• Before we had CGI to draw animated pictures of the Solar System, we turned parts on our lathes and made orreries. Here's a gallery of 18 beauties, including one made in Lego (ok, injection molded) and two in Meccano. Some of them are pretty steampunkish, if that matters to you.
• And speaking of steampunk, here's something I've never seen before: ( Read more... )

Sam Paris sent me an image that's been bouncing around the Net for some time now, and I roared. It's funny on the face of it, whether you know anything about religion or not-but if you've struggled like I have with the difficulties of understanding the several competing concepts of God, ( Read more... )

It's been a low-energy and off-my-peak couple of days here for reasons I won't bore you (or gross you out) with. Had to take a run up to Denver, but mostly I've been sitting quietly and reading. I finished a book that I don't really recommend unless you're chained to the potty and need to kill ( Read more... )

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A very cogent post by Bishop Sam'l Bassett on one of the Old Catholic email lists I subscribe to forced me to think a little harder about the reasons for the Roman Catholic Church's devastating priest shortage. Everybody seems to think (and I confess to leaning in that direction) that celibacy ( Read more... )

Carol and I went to Mass today, and I was shocked to see that January 1 is no longer the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus Christ, but instead "The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God." I'm a little surprised that I hadn't run across this before, since the change happened a long time ago, ( Read more... )

Just a quick postscript to yesterday's entry, after which I will let the whole God thing rest for awhile.

A reader wrote last night to ask me if I believed in Purgatory. Well, yeah-just not the Medieval concept of temporary divine punishment that you could buy your way out of with prayers or ( Read more... )

The story was everywhere on Monday that today (Thursday) Pope Benedict XVI will be holding a meeting with the Curia to discuss the future of the thousand-year-old Roman Catholic tradition of mandatory celibacy for priests and bishops. The immediate trigger was another outburst from one of Rome ( Read more... )

Every time I criticize the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on sex, women, and the body, I get a few notes from people who indicate that these same teachings have strengthened their marriages and allowed them to be "free." Free from what is never clearly stated, and I'm not callous enough to ( Read more... )

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