The Pope Strikes Again

Recently the Pope in Spain spoke out against gay marriage stating...

"The family is the primary agent of peace and the negation or even the restriction of rights of the family ... threatens the very foundations of peace."

I don't understand the logic of how allowing more people to be married and create government recognized families with all the rights married people have is in any way negating or restricting those rights. If anything it seems to broaden those rights and create a more positive environment.

He also said the family is "based on the unbreakable union of man and woman and represents the privileged environment where human life is welcomed and protected from the beginning to its natural end." Sounds like he's shutting out the kids of gay and unwed parents as well.

This is just another endorsement that the Catholic Church has no meaningful place for gays. Of course I prefer love and acceptance over rules and dogma.

On Atheism

There seems to be some concern with the affects of atheism on society today. I have had many conversations with people who called themselves atheists and I found them to be thoughtful and interesting discussions. I have also been surprised by the similarity between their beliefs and my own.

I have hypothesized that most atheists don't really reject the idea of spirituality and even a creator spirit I would identify as God. It seems that most atheists I have known are mainly rejecting the version of God depicted by their childhood church, by vocal religions and by society in general. I have listened to Richard Dawkins and when he says God would have to be unbelievably enormous to really exist, I say exactly!!! God is.

In testifying to my faith, I have often felt that calling God by the name "God" is to attach all the connotations and stereotypes people have ascribed over time. My image of God is often so far removed from some mainstream religions that it's difficult to reconcile that they are the same entity. I have to spend a lot of time explaining that my concept of God is far different from what they learned in Sunday school or Catechism class.

I suppose many atheists have travelled a similar path to my own and threw out that traditional image of God from their youth that didn't fit their beliefs. Unfortunately, in the whirlpool of "hate the sin, love the sinner" they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Instead of retooling their misconceptions, they find it easier to reject all of it.

I admit atheism is easier than apologetics and sometimes think to claim the label myself simply to have a cleaner slate to expound from.

But in the darkest night of my crisis in life, in faith, in relationships, when all was in doubt, the one thing I could definitively attest to was God's presence in my life.