Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You know there is a fourth choice. Why keep up the > pretense when you have lost faith? Be honest with > yourself. Give up the whole charade. Liberate > yourself. Live a reason and evidence-based life.
Santosh, I have had two spiritual experiences in this life. One experience had nothing to do with the catholic faith, the other, could be seen by any non-believer as a mere coincidence. Both experiences made me realize that there is a spiritual world out there. > Practice humanitarian ethics and rational morality. > Imbibe spirituality from the products of human > creativity such as music, art, poetry, literature, > dance and science. But don't throw out the goodies. > Celebrate all the religious festivals. Enjoy all the > fun rituals. Expand your cafeteria to include other > religions, because the only things that we know are > real, for sure, are the food, the song and dance, > the company and the fun. In Tanzania, where I grew up, one gets exposed to all religions. You get invited to weddings of people of other faith (and of no common faith). I also have been to funerals where a Muslim priest will lead prayers for the deceased at the graveyard, after the Catholic priest has finished his say. Weddings, baptisms, funerals are all ceremonial. They are not going to get you anywhere in the spiritual world. Whether you find the spiritual world or not depends on your behavior, IMHO. My behavior, thanks to those convent nuns again, is based on one sentence i.e. love your neighbor as you love yourself. And my neighbor includes the eight year old, with festering wounds, begging outside the State Bank of India, Mapusa. It also includes all the eight year olds and new orphans in Iraq. Protecting them, is my idea of spirituality. I will agree with you that practicing humanitarian ethics and rational morality may be better than religion, and especially so when one has not found the spiritual world. In fact, had your political leaders practiced humanitarian ethics instead of religion in the last few years, this world would have been a much better place to live in. Since I have no doubt that there is a spiritual world, I am going to stick to the third choice. My cafeteria will include Marlon's sanaa's and feni, your humanitarian ethics suggestion and even the lack of women priests. Mervyn3.0 PS. Since no woman has spoken up for female catholic priests, we can safely concur that they are quite happy with the status quo :-) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
