Saint
Snowing madly this morning. We were going to have early lunch with D's parents, but both got a bad feeling about them driving here in that, and offered to make it lunch tomorrow instead. They agreed, to our relief, although we kept on cleaning the place. I checked, and there actually was a crash along their route. The problem with prevention, though, is never knowing if it worked. We only know when we ignored the feeling, and something happens.
Really loved the xkcd today. Oh, well, here.
(click to make readable, alt text at site)
Yeah. This is my issue with religion, regimented spiritual belief institutionalized as a mechanism of rule. The world divided into beautiful and ugly, good and evil, virtuous and sinful, as stated by a god who only speaks through the guys who write down what they think god said. A real scientist sees everything as interesting, beautiful in it's own way, all full of wonder. And the "faithful" look down on science as unimaginative and rigid. Well, we all find our own faults in others most irksome. Even when they don't actually appear in the other.
In defining myself, I would not use the word atheist, but agnostic. I suspect the mind of the universe is incomprehensible, and any attempt to define it is futile. Not that there isn't one. No way to prove that.
To assert one knows, and furthermore bases a system of government upon it - even a voluntary one, is downright psychotic, or abusively deceptive. Speculating on it may be a legitimate intellectual exercise, imagining angels doing the samba on pinheads, writing alternate history or other fantasy is part of what humans do after all. But to regulate thought and belief is a vicious enterprise. I've often thought that St. Paul's flash of insight on the road to Damascus was that, instead of persecuting early christians, he should become a powerful cult leader - with all the sex, money and status attending. It's all myth, after all is written.
I've always been rather suspicious of saints. Something inhuman about all the Catholic ones, at least. Each had a touch of the con artist, swindler, user, about them. Covered in platitudes. Holy Joe's, every damn one of 'em.
Really loved the xkcd today. Oh, well, here.
(click to make readable, alt text at site)
Yeah. This is my issue with religion, regimented spiritual belief institutionalized as a mechanism of rule. The world divided into beautiful and ugly, good and evil, virtuous and sinful, as stated by a god who only speaks through the guys who write down what they think god said. A real scientist sees everything as interesting, beautiful in it's own way, all full of wonder. And the "faithful" look down on science as unimaginative and rigid. Well, we all find our own faults in others most irksome. Even when they don't actually appear in the other.
In defining myself, I would not use the word atheist, but agnostic. I suspect the mind of the universe is incomprehensible, and any attempt to define it is futile. Not that there isn't one. No way to prove that.
To assert one knows, and furthermore bases a system of government upon it - even a voluntary one, is downright psychotic, or abusively deceptive. Speculating on it may be a legitimate intellectual exercise, imagining angels doing the samba on pinheads, writing alternate history or other fantasy is part of what humans do after all. But to regulate thought and belief is a vicious enterprise. I've often thought that St. Paul's flash of insight on the road to Damascus was that, instead of persecuting early christians, he should become a powerful cult leader - with all the sex, money and status attending. It's all myth, after all is written.
I've always been rather suspicious of saints. Something inhuman about all the Catholic ones, at least. Each had a touch of the con artist, swindler, user, about them. Covered in platitudes. Holy Joe's, every damn one of 'em.
Labels: god
Posted by Zhoen on Friday, March 25, 2011
8 comments:
I let the stringent requirements fall aside and allow myself a belief in a transcendental God, making the Holy Spirit the key to the triumvirate. Outside of belief systems, being a catholic and going to my church allows my family and I to engage in a community that teaches my children a set of values that suit us as parents.
What the Church says about things like divorce, abortion, gay rights and so on are not ideas as suggested by the God I believe in, but rather, a bunch of men who run the church.
Z, you'd no doubt get a kick out the movie playing in theatres now, Paul. It's quite good. But you can't eat popcorn because you're laughing through so much of it.
Phil,
Yeah, I can see that it provides a good structure for kids to grow in, especially if the parents - like yourself -are reasonable. Mine were not, as you probably know by now.
Rou,
I've heard some very mixed reviews on that. So I was planning on waiting for it to come out in a home-friendly medium. Love 'Shawn of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz', of course.
Yep.
Hello. Still enjoying reading your blog.
Isabelle,
Feel free to lurk, but it is always nice to know you're around.
Holy Joes reminds me of the comment in Bull Durham about those who believe in past lives always pick a famous person to have been and no one was Joe Schmuck.
zhoen, 'shawn of the dead' and 'hot fuzz' are far far better. i'd wait and see 'paul' on dvd. it's good but not nearly as good as it could've been. i do wish they'd gotten anyone but seth rogen to do paul's voice. still, the religion debate in it is pretty cute.
what makes me nervous about all those catholic saints is the almost sexual pleasure they seemed to have taken in their suffering. a sort of early medieval s & m, with a god twist.
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