Posted by Isis at d5036.dialup.cornell.edu on May 15, 2000 at 14:18:27:
In Reply to: Its still a problem posted by little worm on May 15, 2000 at 09:08:16:
: : Even if they intended on being killed, which is essentially suicide, :their intentions wouldn't mean shit once they exited that church. As it's :explained in the movie, their souls would be morally clean.
: after they went through the arches, they'd still have the intent of dying. So though their sins were swiped clean as they passes through the arches, the second after they pass through, they still had that intent...and the mortal sin would still be intact.
Not really, because if they passed under the arch supposedly ALL of their sins would be removed, including the sin of defying God's will. So their whole banishment experience and the resultant decision to bust back into heaven would be null & void. If their souls were totally clean slates they wouldn't want to go through with the plan anymore.
I'm also not sure about your logic; it seems more reasonable that the action of suicide be what incurs the mortal sin rather than the intention. Because that prevents a difficult dilemma; let's say a person is very old, or in extreme pain, and they mentally just give up and die. Is that suicide? Or say someone takes an extreme risk, like skydiving, their chute fails to open and they go splat. Is that considered suicide because they made a conscious choice that could lead to their deaths? It seems a bit tricky. But then there is that thing about having sinned in your heart and all that; I guess we'd need a theologian or a priest to tell us what the official party line is on this.
-- Isis