Tomorrow I will be going out again and giving speeches. But, tomorrow is different. It's an extremely important day. There will be many others there, and I not only want to do well in my speaking but also to serve God completely.
Please pray for me that I might succeed in both. I'll be gone all day on this one.
Thank you all for your prayers.
Friday, January 20, 2006
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4 comment(s):
I was brought up Catholic, one of seven children, and even named after one of four Basilian great-uncles. There was a time when I thought for sure I’d become a priest. Growing up in a very secular area, I was very much an outsider, not attending popular drinking/marijuana parties. I used to go to confession once a week.
A number of painful and enlightening experiences have utterly changed my worldview. Over a gradual five-year period, I have essentially become an atheist in the sense that I lack a theology. This has not been a choice. I resisted the contradiction between my faith and experience until the latter rendered the former ridiculous to me.
So why am I writing you, a stranger? Out of nostalgia, for sure, and other reasons. It is always therapeutic to articulate the problem, especially if unsolvable.
Basically I am fascinated to observe the faith of ours as I once lived it. From the outside, it is incredible in every sense of the word!
In case you’re interested, I do have some thoughts on why dogmatic religion is insupportable. Take language, in which its dogma are communicated. Linguistic theory points out that a word comprises a signifier and a signified. For example, T-R-E-E is a signifier that signifies a signified concept, namely a botanical organism that has leaves. There is no essential link between the signifier and signified (one could just as well call a tree a dog, so long as we agree that D-O-G signifies the botanical organism, not the hairy one).
Now skip to the bible, which consists of words have no essential link with the concepts they are intended to signify. So, okay, the Catholic clergy have interpreted these words for us. But with what do they interpret these words? More words, ad infinitum.
In short, how can a meta-linguistic concept such as God possibly be contained in a system of words whose very essence is only intelligible through human consensus?
Thank you for providing this forum.
Sincerely,
Hugh
Wow, you certainly are Catholic.
I was brought up Catholic. There was a time when I thought for sure I’d become a priest. Growing up in a very secular area, I was very much an outsider, not attending popular drinking/marijuana parties. I used to go to confession once a week.
A number of painful and enlightening experiences have utterly changed my worldview. Over a gradual five-year period, I have essentially become an atheist in the sense that I lack a theology. This has not been a choice. I resisted the contradiction between my faith and experience until the latter rendered the former ridiculous to me.
So why am I writing you, a stranger? Out of nostalgia, for sure, and other reasons. It is always therapeutic to articulate the problem, especially if unsolvable.
Basically I am fascinated to observe the faith of ours as I once lived it. From the outside, it is incredible in every sense of the word!
In case you’re interested, I do have some thoughts on why dogmatic religion is insupportable. Take language, in which its dogma are communicated. Linguistic theory points out that a word comprises a signifier and a signified. For example, T-R-E-E is a signifier that signifies a signified concept, namely a botanical organism that has leaves. There is no essential link between the signifier and signified (one could just as well call a tree a dog, so long as we agree that D-O-G signifies the botanical organism, not the hairy one).
Now skip to the bible, which consists of words have no essential link with the concepts they are intended to signify. So, okay, the Catholic clergy have interpreted these words for us. But with what do they interpret these words? More words, ad infinitum.
In short, how can a meta-linguistic concept such as God possibly be contained in a system of words whose very essence is only intelligible through human consensus?
Thank you for providing this forum.
Sincerely,
You're in my prayers, Moneybags.
God bless you,
Jean
Moneybags, May the Holy Spirit guide you in your words and may you do very well.
Anonymous, may you find God in your heart and in the world.
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