Oil and Water

Oil and water don't mix. A fact that has been tried and tested. This is why politics and religion are synonymously to this saying. The Washington post reports Douglas Kmiec, a republican Obama supporter [weird, I know], was denied communion at his Catholic church. The article then begs the answer to this question:

"Is it legitimate for bishops and priests to deny Communion to those supporting candidates who favor abortion rights?"

Sure! Why not? It's their club after all. If they think making an example of Kmiec is the only way to show their discipline through denying unleven bread, then so be it. If he was denied the wine, oh! Then that's where all Hell breaks loose, but I digress. I suggest we use the Bible for examples such as stoning these kinds of people. Better yet, let's do as the Salem did and call Kmiec a witch and burn him at the stake.

Yes, I know that the communion is the symbol of Christ, blessed and consecrated by the priest himself, but why deny him communion? Why not lock him out of god's house? Why come over for dinner when you have to sit at the kids table with no meal? Those who lead your faith are your parents. Those who follow are their children. This is why religion has an element of control over their flock. They say they are free, but in essence they are in control as long as you are under their roof.

Politics is no exception, especially when you have people from the a religious flock inaugurated into office who claim god put them there for a reason or spouts god bless [insert country name here]. Oil and Water? more like oil handshaking water with their fingers crossed behind their back.

Dirty Little Catholics

Reuters reports that the Vatican will excommunicate women priests. I say good! Why would women want to be part of your penis waging, boy-loving men only club? Those women better wake up and smell the coffee and leave the faith all together. The Catholic doctrine is a sexist piece of work. How can anyone follow a faith when it doesn't adhere to future generations? If god is all knowing and eternal he should know about the ever changing society within these two millennial. In fact, the men who wrote the bible were all sexist! How were women portrayed in the Bible? Well, let's see they were prostitutes, beggars, lepers... oh, yeah and rape victims who were raped in the name of faith!

The report explains more on the Vatican's decision. The Vatican says, "[The Church] cannot change the rules banning women from the priesthood because Christ chose only men as his apostles. Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest." Now ain't that a good piece of PR. I see this as a battlefield situation. Command [in this case the bible and old Vatican law] says you need to kill the hostages to save the world, but the private [present day followers of the Catholic faith] make their own judgements. The leader, decided to take commands word for it, but the private thinks otherwise and there should be another way. The leader takes matters into his own hands and shoots himself in the foot and gets his private killed by the ricochet. Talk about depressing! The Vatican knows that these times are different from back then, but they refuse to buckle and change law. WHY? I remember back in the day learning about Catholicism where the first and second Vatican council decided not to do mass exclusively in Latin and that the priest should look at the congregation. What about another Vatican council? In fact, I think it's a good move on the Catholic faith, because it means more people will leave the faith. I'm all about leaving religion behind.

My Father

When I speak of my father, I don't mean some imaginary being who keeps tabs and surveillance on me 24/7. I am talking about my real father. My Earthly, tangible and living father. He was born and raised Roman Catholic in the Philippines.

Before I became religion-free, I constantly asked my father about our religion. The one thing I noticed was his cohesion with science and religion. He is no scientist, but there are some things he melds with science and religion. For example, I asked him about Genesis and the origin of the universe; did he believe the world was created in seven days? The simple answer would be no. The more complex answer he would give me is this:

The world was created in seven days, but God's perception of days is much different from ours. We live within a 24 hour clock. God is eternal and therefore a day may be millions if not billions of years to God.

I showed him videos of the Creationist museum in the United States. He was pissed. He told me that those Christians are nutcases and they have no idea when they are talking about. I agreed with him. It's too bad he's stuck with the same belief's as them.

Another question I would ask him was, does he believe in Adam and Eve? The simple answer is Yes. The more complex answer is this:

God created man and woman. When he damned them to live on Earth their genes were not as simple as you or I have in our blood. Instead the were blessed with complex genes that allowed humanity to flourish from just one man and one woman. [ I don't get how vindictive God can be to damn two people and have the future generations to suffer for their loss]

I tended to agree with him in his mythological logic. However looking back at it now, I find no basis to believe any of it.

My father is a person who lives an old-world mentality. He harbours when he has learned in the past and refuses to accept future views.

My father is homophobic. I've realized that my father is an extremely homophobic person. When Toronto was passing legislature to allow gay marriage he would often yell at the television about how it was wrong to be gay. His response about gays are the same as every homophobic, "As long as they don't bother me, I don't give a fuck what they do." I never understood why he would be so against something that is obviously natural. I guess it's because he's a baby boomer. In those years it was impossible for those to be freely gay in public. For those who chanced being openly gay were condemned by society. My view is a lot different from his. I honestly don't find anything wrong with gay marriage and the gay community. I never really believed in forcing upon something that isn't possible. You can't "ungay" [if that isn't a word, then I made it up] a person. From my observations as a child growing up with a gay aunt and with gay friends I firmly believe people are born gay. It is definitely not a choice. Any hormonal analysis will prove my point.

My father is militant against other religions. Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormons and Baptists are on his hit-list. More recently he has been very ignorant towards my brother-in-laws Gnostic family. If any people from those religious beliefs say anything that goes against his faith (i.e. virgin birth analysis, holy communion, etc) he will hold a personal grudge. I remember on several accounts my father would constantly tell me how one person blasphemed the Catholic doctrine. Often he would tell me how he would like to slap those people across the head. I often wonder what would happen if I told him I was Religion-free and don't believe in god and Jesus. I would be disowned and he would never talk to me. I often worry that I will never come to terms with him, because he would be dead and the moment of reconciliation will never come. I will never change my belief in a no god philosophy. I have followed the path of believing in a God and it's brought me nothing but headache and false hopes. He will never understand what I am going through and don't expect him to, but I will hold off telling him the truth; as he is already living his life through a lie.

Catholics Go Home

My mother and father are non-practising Catholic or in other words, they pray to God when they want good fortune. The house we live in was owned by a Catholic family, but that's another story I will get into in later entries. Right now I just need to tell you what I found in the mail: A copy of The Catholic Register! I sure as heck know that it's not my mother's or father's, so I'm going to assume the subscriptions belongs to the previous owners of the house. Woot! Free subscription! Well, with my new found non-religious mind-set, I didn't initially want to throw it out. I stood there holding the copy in my hands and I thought I'd give it a go, read some articles and see what I could pull out as total Bullshit. I found one and it won't be too pretty once I tear into it.

Article 1:
Headline: Aliens our "Extraterrestrial brothers"?
Subheading: Vatican astronomer ponders alien life and faith

I read this article with mental laughter and physical strain as my brows pursed upwards in a WTF? fashion. Apparently my former Catholic leaders have finally found reason to believe that there may be life on other planets. [Well, fuck me with a broom-stick Jesus, because this is absolute news to me. I am absolutely flabbergasted! Pray, tell more.] A Jesuit Father, Jose Funes, the director of the Vatican Observatory says, "Christians should consider alien life as an 'extraterrestrial brother' an part of God's creation." He goes on to say that aliens on other planets are just as possible, because, our planet contains various animals. "These potential life forms" the article goes on to say, "could include those that have no need of oxygen or hydrogen." [*gasp* I, for one call bullshit! You're telling me god tried several gaseous elements on Adam and Oxygen just stuck? whodathunkit?]

Now here's the kicker! "This is not" Funes says, "in contrast with the faith, because we cannot place limits on the creative freedom of God." Full-stop! Holy Shit! What the EFF! Yes it is! He goes on to back-up his claim with a quote from St. Francis, "If we consider earthly creatures as 'brothers' and 'sisters', why can't we also speak of an 'extraterrestrial brother'?" Yeah, sure you do that, but I'd like to point out that you fucked yourself with two contradictory statements to your doctrine. First and foremost the Bible states that man was created in god's own in image. So these aliens would have to be human to make your statements right. If the aliens turned out to look like gods inbred aunt... I'd be very cautious if I were you. And that quote from St. Francis is questionable. Googling that very quote, brought a tonne of articles ridiculing your so-called E.T. religious epiphany and none leading to a devout St. Francis of Assisi page or a book.

One thing that caught my attention was this quote, "As an astronomer, I can say that from the observation of starts and galaxies there emerges a clear evolutionary process." The article continues, "He said that in his opinion the big-bang theory remains the best explanations of the origin of the universe from a scientific point of view. Above all it's a reasonable explanation"... Wow, just wow, who would have thought a man of cloth would say things an be content with where he stands. I guess the Vatican pays more than any observatory.

At the end of the article I had to agree with one point he made, "The Bible is not fundamentally a work of science." Say it brother... I mean father! "It is a letter of love that God has written to His people, in a language that was used 2,000-3,000 years ago. Obviously, at that time a concept like the big band was totally extraneous." Yeah... You got me up to and until you said 'Bible' and 'not work of science'. If the Bible is a love letter to humanity with no mention about these extraterrestrials... Then that means... God is a two timing whore!