Is cleanliness really next to godliness?
Asked by
candide (
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February 27th, 2010
Or is that just something cooked up by Dominican nuns to keep the novices busy? How clean is God? If God likes cleanliness, why did he make humans? What do you think of religions that have cleanliness rituals, e.g. taking showers after certain acts or not attending prayers or church during menstruation, etc.?
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27 Answers
Nope. There are no Gods – they are mythical beings.
Well I think all the stuff about women on their period being “unclean” is a bunch of sexist bullshit and an unnecessary restriction on women.
I feel very peaceful in clean place. So if peace is God then yes.
I wouldn’t really know. I have never encountered enough Godliness to make a fair comparison. However, if I had to guess, I would guess that Adolf Eichmann took lots of baths, and smelled pretty nice, but he was a “Whited sepulcre, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” Mat. 23:27
Absolutely. i answered this police call where this man wanted to report a burglary at his home. when i arrived, i noticed an old school bus attached to his house. the old school bus door came right up to his mailbox in his front yard. i thought this was a bit strange. i knocked on the school bus door and no answer. i just then walked in shouting “Metro Police, anybody home?”. as i walked back through the school bus, cats jumped all over me from above and to the sides. the urine smell was breath-taking. i finally arrived at the house-part of this call. a man was sitting on the floor, surrounded by human and animal feces. the stench almost made me vomit. i asked the man to come outside and talk with me(the commode had not been flushed in at least a year). he agreed to come outside. this man was filthy. he said he had not had a bath in over a year. they cut his water off. i felt for his health safety, so i called an ambulance to have him checked out. at the ER, it was later stated this was the filthiest person they had ever seen and denied even touching him, until he took two showers. they gave him one at the hospital. his white underwear had turned a greenish-brown color and was burned. we later talked about his burglary in his hospital room. i walked into his room and he appeared to be someone else. he actually smelled 1,000% better. cleanliness is next to Godliness? yes.
God is most likely not real so you can therefore make it whatever you want it to be, that’s what all the other believers do.
Cleanliness is not next to godliness – this was a racist and classist made up idea to explain why the colonies or the slaves had to be controlled. In related news, however, researchers recently found out that if people feel they’re in a clean environment, the choices they make are more moral given whatever standard they were using.
Nope…even God loves dirty people. Cleanliness is next to Godliness was made up by a Realtor to make people keep their house clean in order to sell their house.
@john65pennington wow, that’s a heck of a story. There are a couple people like that in the woods around here. I have a friend that worked as a loan chaser for a bank. He once repossessed a refrigerator from a guy that lived in a dirt floor cabin without electricity. He used the refrigerator for food storage and it rotted in the refrigerator. The funny thing is that they guy had money but was seriously deranged. He chased my buddy with a shot gun then ended up in the hospital with a gangrene foot for which he refused treatment until they got a court order to cut it off.
The statement is a metaphor for keeping ones self pure and untainted. The premise being that a concept of a God is ultimate equal to purity in all respects. Thus, it follows that a human being should therefor attempt to remove all impurities from their life as well. Those impurities would be anything that prevented a human being from ultimately realizing their most beneficial state of being.
But no, there is nothing that a human can do that stands “next” to any concept of what a God being is purported to be like.
@DarkScribe what of those mythical gods, then, and the concept of mythical godliness? ;)
@Just_Justine eloquently put – thanks for adding some perspective!
@Simone_De_Beauvoir I’m really trying to hear you, jellyfriend, but I’m a bit lost on the classicist, colonial and slave references; do you refer to eighteenth century neo-classicism and empire-building, or to Aristotlean and Platonic dialectic and philosophies? I think that the religions to which I referred as examples in the question (Islam and Irish Roman Catholicism) are somewhat removed from both the Classical World and the Age of Enlightenment, but would love to know what connections you’re making…
@candide what of those mythical gods,
Thorne Smith wrote some very humorous books about mythical Gods. “Twilight of the Gods” was one that I recall from childhood. It was given to me by my Grandmother. As for the rest, I prefer the Goddesses, statuesque women in short skirts might be worth kneeling in front of – so to speak. ;)
What if Satan is your God?
Muhahaahahah
@DrMC what difference would it make. I never saw a biblical quote saying that Satan ordered genocide, fratricide, or withholding knowledge.
In the biblical version of god and Satan, Satan looks pretty good. He seems to be looking out for humanity and protecting them from god. If I was a believer, I would probably tend towards him rather than the Abrahamic version of god.
I believe the opposite is true.
The proverb goes all the way back to the ancient Hebrews although its first appearance in English is attributed to Francis Bacon. Apparently there is a sense that slovenliness is a symptom of some kind of psychic disorder: e.g. some depressives, when they are in a down swing they stop grooming themselves.
Since heaven is where the immortals live, there’s probably no need for soil, no soil, no dirt, therefore God must be really really clean. Thus the cleaner you are, the closer to God you are.
Thus the cleaner you are, the closer to God you are. What a horrid idea. It is on a par with some of the more extreme ideas of the likes of Jim Jones.
Nope, just made up by moms to get their kids to clean.
No human would know the real thing “next” to godliness if they had not met God before.
Alternative views:
Cleanliness is next to impossible
A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.
Moderation, tolerance and respect are more “G_dly” than obsessive cleanliness.
It was probably a slogan promoted by an enterprising soap seller in Biblical times.
(Yes, I know what Biblical “uncleanliness” is but I like my version.)
I think cleanliness is next to ant and roachlessness.
Godliness is next to, um, God?
Too much cleanliness makes people sick.
@bea2345 – Do you mean this Jim Jones?
Wow, I didn’t realise I was so funny! what a compliment THANKS!........
Ps, do you ever wonder if God has to wipe his own arse?
Bit confused as to how people are defining cleanliness?
If cleanliness is germ free, then as mattbrowne quite rightly put it, cleanliness is gonna make you ill. If its dirt free, then all children are the Devil incarnate.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m with George Carlin on religon.
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