Red Sins, Black Sins

[Leo Volont]

if your having hallucinations, I would stay of the LSD, it makes you do and say strange things.
and dont burn any of those, josh sticks, they dont help either.
"your get labeled a nutter, if your not carefull ."

"Sticks and Stones can break my Bones,
But Names will never Hurt me."

 

[Leo Volont]

C'mon fahrenheit 451,

With tens of thousands of years of genetic behavior influencing one
to 'believe', it may be difficult for someone to take a non-belief standpoint,
especially in a social environment where that lack of belief alienates
the individual from those in his environment.

In Leo's case, I suspect that he has a strong genetic disposition to 'believe'.
Additionally, Leo is an extravert and not 'believing' in his environment would
probably limit satisfying social interaction with others.

Dear Crunchy,

Nice little perceptive essay! It comes with a skeptics coloring, but the forms and substances depicted show signs of an open eye.

But where you use the term 'believe' as though it indicates credulous acceptance, I would argue that it provided a receptivity to an actual reality.

In todays largely Atheistic and de-mystified World (is not the Protestant Establishment as spiritually barren as the worst Atheist -- they do not speak of Miracles or Saints either, you know), the Ardent Catholic still becomes acquainted with first hand and anecdotal Proofs of Divine Providence and Our Lady's Intercessions. Now if you were to wind back the Clock to a Time when Civilization was Monolithically Catholic (during the Life of Saint Bernard I think there were as many as six Major First Magnitude Saints all alive simultaneously) certainly there were many 'Believers', but they would not have had to have been in the least wise 'credulous'. The Objects of their Beliefs were ever before their eyes.

But I am flattered for you to say that I seem to have the Genetic Predisposition. It might have skipped a generation or two, however. Perhaps I am the Prodigal Son of my Family Line, returning to the Bosum of the Church. In studying the Saints, it is remarkable that Saints largely come from Saintly Families. The Protestant Supposition that the most ardent 'Believers' come from the Worst Sinners may be true as regards Protestants who lean largely on Forgiveness; but the Catholics seem to require Generations of Practice in Righteousness before there arrives the Fruit of Sainthood.

 

[Leo Volont]

I have not tested to see if Leo is a Sociopath. I am not confident that
type of conclusion could be made solely from online communication.

I sing in the Choir. How many Sociopaths do you know who spend their tuesday evenings at Choir Practice, with a crowd of clucking little old ladies? I'm sure a hardcore Sociopath would think such an activity as absolute torture, But I do well enough with it.

I also volunteer to work socializing Cat and Kittens at a local Vetenary Hospital, where I must interact with the Doctors and the Vetenary Technicians and Reception Clerks. If I were a Sociopath, wouldn't you think they would have chased me away by now?

Then there is the matter of my holding down a job. Do Sociopaths have much luck with Employments? If you think I might be lying about having a Job, then simply refer to my schedule of Posts -- am I not largely absent from Monday through Friday each day for 10 or 12 hours at a time. If I was a Loner Sociopath, certainly I would be haunting this Forum ALL the time.

But, then again, I can't say that I have studied Sociopathology and so I cannot be sure of any of these suppositions. But, here again, if I were a Sociopath, you would suspect that I would know more about it. But in all my interactions with the World of Psychological Therapeutics, the word has never come up.

 

[audible]

"Sticks and Stones can break my Bones,
But Names will never Hurt me."

Is this not a little childish.
I thought this was the intelligent community.
clearly not in your case.

 

[mis-t-highs]

In todays largely Atheistic and de-mystified World (is not the Protestant Establishment as spiritually barren as the worst Atheist -- they do not speak of Miracles or Saints either, you know), the Ardent Catholic still becomes acquainted with first hand and anecdotal Proofs of Divine Providence and Our Lady's Intercessions. Now if you were to wind back the Clock to a Time when Civilization was Monolithically Catholic (during the Life of Saint Bernard I think there were as many as six Major First Magnitude Saints all alive simultaneously) certainly there were many 'Believers', but they would not have had to have been in the least wise 'credulous'. The Objects of their Beliefs were ever before their eyes.

because leo we have more sense.

There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages.

Humanity's first sin was faith; the first virtue was doubt.
Any belief worth having must survive doubt.

 

[Cris]

Leo,

Christianity ruled the world in the past because the past had little knowledge of reality. Under religion the world was ignorant and deliberately kept ignorant by religion. It has taken science to begin the enlightnement of the world and to begin the inevitable decline of institutions based on ignorance and superstitions like Catholicism.

Fortunately the human thirst for knowledge and freedom from repression is insatiable - the realm of religious influence can now only be shortlived. The death of religion cannot come soon enough, and especially the abomination known as Catholicism.

 

[Leo Volont]

There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages.

You must be an American. I hear that the schools there teach American History -- a few hundred years of virtual insignificance -- while never bothering to teach any World History.

The Dark Ages was a period between Civilizations. The Roman Civilization had collapsed, while Catholic Civilization had not yet risen over the forces Domestic Barbarism and of Foreign Barbarian Invasion. But, Catholicism DID eventually exert its Influence, and then History recognizes this Development by naming these subsequent Periods as THE MIDDLE AGES, and the HIGH MIDDLE AGES.

But, yes, to many ignorant Americans, they suppose that History consists of Ancient Greece and Rome, then the Dark Ages, and then the American Revolution. One cannot really argue with such ignorance, but maybe we can educate it.

 

[Leo Volont]

Leo,

Christianity ruled the world in the past because the past had little knowledge of reality. Under religion the world was ignorant and deliberately kept ignorant by religion. It has taken science to begin the enlightnement of the world and to begin the inevitable decline of institutions based on ignorance and superstitions like Catholicism.

Fortunately the human thirst for knowledge and freedom from repression is insatiable - the realm of religious influence can now only be shortlived. The death of religion cannot come soon enough, and especially the abomination known as Catholicism.

Read Toynbee's "Study of History". Your sermon sounds well enough, but it is typically the last Doctrine taught by every dying Civilization. Civilizations rise on Religion and Fall on Skepticism.

It is not that Knowledge is harmful of itself. But when the Institutions of Knowledge attack the Religious Foundations of Morality as Ultimately Uncertain -- that is where the damage is done.

You see, material Knowledge cannot justify and validate any Moral Code. Materialism at best can propose various Aesthetic Codes -- What Sounds Good and What Looks Good. But individuals, once liberated from Religious Codes, will simply laugh at any attempt to obstruct their Ambitions and Rapacities with merely Aesthetic Suggestions.