/lit/ - Literature

I just tried giving Christianity a fair shot and I can’t get over how dumb a lot of it is. The whole redemption for sin is obviously just made-up and basing anything on scripture as if it has any iota of truth is nonsensical. Is it just the comfort of a nice afterlife that keeps people attached to this? People say Buddhism is “nihilistic” but desu it just seems like the Buddhists aren’t going to give you a false hope.

>>19412492
>>19412769

So, imagine if one FAILS to continue in God's kindness. Say that one loses their faith in the Holy Spirit's commands in a moment of weakness, and commits the sin of adulter, even when the apostle Paul clearly teaches that "Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, [...] will inherit the kingdom of God.".
That one has REMOVED himself from cooperating with God's grace, because he has rejected God and His commands, and has chosen to sin against the Lord. He has left the fold of Christ, choosing instead to join the flock of Satan.
But is such a man destined to forever be outside the kingdom of heaven, with no recourse to come back into the fold? God forbid. Instead, God, in His mercy, provides His church with a mechanism to return to God like the prodigal son. That is confession.
The Lord alone holds the right to forgive sins - but in His mercy, He shared that power with His disciples: "Whoever's sins ye forgive, their sins have been forgiven them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained".
Therefore Jesus Christ conveys His divine power for forgiveness of sins to mere humans. Now, a point that many Protestants get wrong is that "Well, Catholics say you have to confess to a priest, when James clearly says for us to "confess your sins to each other [...] so that you may be healed"".
Catholics do NOT believe that the only way for a sinner to be forgiven is to confess to a successor of the apostles. We DO believe that confession to a priest is, however, a way to be absolutely SURE that your sins are forgiven, by virtue of the power given specifically to the apostles.
For example, Catholics believe that a person can be saved (assuming they are within the Church created by Jesus Christ) through an act of perfect contrition, even if they cannot confess their sins to anybody. But how can one ever be sure that their private contrition is perfect, and is not just being said to appease their conscience?
That is why Catholics confess to a priest - because we believe that just as if Jesus said "You are forgiven", we would be forgiven - and that by virtue of His promise to the apostles, if they said "You are forgiven", we would be forgiven - that just so, if a successor of the apostles said "You are forgiven", we are SURE that we are forgiven, by virtue of Christ's promise.
So it is a way to be ASSURED of one's forgiveness, by virtue of the promise of Christ and through His grace ALONE, and not by any works of the man Himself. It is a definitive way to return to friendship with God, as long as one exposes ALL of their sins, and does not withold any out of shame or pride.
Hopefully, this might show you a bit of how we Catholics and Orthodox perceive these things, and help to dispel a bit of common misinformation. I'm happy to answer any other questions.

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>>18397257
Yup, it's real and the carbon dating took contained samples and proclaimed it to be forged on that basis.
The historical evidence for the shroud prior to Medieval France is pretty hard to pass up too, and it explains the developments in artistic depictions of Christ (early romans didn't have the shroud [pic related] but the more eastern Christians did and their depictions match the shroud details - see Pantokrator).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNp0K6mOaHw&

>>11223226
Jesus in the Catacombs of Rome. 3rd-century fresco from the Catacomb of Callixtus of Christ as the Good Shepherd