At least, today was the 2nd half. TL's cousin. Shot in the head. 21 years old. Driver, someone leaned in and shot both him and his brother. Wrong place, wrong time.

The priest said that as all Catholics know, they get to experience him each time they have communion. That's right, not only is he the gateway to heaven, if you want some solace concerning your dead kids, you come on down and get communion.

First he tells them that if someone says they'll get over it, smack them in the head because you won't. It'll suck, it'll suck bad, it'll suck forever, you'll never get over it, the pain will be with you forever, it'll be a horrible dark hole.

But that's OK.

Because he's with Christ now, and if you want to experience him, just be with Christ too.

You'll feel great. Of course, if you don't get communion (ie: follow the rules, dammit), not only are you going to hell, you will lose you contact with your newly dead beloved child right now.

So get in line, dammit. No questions allowed.

And you wonder why I say: Whatta bunch of f'ing morons to accept this level of control over their lives, for a promise based on a politically constructed bible, hundreds of years after JCs death? Then turned into a death machine over the centuries.

Whenever a priest repeats a lie in church, like "Forgive them father for they know not what they do" or "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.", I shake my head, and wonder, what lie will be told next to rile them up and get them into war mode?

Multiple conflicting stories written by different people with different goals. The incredibly wondrous stuff was made up by Peter. He had a church to start, dammit.

You know who I trust on this stuff? Bible scholars at major universities who started really religious, learned the core languages, reviewed the original material, and got so depressed they became suicidal since they realize their entire life purpose was based on bullshit. And then write books about it and are interviewed on NPR.

Anyone else with a personal story about how wonderful the church could be, and is, if just we'd let it do the right things, and if we didn't have an evil pope it would be much better. Like when we had John. FU. John didn't deal with the pedophiles, and he let the guys in Mexico run wild because they had a good funding base. It is a corrupt organization, and unfixable. It is based on a lie, and then used by a variety of people for their own purposes, most of them bad.

On the other hand, it was a funeral. That meant I was prepared to kneel down next to a coffin if that is what the occasion demanded. Funerals are for the survivors, and if that moment their "true belief" gave them a bit of comfort, who the fuck was I to cause them any pain at all. Including the slightest moment of wondering "does that guy belong".

Didn't have to though. Good.

Hey, anyone out there religious? You are a true believer? Good for you. Now go smoke some DMT, get the same chemical mix you get during those rapturous moments, feel close to your god of choice, and get over the fact it's an f'ing chemical mix that hits your brain and make you FEEL god.

And get over it!

Heard an interesting conversation. My somewhat Catholic niece was talking about her home schooled daughter. The only other home schooled kids in the area are some other Christan religion. She was trying to setup a play group, and the other mom was 100% church focused.

Kid: Will I get to play with the other kids?
Mom: I dunno honey, they are different. They believe different things.
Kid: Like what?
Mom: (Outline the various Catholic, personal, etc VS other beliefs.)
Kid: (momentarily stunned), well, do they at least believe in Christ?
Mom: Oh YEAH!
Kid: Then they're ok. We just don't have to talk about the things we disagree on.


My viewpoint in a nutshell. No matter how different the warring Christian sects are, no matter how much they are at each other's throats, if they ever feel threatened, they can always band together against the outsiders.

Like me. And her grandfather.

I wonder what happens when she realizes her grandfather is going to hell?

You depend on an external influence that is way out of your control, wants to control your life in great detail, and when you want to stop, they have their hooks into your whole family.

DMT == 15 minutes of the god of your choice, and a deep acceptance of the depth of feeling crazy religious people have. You just know WHY now.