Capital T Truth

My friend sent this to me the other day and it got me to thinking.

Can we ever be truly happy if we don't know the Truth?

Thoughts??

Pinky and the Brain: How Does My Faith Call Me to Respond?

"Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!"


Hi, my name is Traci, and I'm a pal of Lauren's.  We tend to ponder over topics similar to those documented already, so I think that's why she added me as an author to this blog.

Anywho, so typically the story of the boy (or girl) throwing starfish into the ocean tends to give me the warm and fuzzies inside.  However, I've recently been feeling quite hopeless and overwhelmed by sins of injustice in our society, and I now have a jaded sense of regard for this otherwise optimistic, albeit somewhat trite, vignette.

A few days ago, my politically-and-current-event savvy significant other shared with me that he had read an article claiming that the recent wars against various countries in the Middle East have not been waged out of fear of nuclear weapons nor out of a self-appointed sense of duty to save countries from evil dictators, but instead to concentrate the power of wealth into the hands of a very, very few.  Supposedly, prior to 2000, only seven countries without a Rothschild family-controlled central bank were Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, Libya, Cuba, and Iran.  After 9/11, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan were slashed from that list, and now in 2011, only three remain: Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.  Or so the story goes.  Also, supposedly, the net worth of the Rothschild family is in the $200+ trillion range -- so talk about the 1%, or, er, uh, 0.0000000000001%

Now, I say the supposedly's with great emphasis, because I'm not sure how credible these sources that make these claims are.  After trying to peruse the interwebs to validate this information, I found that it was more often than not regurgitated onto somewhat dodgy, conspiracy theorist-laden depositories, likely in order to satiate the appetites of such audiences.  Often the author is not cited, and if he or she is, the same story has been plastered over and over again on different domains.  But, of course, that's what you would expect if the mainstream media outlets are ultimately controlled by these Illuminati-like ruling elite.

So lately I think my subconscious has been performing little thought experiments -- to the point that I had gone on central bank and Rothschild rants after having a little too much to drink, I might add.  What if this really is true?  What if there really is a small group of people attempting to take over the world... and are succeeding?  How do I respond as someone who believes in and wants to follow a Jesus who would have spoken out against this?  (And by "this", I mean the concentration of power to the few, not literally a super-secret family controlling the world's central banking systems -- I mean, even conspiracy theories notwithstanding, we still have governments and corporations wielding too much control over our lives right now, making too much money doing so, and hurting too many people doing so).

Although I might be able to help people I encounter in my life in small ways, the bigger, systemic injustices are still not going to be addressed.  Is there even any meaning to it all?  Even if I can ameliorate someone's pain and suffering for the remainder of their entire lifetime (not just a moment or a few moments), I'm at the point where I just want to throw my hands up and exclaim in a melodramatic exasperation, "What does it even matter?!"

Through the lens of this Lenten season, I recognize that my sentiments of helplessness merely highlight my weakness and the truly lack of control I have over anything in this world.  And, I suppose, what likely will be the case is that I am ultimately only going to be comforted through faith that the goodness of an omniscient and benevolent God will eventually overcome whatever sin and madness pervade our society today.  But I so want to see the Kingdom here on Earth, and I want to do something instead of just "have faith" and pray.  My pride unfortunately equates my desire to do something to my actual capacity to do something with measurable consequence in my own lifetime.

So that's pretty much my rant/reflection/whatever you want to call it.  If you sometimes feel this way, too, raise your hand.  According to C.S. Lewis (thanks, Lauren!), that might make us friends. =)

"Religious Freedom": Finding a Definition For Our Time

Most of you have probably been exposed to some of the recent 'discussion' about the new health care law requiring employers to cover certain procedures and drugs in their plans that the church is morally opposed to.  Mostly I just wondered what people thought of this.  I thought the letter my bishop wrote, which I assume was similar to the others, presenting the issue as a 'direct assault on our freedom to practice our religion' was a little overstated.  It seemed to me more a move to help ensure that all people had access to health care, although perhaps overstepping those bounds, and less a somewhat shrouded attempt to rid Catholics of their freedom to practice religion.  Perhaps the question comes down to whether it is justifiable to restrict the freedom all Americans have to practice their religion in the case of these certain types of health care.  I assume it is sometimes acceptable to restrict freedom of religion, as we outlaw things like polygamy and honor killings that some people undertake for religious reasons.  In googling the issue, I found an article that was somewhat interesting, but I especially thought this particular section was interesting:
"In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI declared, that it is the moral responsibility of nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens, regardless of social and economic status or their ability to pay.  The current bishops’ response would say that it should be selective, contrary to the 2010 statement from the Vatican.  The question then becomes, who should decide the parameters of that selectivity?"
Here's the whole article, if you're interested:  The Bishop's Outrage: A Catholic's Response
I would be honored to know what anyone else thinks about the matter.  

Resurrection

I remember writing a philosophy paper once about resurrection (I remember it being one of my best ones, that I actually understood the premise of).  One of the complications with bodily resurrection was that the 'stuff' that would be needed to recreate you in the future had probably been the 'stuff' of other things at some point in its existence, and perhaps other people.  Weren't we all the matter of stars back in the day (wish I could have been aware of that- it probably would have been cool)?  For a more obvious example, think of cannibals.  If I eat you, then the 'stuff' that makes up you, now has to go to work to make up the 'stuff' of me.  'Stuff' being physical matter.  How can we all be resurrected at the same time if the physical matter that makes up 'me' is also the physical matter that makes up my descendents and my ancestors?  We also run across the simple complication of what 'me' is resurrected?  You when you died?  You when you were a baby?  You at the 'prime of life', whatever that happened to be for you? Maybe somehow we can pick what body to resurrect.  Could be interesting. 

Anyway, this is actually just an invitation to (continue to) join us on "The Wandering Soul".  I hope this can continue to be a forum for interesting discussion on important matters of all kinds.  Thanks for joining us!

~Michelle

Philosophy

Ever heard this argument?: If something is perfect, it must first exist. If God is perfect, then He must exist. Does perfection imply goodness? If so, then God must be good. But if He is good, why do bad things happen to good people?

Bad things are classified as bad by humans, who are imperfect. Perhaps they are good things in a universal context. But tell that to the woman who loses a son to some rare form of leukemia, or the man who's brother's life is taken by a tornado. This leads to the whole, "life is unfair" catchphrasing. Sometimes, it'd be nice to know a little more about why "bad" things happen to some and not others.

Perhaps we'll know after death. But what if we don't? Sometimes, I think it's a burden to even be allowed to reach this kind of thought process.

Excommunication

I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago on the topic of excommunication. It seems like quite the tricky topic now that I think about it. On the one hand there are places in the Bible that seem to justify the practice: "If your hand causes you to sin cut it off," among others. Yet, if the church is supposed to be about forgiveness and bringing all people closer to God, how can it purport to expel some of them?

Furthermore if we are to accept this form of censure, what does it say about the Church that it will excommunicate someone like Rev. Roy Bourgeois for "ordaining" women but not do so to the many priests who were involved in the sex abuse cases? Is ordaining women worse than sexually abusing members of the congregation in the eyes of the Church? Does it jeopardize the teachings of the faith more? Is it more inherently opposed to Catholic Doctrine?

Questions, questions

I find this hard to answer, even in my own mind sometimes:

Is one's faith invalid if it is not tied to an institution? Can one believe in what the Catholic Church teaches without being part of it? (Because some people would rather not be part of the Church but they still believe and don't want to be mislabeled as unbelievers.)

Ultimately, faith is a very personal thing. It's just you and God in the end. Looking back on your time on Earth, won't the person you were (the acts you did and the words you spoke and your thoughts) matter more than what church you sat in on Sundays?