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Watching a video of Mike Rowe interviewing Neal McDonough.
Mr McDonough mentioned his conversion to Catholicism and they chatted about religion for a while.
The conversation made me think of a couple of things.
First was related to McDonough playing Satan in an upcoming role.
God is all forgiving, right?
What if Satan truly repented and God had forgiven him?
But then The Word had not made it to us humans...
There might be an interesting bit of fiction in that.
Next was realizing that religion was a much bigger part of most American lives in 1896 and I'll have to account for it in Sabers and...
Plus, it reminded me of dealing with religion in fantasy games.
Most of them have polytheistic religions.
That struck me as odd since the feudal and medieval settings are all monotheistic.
When there's clerics, and God is real...
We don't need no stinking FAITH! We have genuine miracles performed every day by the devout.
I wonder the effect that would have on sin.
God says, "don't do that, or else," and the "or else" is provably happening...
FuzzyGeff came up with a great punishment for a member of the clergy who'd used their position for personal gain and God was onto the idea of a deathbed confession (and why would God be fooled by such?)!
Granting them eternal life until they've atoned for their sins and visiting them with all manner of shit until they got to work on that. No eternal health, just life.
Heck, religion was a big part of people’s lives in the 1940’s, and I have been trying to address that in the ‘Republic of Texas Navy’ books.
ReplyDeleteThing is, about that repentance and absolution, the reasoning behind it is God knows 100% whether the one wishing, pleading, asking, begging for absolution is really repentant or not.
ReplyDeleteHad a discussion with a priest one time. About that repentance, if the person isn't 100% repentant, then, no, God doesn't have to accept. And it doesn't matter the way repentance is asked for. If a 20 hour prayer fest and beg fest isn't truthful it won't work. And if a short "Oh, Fuck" is a true repentant moment, that will work.
As to Satan and the other fallen angels, well, again, the plea has to be 100% truthful. Of course, it may not matter as Satan and the other fallen angels have no souls, so there's that.
Weird answer, right? Basically, from the same priest, God wants you to be truly sorry for what you did before He forgives you. Which is reasonable, as parents can usually figure out when their kids are apologizing for form's sake in comparison to a true apology which implies learning and a fervent wish to not do whatever that was again.
Good example is an addicted person. "Oh, I'll never take/do XXX again." Uh-huh. Right. Prove it. Actions better than words yada yada. Often it takes the addicted person reaching rock bottom or hitting a wall of sorts and realizing that the addiction is ruining/killing him/her and that he/she needs to get his/her shit together before he/she loses everything.
I know lots of addicted people who no longer feed their addiction. All of them have 'repented' truthfully. Do they feel the pull of their addiction for the rest of their life? Yeah, probably, especially when under stress. But staying away from the addiction is their perpetual repentance.
Ah, gah, philosophy and religion. Now my head hurts.