I personally don't belong to any faith and find the whole business of mumbo-jumbo and mystery in general to be a tremendous cop-out from embracing the truly exciting concept of the universe being powered by chaos, random events and competition between natural systems. That said, I was raised in the warm bath of generalized British soft protestantism and so when the Pope recently came to the United States for a visit I had the following reactions:
1) Ugh, the Pope.
2) Look at him, all conservative and hypocritical.
3) Wait a minute, who are all those cheering people?
4) Bloody hell, there is a significant percentage of the world's population who love the Pope and think he's a force for good.
5) I think I need to work on my empathy.
The Pope, as I've always seen him and his predecessors. Not a view shared by all, nor even the right one?
6 comments:
I've recently taken a spiritual journey. I've moved from cosy , retired catholic Agnostic to cosy, atheist. Although I do still love a good bit of church architecture and a nice hymn.
Life is like this. You question what you can't see and you wonder what everyone else is seeing and you doubt and sometimes you believe. The beauty of it all is that we are still curious. It all still peaks our interest.
I agree- the smells and bells are nice, in the same way a recreation of the Salem witch trials are interesting.
I'm perfectly happy with wonder: its mystery I have no truck with. Either in the religious sense or in the sense of Mystery the pick up artist from VH1.
And to be clear, I still think the Pope is an appalling old hypocrite who subjugates his flock but was glad to be reminded that many think he is brilliant. Much as many people think Toby Keith is brilliant.
Blimey.
It's all so deep. I love mystery, wether it's a sunset, evening birdsong, Watership Down, Harry Potter or Leviticus (which is loads of rules , but well, you know.)
Not to embark on a long argument about woolly English-style cricket jumper philosophy, but where exactly does the mystery lie in sunsets, birdsong, or the words of human fiction writers (in which category I also include Leviticus)?
You have a higher opinion of the Pope and religion than I do...
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