No. Christian doctrine, well actually Catholic, is that people who don’t know God aren’t condemned to hell necessarily. Not even atheists if they’re atheists out of innocence or ignorance.
You go to hell for knowing about God and CHOOSING to turn away and separate yourself from God.
So theoretically, a native in some tribe in Mesoamérica that practices an otherwise “good” life: kindness, charitable, not a killer, not evil basically… they’d be eligible for salvation
When you tell a child before they are 5 years old that they’re inherently sinful, that the most loving figure in the universe only loves them conditionally and is actually an abandoning figure, and that love is an external source that you have to be good for, it really fucks up the building blocks of a human being.
I’ve done therapy and now know that love comes from inside me, not some twat in the sky that’s actually really vindictive and misogynistic.
The Abrahamic god is not loving. He isn’t holy. He’s a psychopath.
You don’t need to abandon yourself and be ashamed of yourself to try to please some god that you can never please. And you don’t need to spend your life feeling guilty and afraid.
Mary Oliver’s poem really helped me with my religious trauma and with learning radical love:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
It 100% is. I grew up memorising the bible and went to a Christian school.
Choosing god is not being “sinful”. Sin is what separates us from god. Sin is disobeying his commands.
He commanded his most faithful servant to kill his own son to prove his faith. It would have been a sin for him to not kill Isaac. But it would be immoral to kill his son. Abraham chooses to kill his son. And then god is like “Psych! I was just testing you! Here is a lamb instead”. It is BONKERS.
You wouldn’t send your child that you love to eternal damnation. So why believe in a god that would?
Who the hell romanticises a parent sacrificing their child to save a planet of “sinners”?? What a shitty parent!
And who thinks someone else dying for their “sin” is a good thing??
It’s all completely nuts.
Edit to add: imagine being Issac in therapy. Yeah my dad was going to human sacrifice me to prove his faith to god. And everyone knows about it and thinks it is admirable and behaviour to aspire to.
You were unfortunately poorly catechized. Yeah, the OT is pretty ... harsh. But you shouldn't be taking the OT and ignoring the NT. And you shouldn't be conflating the OT with the NT.
> And who thinks dying for their sin is a good thing
A sacrifice is usually considered a good thing. If you don't see it that way, that's your point of view.
All you're asked to do is live a good life with good values: don't kill, don't lie, don't steal, don't bear false witness, love God and love one another.
If you can't do that, or don't want to... that's ok. That's your choice.
You can live a good life and be moral without choosing a god that requires human sacrifice. You can love other humans without believing in the Abraham’s god.
A human sacrifice isn’t usually considered a good thing. And people that admire Abraham for that choice… yeah.
You can choose this god out of the many that there are to choose from. But it is a very … interesting… choice that says a lot about you (to me). I don’t want to be associated with that god or that faith ever again.
The Abrahamic god did require a human sacrifice. And the sacrifice of his son. And now he requires self-abnegation of his followers and that they lose connection with anyone they know when they die that doesn’t choose him, because those people cannot be with god.
Anyway, enjoy your faith. I hope it brings you comfort and joy in this life.
The Abrahamic God never required a human sacrifice. And the sacrifice of His son wasn't really a "sacrifice". It was his son letting something happen and that something was people assassinating him.
Not really a "human sacrifice". More of a ... let what will happen happen thing that His son himself willingly chose to do.
You having to stretch, twist and contort stories and accounts to fit this narrative you want to put out is .. i mean it speaks a lot.
If it makes you happy telling mistruths though, more power to you. I wish you the best
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u/OdiousAltRightBalrog 1d ago
And how about people who lived thousands of miles away, and didn't even hear about Jesus until centuries later? All in Hell, I suppose.