The Catholics say "debts" instead of "trespasses", and I don't know why because it's not exactly the same thing. Why couldn't all the religions just call them "sins"? I believe the intent is that we can't expect God to forgive our sins if we don't forgive those who sin against us. I don't think it's important for other people to forgive us, it's important for us to forgive them. That cleans up our own Karma so that we can expect forgiveness from God. One thing that is often overlooked is that God's forgiveness is conditional upon repentance, you don't get forgiven until you are sorry for what you have done, so I don't see why human forgiveness should be any different. Of course a person could say they are sorry when they really aren't, just like a person could say they forgive someone when they really don't.
It turns out Old Dog was right, "world culture" was a typo. I don't know why I didn't catch that myself, maybe I was tired last night.
One thing that still confuses me is whether good or bad behavior is inborn or acquired. On one hand, Uncle Ken seems to be saying that we are born good and learn to be bad while, on the other hand he seems to be saying that we are born bad and learn to be good. I agree that the territorial conflicts between street gangs are a throwback to the Stone Age. We generally consider that to be a bad thing now, but our Stone Age ancestors probably accepted it as human nature. The behavior hasn't changed all that much, it's people's attitude towards the behavior that has changed. Well. maybe not all people. Do the gang members who are fighting those turf wars believe they are doing the right thing or not? I have heard those kinds of people brag about how bad they are, like it was a thing to be proud of. Do they believe that evil is superior to, and destined to eventually triumph over, good? That would make them bad guys in my book. I don't know what that would make me in their book, or if they even have a book.
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