No photos today - we went down to the dock this morning, but it's cold and windy, and the birds were all hiding. Anyway, today I'm going to post about two things that I've been pondering.
The first thing is a post I saw on social media by a Catholic guy who bragged, "When people say I'm opposed to sex, I remind them that I have seven kids!" It really rubbed me the wrong way, but it took me a while to figure out just what it was that angered me. Finally it hit me: sexual desire is a deep, primal need, like hunger. I do follow the Church's teaching that it must only occur in a marriage, but I have the deepest sympathy for those who are unable to do so, like people with homosexual inclinations or people who are not lucky enough to have found a spouse. We should acknowledge the brave struggle of such individuals. Instead, this jerkwad who happens to be lucky enough to have sex whenever he wants (and I can't help wondering how his wife feels about this) comes across like he's talking to someone who's starving: "Of course I don't hate food! I eat a seven-course meal every night! I just don't think YOU deserve food!" Is this a Christian response?? If it is, Heaven help us! No wonder so many people are fleeing from organized religion!!
The second thing was inspired by Richard Bonomo saying he's going to attend a Catholic conference on nonhuman intelligence, and by that they mean extraterrestrials and artificial intelligence. Nothing about animal intelligence. That got me thinking about extraterrestrial life, which I honestly believe exists and also honestly believe is 98% more likely to resemble slime mold than humans, and I had this thought: do we even deserve to see other life forms? Look how horrible we are to all the amazing, incredible, beautiful life forms we have on this planet!! Now I'm not saying there aren't people who appreciate nonhuman life, because I for one do, and so does Travalon, and plenty of other people I know do too. But sometimes people who are really into trying to meet space aliens couldn't care less about the life right in front of them, and certainly some of the people in power make decisions that are very bad for nonhuman life. (To be fair, many of their decisions are also very bad for human life, if those people have very little power.) And sadly, some of my coreligionists are the WORST when it comes to caring for nonhuman life - they say it doesn't matter, because animals don't have souls. Which isn't even official Church teaching, by the way.
Really, what's keeping me in the Catholic Church right now is Jesus, because it sure as Hell ain't other Catholics, as you can deduce from my two complaints enumerated here.
Famous Hat
No comments:
Post a Comment