Re: CHAT: Religions (was: Visible planets)

--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

> It's what I sometimes feel
> about 'briefscript'/BrSc - I'm trying to find a
> compromise,
> reconciling two party conflicting aims.
Hm. Is there a precis of what BrSc is somewhere
on line? I know you're brought it very much out
in public recently, but I haven't paid too much
attention. :(

> Maybe JRRT was
> having a similar problem with his Catholicism &
> his attempt
> to produce a sort English epic on the lines of
> the Finnish Kalavala.
Could be. Has his son made any mention of this in
his own books? [Now there's something else I
haven't paid much attention to! I think I stopped
looking for all those extra books after about
volume iii, after which not many book shops stock
them.]

> > If it meshed that strongly, you'd
> > find Silmarilion in the theology or cosmology
> > sections of Catholic books stores and
> > libraries;
> > and I'd expect it to be taught as an
> > expression of Catholic theology.
>
> No, no - I don't think for one moment JRRT
> would've wanted that.
I agree! I'm not saying he'd want it, only that
if what he wrote were Catholic theology, we might
expect to find it in such places.

> It was his sub-creation, his work
> of
> fiction.  I'm sure he'd expect his books to be
> quite
> firmly in the fiction section of any library,
> whether Catholic or not.
Or perhaps in the mythology section...

> > You might even hear it
> > proclaimed at Mass. For all its beauty and
> > all its echos, I have experienced neither.
>
> And JRRT certainly wouldn't have wanted that -
Certainly not.

> he
> didn't even like the dropping of Latin in favor
> of the vernacular.
I didn't either, until a couple months back I
went to a Tridentine Mass with choir in Latin.
Honestly, I've never been so bored in church. I
suppose a singular experience is not sufficient
to make a judgement, but all the "horror stories"
I'd heard about the thing were revealed ad
nauseam. When I could hear the priest say
anything at all, he mumbled; we never got to say
a peep, because the choir sang everything. The
priest had no sense of cadence or rhythm. On the
positive side, I very much liked the concept of
the altar rail; and am not adverse to the priest
numbering himself amongst the worshippers by
facing East. The monotone of a spoken vernacular
Mass is marginally better than hackneyed Latin.
:/

All that in contast to the Eastern Liturgies,
where everything was sung by everyone and the
priest and lectors have a great sense of rhythm
and tone in chanted English. While I don't hold
with iconostases, there were other pleasing
decorations to make up for it.

> [ME:}
> >> Are you serious about the 1st? I know
> >> 'Merkan Fundamentalist are
> >> very 'fundamental' by UK standards - but you
> >> mean that some still
> >> hold to the geocentric theory, like the good
> >> ol' "Flat Earth Society"?
> >
> [Padraic]
> > They are quite active, especially in trying
> > to
> > get this sort of stuff taught in schools as
> > science. Same goes for a literal six day
> > creation, a young Earth, a worldwide flood,
> > and so forth.
>
> Good grief!  Glad I live this side of the Pond.
As someone else pointed out, not all such
fundamentalists are Flat Earthers! I didn't
intend to make it sound like the flat Earth
notion was part and parcel of Creationism and
similar currents!

Would you mind if we export some of this? I mean,
you lot have taken so well so McDonald's and so
forth! And we have so much of it to go around. ;)

> It this wasn't going on in the most powerful
> nation in the world, it would be quite risible.
Quite. It is a serious problem indeed. It's one
thing to believe something in a religious or
spiritual way; but it really is another to try
and get it taught as science or history in a
school system that is failing us as badly as it
does!

Padraic.


=====
la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.


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