Defender of the Faith

Good for you St. Thom! As an ex-priest and a very big sinner I know now what I did not know then. All Catholicism is run and mismanaged by control freaks who believe they have all the answers, but have precious few if any. Western religion is filled with cranks, apostates and thumb twiddlers; I fell for it for far, too long and I finally saw the light. I'm glad it gives you an answer, but that answer is false.

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

Agree whole heartedly with your assessment, Thom. That question which is asked by non-believers all of the time is an immature and simplistic one. I always turn it around when people ask that question, "What lessons would you learn if life were perfect? How could you grow if God spoon-fed you your whole life?" What I've noticed is that people who are angry at God or the church or their faith are perpetually stuck in the version of faith that is given to most little children. Most people teach children the simple versions of theology because the doctrine is too complex for a child to process. It's like when you are learning a musical instrument: you memorize theory first before learning the physics and math behind it. It drives me crazy to see people who haven't examined faith at all lend their childlike, angry views on it because people like you and me could easily answer their questions. It makes me think that they probably do believe in God, they're just angry that there is a right and wrong, and they are expected to do what is right and not whatever they want.

Giving the answer of free will no more reconciles evil than does giving no answer at all. If you weren't so deep in it you might be able to see how preposterous is the statement that god made not just men and sin but also their ability to exercise evil he allows to exist. "Free will" is a copout where man is once again at fault and a yet another "get out of jail free" card for the deity who is thanked for everything and blamed for nothing.

It is indeed inaccurate to imply the Catholic Church still teaches geocentrism. Including this is a clumsy comic device to demonstrate how backwards and contrary to reality the Church has been in the past. If the filmmakers are going to include something like this they should really make it absolutely clear that the Church will no longer brutally murder you for straying from the Canon (which, incidentally did technically support the geocentric theory until relatively recently).

Now that the Church no longer murders people it must sit still for the expressed animosity it has spent centuries earning.

The simple answer is that there is no god. Religion is a cult and you've all been brainwashed.

Free Will doesn't explain children inheriting aids. Free Will doesn't explain the thousands of violent natural disasters that destroy peoples homes, lives, and families every year.

There are some fantastic things on this planet, but all in all, there's much more suffering than joy. Even if we somehow manage to live a full life without anyone close to us dying of some horrible disease/accident, then WE'LL soon die of some horrible disease/accident. When we're past our prime, the bacteria on our bodies just waiting for it's chance to go at us. I'm not complaining, I'm just stating.

Now I don't think anyone's blaming Catholics for all these atrocities; that's the whole point. You can't blame God, you can't blame Satan, there's some suffering that has no blame...that's why it feels so WRONG when it happens.


p.s. Letting go of God/heaven is so difficult, but then you get to let go of the Satan/Hell guilt part which feels very freeing and fantastic.

Thom, if you listen to the dialogue you'll learn that Sister Mary has never gotten over the church's transformation from Vatican I to Vatican II. In her mind, if Catholicism isn't broken, why fix it? Ergo, her diagram of teh solar system.

The play is about how Sister Mary digs in her heels, refusing to adapt to the more liberal ways of the church. This is not an anti-Catholic or anti-church rant.

What I liked about Diane Keaton's portrayal (I didn't at first) was that she portrayed a woman who is forced to accept changes in her faith. In the end, she doesn't understand why things aren't going her way - which in her mind is God's way.

Ultimately, Sister Mary is a villain, but a very sympathetic one as well.

You realize Christopher Durang was born and raised Catholic. He writes this play on his experience in the Catholic church. This is not someone on the outside looking in, this is an observer. Durang tells it like he saw it.

~*~Would You Light My Candle?~*~
Founder of the APJLAA
To S&M

Not free will, God has a plan and there are other explanations too only a true catholic would know.

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