14 DAY TRIAL // Regardless of whether we are religious people or not, chances are we've all done some things in our past that we wish we didn't do. Maybe we've lied, maybe we've cheated, maybe we've forgotten to put the toilet seat up or down and can't stop beating ourselves over it.
The good news is that there's one small thing that we can do to at least try and make our consciousness all nice and shiny again: use the eScapegoat app to own up to the error of our ways. Anonymously.
Admittedly, tracking down the people we've wronged and telling them all about how sucky we behaved is the mature way to do things. But let's face it, nobody really wants to take the high road. Not when a perfect shortcut dug deep in the underground is available.
Introducing eScapegoat
As mentioned, eScapegoat is an app that promises to make people's sins disappear. Here's how it works: one need only confess to a mistake that's been bugging them for quite a while, and then wait for the virtual goat to absolve them by taking the sin onto it.
Whatever confessions people using this app are tweeted at @SinfulGoat anonymously. “I'm sorry for spilling my friends secrets to everyone,” a tweet posted just minutes ago says. “I'm sorry that I'm not more compassionate when my husband drinks,” another one reads.
According to Mirror, this app is the brainchild of Sarah Lefton, who created it in an attempt to attract more people to Judaism. Hence the fact that the app recreates the Biblical ritual during which a priest would transfer people's sins onto a goat and then send the animal to the desert to die.
Despite the fact that eScapegoat was created especially for Jewish people, it appears that plenty of people who do not belong to this community have until now used it several times, and aren't shy about using it again. “I AM SORRY for using this website to write out my sins I'm not even jewish,” one user confesses in a Tweet.
Why is eScapegoat making headlines now?
Well, the evening of this October 3 marks the beginning of Yom Kippur 2014, which is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. This holiday, which will end on the evening of October 4, is all about atonement and repentance. Hence eScapegoat's sudden boost in popularity.
It is understood that, last year, about 8,500 people confessed their sins to the virtual escape goat. App creator Sarah Lefton expects that this year the imaginary goat will have at least this many sins cast onto it.