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~ A random repository of how-to-write and geekery, with an occasional snippet of accidental wisdom.

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Tag Archives: catholocism

Why I Am A Hopeless Romantic (and other ramblings)

22 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

beliefs, catholic culture, catholocism, rambling musings, religion, roman catholic

This one goes out to Erin of Laughing at Live Dragons and Proverbs31teen at World of the Writer. You two are awesome.

No, I don’t sit at the top of my tower warbling “Someday my prince will come!” But I do believe in marriage, and, for me, divorce will never be an option. When love fails, faithfulness will keep me from straying until I realize at last that love was never lost, it was just hidden.

To me, love is not just the name of an emotion. It is also the name of an action. It is when the night is darkest that the stars shine the brightest; when things are hardest I will do my best to persevere and not forget. Vows are sacred; I will keep them.

No, I don’t believe in the rapture. I do believe that every day is a shrine to the most high God, to be sweetened with the incense of prayer and filled with offerings of roses, no matter how harsh and sharp the thorns of sacrifice.

No, I don’t believe that churchgoing makes the Christian. I believe that what takes place in between services is equally important. Do you keep your mind on lofty things, or do you slip into the gray areas until you realize your mind is so numb that prayer is all but impossible and you must climb, struggling and falling often, back to the heights from which you so slowly slid?

In the end, I believe that Love will conquer, that Light will chase the darkness away, that God will claim His own children and bring them to their inheritance.

I believe that God came down and became truly human, at the same time retaining His divinity. He became human, and endured our sufferings, our little aches and pains, without complaint. The Son knew the perfection of suffering and pain; He was sick sometimes, weary at heart at others. He bowed His head to human authority. He bent His back beneath the scourge. He did not call on the legions of angels awaiting His command to help Him in His agony; He did not even use His own power to stop it. Instead, He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

I believe that Love died on a cross to save us, even though we did not deserve it, even though we can never deserve it.

In the end, I believe in forgiveness.

And that’s what makes me a hopeless, incurable romantic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgzXgo0K7Rg

(You don’t have to watch this if you don’t want to, but it’s well worth watching–yes, all the way to the end! šŸ˜‰ )

Richard Dawkins: Social Darwinist, Generation 2.0

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Uncategorized

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

anecdotes, catholic culture, catholocism, charles darwin, charles dickens, christianity, controversy, evolution, gnosticism, hypocrisy, inspirational, pro-life, religion, richard dawkins, roman catholic, social darwinism

To say that reading this article was a shock to me, would be the understatement of the decade. I could not believe what I was reading.

Social Darwinism, which all compassionate people hoped was dead, is alive and well, it would seem.

But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t know what sort of reading background is normal for my dear readers, but maybe you’re not all sure what Social Darwinism is.

Social Darwinism is the savagery that Hitler used for an excuse when he had millions of Jews, gypsies, vagrants, the mentally ill, all kinds of other innocent people, and anyone who tried to protect or hide them slaughtered in what he termed “The Final Solution,” but which history better remembers as the Holocaust.

Basically, Social Darwinism examines the theory of evolution, which states that natural selection will gradually winnow out those in a population who are unfit to live. In the wild, weak animals never last very long, and sick ones are the first to be picked off by predators. This results in the strongest animals surviving to reproduce. This is all well and good–in the wild.

However, Social Darwinism takes the idea that natural selection is a good thing to the extreme. Social Darwinism states that inferior human beings deserve to die as well. And, as dystopian novels are constantly reminding us, the human condition is such that no human being is inferior, and certainly that no human being is “worthless”!

From Social Darwinism springs the idea (much abjured especially by Charles Dickens in his work, specifically in A Christmas Carol) that we should not help the poor; that they are “unfit to live”, and we should just let them die. I don’t know about you, my fair readers, but this idea with its blatant disregard for human life and lack of belief in the value of all life horrifies me. After all, sometimes conditions are horribly unfair. They hit a man or woman when he or she is down, while seeming to reward those who cheat. For instance, even though my dad has every reason to be employed, we were forced to rely on our savings for a year while he was unemployed. (He’s a very competent computer security and risk management expert. He could have prevented one security breach at a company he worked for if the people in charge had actually listened to him. Forgive me for not giving better credentials, but Internet privacy and safety and all that.) Life has a way of knocking people down when they don’t deserve it. And people, contrary to all expectation, have a way of getting up again.

If you are all for Social Security and wellfare and that sort of thing, let me tell you… Apparently Richard Dawkins… isn’t?

Because it seems Richard Dawkins thinks that giving birth to a baby with Downs Syndrome or another mental health issue is “immoral.” According to him, we should abort all such pregnancies. (I find this especially frightening and horrifying, as such a belief was trademark of one of my–fortunately fictional–totalitarian governments which was depicted in Angels’ Reflections, and which, realistically speaking, would be a likely component of the totalitarian governments of the future. For more information about Angels’ Reflections, visit my Novels page.) From there, it’s just one step away from the concentration, and eventually death, camps.

To me, this is barbarism of the worst kind. To kill a child for merely having a genetic disorder is savagery, in my mind. Mr. Dawkins even called it “civilized.” Yes, if you want the worst of the Roman Empire. Yes, if you want to live in Sparta–which, by all accounts, was a very brutal city. One of the worst human “instincts”–the one of which we should be most ashamed–seems to be that at every level in history, we tend to slaughter our young.

In ancient times, in many cultures, including the ones now considered to be the root of most modern cultures, a baby that was perceived as “weak” was left exposed to the elements to die.

When Herod was afraid of being replaced on his throne, what did he do? The Slaughter of the Innocents.

Children killed in hospitals and death camps alike in Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

Gender-specific abortions, targeting (guess what?) mainly unborn baby girls.

And now, abortions targeting those children who are mentally ill or who have a genetic disorder that isn’t always nearly as debilitating as we are told.

Do we see a pattern here?

It seems Richard Dawkins has an interesting brand of “morality”. (Man, it’s hard not to make ad-hominem attacks when something this odious comes out… I’m trying. Possibly not succeeding. But trying.)

Let’s take this out even further, shall we?

Is there one person currently living on this earth who has never told a lie? Not even a little “white lie”? Not even a lie of omission?

Is there one person who has not been tempted to steal or embezzle at times?

Is there one person who has never been tempted to use violence, whether on others or himself or herself?

Wait, wait, wait. Those are all things that can leave you behind in the “grand” scheme of things. (Like, say, if you were registered in The Hunger Games.) Let’s talk in language Social Darwinists would understand.

Is there one human being in this world who has never made a bad business decision?

Is there one person who has never, ever made a mistake? (From a strictly amoral viewpoint.)

Is there one person who has not had to have their life saved in some way?

Also, how should we measure who deserves to live and who deserves to be aborted? Should we determine it by the righteousness of the individual? Righteous people don’t always do things that are for the amoral “good” of people in general. Should we reward those who put themselves ahead of others, or vice versa? Should we reward those who are physically strong, or those who are intellectual and intelligent? The two don’t always go together. There have been intellectuals with bad health, and strong people with bad health, and strong people who were also intellectual. (This is a big, glaring problem with moral relativism, FYI.) There are simply too many variables to measure.

And all this was before I saw his Twitter feed. (The link is at the bottom of the article I linked you to above.) Really, Mr. Dawkins? “Dislikes pretentious obscurantism”? (Well, I agree, Gnosticism was a gnarly heresy, but does it really justify hard-core materialism?) “Treats all religions with good-humored ridicule”? I’ve seen and heard some of your ridicule before, and in places it was anything but good-humored. And even if it was good-humored, it was violently–yes, I’m using that word–violently anti-religion. Dare I say, in places you were even as bitter towards religion as I am currently bitter and outraged at your inane Twitter logic.

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that, on some level or other, every human being alive today is unfit for survival. Every last person alive has known failure. I’m sure that at this point Mr. Dawkins would say, “We’re only talking about eliminating those least fit to live!” To which I would have to answer, “Who are we to say who deserves to live and die? We are mere grains of sand in a vast dune, mere moments in the ocean of time. To use the Christians’ imagery, we are mere dust. Who are we to say that one of our number deserves death when, perhaps on another level, we equally deserve death?”

We are mere dust, mere creation. But we were shaped by the hand of God, and thus though we are equal in guilt, we are also all equal in destiny. Autistic children have been known to be incredibly bright. Children who, all the doctors prophesied, would be no better than vegetables, have grown up and thrived. Inspiring stories can be found everywhere. I’m certain that our scientist friend would object that “The plural of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data’!” But truly, there would not be so many instances of excellence, found in the strangest of places, if there was not some “divine spark” to be found in all men, women, and children, making all men, women and children worthy to have at least their lives and dignity respected?

Shout me down for comparing Dawkins’ philosophy to Hitler’s. I’m just calling it like I see it. But I can not be silent when I hear about this horrid fiasco going on with our educated scientist friend.

Survival of the fittest is a horrible philosophy, Mr. Dawkins, when applied to the “real world” of humanity and politics. I hope you realize that soon.

Disclaimer: The author apologizes for any bruised toes caused by this article. She does not, however, apologize for presenting her views, though she admits to being a mere human idiot (despite having a high IQ and better grades than most of her classmates,) and thus parts of this post may be inaccurate or misrepresented. She would also like to point out that this is not, technically, any kind of personal attack, especially as the words “is going to hell” did not appear in conjunction with anyone’s name, in keeping with the general theme of nonjudgmental-ness, and she opposes the principles or philosophy proposed by the victim subject of this post. She would also like it if her readers were to research the origins of the theory of evolution and the history of Social Darwinism–if they dare. šŸ˜›

I’M STUCK IN THE DARK AGES AND PROUD OF IT! X-P Hey, that should be a badge… šŸ˜›

Thanks for reading, and may God Bless you, whether you believe in Him or not! šŸ˜€

A Big Thank You Goes Out To All My Supportive Readers!

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Tales of a Wandering Bard

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

catholocism, christianity, conservatives, controversy, humor, liberal, media bias, moral issues, politics, religion, roman catholic, support, thank you, things not permitted in "polite conversation", visibility

5 likes. 3 follows.

[Update: It is now up to 7 likes. Yay! ^_^]

And this from a blog that normally takes days to get more than one like to a post, let alone comments.

Dare I say, wow?

I really should not be so surprised by this, really. Every time I post on something that people are passionate about, such as religion, the Constitution, and moral and controversial issues, it’s always the same. The world is listening. Erin takes the world by storm. ;-P

The funny thing is, the media says that “no one agrees with the conservative viewpoint”!

What a sell-out! Maybe it’s only the conventional media that disagrees with the conservative viewpoint! šŸ˜›

But then, maybe it’s just based on visibility and who shows up where and we’re not seeing the whole picture and the people who disagree with me just don’t want to take the time to comment and tell me so and most conservatives, Catholics, other Christians, and amazing people who you talk to on your blog just like blogging anyway??? šŸ˜›

Maybe.

I don’t know.

The point is, every time I post on a controversial or tacit issue, one that’s not considered kosher in “polite conversation” (nyah! :-P), I am completely blown away by the response.

Thanks for caring, y’all. You keep me going. Thank you for supporting me in my feeble attempts to fight the good fight. Keep on praying for me, as I’m praying for you.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

I’m Alive!

26 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Tales of a Wandering Bard

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bbc sherlock, catholic culture, catholocism, christianity, complete epicness, homeschool culture, iris, march for life, march for life 2014, national shrine of the immaculate conception, notre dame indiana, sacred heart church, star wars

Hello, continuous readers and newcomers to my blog! No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. However, a different (and only slightly less astounding) thing has occurred: I only thought about Star Wars three times in the past week.

No, really. Really.

But, to catch you all up; I attended the March for Life in Washington, DC, and if you have not checked out their Twitterfest with the hashtag #whywemarch, then by all means, DO SO! Virtual cookies and bonus points (not to mention visits and likes on your blog!) to those who do so and then comment! I don’t have social media but all you people out there who do, get out and shout out! Here’s my first shoutout: To Erin of Laughing at Live Dragons! Unfortunately, I did not see her at the March this year, but IĀ did see the Santorums, the Duggars were there too! And then there was an entire spirit squad, no less!!!

It was cold, but fun. I made the stupid mistake of wearing dress shoes instead of boots. Iris was smarter. (But she always wears her boots anyway, so she don’t count. ;-P She wanted to wear her combat boots, but her mom wouldn’t let her. :’-( )

We went to the March with seven boys and three girls from another Latin Mass parish, and (including us) seven girls and three boys from our parish. Add in three deacons and an Italian priest and you have unbelievably awesome chaos!!! We rode in three vehicles: The Deacon Buggy, Eagle One (the girls’ van), and Donkey Zero (the boys’ transport.) Note from Sgt. Sprite: The boys’ van was aptly named. Lots of them were donkeys. And they all had crushes on Elsa, of Frozen fame. *shudders* I was tortured for all the trip by songs from Frozen and merciless teasing about not having seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame or The Little Mermaid. (By no means am I normal. Huff. I still question how people could take thirty minutes just to decide to freaking go to bed! Taking twenty minutes to decide what to order at a restaurant, on the other hand…) It took us two very full days and about three more hours to get there; it snowed on Monday night, so we wound up going an extra few hours to get to Richmond, where we were staying. We rode a charter bus into D.C. and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for an hour, not nearly enough time, in my opinion. Iris bought two post cards, and I tucked them in my purse. I lost them that afternoon. :’-( She’s mad at me for “apologizing too much” and “having tardiphobia.” (That’s the fear of being late, for those who were wondering.) We lost her hunter-orange stocking cap at the Smithsonian; if anyone has visited the Smithsonian recently and found a hand-knitted neon orange hat somewhere, yep, that belongs to Iris. You’re welcome to whatever bugs and/or dandruff are left on it. (Just kidding! :-P) I am officially tired of Subway and all cheap pizza. And the second shout-out goes to the housekeeper for the FSSP priests of St. Joseph’s in Richmond. That was the most delicious beef stew EVER!!!! šŸ˜€

On Thursday, we visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The artwork (especially the murals) was incredible. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to touch the murals/statues/other artwork, and I am a very tactile person. *sob* Then we visited the Holocaust Museum. It was much more intense than I had expected, and I had a hissy fit at one of the boys who was joking around right after we had to rush through the last exhibit due to time concerns. This is one of my favorite all time quotes; I have to thank my history teacher for introducing me to it, even though I can’t remember who to attribute it to. The reason why we need a Holocaust Museum in the United States, which did not take part in the horror, is:

The recuperative power of innocence in a liberal society

Which basically means that the reason why we need the memorial is because otherwise, due to our own complacent stupidity, we’ll forget, because our society is a free society (aka, “liberal.” This has nothing to do with Republican vs. Democrat. It just means free.) That’s my deep thought for the day.

We went to the house of a lady who had offered to let us use her house to shower up for showers and while we waited in line, someone turned on the TV. They started watching Duck Dynasty (which I had never seen before, or even heard of) and I said, “Bored!” (Sherlock quotes for the win!) and worked on my knitting instead. (Don’t judge. I really was bored. But the endings were sweet…) Anyway, I got ten merit points for being bored with the show. Teehee. I took a very cold shower.

After sightseeing, we ate out at the China Buffet (I don’t remember where it was. Yummy food, though. Almost as good as the beef stew!), where we got merit points for trying new things. I tried sushi. The stuff which was made with fake crab wasn’t that bad, but the salmon stuff just tasted odd. I didn’t have a gag reflex problem, though. And I also tried oysters. MMMM! We tried to talk our Youth Group coordinator to try calamari (read: adorable baby octopus, heehee), and she almost did, but she had all this drama with bringing it to her mouth, and when she finally popped it in it shot out again! Like a bullet. Like the sound of Father’s former ringtone. (Which was a machine gun and bombs before he changed it to some demented music from Psycho.) And I have the photos to prove it.

When we headed back out for Omaha, Iris and I (who had sat in the VERY BACK of the van before) switched out our seat assignments and rode towards the front. We played lots of games and had a sing-off (which was FUN! :-D) Iris proved to be the champion of a game which has the point of making “it” laugh, and she was “it” and only laughed THREE TIMES among the many games we played. I replied “Get Sherlock” at one point and had to say that to everything. It got me farther than before, but I still cracked up. People teased me about Moriarty wanting to marry me, and I said “No way! I’m probably way taller than he is!” (I’m taller than Ewan McGregor, for crying out loud!!! Why are most British actors so short???!)

We stopped in Notre Dame, IN and visited the Church of the Sacred Heart. More subdued than the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, but just as beautiful. The ceiling murals were the best part, and their high altar was amazing.

We stayed in the most iffy motel I’ve ever seen on the way back. Breakfast was blah and the shower had poor pressure. One of our room doors was 1) frozen shut, and 2) had a broken handle. Another one smelled like smoke, so we switched on that one. Who wants to smell tobacco all night? Eugh. But at least we could lock our doors, and there was no balcony door to become loose and begin to break away from the wall. (That was at the second hotel we stayed at, fyi. Since there was a connecting door that led to one of the boys’ rooms, the girls in that room traded assignments with the other guys. Also, that was the same time I had my first temper tantrum. Everyone forgot ENTIRELY about my brother!!! He had stayed in his room to go to the bathroom and he had NO IDEA where we were meeting! I wound up crying, but that was partly low blood sugar and sleep deprivation… I’m still embarrassed about it though. Though I think I WAS JUSTIFIED!!!)

Anyway, we arrived safely back home at 9:10 p.m. central time. The St. Francis youth group still had an hour and a half to go, though… I feel sorry for them.

We did get in some good prayer time and soul food, though. We went to Mass every day, Confessions on Thursday, and had a full Rosary (three sets of mysteries!) a day.

All in all, it was a good trip, and my first big adventure since 2008. Hope you’ll forgive me for dropping off the ether, and also hoping that you’ve enjoyed my story! Thanks for reading, as always, and may God Bless you! Have a better than awesome day!

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