One of my repeating questions of Christianity was forgiving of sins.

There is the story of Shirō Ishii the Japanese equivalent of Josef Mengele who got himself baptised on his death bed.

He was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church and took the name Joseph. It seems to me that my father felt relieved somehow.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirō_Ishii#Death

I’ve asked this before (as has Desmond Tutu) does the Dalai Lama go to hell?

Tolstoy talks about this in The First Step

… the majority of people have regarded [Christianity] as a teaching about salvation – i.e. deliverance from sin by grace transmitted through the Church, according to Catholics and Greek Orthodox; by faith in the Redemption, according to Protestants, the Reformed Church, and Calvinists; or according to some, by means of the two combined.

And it is precisely this teaching that has destroyed the sincerity and seriousness of men’s relation to the moral teaching of Christianity.

– The First Step p.17 (archive book)

These are the things that I feel are truly wrong with how Christianity is taught in all forms that I have witnessed.

It simply cannot be that your sins can be extinguished. There are people who live hard, good lives. They spend their lives helping others, but almost by definition they will not be wealthy.

You cannot compare this to a war criminal, to the men who pray on young children, to the idle rich. It cannot be that one who preaches the opposite of love their entire life should be an acceptable Christian where love is the only goal.

Christianity is about living a good life. You cannot live a life of thoughtlessness and greed then expect to fix it at the end.

You can’t sit, drink and smoke you’re entire life and expect to run a marathon at the end. There is no God you can pray to who will get you even to the start line, let alone begin, suffer, endure and finish the race.

If anything, I see the promise that following the teachings of Jesus is to give you a life well lived. If you love your fellow human throughout your life, you will with all likelihood die fulfilled and happy.

For every atheist, all we have is this life on this planet. This is our heaven. The teaching of Jesus helps you to make the most of our time in ‘heaven’. You don’t need to believe in God or the ever after to live a good life. Repenting won’t help you.

The butchers of men are fucked. The cruel and selfish are fucked. The priest molesters are fucked.

The Dalai Lama is already in heaven. He has enjoyed his life and spread love.

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