On religion.
For some reason, I wanted to do a faith-driven post not unlike the hypocritical drivel I tend to see in most blogs. Ahaha. Sorry for those who may be offended (and I doubt few will). but I tend to see religious fanaticism hypocritical. It would seem to me that whenever I see something like "I am a levite, I live to serve God", the rational way to react would be to raise an eyebrow, for I highly doubt that the person sporting said slogan really lives up to what the banner says. I have nothing against the freedom of speech, or the freedom to practice religion, but I've read that to practice faith so openly isn't a lot better than practicing your faith in secret. Sure you can praise the Lord and let the rest of the general populace hear, you shall have your reward... But the same Lord had said "Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing." I guess this means that youn should practice your faith in a ay that does not elevate you as someone so high-and-mighty. And those who end up being all high-and-mighty are just as sinful (and in some cases, even more sinful) than you and I.
I have nothing against religion. I really don't. In fact, I am a devout Catholic who says his rosaries regularly, goes to Church once a week, tries to let people into the light when the opportunity presents itself, all the bells and whistles, etc... But I never try and be all righteous, mainly because I know I'm not... I'm not ashamed to be Catholic: even when the Church has been behest with problems, and not to mention its dark past. I'm pretty damn well proud to be part of the largest Christian denomination out there. It's just that I'm not being a hypocrite about it.
Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated with other religions (why this has not led me to take up History 3 totally escapes me), but I've been fascinated with different mythologies, rituals (not that I practice any), belief systems, and even apocalypse stories from different beliefs. And most of the time they make sense, even though people are sometimes one-sided in their approach (I remember an instance during a discussion about Islam when a classmate pointed out that "Christianity focuses more on love and kindness while Islam gives justification to violence", which is really far from the reality. Jihad to them is a personal struggle, not necessarily a religious war. And they even have a saying that "Be kind to a neighbor that is kin, and to a neighbor that is not kin". This same classmate also pointed out that the mountainous parts of Israel are where some people bury their dead because this is the purported "landing site" of Jesus' second coming and they bury their dead there to mock Jesus, which is wrong because they choose this site because they believe that these are the people who are first to be ressurected). Sometimes my philosphy is buddhist, or taoist, but my belief and faith still lies with the doctrines of Catholicism.
This then leads me to another thing: religious propaganda. Apparently, some sects propagandize others, either to lure members out to convert to their belief, or some other reason I do not know. One of these that I have encountered was a set of comic books, supposedly written by former Catholic priests and nuns, "exposing" Catholicism as the antichrist. Those comics make me laugh and go angry at the same time. for example, the "IHS" on catholic insignia to them means "Isis-Horus-Seb", the "Holy Family of Egyptian mythology"... Okay, wait a minute, Isis wasn't married to either Horus or Seb, nor did she bear any of them. She was married to Osiris. IHS is actually "Iota-Eta-Sigma", which may sound like some weird fraternity name, but actually are the first three letters in the word "christ". Ha! Oh, and they said some crap about Pope John Paul II being a marxist (okay.. say what? Wasn't he trying to end communism in Cuba?) and the jesuits being a bunch of "soldiers" bent on destroying protestantism (here's the deal... I know catholics were a bit.. harsh on protestants, but that's no reason to be paranoid against Jesuits now, is it?).
...maybe harsh was a little of an understatement, but you get the point.
I think the bottom line is, if we just learn to appreciate and respect other people's beliefs, this world would have become a better place for a long time now..
I have nothing against religion. I really don't. In fact, I am a devout Catholic who says his rosaries regularly, goes to Church once a week, tries to let people into the light when the opportunity presents itself, all the bells and whistles, etc... But I never try and be all righteous, mainly because I know I'm not... I'm not ashamed to be Catholic: even when the Church has been behest with problems, and not to mention its dark past. I'm pretty damn well proud to be part of the largest Christian denomination out there. It's just that I'm not being a hypocrite about it.
Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated with other religions (why this has not led me to take up History 3 totally escapes me), but I've been fascinated with different mythologies, rituals (not that I practice any), belief systems, and even apocalypse stories from different beliefs. And most of the time they make sense, even though people are sometimes one-sided in their approach (I remember an instance during a discussion about Islam when a classmate pointed out that "Christianity focuses more on love and kindness while Islam gives justification to violence", which is really far from the reality. Jihad to them is a personal struggle, not necessarily a religious war. And they even have a saying that "Be kind to a neighbor that is kin, and to a neighbor that is not kin". This same classmate also pointed out that the mountainous parts of Israel are where some people bury their dead because this is the purported "landing site" of Jesus' second coming and they bury their dead there to mock Jesus, which is wrong because they choose this site because they believe that these are the people who are first to be ressurected). Sometimes my philosphy is buddhist, or taoist, but my belief and faith still lies with the doctrines of Catholicism.
This then leads me to another thing: religious propaganda. Apparently, some sects propagandize others, either to lure members out to convert to their belief, or some other reason I do not know. One of these that I have encountered was a set of comic books, supposedly written by former Catholic priests and nuns, "exposing" Catholicism as the antichrist. Those comics make me laugh and go angry at the same time. for example, the "IHS" on catholic insignia to them means "Isis-Horus-Seb", the "Holy Family of Egyptian mythology"... Okay, wait a minute, Isis wasn't married to either Horus or Seb, nor did she bear any of them. She was married to Osiris. IHS is actually "Iota-Eta-Sigma", which may sound like some weird fraternity name, but actually are the first three letters in the word "christ". Ha! Oh, and they said some crap about Pope John Paul II being a marxist (okay.. say what? Wasn't he trying to end communism in Cuba?) and the jesuits being a bunch of "soldiers" bent on destroying protestantism (here's the deal... I know catholics were a bit.. harsh on protestants, but that's no reason to be paranoid against Jesuits now, is it?).
...maybe harsh was a little of an understatement, but you get the point.
I think the bottom line is, if we just learn to appreciate and respect other people's beliefs, this world would have become a better place for a long time now..