if you have no faith?
Who do you ask for forgiveness
Yourself.
That somehow … feels like cheating. I don't have very good self control. Sure, I'll try time and time again to become a better person but progress is slow.
Universe is lawless. There are no sins. If gods exists in any form he doesnt care.
Getting forgiveness from someone else is the actual cheating. You need to realize what you've done wrong and only forgive you when you actually feel like you've righted your wrongs. You can lie to others, but not yourself, not for long.
I don't necessarily disagree but it helps to pretend. I mostly see it like Hume you can't really get any ought from an is but forgiveness isn't just spiritual imo, I think it would be good for my mental well being if I felt that there was some good way to come clean.
Damn user, I usually cringe when I read shit like this but that actual makes sense and sounds like something a philosopher would say. What do you do for a living?
>only forgive you when you actually feel like you've righted your wrongs
I guess that's good advice but in the place I am right now it feels like for every good thing I do, I make five missteps, y'know?
I work at a train station selling tickets and giving directions.
Maybe you are, maybe not. It's not a reason to stop, is it? Not until you can look behind and confidently say you've done good.
Ask God anyway. Even if you don't believe he will forgive you. Besides, you're only human, clearly you made a mistake that lead you to desire forgiveness. Maybe you're mistaken on the existence of God too.
But also yourself.
To throw in a little ambiguity...
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours."
He has given us the power to choose, forgiveness, and mercy. And in doing so Love conquers all.
The ones you have wronged.
>Maybe you are, maybe not. It's not a reason to stop, is it? Not until you can look behind and confidently say you've done good.
You're probably right, I'm probably making it to easy for myself.
Maybe this is all about whether I think I'm a redeemable person.
Then I'd be making it easy for myself, outwardly I probably seem alright to most.
If you've not wronged anyone you have nothing to be forgiven for.
>Ask God anyway. Even if you don't believe he will forgive you.
I think if I was religious I would be more optimistic about being forgiven* but I don't even know how I would go about this, I'm not particularly close to any religion and not really spiritual at all.
elaborate
*(one could probably argue that if I don't believe I shouldn't be worried about being forgiven, but as I wrote there is psychological component to this)
hm, maybe I'm thinking in the wrong categories here
but I'm not a great person
How can you be forigiven if you don't repent? And how can you repent if you have no faith? And if you don't repent and cannot be forgiven then what is left? You're just going to keep following the path you're on which is the path to death. So in that regard you are "screwed". Especially so if you buy into these user's ideas that there is no good or evil and therefore no need for forgiveness.
>I'm not a great person
Work harder on being better.
I try
>You're just going to keep following the path you're on which is the path to death.
We're all going to die. I wouldn't be so extreme as to say that good and evil aren't meaningful concepts, else I wouldn't have anything to feel bad about in the first place but I'm not metaphysically inclined.
I don't see any obvious form of repentance for me.
I wasn't raised religious and my surrounding is pretty diverse when it comes to creed, if I would suddenly want to turn devout I'd think that be nothing more than grift to feel better about myself, honestly.
Try harder.
We may all die physically but you are already dead spiritually. And if the spirit is dead then what function is the body? Religion is not about feeling better about yourself, it is about understanding all of the ways that you are imperfect and striving to improve yourself, not so that you may be served by good but so that you may be useful to good. You lack spiritual guidance then wonder that you are spiritually lost.
To add
Faith is the basis of spiritual life, without which everything becomes impossible. Sorry but you need faith, so start looking for it.
kek, I will do that
>And if the spirit is dead then what function is the body?
Sounds drastic. I'm sure your mind isn't preoccupied with things metaphysical 100% of the time.
>Sorry but you need faith, so start looking for it.
Does it work that way? Unfortunately we're not given infallible truth tables about religious teachings when we're born. Most organized religion seems to be centered around concrete economic and social interests with some vague ideas about cultural belonging mixed in and I'm less than excited to dive into all the idiosyncratic belief systems humankind has come up with.