4 ms·

I guess you couldn't tell, but I'm knocking her pretty hard. It's more than a bit superstitious. It's religious. I'm very familiar with the Catholic belief sys

I guess you couldn't tell, but I'm knocking her pretty hard. It's more than a bit superstitious. It's religious. I'm very familiar with the Catholic belief system, I was an unwilling participant in the Catholic church for my entire childhood and have members of the clergy in my family. She wouldn't accept that the wine and bread are believed to remain the same chemically (a cop-out to evade criticism from modern science), and pushing it any further would have invited a punishment or beating, so I let her have it. Like I said, people see what they want to see. As Eckhart Tolle puts it, “Man made God in his own image.”

michaelsbradley 9y ago
Religion is a virtue, classically speaking: "The moral virtue by which a person is disposed to render to God the worship and service he deserves. It is sometimes identified with the virtue of justice toward God, whose rights are rooted in his complete dominion over all creation. Religion is also a composite of all the virtues that arise from a human being's relationship to God as the author of his or her being, even as love is a cluster of all the virtues arising from human response to God as the destiny of his or her being. Religion thus corresponds to the practice of piety toward God as Creator of the universe. (Etym. probably Latin religare, to tie , fasten, bind, or relegere, to gather up, treat with care.)" http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36024 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/in... The virtue proper is in many respects the very opposite of superstition; like any virtue, it must be cultivated in a personal and deliberate manner and is ultimately a matter of interior orientation. I'm sorry for your bad experiences and your feeling forced to participate in the Catholic Faith. Many Catholics I know, from very young to very old, love Christ and His Church, and I know more than several who have sacrificed much to become Catholic. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, but just keep in mind that your personal experiences may not encompass the whole reality of the Church.
- kakarot 9y ago
  You think I haven't heard that one before? I was consistently top of the class in my religious studies and by no coincidence the only one who didn't identify as a Christian. My understanding of the Catholic faith, Abrahamic religions in general, and their pagan origins, stems from a historic and analytic approach to theology and my personal experiences simply reaffirm what I understand the Catholic Church to be. A system of control that operates via moral gatekeeping, social defamation, and historically threats of violence. The Church was the embodiment of anti-science dogma for centuries, the bastion of bloody wars of conquest, and is responsible for destroying the lives of countless individuals to remain in power and stave off any changes to the socioeconomic status quo. The Church you think you support and the Church as it is are two separate things, and you cannot see the forest for the trees when you are in the thick of it. This isn't the kind of discussion the mods like on HN and I don't wish to be chastised, so let's not discuss further.
  - michaelsbradley 9y ago
    I hope you did not get the impression my previous reply had an air of chastisement; and if you did, then I'm sorry, as I did not intend it that way, nor did I have any intention of chastising you in future replies. You're right, HN is not the place for an extended discussion of these matters. In a polite way, I would note that I believe some of the latent assertions in your previous reply are not factual, based on my own studies of the Church's history, including the bright spots as well the ugly sores. I wish you all the best, and if you'd ever like to discuss any of the points further, feel free to send me an email.
    - kakarot 9y ago
      I meant I don't want to be chastised by the mods, is all.

michaelsbradley 9y ago

Religion is a virtue, classically speaking: "The moral virtue by which a person is disposed to render to God the worship and service he deserves. It is sometimes identified with the virtue of justice toward God, whose rights are rooted in his complete dominion over all creation. Religion is also a composite of all the virtues that arise from a human being's relationship to God as the author of his or her being, even as love is a cluster of all the virtues arising from human response to God as the destiny of his or her being. Religion thus corresponds to the practice of piety toward God as Creator of the universe. (Etym. probably Latin religare, to tie , fasten, bind, or relegere, to gather up, treat with care.)" http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36024 http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/in... The virtue proper is in many respects the very opposite of superstition; like any virtue, it must be cultivated in a personal and deliberate manner and is ultimately a matter of interior orientation. I'm sorry for your bad experiences and your feeling forced to participate in the Catholic Faith. Many Catholics I know, from very young to very old, love Christ and His Church, and I know more than several who have sacrificed much to become Catholic. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, but just keep in mind that your personal experiences may not encompass the whole reality of the Church.

kakarot 9y ago
You think I haven't heard that one before? I was consistently top of the class in my religious studies and by no coincidence the only one who didn't identify as a Christian. My understanding of the Catholic faith, Abrahamic religions in general, and their pagan origins, stems from a historic and analytic approach to theology and my personal experiences simply reaffirm what I understand the Catholic Church to be. A system of control that operates via moral gatekeeping, social defamation, and historically threats of violence. The Church was the embodiment of anti-science dogma for centuries, the bastion of bloody wars of conquest, and is responsible for destroying the lives of countless individuals to remain in power and stave off any changes to the socioeconomic status quo. The Church you think you support and the Church as it is are two separate things, and you cannot see the forest for the trees when you are in the thick of it. This isn't the kind of discussion the mods like on HN and I don't wish to be chastised, so let's not discuss further.
- michaelsbradley 9y ago
  I hope you did not get the impression my previous reply had an air of chastisement; and if you did, then I'm sorry, as I did not intend it that way, nor did I have any intention of chastising you in future replies. You're right, HN is not the place for an extended discussion of these matters. In a polite way, I would note that I believe some of the latent assertions in your previous reply are not factual, based on my own studies of the Church's history, including the bright spots as well the ugly sores. I wish you all the best, and if you'd ever like to discuss any of the points further, feel free to send me an email.
  - kakarot 9y ago
    I meant I don't want to be chastised by the mods, is all.