Pope John Paul II and the functionalist definition of religion

Yesterday after Mass I spent a while talking to the piano player. He just graduated from high school (Marist) and he's heading off to school this week at Wheaton College in Illinois. For anyone who doesn't know, that's a private Christian college, and he's majoring in Biblical and Theological studies.

One of the ongoing discussions we've had is about some statements made about Islam by the late Pope John Paul II. The Pope gave speeches that emphasized the similarities between Christianity and Islam, that Christians and Muslims alike worship the same God, the God of Abraham, and so on. Brantly's concern with this is that the Pope asserted that the plan of salvation includes those who worship the same God. Based purely on Christian theology, the only way to achieve salvation is through faith that Jesus Christ repaid the debt of sin through his death on the cross. This, of course, leaves anyone out who does not believe in Christ.

The discussion left me thinking about what choices we make in terms of what ethos to follow. Everyone chooses, regardless of whether you choose a particular religion, choose parts of religions and put them together for yourself, or choose not to follow a particular religion. What are the benefits? For someone who chooses religion, it's usually from a desire to be part of something more important than yourself, or perhaps it's based on the theorem from Descartes, I think it was, that if you don't believe and you're wrong, too bad for you, but if you do believe, then you're set either way. Of course, now you have to choose which religion is right, not merely whether to believe in a religion, and then you're faced with the daunting prospect of choosing which version of your chosen faith to which you desire to ascribe.

I don't remember who coined the term "functional definition of religion" but it was probably one of those behavioralist anthropologists. Religion performs many useful functions within society, from providing personal comfort and stability in one's own life, to inspiring people to do good works for other people, such as church-based or church-sponsored charity organizations. That's part of the reason I like the Catholic Church so much - there is a clear commitment to helping others, something I think is missing from many other parts of life based on selfish ambitions and desires.

Perhaps the most important issue is not that one believes one is right, because after all, if you're going to do something, it's generally because you think you're right to do so. Perhaps the more important thing is to follow in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II and emphasize those similarities and ties that we share. Perhaps then, with a lot of work to improve the infrastructure in poor Muslim countries, there will be fewer young people growing up with a virulent hatred of all things American, Christian, or Jewish.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Globetrekkers is such an awesome show. Tonight, Megan McCormick is in the Arab Gulf states of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Some of the mosques and natural monuments are simply spectacular. I was interested in looking into Dubai before, but after seeing this show, I'm quite a bit more interested. The region is beautiful and quite modern, and I bet there's a lot of demand for English.

After teaching in Austria, I'll have enough experience to go somewhere else and teach. That would be a great way to travel while getting paid to do so, which is my goal in life. Essentially, if someone is willing to pay my expenses, I'm willing to go and check it out. In some cases, such as my experience with Myanmar, it is a mixed blessing. But I'm glad I went.

Side note - I just typed in Dubai job teaching into Google and there are quite a number of sites that popped up. Who knows? Maybe I'll go from Austria to Dubai. Maybe Takijistan after this. :)

38 days and counting...

I have roommates! Whee! I've been searching for the past three months for places to live in Vienna or the surrounding area and having been batting zero. Today, that changed when someone from Georgetown read my craigslist ad for roommates wanted. The new apartment will be more than three times larger than my current apartment, and since the current apartment is approximately the size of a shoebox, that should be pretty awesome.

I'm finding that I'm enjoying this part of the packing process more than the past few weeks (yes, I'm packing very slowly, it's better than waiting until the last minute like I usually do). Right now, I'm in the pack big boxes full of stuff to take to donate to charity. It's quite nice to just watch all that stuff going away. Too much stuff turns you into one of the hoarding people who can't let go of the shirt they bought last year because they might get around to mending those busted off buttons. Well, I'm fully aware that I'm much too lazy to do something like that, so into the bin it goes! It's rather a gleeful process.

38 days until I leave. It's easier to count by months and weeks right now - it seems shorter. A month and a week until I board a plane to Austria! And to help pass the time: a cruise to Alaska with my mom during September. I'm so totally looking forward to this next year. It's going to be so awesome that nothing could possibly top it. And I think that I deserve it after this last year. Course, I also think I deserve a million bucks. :)

Evil cult girl meets the douchebag lotion bombers

So... anyone see anything on the news other than the terrorist threat today? The News Hour with Jim Lehrer spent an entire hour covering the event, it's repercussions, possible fallout, and any other possible angle from which to examine this newest attempt at mass murder in the name of religion.

Tonight on CSI's rerun, Grissom and the gang investigated the mass murder of a cult group who believed that they had to leave behind their physical shells to be united in utter peace and harmony with some aliens in the sky. I suppose things are screwed up enough for some people to want to buy into something like that, but I'm not that desperate yet.

Quote: Evil cult girl who watched the rest of the group die: "Don't you think there's someone out there?"
Grissom: "If there is someone, or something, out there, they probably have the sense to stay away from us."

You go, Grissom.

On a lighter note, I'm going to enjoy not being able to bring aboard anything at all except my ID, money, cards, and maybe a book if I'm lucky on my EXTREMELY long flight to Europe, which is currently at Code Red Alert. Or whatever they call it. Hopefully, no more douchebags with lotion bombs turn up in the near future, otherwise SeaTac will go from an absolutely detestable airport to one where the passengers end up killing each other out of frustration at the security measures and not due to any desire to rid the world of infidels.

Musings on Matrimony

Weddings are interesting. I say interesting in a sort of ambivalent way because I'm not entirely sure where I stand regarding weddings. On the one hand, they hold out the possibility of true love and happiness, endless promise for the future. On the other hand, with the divorce rate at about fifty percent (didn't someone once say that most statistics are made up on the spot? but I do think that it's somewhere around 50%) marriage seems to be a little antiquated at best, and a complete and total farce at worst.

When entering into holy matrimony, how does one set the tone for one's future life together? I see news reports or shows where couples are married sky diving, or perhaps snorkeling, or any number of activities that are fun and exciting. Or, a couple could choose to go to Vegas and be married by an Elvis impersonator or in the CSI mode, a fake alien. Some people go to great lengths to make their wedding absolutely perfect: perfect dress, perfect venue, perfect food, perfect music, perfect flowers - all at a price guaranteed to make the bride's parents weep. Yesterday I was informed by the person I went to this wedding with that her fiance's sister spent $20,000 on her wedding (and by spent money, I mean her parents) and then got divorced one year later.

The wedding I attended yesterday was short and sweet. The bride looked lovely, the groom looked very much in love with his wife, and there was no puking among the flower girls. All in all, the ceremony went off without a hitch. At the reception, there were two kegs, spiked punch and a hot buffet, which was incidentally quite tasty. The wedding was overall cute and sweet, but also a tad cheesy and tacky, which reflected the bride's interests and personality quite well. I know nothing of the groom except that he spent two terms in Iraq. 'Nuff said.

In an age of high divorce rates and a lack of respect for tradition of any kind, is marriage antiquated? What makes people so certain that getting married is the right thing for them to do? I read once that because marriage represents hope for the future and the permanent side of love, it's worth entering into. Still seems like a huge risk - and a HUGE expense - to me.

Sweet, blessed, gray drizzle....

I have been dreadfully remiss in keeping up on my blog, but it's not exactly my fault. The University of Oregon cuts off free internet sometime in mid-July for graduates, and thus I lost my portal to the outside world. Currently, I am stealing someone's wireless access. I'm not really sure whose, since it seems I am one of the few people still living in Westmoreland. The dumpster outside of my apartment is filled with drawers from the empty apartments. Looks like they're doing a complete rehab of the units here. It's about time...

Packing is ever and always a joy - the only benefit is that I can use this opportunity to get rid of stuff. Do you ever feel as though your possessions force you to take actions you'd otherwise never take? I've been agonizing over whether or not to sell my car because I would have to eat the loss of a couple hundred dollars. At this point, considering how much I owe the consolidation company that took over my student loans, a couple hundred dollars makes very little difference, so why am I stressing? I think I'm going to sell it, if only to save myself the frustration of attempting to make car payments and pay insurance from an Austrian bank.

Kudos to Chris and Becky for making it safely into California, especially for passing the smog emissions test! Personally, I can't wait to head north again. I helped my mom move from the armpit that is Hermiston back to where we grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula, and I almost choked up when I saw the gray clouds roll in and the rain started falling. God save me from climates where there's more than two months of sun in a year...

Austria is hot in the summer, but I won't be there. I'll be there for the temperate fall, the cold rainy winter, and I have no idea what spring is like, but I'm looking forward to finding out. :)