Not-So-Intelligent Design

I’m always a few weeks behind reading The New Yorker. But it’s always worth the wait. There’s a great article from the May 16 issue, A Hard Faith by Peter J. Boyer. It’s a good piece which explores the direction of the Catholic church in today’s world. But this quote from Archbishop Charles Chaput sums up for me the problem with religion:

While theological inquiry is a valued Catholic tradition, there is not likely to be much dissent on Chaput’s campus. "This is a seminary where people love the Church, and they love Jesus Christ," the Archbishop says. "And dissent is not part of that kind of love here. I think there’s real serious theological reflection, and we study all the issues of the time. But we don’t see them as being equal opinions. The opinion of the Church is the opinion. The others, it’s just important to know them so that you know what the Church’s challenges are."

Did you see what he did right there? The first part is about loving Jesus Christ. That part is fine with me. Then he takes it from loving Jesus Christ to blindly following whatever the MEN (i.e. – not Jesus Christ) who run the Church say. Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.

I beg of you, you religious types. Ask questions. Make your relationship with God be a personal one. You don’t need these Church middlemen mucking it up for you. They’re too busy deciding whether or not to let people eat meat on Fridays or drive a car on Saturdays to help you spiritually, and in any case, do you really think God cares about this minutia? He created the fucking universe for Christ’s sake! And really, if he didn’t want you to masturbate, wouldn’t he have made your arms shorter?

Think about it...