god and asking for forgivness

[ultraman]

people think that comenting a sin and asking for forgivness afterwards because they think god will forgive them is unreal. God may forgive you once or twice but never a third time look at samson a person always overlooked in bible study i guess he was a failure to god but it seemed that god forgive him at the end but it came with a price. samson died i think maybe god does forgive people some
times but not all the time what do people think?

[naomi24]

The concept of 'sin' was created by man. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is essential to civilised society, but living permanently under the shadow of perceived guilt in the hope of being forgiven by a non-existent god is damaging.

Therefore in answer to your question, in my opinion, since the biblical god doesn't exist, he cannot forgive. It's far healthier to learn by our mistakes and forgive ourselves.

[jake-the-peg]

I think that with all the pain and suffering from natural disasters, innocent children suffering from illness and diseases God could well do with asking our forgiveness.

Mind you he'd have to show that he was willing to repent and stop causing us all this suffering first and stop trying to blame Earthquakes on our free will

[Octavius]

Well there are those who believe they will face God�s final judgement and those who think it is a load of tosh. Let those who believe in it live their lives as they see fit and purposeful in hope of forgiveness or retribution, and similarly let those who don�t also poodle along with their lives. If one or the other damages themselves by their beliefs or non-beliefs, then so be it.

To sin is to violate a moral rule, and since most of our law is based upon moral codes and there are penalties against committing these, then I guess most of us live under the shadow of a perceived guilt in some form or another. Just depends whether you believe the punishment comes before or after death, or both!

[jake-the-peg]

Law is based on ethics
sin is contravening ethics
Therefore most of us live our lives under the shadow of perceived guilt ?

I can't imagine where the stereotype of Catholic Guilt comes from Octavious!

I guess the difference is that according to the law we are innocent until proved guilty and under the church we are all born guilty of original sin

[Octavius]

Nah, not what I meant. I was trying to assert that we all have an underlying notion of what is right and what is wrong, and when we do something wrong (or illegal) we might have a sense of guilt or remorse as we know that we have done something wrong. With this in mind, many of us pre-empt that to do something which is sinful, immoral or unlawful (whichever word you prefer to use) would not be good for our wellbeing - or indeed that of others. If religious types want to perceive the concept that these actions will be judged after death, rather than in this life, then that is their prerogative � but just in case that isn�t so, we have laws.

The concept of original sin would only apply to those who really care about it, no?

[naomi24]

The reason I used the term 'perceived guilt' is because people often regard 'sin' and 'crime' as one and the same, and that is not necessarily the case. Murder is a crime - sex outside marriage is a 'sin' (according to some) but it isn't a crime. However, some who engage in sex outside marriage feel they are 'sinners' and therefore live with perceived guilt.