"Oh, a red neck nerd in a bowling shirt was guzzlin' Lone Star Beer, talking religion and-a politics for all the world to hear" - Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys
Sure and it's a volatile subject, but an interesting one. I was born and raised a Friday fish-eater, but at this point can barely tolerate the entire thing.
I just read Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown and both go into so interesting historical facts about religion and the Catholic Church in particular and as near as I can determine all based on fact.
Some of the stuff was shocking. Popes like Mafia capos having adversaries rubbed out, the Vatican making criminals out of some of the world's greatest scientists for having the audacity to try and understand the universe we live in on a deeper level, the systematic brain-washing of the masses including subjugating half the population of the planet (women) into a second-class existence, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.
There have been some high-stakes power plays made for thousands of years by the Catholic Church and the recent total arrogance in it's handling of a pervasive child-abuse scandal is not at all unusual in their annals, but is really just business as usual.
I'd like to think they can turn it around and emphasize the good things they do and cure some of the bad, but I have even less faith in the Church's leadership than I do in their entire dogma and this bunch will continue to shoot themselves in the foot until their is nothing left of their once-mighty empire.
All they have to do is the right thing, but they are seemingly incapable of dealing with reality. People aren't ignorant anymore and they need to adapt to the modern world and I doubt they ever will.
It's a shame, but I'm currently shopping for a new belief system. So far Druidism seems to be in the lead. Seriously, the Druids had their sh1t together.
Anyone know any sensible religions I could research?
