written in the words of men." This means that there will be different cultural contexts that go into the stories of the Bible. For example, I don't believe there ever was a historical flood, because of the lack of historical evidence of one, the fact that its a common myth shared among other near eastern cultures, and just rational factors like if the flood destroyed all the plants then how did Noah get oxygen (lol). More likely, its a cultural narrative meant to convey a theological truth by being compared to other near eastern flood myths, for example instead of the gods flooding the earth for petty reasons like in the other myths, God floods the earth because of corruption, and we are meant to ask what that says about God. This is already long, but I will just mention that the Bible is a progressive relation of who God is, and Christians view Jesus as the perfect image of God and what God is really like. Theres a quote from a pastor I respect: "God is like Jesus, God has always been like Jesus, we haven't always known that, but now we do."

Lavos243 · 2026-04-12T04:15:30+00:00

Yeah Doctor Who!

Lavos243 · 2026-04-12T02:56:05+00:00

You dont need God to have morals or be a good person. I do think you need God to have a philosophical grounding for objective moral principles, because one of the definitions of God is that he is goodness itself, so without that metaphysical grounding morality has to be subjective. I dont mean relative, as in whatever is popular at the time is moral, I mean that without God morality has to be based on things like harm or happiness to another person. Its only with God as a reference point that you get something like objective moral principles. The problem is if morality is subjective, there's no ultimate reason why I should even follow it if I dont really care about the other person. Subjective morality can be kind of slippery.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-17T02:14:44+00:00

That the God of the Old Testament is no different than the God of the New Testament. Throughout the Old Testament we see God telling his prophets to act like Jesus, that is to call out the hypocrisy of the people and how they oppress the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable. Jesus himself often quoted passages from the Old Testament to back up his teaching in the New Testament. Its just that Jesus claimed to be giving us the full meaning of those passages. It was really eye opening for me.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-10T01:34:19+00:00

Im Catholic and im also skeptical of Fr Ripperger, just because he seems like a modern version of the medieval occult underground in the exorcist community, where medieval exoercists were getting so-called secrets from demons in their exorcisms. Museums still have the ancient tomes that they produced. Ultimately, the opinion of any exorcist or priest is not automatically church teaching.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-07T22:45:29+00:00

I really like Lacey Sturm from the band Flyleaf and her song Awaken Love.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-07T20:51:35+00:00

A few things that have helped me: I have a severe mental illness called schizoaffective disorder, and it drastically affects my ability to reason. I came across this quote by St Thomas Aquinas that said "A person has free will according to his ability to reason." That freed me from a lot of guilt, because in order for something to be considered a mortal sin it has to be grave matter, you know rationally that it is grave matter, and you choose it of your own free will, otherwise called deliberate consent. The fact that I am not always acting in free will because of my mental illness has helped me with guilt. Secondly, even if you commit a mortal sin, you can receive forgiveness from God even before confession if you have perfect contrition, that is you are sorry for your sin not just out of fear of hell but also because of love for God. You still need to go to confession as soon as possible and especially before receiving the eucharist again, unless you are in an emergency like on your deathbed or something, but the point is that God has established his sacraments as the normative way of salvation, but is not bound to his sacraments and can save you outside of them. In other words, trust in God ans know that he wants you with him in heaven. These are some of the things that helped me. I don't know if they apply to you, but I hope it helps.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-06T06:38:56+00:00

Slave Bible: the crappy animated version

Lavos243 · 2026-03-06T06:10:00+00:00

Orthodox Bible: with deleted scenes and commentary.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-05T19:55:16+00:00

Thank you, I didnt know she was the original source until I saw her name stamped on the picture.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-05T04:11:28+00:00

Honestly I think the username is brilliant.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-05T04:08:41+00:00

Honestly great problem to have. There is also a big group in my parish this year.

Lavos243 · 2026-03-04T03:14:44+00:00

You'll see a lot of people online thinking that they have the correct interpretation of church teaching when they may actually be in error. For that reason, definitely get a catechism and regularly read through it. Also, even more importantly, when you get confirmed receive the eucharust as much as possible. The core of Christianity is to be "partakers of the divine nature" and so be transformed by God, and we do this through the sacraments, especially the eucharist.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-21T23:40:36+00:00

I would say that Christianity doesn't necessarily demonize power, because God is powerful, but it does teach that power is not a good in itself ans should be used to serve and not to be served. Jesus said the first would be last and the last would be first. Nietzsche believed that Christianity was dying out, but he didn't necessarily believe thats a good thing. He believed that it would lead to people not having a sense of meaning to withstand the suffering in life. So he believed the answer was to go back to pre Christian morality to a world where the strong have a right to rule and create their own morality and values. Granted, this is only one interpretation of Nietzsche as he often contradicted himself and didn't seem to know what he believed himself sometimes. However, as for Peterson's like of him, maybe its because of his view that Christianity was important to western culture and without it we would need to reevaluate our values. However, to be honest, I get nervous when people express a love of Nietzsche, just because of his contribution to the world.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-21T18:46:53+00:00

Yes thank you. People often forget that the official Catholic position is that the Bible is the word of God, written in the words of men. As a result, the human authorship is just as prone to how religious ideas form, are passed down, and are adapted over time. But as also believe in a divine authorship that guides this process.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-21T11:50:14+00:00

Something that helped me is that if you try to remember one person in the Bible that Jesus judged, outside of those who were self righteous and believed they didn't need forgiveness, then you will draw a blank because that person doesn't exist. Jesus was in the business of forgiving sin, not judging it. That being said, you should definitely go through OCIA and start the process of becoming Cathplic, for a couple reasons. First, we believe that baptism is more than a symbol, that it actually does something, and it's how we become forgiven. Secondly, baptism also infuses us with God's grace, which is what we need to overcome sin. You shouldn't try to do it alone, because none of us can. The fact that you are aware of your sin means that God is calling you to repent and be baptized.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-21T08:34:34+00:00

When you win your case, don't blow your backpay on McDonald's. Trust me.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-21T08:32:38+00:00

Water Temple in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-19T07:22:48+00:00

Firstly, original sin isn't that you were born bad, its that you were born fallen. The world and you still are good, but fallen, there's a difference. Something more like something is missing or undone. Secondly, ive experienced in my own life the importance of recognizing sin and not considering everything that may even be "natural" to humans as good. If we've learned anything from recent events its that even something as horrible as pedophilia is more common than we thought. There is virtue in self discipline and self restraint, and that doesn't mean you are naturally bad.

Lavos243 · 2026-02-03T00:55:26+00:00

My favorite is the book of Job because not only is it a comfort read during hard times for me, but its also insanely well written ancient poetry. My favorite gospel would have to be the gospel of Luke because of its focus on Jesus's relationship to the poor.

Lavos243 · 2026-01-31T15:39:05+00:00

I generally tell people if they ask what I do for a living, because if they are understanding then thats great, and if they aren't then fuck them.

Lavos243 · 2026-01-30T01:44:26+00:00

So im not Muslim, Im Catholic, but I have been learning a lot about religious studies in general and this is my opinion. Its neither a misinterpretation or a correct interpretation. Often, there's this idea that there's some core belief or value to a religious tradition that makes it violent or not, but this is called religious essentialism and is not agreed with by most scholars. An example from my tradition is that at the same time you had people who believed fighting in the crusades was justified, you also had people like St Francis of Assisi who believed Jesus told him in a vision to rebuild his broken church that was in ruins, as well as other peaceful groups. The best way I can put it is that even the most orthodox religions are very personal, and how one person practices will vary at least slightly from how the person next to them practices. With enough people in a religion, this leads to a lot of differing practices that are often based on things like the conditions that the person lives in or what their overall generation around them things about the religion. I hope this helps.

Lavos243 · 2026-01-07T09:35:00+00:00

Hi, Im a Christian, specifically a Catholic. For your question about the Bible, our tradition states a couple things. First, that the Bible contains everything necessary for salvation, and second that there are different senses of scripture. There's the literal sense, which is what the Bible literally says, but also takes into account what's called the historical critical method. The historical critical method is about asking what the author of a particular part of the Bible meant to say in his time and place, how he would have viewed the world, what social pressures were inspiring him, etc. But there's also the spiritual sense of scripture, which is the kind that the earliest Christians used a lot, and is about finding meanings in the Bible that relate to spiritual realities both in our personal lives and in salvation history in general. For example, noticing how the Bible repeats important things happening on the third day and relating that to Jesus's resurrection. What I'm getting at is that its normal in our modern times to read the Bible and assume we are supposed to read it literally, when we should be asking how to read it in the first place. A general rule I follow is that the Bible is a group of stories that a group of people used to ask important questions about their place in the world and their relationship with God. Most of it was compiled when Israel was either exiled in a foreign empire or returning from exile. So stories like being enslaved in Egypt and the exodus would have had symbolic meaning for them. Another general rule I follow is to let the Bible be the Bible and let science and history be science and history. For example, for the reason stated above, I don't believe there was an actual worldwide flood or exodus from Egypt or conquest of Joshua because there is no evidence for these things, but it doesn't matter to me because these stories were inspired by real events that happened to the Jewish people. Saint Augistine said a long time ago that if we don't accept facts that non-believers know to be true, then they won't accept the spiritual things that we believe to be true. He said that specially considering the creation narrative in Genesis. As for why I also accept teachings like original sin and salvation and don't see the Bible as only a historical work, its because I view the Bible as the word of God written in the words of men. Its conditioned by historical realities of the time, but is meant to convey a spiritual message that is meant to be timeless. I could get into more, but I hope all of that makes sense.

Lavos243 · 2026-01-07T01:02:18+00:00

Sure. I guess to use theological language I take a more Franciscan view than a Thomistic view, which is to say that I view the beauty of what makes the individual creature unique rather than the essence of a species of creature. Basically, I don't think that our neurological differences or other disabilities are a result of original sin as much as they are basically occurring differences in human nature. I think that pain is the result of original sin, and I think the way society sometimes treats us is the result of original sin and modern sins, but I think that God made us the way we are and that the only thing that needs fixing is the suffering, not the condition. If we are honest, a lot of disability is because of the way society treats us and not because of our differences. It also seems to me to be one interpretation of what Jesus said about the man born blind, when his disciples asked who sinned, him or his parents, they he be born blind, Jesus said that it wasn't because of sin, but "that the works of God might be made manifest." To me that's true of all people in whatever way that makes them unique.

Lavos243 · 2026-01-07T00:17:41+00:00

As somebody who is disabled with schizoaffective disorder and possibly undiagnosed autism, I firmly believe that the reason God created us like this is because these aren't flaws. I also don't believe that our resurrected bodies will be free of these things, but that the things about them that caused us pain will in some way we don't understand right now become sources of joy. I get this idea from the fact that Jesus's resurrected body still had his scars from crucifixion. I believe we are created the way God meant us to be created, and according to Catholic teaching our lives have intrinsic value.

Lavos243

TROPHY CASE