It's good to know the Catholic Church is evolving.
Catholic theologians have now met to consider scrapping the concept
of Limbo, the incomplete afterlife postulated by the Roman Catholic
church for infants who die before being baptized. Protestant reformers
eliminated this idea from their theology in the Middle Ages.
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Now, if religions would only do away with the cruel
idea of Hell! |
The fear of never-ending torment in a lake of fire after
death has ruined many lives and has been responsible for unspeakable
crimes -- from the Inquisition, where thousands were tortured and
converted, then burnt at the stake to rescue their souls from the
fires of Hell, to Andrea Yates, who believed in the Devil and killed
her children to save them from going to Hell. |
Many primitive religions used the threat of punishment
after death as a means of controlling believers, although Christianity
appears to be the only one that preaches punishment for all of eternity.
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Unfortunately, the idea of "Hell" is a handy
tool for anyone in authority. |
Take the Air Force Academy chaplain who ordered cadets
to tell their non-Christian friends that they will "burn in the
fires of Hell" if they don't attend Christian worship services.
Or Patrick Henry College's requirement that homeschooled students
sign a "statement of faith" that Hell is a place where "all
who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for
eternity." |
A well-known atheist organization often prints samples
of the hate mail it receives. These messages are full of bad language,
bad grammar, and wishes that God send all atheists to Hell.
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It is clear that this concept appeals to those with
a "bully mentality" -- sadists who can take delight in the
suffering of others. |
Religious bullies are especially dangerous. Blaise Pascal,
the 17th Century French mathematician, philosopher and theologian,
remarked that "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it from religious conviction." |
Voltaire observed: "Those who can make you believe
absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Indeed, all crimes
committed in the name of religion are based on myths about an afterlife,
such as the reward of seventy-two eternal virgins for Muslim suicide
bombers, or glorious life in a Christian Heaven for killers of abortion
doctors. |
Thomas Paine noted: "Of all the tyrannies that
affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species
of tyranny is limited to the world we live in; but this attempts to
stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue us into eternity."
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Ironically, current surveys show that most Americans
disapprove of torture, yet many of those same Americans worship a
God who allegedly uses eternal torture as a punishment. |
Since the concept of Limbo is now understood as having
been devised to console parents whose babies died before they could
be baptized, people should be capable of concluding that the idea
of Hell was likewise contrived, though with more devious motives.
In the early years, the fear of Hell's torment was useful in ensuring
compliance with church doctrine. Modern religions, however, learning
from psychiatrists that this dogma of damnation can cause some to
develop mental disorders, should disavow promoting this barbaric myth.
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If the Church can discard the idea of Limbo, why not
Hell? |