Religion

Yes, I'm Roman Catholic. This is in spite of the fact that it's not cool, and the fact that it's far more hip to be evangelically anti-religion. Funny enough, more atheists are getting evangelical these days than the religious people.

Personally, I don't try to convert people. I don't object to people being converted to Catholicism, of course, but I have too many things against converting people to attempt to convert people myself. Such as...

Moot point. Generally, people go into any discussion of religion that involves more than one basic belief-- say, theism and atheism, as a random example-- with their minds already made up. They proceed to look for and listen for Points to Score against the Other Side. This is sufficiently engrossing to keep them from ever considering the other point of view very seriously at all, which they never have done before so why should they start now, etc. And about two minutes of this point-scoring is enough to hurt any feelings involved, as well as pissing people off fairly permanently against the other side.
I am Roman Catholic. This does not mean that I have a doctorate in theology. People in religious discussions always assume that the "believer" (let's be honest-- these things are usually between atheists and theists) is required to be an expert on all details of the religion in question. This is like saying you have to study the political systems, economics, and history of the US in order to be a citizen of the US. (Well, true, if you're not born here, you do, up to a point.) And while we all may know some of each of these subjects, that doesn't mean we've got advanced degrees in them. A belief system is a mess of beliefs that have accumulated around a belief over the years, ok? The Roman Catholic church has been around nearly 2000 years, and there's a lot of beliefs involved. I'm not an expert in all of them-- I just happen to be Catholic.¹ Generally, if you want to argue fine points of Catholicism, go find yourself a priest. Or better yet, a bishop. And if you want to get really down and dirty, find one with a doctorate in theology. Although I know I'm wasting my breath-- the people who enjoy arguing these things don't want to know. They just want to argue.
And to quote from one of my favourite religious authors: "You're trying to make me think, `Oo, what a nice young man, his god must be something special if nice young men like him helps old ladies like me'. . .I'll tell you this. . .if I'd seen [your god], really there, really alive, it'd be in me like a fever. If I thought there was some god who really did care two hoots about people, who watched 'em like a father and cared for 'em like a mother...well, you wouldn't catch me sayin' things like `There are two sides to every question,' and `We must respect other people's beliefs.' You wouldn't find me just being gen'rally nice in the hope that it'd all turn out right in the end. . ." And as the good woman goes on, "I don't think that's fashionable right now, 'cos it seems that if you sees evil now you have to wring your hands and say, `Oh deary me, we must debate this.'" Granny Weatherwax, witch, discussing religion in Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. I know that Being A Good Example quit working when being good went out of style.

Catholicism isn't Democratic, either. You don't get to vote on which commandments you're going to follow, or on whether killing is right or wrong. Morality-- sorry, Americans-- is sort of an absolute kind of thing. That's why it's not just called "laws." Some things are right or wrong no matter what legislation got voted on in your area. I've been accused of being an "a la carte Catholic," which is a term I really detest. I don't pick and choose what to believe, but I do admit to not being perfect. And this leads us to the nice Catholic Guilt thing. There's a difference between knowing and admitting you're not perfect, and thinking that it's okay to screw up somehow because you just don't like something. I'm not picking and choosing which bits I like and will Believe and which I don't like and will say aren't the prerogative of religion to pronounce on; I'm simply aware of what parts are difficult for me. And if the term "a la carte" gets used again, hey, at least I get a menu and know how to read.

¹There's a whole 'nother mess in that-- do you choose a religion and then believe everything they tell you, or do you believe what you believe and call it whatever religion is closest? I refer my esteemed reader to my second point, in fact the one you were reading when this footnote so rudely interrupted you. In the vernacular, "I mean, duh..." I don't know how that works. Me, I was raised Catholic, and that's how I'm calling myself Catholic.

Anyway, you're here for some links, most likely. And I found some. The most beautiful website out there, as far as I've seen, is The Vatican. Incidentally, they score extra points for realising the Millennium that everyone's so excited about doesn't start until 2001. The year 2000 is simply the 1000th year of the second millennium. See, the first one was years 1 through 1000, which was the 1000th year of the first millennium. The second millennium was from 1001 through 2000. Gosh, aren't numbers fun. Isn't it scary how many people you know who can't count?

Another good site I've found is the Our Father site. The prayer in as many languages as they could find to put it in, pretty much. I think it's pretty nifty.

If you don't mind a bit of silliness, there's also my Top Ten Commandments. These were all supplied by one of a.f.p.'s favourite small gods, or possibly favourite Archchancellors, Ridcully, aka Stephen Lichtwark. I supplied the idea and the execution. If you have a favourite commandment, try me. I prefer to have a set of ten all by the same author, but I'm flexible. And I will warn you right now that sure, you can read them in any browser, but Netscape let me do some neat stuff so I did...and you can't see it that way with the Microsoft Netscape Wannabe. Sorry.

Mail me. Go home.

PS: Like the graphics? So do I. Ann S Thesia is great. I even like her FAQ.