Calculus, also belief, was Re: [UA] Crosswords and Blue Teets

[Timothy Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom McGrenery" <t_mcgrenery at lycos.com>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: Calculus, also belief, was Re: [UA]
Crosswords and Blue Teets


>
>
> On Mon, 11 Jun 2001 09:59:37
>  Royal Minister of Stuff wrote:
> >Actually, by the count I'm doing, the people
who did
> >ring in were all strongly, if that word
applies,
> >agnostic.  No one said anything like: "I'm  a
> >christian and I'm proud of it" or "My buddhist
> >philosophy fits right in with UA."
>
> Well, I am a Christian, and proud of it. I just
didn't write in before, 'cause I've been
> busy. Not that this swings the vote, or
anything.
>

Right.  I'm one of those 'lead by example'
Christians, who take all the abuse for the actions
of the 10% out there who act like pinheads.  I
didn't say anything initially, because it's been
my experience that dad was right when he said that
religion, politics, and women should never be
discussed in a mixed gathering.  I'm Catholic, and
I kid the Church a), because it's got a lot to
answer for, (b), it's big enough to handle one
little heretic, and (c), it's the little
insurrections that lead to bigger and better
things.  Luther didn't want to split from the
Church.  He had issues, and he chose a rather
blatant way to bring a discussion about.  The
result was that the Church took its ball and went
home, and Luther (and a bunch of German princes)
made one that fit his new rules a little better.
How many of his complaints were eventually
addressed by the church?  Many, if not most (we
still do believe that those in Purgatory can be
spared by prayers in the here and now).  Sure,
things kinda got out of control, but the RCC
needed the Reformation to wake it up out of its
complacency.  The funny thing about faith is that
it's all about believing that, in the end, it
usually works out, and y'know what?  It does, more
often than not.  I stick with the RCC because it
feels right in ways that I can't easily describe
(though, curiously, it feels something akin to
what I've read about how indescribable
Enlightenment is in Zen Buddhism).  I've met
people who told me that I couldn't do this or that
activity, and still consider myself a Christian.
Nonsense.  As John Cleese said in a talk he gave
at Shakespeare & Co. a few years back, "Remember
who the Pharisees were.  They were the
establishment religion of the time, the ones who
had the most to lose when someone like Jesus came
around.  If Jesus decided to call a do-over, and
try it one more time, just for laughs, who would
be the ones trying to hasten his departure?"


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