Remember the post May Pieces of Chocolate Be With You?

Warpfish sent me this link and I was very happy to see that I'm not the only one.

On a side note, my office building caught fire this weekend. Witnesses say they saw a chocolate covered man wearing a long robe running from the scene. One witness claims the full-bearded man could be heard laughing maniacally and shouting, "Ha! See if they exclude me from their advent window again!"

For the record, offices around me were destroyed. My office: nothing.

May Pieces of Chocolate Be With You

At my job, we only provide services for people who are catholic or who plan to raise their children catholic. Does that mean that god only loves catholic children? Well, that's another post.

We have an advent window at my work. Easter is THE BIGGEST religious holiday.

Is our window decorated with Christ on a crucifix or Christ sitting at the right hand of god? Nope. We have a window full of cute bunnies, easter eggs and daffodils. Yeah, because they truly send the message that Christ died to open the door to heaven. I know, maybe he plans to drop chocolate easter eggs to leave a trail for all the good catholics to follow......

I thought maybe our advent window could be reflective of both themes. We could put a chocolate Christ on a crucifix.

There is one problem with this plan. On the third day, the chocolate would disappear and all that would be left is the wrapping......

God of Convenience

Wow. Yesterday was the first funeral I have gone to since I stopped believing in god. It made me realize that there is no comfort in death when you don't believe in god. I am a humanist. That means, I believe that everything that happens comes from within people. That doesn't mean I'm not spiritual or a good person. It just means that I don't believe in an "outside" or "higher" power. It also means that I have no idea what happens when we die. I have my theories but they tend to change with the alignment of the planets or the colour of my underwear. I don't believe that life necessarily ends with death, just the life that we presently know.

Not believing in god does not mean that I don't see the benefit of believing in god. My mother is dying of cancer. She believes in god. In fact, she makes pilgrimages to Midland to pray and to receive prayer cards. She takes a lot of comfort from those trips. She even gains strength from them when she's not feeling very well.

It would be nice if I could be secure in the knowledge that my mom would be going to a wonderful place filled with angels; where she would meet up with her family that had passed before her.

That made me think of all the gods that have been created in the past. Various gods were used to explain things such as why the crops failed or why someone did or did not become pregnant, etc. A god was a convenient explanation. Then someone decided that it was too hard to keep track of all the various gods, so one omnipotent being was created to explain things and to keep society in line. Oversimplified, but it makes my point.

Oh yes, god is the ultimate "Boogey Man".

"Children, don't do bad things or god won't let you go to heaven."

"Parents, make sure your children are baptized in our church or they won't go to heaven."

"Society, follow the rules or you won't go to heaven."

In fact, not only won't you get to heavan....you will go to {{{{gulp}}}} HELL.

Unfortunately, some of the "rules" of god were used to keep money coming into the church rather than to keep people in line -- but that's another rant.

Blood Blank

I work in the legal department of a child welfare agency and yesterday we were confronted with the problem of a family who would not allow a blood transfusion for their baby because it went against their religion.

My problem with the whole thing is our government tells us that we have the right to practice our religion but then they put into place a system that allows someone to intervene in the event they don't agree with a tenet of that religion.

But then The Perfect Man pointed out that there is no problem with anyone practicing their religion and living by their beliefs so long as those beliefs do not impact the life or well-being of anyone else.

I guess.

An innocent baby is not able to make an informed decision.

The decision being made for that baby by the parents would condemn that baby to death, but his or her immortal soul would have a chance on the "other side".

The decision being made for that baby by "us" would condemn the immortal soul of that baby, but would allow the baby to live this life.

I don't believe in god, heaven or religion of any sort. But I do believe in allowing others to believe in what they believe in.

But then, I also cannot sit idly by and see a child die needlessly.

Grrrrr! I hate seeing both sides.

The Rapture

I attended catholic school. One thing catholic "leaders" love to do is scare the bejesus out of you in an attempt to get you to blindly follow their teachings.

One torture practice they used was a film all about the rapture. The rapture is supposedly a day that god [he is the kingdom, the power and the glory] will raise all good christians to heaven, body and soul. Only evil people and non-christians will be left on earth. The film also said that you had to ask the lord [praise be his name] specifically to come into your heart, or he'd leave you behind. Needless to say, the film depicted an earth full of fire, violence, and general mayhem that would have scared any naive ten year old, and I was certainly no exception. I must admit, I spent a few sleepless nights over that one. I must have asked the lord [may he always be with you] into my heart every night and morning for a month solid.

I did finally get over the trauma of the film. I thought maybe I did deserve to go to heaven and of course I wouldn't be left behind. That is until one day I came home from school and no one was home.

No one was home! No one. Not mom. Not dad. N-O O-N-E!

That had never, ever happened. My mom was always home. If she wasn't home, there was someone there in her place. The door was unlocked. Mom had her knitting stuff sitting by the chair where she usually sat. Dinner preparations had been started.....

HOLY FUCK! THE RAPTURE!

Yup. That miserable, selfish, all-hateful creator had come to my very own home and had taken my family to heaven, body and soul, and had left me behind to fend for myself with all the nasty non-christians. I was devastated. Too devastated to cry even. I just stood in the middle of the living room, probably with my mouth gaping open.

Then I heard a car outside the window. I ran and I cautiously lifted the bottom corner of the curtain and peeked out in case it was a heathen coming to do terrible, unspeakable things to me.

Oh glory be. It was our car and my mother was driving it. I ran to the door and greet her. She apologized over and over again. She had run to the store to get something she needed to finish dinner and thought she would beat me home. I didn't care. I was just so relieved that the rapture hadn't happened.

Two interesting things about that incident:

1. I was so brain-washed at that time that I actually went to bed that night and said a prayer of thanks that the rapture hadn't happened without me and then I asked the lord [he is my saviour] into my heart.
2. It never even crossed my mind that the rapture may have still happened but my mom had been left behind too.