Religion

7/22/14

When it comes to religion I have a lot of conflicts.  Growing up I was led to believe that God created the heavens and earth and put man and woman on earth in six days resting on the seventh.  By who's word?  What was a day during this creation?  What is this "in his image?"  I mean look at all the different colors, sizes, and physical designs(pygmies, giants, and in-between).  How about the people/tribes that no longer exist?  Where do these giant animals we call dinosaurs come from.  No mention of them in the bible as far as I recall. 

Moving forward, why did I have macaroni or fish on Fridays all of my childhood and now it matters not what foods I eat on any particular day.  Some people won't eat pork and would get greatly bent out of shape if some foods were served on a plate with other foods. 

Some Catholic priest can marry; most can't.  Lutheran were Catholic but not any more. 

What distinguishes a Southern Baptist from a Northern Baptist.  I used to believe that Southern Baptist believed there was no Hell but the Northern brethren believed "the hell there ain't."  That might have been from the wicked sense of humor of a man called Brother Dave. 

We're the only people in existence.  Maybe it is only beyond the ken of man.  With all the galaxies we can see and those we can't  it's not possible there aren't other "people" out there, different from us, and possibly more advance?  While I don't particularly believe that we have been visited by aliens, there still exist the possibility.  There are a lot of unexplained things found that could mean just about anything you want them to be.

to be continued           
8/5/15

Pope Francis is really shaking up the Catholics.  He questions the way the church looks at it's ideology.  I've seen some changes over the past forty or fifty years.  The Catholics didn't used to end the Lord's Prayer with   "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever: Amen."     I seem to recall that only the Protestants used this ending.   We didn't shake hands and say peace be with you when I attended church.  Much of the priest's prayers were in Latin and now it is mostly in English.  Now Pope Francis is talking about being less negative about the roles of women in the church.  It appears that women may eventually get to be in the role of priesthood.  Also he has mentioned remarriage may need to be re-looked at.  I recall hearing Catholics say that the only way a Catholic can re-marry and still be Catholic was through annulment.  And pretty much the rich had an easier time getting an annulment than the poor.    I wonder how many of the statues in the Catholic church actually look like the person they represent.  I thought I read somewhere that Jesus said that these were frowned upon as well as ornate clothing of the church leaders.  Some how I think the stained glass windows would be a bit much for him as well.  I really like this guy.