Lovely picture SoSick.

Anon, if you don't like what Tracy is saying, can you at least put a lid on it please. You are now starting to embarrass yourself with so much flaming. Tracy is going through a very rough time. Maybe you are too, I don't know. But live and let live.

Bex, I grew up as a Roman Catholic, which is why I feel I can say things about it, having lived 18 years as one and having wanted to be a nun when I was young. I think there are some great messages in the Bible and Jesus was a wonderful teacher. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a tenet that has guided my life. However it is important to acknowledge that there is a huge cultural and political slant to any religion. There are people in charge who decide how things are interpreted. There are social trends. How did all the Protestant groups start springing up hundreds of years ago, if everyone was content to follow what the Bible said, and how it was practised? Look at the huge variety of sects that arose and migrated to the New World because their ways were not tolerated by others supposedly of the same general faith.

Have a look at the rules in the Book of Numbers. When was the last time you obeyed God's orders to offer animal sacfrifice? What, you forgot to do that last week? (You can find lots of things like this in the Old Testament). People will overlook old societal rules like this, yet extract bits that they rather like such as homosexuality being an abomination.

And think of what the Catholic church tells people today. There is little theoligical basis in some of it. Top of the list, they tell people not to use contraception. My father's parents listened, and they ended up having 8 children in poverty, the youngest 2 of which were adopted by older members of the family before they were taken into care. Where is the sense in this? Why is it more "natural" not to use contraception? It's OK, then, for women to continually get pregnant even if it destroys their lives -- the world over? And women still are not allowed to be part of the hierarchy. Scripture apparently justifies this. Funny, then, how they are allowed to be minsters in other Christian faiths. There is definitely misogyny inherent in the Catholic church. I remember my parents making me go to church with them and I had to endure preaching about the evils of abortion. Sick of being told by them what to do, I wanted to walk out of there.

Another interesting thing is that my religious education was very cossetted. I learned plenty about my own religion, but everyone else's was a mystery. The message seemed to be that they were misguided anyway, and all I needed to know was the true path. This was OK until I was about 18 and growing a mind of my own. I discovered Joseph Campbell. I took some university courses in world religions. I exploded out of the box, started reading and learning. I am rather resentful that I never got the opportunity to learn about other people's world views when I was little, though I think I am making up for lost time now. Fortunately religious education is part of the school curriculum from an early age here. There is plenty about Christianity and Noah's ark, but there is also a large Asian population here, so the children learn about Diwali and Ramadan and Guru Nanak too.

If I could re-do my university education I'd probably study comparative religion and anthropology. I guess plain old English isn't too bad. I can still always keep reading and learning.

Linda.