h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Hyp]

RE: Catholics

I think that many modern Catholics have left the strict rules of the Catholic church, and practice a more moderate approach. The whole birth control issue, for instance... Many Catholics would rather use birth control, then beg forgiveness for their sins than to risk getting pregnant.

RE: Denial of communion
Catholicism has a fantastic method of punishing sinners: guilt. Every Catholic is raised with an over-developed sense of guilt, and when one sins, one is expected to DENY ONESELF communion. And, get this: it works!

I was born and raised as a Catholic, and only managed to fully escape the church's grasp when I moved out of my parents' house at 17. So I've been a revovering Catholic for three years now.

As someone who has seen three of her childhood friends become mothers and drop out of high school, I assure you that not all Catholics are very good about using birth control. In my opinion, there are two main types of Catholics. The first type are the ones who blindly follow the rhetoric and doom their children to early motherhood by teaching them to eschew birth control and abortion and adoption. These are the sensationalists, the first to join the lynch mob. The children of this breed of Catholic often rebel against their opressive rule and drink and do drugs in high school. I saw some of them start in eighth grade - my sister being a prime example. There is nothing sadder than a thirteen year old drunk.

Then there is the second breed; the ones who ignore the bull***t rhetoric and follow their faith, not the Church's psychotic orders. They take the more modern approach, and are more healthy for it. These are good, decent people.

Marv will likely get a kick out of this.

There are 2 types of "Christians" in this world. Those who love and those who don't. Now, I am not using the anglicized definition of love but the the greek "Agapi" which translates most closely to "brotherly love". Agapi is also the term used in the New Testament to describe God's love for humanity.

An example of a "Christian" who practiced Agapi love would be Mother Theresa. Someone who gives everything they have to others without thought or expectation of reward or payment.

I would say that most "Christians" do not fall into that category and we do suffer for it. Most just profess a faith in Christ but are really hypocritical in saying they follow Christ because they do not truly follow him and his example.

I'll shut up now before I offend too many people.

[Hati]

I'm not offended, but then I'm an agnostic...

I think that's very true. Many Christians are such because they believe it's their ticket to heaven, not because of any altruistic desire to help their fellow man. They go to church on Sunday, and give face value to the bible, and tithe appropriately. If you asked them about their faith, they'd say that they're 'Good Christians.' But they're a sorry bunch of folks when it comes to treating other human beings with kindness and dignity.

Just watched a Frontline documentary the other night about Bush and his religion. Many of the people that are making the decisions are born-again Christians, or Christians from the evangelical school of Christianity. The evangelical churches have always struck me as being one step away from the snake-handling Christians, or the people that speak in tongues. Dubya used Christianity as an alternative to drinking. It worked pretty well - but it's a substitution of one addiction for another. Ashcroft, his Attorney General, is a major bigwig in the evangelical church. I have no doubt that Tom Ridge is another; he has that overfed marbled-beef look about him - rather like Karl Rove.

So we have all these people governing our country who believe that church and state should not be separated. That's pretty scary to me.

[Sol]

I love the Shaker style of furniture. My first introduction to the style was at the American Museum in Bath, were original interiors from the US are rebuilt in a beautiful Georgian era mansion.

So when we did our leaf peeping tour visiting one of the Shaker villages was high on the list of places to see. I was not disappointed when we stopped off at Canterbury. One day I would like to cross the pond again to see Hancock Shaker village too.

MR, glad to see that my memory hadn't entirely failed me!

[Ben]

[p]

Caer, indeed, your memory is quite good. I watched the same Frontline, and it frightened the bejesus out of me. Scary to think people like that run my country!

I finally had a good cry. I've been needing it for several weeks, but tonight I hung out with a good friend, had a good cry, a great conversation, and feel much better.

Good for you girl. Crying is one of those things which produces chemical changes in the body - it is no wonder you feel better.



B

Just back from another abortive atttempt to find an item of clothing for my Dad. But I got myself a new pair of jeans, which is a size smaller than my previous pair. I think a combination of that PerfectSlim stuff and eating only when I'm hungry and stopping before I feel full is havign some effect .

MR, I'm glad you are feeling better, it is good to get things out of our systems. Life will get better once you are through the legal process and you can take control of your life again.

How could I forget that I also bought LOTR ROTK.

Hati, why are you in mourning? And is your tooth any better?

Hah. I catch up with the backlog just in time to see the servers stop serving. This may not post - if it doesn't you won't know it didn't.

I always love the skew the news brings. You'll never see a headline like "Hundreds of Catholic Bishops Do Not Threaten to Withhold Communion" even though that is in fact the case. It's only one idiot doing that, but look at the reaction it brings.

[GDZ]

[spk]

Marv - on download.com they had a bunch of diablo II extensions, which seemed to be new scenarios with new items. Do you know of any sort of utility or method for creating new Diablo scenarios? i was thinking it would be cool to build a new one.

"When you think that religion is supposed to be all love and foregivness and then you find out it is really all about going to hell."

Someone emailed me a looooong piece by Kurt Vonnegut a few days about the current state of the American administration, and a part of it had to do with Christianity. One point he made which I've never considered before but made several pieces fall into place in my mind was this - most American Christians, and this may be true of modern Chrisitians in other places too - are more concerned with the commandments than they are with the beatitudes. Telling everyone *not* to do something - "Thou shalt not..." is seen as more acceptable than telling everyone to just be nice to each - "Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall..." etc. That kind of thing is just too tree-hugging, yoghurt-knitting, sandal-wearing, commie pinko leftist crap for so many American Christians I guess. The UK had a brief flirtation with restoring Victorian values with Thatcher in the 1980s... maybe it's America's turn now.

I know little of Kurt Vonnegut's views or stance (he seems to be a Christian), and I've never read any of his books. That one thought though really put a lot a lot of things into perspective for me.