They sure don't want anyone asking! I know because I've tried. [Claude laughs.] Man, the looks and lectures I've gotten from Seteth...
[He sobers back up at the things Felix goes on to say, however.] I think you're right. I can't claim to know why the church believes what it believes, and I don't want to paint the faith of other countries and people as some backwards or universally bad thing...especially when I know the Church of Seiros does a lot of good, for any bad parts it might have, and it encourages doing good in others. But some of its beliefs are straight up awful, and contradict each other, and my guess is that either someone completely misunderstood teachings passed down about the Goddess' will and intentions and that misinformation has just gone unquestioned through the years ever since it was first recorded...or someone's intentionally twisted church doctrine to suit their own ends, either inventing new religious dogma from whole cloth or deliberately twisting some ideas that already existed. That'd explain why ideas like "the loving Goddess gave so much to humanity" and "the Goddess wants people who died with regrets to suffer torment in fire until someone living makes things right for them" are so basically incompatible - different sources with different ideas.
I mean, the church is made up of people, and even the archbishop is just interpreting the will of the Goddess. If the Goddess was real, and she did have ideas and practices that the church is trying to teach and carry on...the fact remains that for centuries upon centuries, those things have been passing through a filter of people with their own thoughts, agendas, and biases. It's like light passing through a whole series of lenses. If even one the lenses are colored or imperfect, the light that comes through them is inevitably going to be altered - and if all of them have their own individual effect on the light, what you have at the end might be so different and diffuse compared to the light you started with that it'll end up totally unrecognizable.
I know I'm speaking about a religion I don't follow, as an outsider, so it's not really my place to pass judgment or to suggest how other people engage with their religion. But I can't help thinking, personally, that religion should be more of a guide to help you form your own views of right and wrong, what to believe and what not to believe, than some rigid code people have to follow without question or individual interpretation. I think the Church of Seiros has plenty of good people can glean from it, but stuff like that whole torment-for-the-regretful-dead idea...it seems like some backwards remnant of some bitter bishop's teachings that doesn't even fit with the good parts. So just throw it out! Religions can have ideas that are outdated or unhealthy or backwards; being part of that faith doesn't mean you're bound to every single belief and practice that religion has ever had. You should choose what you believe, with your faith as a guide - your faith shouldn't be choosing what you believe for you, even when you hate those beliefs, they're actively hurting you, and they don't make sense within the faith's moral code or your own.
no subject
[He sobers back up at the things Felix goes on to say, however.] I think you're right. I can't claim to know why the church believes what it believes, and I don't want to paint the faith of other countries and people as some backwards or universally bad thing...especially when I know the Church of Seiros does a lot of good, for any bad parts it might have, and it encourages doing good in others. But some of its beliefs are straight up awful, and contradict each other, and my guess is that either someone completely misunderstood teachings passed down about the Goddess' will and intentions and that misinformation has just gone unquestioned through the years ever since it was first recorded...or someone's intentionally twisted church doctrine to suit their own ends, either inventing new religious dogma from whole cloth or deliberately twisting some ideas that already existed. That'd explain why ideas like "the loving Goddess gave so much to humanity" and "the Goddess wants people who died with regrets to suffer torment in fire until someone living makes things right for them" are so basically incompatible - different sources with different ideas.
I mean, the church is made up of people, and even the archbishop is just interpreting the will of the Goddess. If the Goddess was real, and she did have ideas and practices that the church is trying to teach and carry on...the fact remains that for centuries upon centuries, those things have been passing through a filter of people with their own thoughts, agendas, and biases. It's like light passing through a whole series of lenses. If even one the lenses are colored or imperfect, the light that comes through them is inevitably going to be altered - and if all of them have their own individual effect on the light, what you have at the end might be so different and diffuse compared to the light you started with that it'll end up totally unrecognizable.
I know I'm speaking about a religion I don't follow, as an outsider, so it's not really my place to pass judgment or to suggest how other people engage with their religion. But I can't help thinking, personally, that religion should be more of a guide to help you form your own views of right and wrong, what to believe and what not to believe, than some rigid code people have to follow without question or individual interpretation. I think the Church of Seiros has plenty of good people can glean from it, but stuff like that whole torment-for-the-regretful-dead idea...it seems like some backwards remnant of some bitter bishop's teachings that doesn't even fit with the good parts. So just throw it out! Religions can have ideas that are outdated or unhealthy or backwards; being part of that faith doesn't mean you're bound to every single belief and practice that religion has ever had. You should choose what you believe, with your faith as a guide - your faith shouldn't be choosing what you believe for you, even when you hate those beliefs, they're actively hurting you, and they don't make sense within the faith's moral code or your own.