Priorities-ish

[same_difference]

Today the Pope died. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic so I should care, but to be honest I'm just glad he died peacefully and didn't suffer, which is what I hope for everyone to be honest.

In fact I'm more annoyed that I game I was looking forward to isn't any good. The Bard's Tale comedy RPG turned out to be Dark Alliance with some humour, but not as much as you'd expect. Also they went too far with the items to money thing. You have no inventory so anything you pick up is turned to money, unless its better than your current equipment, in which case it is equipped and the old stuff if turned to money. Also no inventory means no healing items means no instant healing when you need it. It is voiced by Cary Elwes (male lead of Princess Bride) though, which does leave me kind of curious.

Bad game more disappointing than person death. Say's a lot about my, well, priorities I guess, can't think of the word I mean.

Comments

[elmyra.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was watching Shrek on telly, and it only had ten minutes to go when they stopped it to tell us that the old man had died. I'm entirely with you on that one. Then again, I was brought up half as an orthodox Christian and half as an atheist (the latter won eventually)...

I'm more concerned about the political implcations of this. I was quite happy with settlement of the pop being alive and unable to speak. Now they'll elect a new one and he'll try and meddle in politics again and tell people they're not allowed to use condoms so that they all get AIDS. Hmmm...

(Sorry, I'll shut up now.)

[prosepina.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this too, but to be honest right now I am not so worried - however that will change if the Church is suddenly given a greater role in world politics. If that happens I think you will be proven correct to say we should be worried.

Dom and I were brought up Catholic, but brought up to believe one essential truth, which was to treat other people as you would want to be treated yourself. I am not a practising Catholic, I don't even know if I could be described as Christian even these days, but that one rule always felt, and still does feel, like a positive thing. It certainly doesn't preclude the use of contraception, or outlaw homosexuality, or reduce the role of the female to nothing more than a subservient egg hatcher. What it does do, is demands personal responsibility for all your actions, and that's the main reason that I have come to distrust religion - for alot of people, religion is about having an excuse, a 'confessional get-out clause', a 'do as you are told shall be the whole of the law' doctrine.

When the Pope was alive, he always preached Catholic doctrine to the letter of the Catechismic law, he certainly wasn't soft on anything. In spite of this, I think we had come to think of the Pope as a somewhat benign figurehead - like the monarchy. He carried on in the way appropriate to his tradition, but it made no real impact on our first world well educated day-to-day lives. Theoretically his replacement should have just as little impact on us too.

What has been worrying me is the whole Opes Dei thing; this Catholicism within Catholicism and the sudden upsurgence in people professing to be part of it, not least of which our PM, some of his side kicks and of course, the proposed replacement to JP II. Maybe I have accidentally been suckered in and scared by the Davinci Code, but I feel deeply uncomfortable with what looks like 'the special Catholic club for the powerul right wingers'. Let's not forget now that the Nazis were anti drugs, anti alcohol, anti self abuse in any form. If they hadn't gone around butchering anyone that didn't fit the mould in such a blatantly psychopathic fashion, they would have been heralded as the last centuries Christian Holy War heroes. There's a scary thought!

What I think we need to do as a nation, is be aware of how much right wing doctrine is creeping into political decisions, and therefore our lives. I do not appreciate knowing that Ruth Kelly MP is a strict Catholic who already has a million kids in spite of being barely married, I don't like the fact that apparently under her influence, the PM has stepped up his own Catholic manifesto which threatens to make this country even less tolerant than it is clearly becoming. The Daily Mail readers are garnering support! For that we should be panicking. I am glad that we are being told the truth in these matters, but the question always has to be 'why'. What relevance? I don't feel entirely comfortable with France's secular approach to society, because I think it would be nicer if we could all share and celebrate our cultural differences, but in this era of rising religious hatred betwenn al kinds of peoples, and on our doorsteps at that, I am definitely beginning to see the advantages to banning them all.

[same-difference.livejournal.com]

It is worrying, I've always felt religion and politics shouldn't mix. I never trust any politician who openly refers to his religious belief (not that I particularly trust them anyway), but I am getting concerned by the growing trend of using their religions as a kind of unarguable justification for their actions. Something the current prime minister and GBJr has done on occasion.

On the issue of religions interfering in politics part of the problem is the need for religions in society isn't the same as it first was, but they don't seem to realise it. They were necessary in the early civilisations, and therefore gained a lot of power, but they have never wanted to let go of their power, or of the belief they hold a critical role in shaping the world. Yet where they do have a strong influence, like Catholicism in Africa, they to stick the rules that were written hundreds to thousands of years ago, instead of doing what will actually help. I've always felt that while the core principle of almost all religions (treat others as you want to be treated by them) is a good thing, the provisos they include with it cause too many problems.

I suppose that the kind of core of my personal beliefs really. I wouldn't say I'm a catholic, I think the phrase I came to was nondenominational christian, but to be honest I'm not sure I'm even that. What I've kept on believing in is a single God and that treating others as you want to be treated is the most important rule in life to live by. In fact I suspect that the only reason I believe in a single God specifically is that was how I was brought up, and it is a comfortable focus for my personal faith. In the end my beliefs were kind of defined while I was doing religious education in secondary school. I learned a lot about primarily the christian religion, and I found that while I agreed with the core behind the various religions out there (again the 'treat others as you want to be treated' principle), I had issues with all the, well, fine print is a best way I can describe it.

To cover the last point the only solution I can think of for the inter-ethnic hatred (short of banning all cultural and religious things) is a national identity. I was always felt it was the one thing the American's got right, not that it entirely works for the them, but it does make a difference if you give give everyone a feeling they belong. The lack of national identity seems to aggravate the ethnic divides and the anti-immigration feelings here, but it's not likely to change though. Did you know they can't even refer to the nation as a whole on TV when talking about the weather because its not politically correct? I always agree with Dad though, the people who migrate to this society, for whatever their reason, aren't integrated into our society properly, and that only enhances the kind of problems we have.

Anyway, we have a long time before we get a new pope. However it will be worth watching to see which of the cardinals are the likely candidates, and what their stand points are. It will also be worth seeing how the various political leaders act with regards to the final decision.

[prosepina.livejournal.com]

Some very interesting points well put.
I do agree with the value that national identity caqn provide, and always felt it rather sad that having an England or Union Jack flag has become synonymous with thugs, or that the importance of a countries flag should always be taken too far as with the Nazis, and perhaps also America at times. Work experiences of a couple of my friends tend to show that poorly integrated immigrants often end up living unnecessarily in abject poverty because they don't know what benefits they are entitled to, or how to access services. I tend to feel that migrant populations left too long this way is what breeds your Camberwell estates and the crime and misery that can bring.

I don't disagree that religion and politics have become frighteningly interlinked, but whilst the Pope was just a figurehead, then all that is dangerous is GBjnr, not Christianity. Where we will face danger is if the new Pope takes an aggressive stance and begins to align himself with country leaders such as Bush, Blair or the Australian right winger PM (whose name escapes me at present).

For an amusing and cynical take on how religion and politics can integrate and screw up, read the rather wonderful novel Boiling a Frog by Christopher Brookmyre. Better still read his whole series.