RELIGION VAUNTS FAKE MERCY AND FAITH IN GOD IS TO BLAME FOR THIS
Derrida said that forgiveness only happens if something is unforgiveable. So forgiveness is a gift and has to be private and anonymous. For him. what passes for forgiveness in the world is just amnesty. It is not forgiveness. If all you want to do is let something go so you can feel good or inspire the culprit to be so grateful that she or he will not do the wrong again, that is not really forgiveness but virtue-signalling. It will result in problems down the line. If he is right, then the merciful Christian God is a joke.
Evil is just evil so to forgive somebody for stealing your chocolate bar means you judge them as unforgivable. It equates what they did with mass murder in the sense that there is no inward or inherent difference.
God comes first and alone matters according to Jesus.
What if one evil is not as bad as another or if x is unforgiveable and y is they are not both equally important?
If sin is unforgiveable then two sins can be unforgiveable with one being more unforgiveable than the other.
If so then it follows that if it is unforgivable if I slap a baby hard then fair enough but the offence done to God by this act is even more unforgiveable. If sin is unforgiveable then imagine how unforgiveable it is when it attacks the one being who matters: God.
Derrida might be thinking of wrongs we do to each
other and calling them unforgiveable and that is not nice but it is sheer horror
if you involve God. Obviously if evil is unforgiveable we must consider a belief
that makes you intend to hurt a God even if there is none is itself
unforgiveable. It is wrong to give people a belief that creates more unforgiving
or more burdening for the fact remains that if there is no God and you think there is you still
intend something unforgiveable by offending him.
Though if all evil is equally unforgivable, something still repels us about religion for it is clearly trying, if not succeeding, to make it worse!
SO?
Forgiveness is only possible when what is done is unforgiveable and shouldn't be
forgiven.
Shouldn't means that forgiveness in some way is dangerous and harmful and it is
better not to forgive. This speaks of the damage it does. But what about
forgiveness being inherently bad? If what is done is inherently unforgiveable
then forgiveness is immoral.
So in terms of results and in itself forgiveness is evil and forgiving is
fundamentally about defiance.
If we are talking psychology, then forgiveness is only a word. It is a word that
does not mean anything - a contradiction is not a thing but a nothing and a
nonsense. It is an attempted violence against your nature.
It is also impossible and is not a paradox but a contradiction.
What is happening then is not forgiveness but condoning.
If God cannot forgive then God does not exist.
A forgiving God is meaningless.
God may forgive when we repent or he may give us forgiveness even if we do not
so all we have to do is accept it not ask for it.
Forgiving means you judge the person as having shown a bad side and are letting
that go. If forgiving is fake the judging part is certainly real!! Forgiving
means taking a risk - you judge that the other person may still be a danger and
may abuse the mercy. Forgiveness involves being judgemental and moving on past
the judgement but not ignoring it or defying it.
Hate the sin and love the sinner by forgiving them is a lie.
Hypothetically, if you really can forgive the unforgivable then you are a God. You are bigger than morality and bigger than the fact that what was done cannot be forgiven. No God then can lay out moral decrees for you.
Only morality can forgive a person. But clearly morality is bigger than God. We know that some acts are good even if there is hypothetically no God.
Religion says that this is an error - God is morality. But if you could have one without the other you would want morality so in that way morality matters and God does not. Morality means that if there is no God it is not fair to waste worship on him so it is a default and does not need a God to create it.
God and people forgiving means they are following a social
construct. Morality might not even authorise the forgiveness for all we know if
it could. Morality might not even authorise the forgiveness for all we know if
it could. That makes it real but only in the minds of those who forgive and are
forgiven. The reality could be totally different.
If forgiveness is impossible then imagine that if it could be granted despite that then it is up to the individual entirely to forgive and nobody has the right to suggest or much less command something so impossible.
For Derrida, whether it is possible or not is beside the point, forgiveness is a
secret gift. It is anonymous. If God is watching and approves, and also if God rewards, then
forgiveness's status as a gift is suspect. It is a bigger problem if the main
person, God, the one who it is all about, sees it than the recipient.
Seeking approval is just looking for the reward of approval even if
nothing else.
Derrida's account of forgiveness refutes God as a credible idea and as a
desirable one.
It may explain why religions of love and mercy soon disintegrate into violence and corruption. The world has been repeatedly shocked and baffled at how that happens so easily and can happen so fast. And the problem is hard to define and determine because forgiveness obscures all.
Interestingly, if forgiveness is good, we should concentrate on praising the bravery of the person who forgives evils they only think they see. What if we think we can forgive God himself? You praise the person who jumps into the water thinking somebody has fallen in. They are a hero even if they are wrong. The privacy of forgiving is not the point. It is the principle.
IT IS REALLY CONDONING
Forgiving the unforgivable is impossible. It is a euphemism for condoning and
lying about it. You can only condone the unforgivable. You cannot forgive the
unforgiveable any more than you can bring back the Bible exactly as it was if it
is erased from the world forever. God does not forgive so God is not really God
and cannot truly love sinners. There is no room for loving the sinner and hating
the sin if that implies forgiving.
FINALLY
We have found that Derrida is right that what is commonly praised as forgiveness is anything but. Suppose we can forgive the unforgivable. That is better than amnesty even if there are problems and contradictions in it. Belief in God is still out of bounds. Worship as well. Totally. On the dark side, you have to see the evil and hate the person totally before you can grant mercy and pardon. Imagine the trouble that is going to cause. Most of us won't be able to forgive.
