DrZoidberg
Contributor
Doesn't their allegiance to the Church and their fellow priests ignore the wishes of God as they believe them to be? After all, they were once quite prepared to burn people for heresy or witchcraft...being quite prepared to act on the behalf of God and not leave these 'onerous' tasks to God in the afterlife?
Nah, it all ties together. If god didn't want the suspected heretic to be tortured to death, then he wouldn't have put the suspicion into the mind of the inquisitor. And in the unlikely event that the suspect was blameless, he attained eternal paradise, so no harm done.
Whereas if a priest is guilty, but through an absence of suitable action on the part of his colleagues, he gets away with it, then god will fix it all up once he dies, so no harm done.
Belief in an all powerful god permits the justification of any atrocity. That's its power and its evil.
In Christian thought, your intentions matter more than the outcome. So if you're compelled to do things but trying really hard not to, that can give you a free pass. You just need to try really really hard and be very very ashamed.
It comes from Zoroastrianism. But is a perversion of Zoroastrian thought. In Zoroastrian the prayer is "Good intentions, leads to good thoughts, leads to good deeds". In Zoroastrianism good just means whatever is desirable, practical or most helpful to yourself, your family and your community. It's not good in the childish sense, as it is used in Christianity.
Christianity is fundamentally a simplistic (and childish) version or Zoroastrianism blended with Paganism. The goal of the Zoroastrian prayer is to lead to deeds that help the community. Unless the good intention is somehow connected to the practical outcome it's a pointless exercise. Which is a fundamental flaw in Christian thought IMHO. And which has led paedophile abuse of children to keep going for so long.
My main gripe with Christianity and Christian thought is that it's one of the most shallow and least sophisticated theologies ever to have been devised. It annoys me that something that stupid has gotten the impact, reach and influence it has. I have the same gripe with Islam. The other equally shallow and stupid theology that is so dominant in the world. I like religion. I just find it sad that Christianity was allowed to displace paganism. A very deep and sophisticated theology and religion. Just imagine the religious art and temples if they'd kept going... I digress. It's sad anyway