I need to finish what I have been saying about my recent excursions into Roman Catholicism, but before I do I want to say something about my version of anarchism, which I associate with my version of Christian Anarchism. Browsing the Christian Anarchism websites I am not very impressed with many posters there, they appear to be more oriented to political anarchism rather than Christianity. My anarchism is very individualistic, I have considerable leanings towards Max Stirner and his book "The Ego and Its Own", but there is, I think, far too much support in his writings for an extremism to which I cannot adhere. During my life I have been a near total hedonist for which I now regret having become a Christian. It appears the enjoyment of my own life, which however affected no-one adversely, made me quite an agreeable person to be with, but my whole demeanor was oriented towards my own pleasure and I cannot remember giving deliberately directed activity, with some discomfort for myself, towards other people to give them pleasure. However, I quote the following, which makes me more comfortable.
"There is nothing un-anarchistic about any of these (the anarchist systems) until the element of compulsion enters and obliges unwilling persons to remain in a community whose economic (and social?) arrangements they do not agree to. (When I say 'do not agree to' I do not mean that they have a mere distaste for...I mean serious differences which in their opinion threaten their essential liberties...). Therefore I say that each group of persons acting socially in freedom may choose any of the proposed systems, and be just as thorough-going anarchists as those who select another." (Voltairine de Cleyre).
OK, that's a bit about me, in my own blog. "The Ego and Its Own", we love talking about ourselves. If we are mildly depressed it is clinically called talk therapy.
I cannot accept the incorruptibility of the bodies of saints, it is part of the mystique of the institutional denomination we know as Roman Catholicism. The hierarchy of the Church perpetuates the myth to engage the faith of ordinary ignorant people (I use the word ignorant, not in a pejorative way, but merely to indicate lack of knowledge, which we all suffer from in some fields) and thereby hold onto their wealth and power. Jesus may well have raised Lazarus from the dead, and we can believe that because we know He is God, but the rest of us do not have that power. We can believe that the bodies of saints are incorruptible, but common sense and science, both gifts from God, tells us that this is a complete fraud. The bodies are constantly given worldly attention and treatment to avoid the natural processes of decay becoming visible to worshippers. The only way to reject this sort of deception is to reject the institutional, denominational Churches and get back to God, through Jesus.
"There is nothing un-anarchistic about any of these (the anarchist systems) until the element of compulsion enters and obliges unwilling persons to remain in a community whose economic (and social?) arrangements they do not agree to. (When I say 'do not agree to' I do not mean that they have a mere distaste for...I mean serious differences which in their opinion threaten their essential liberties...). Therefore I say that each group of persons acting socially in freedom may choose any of the proposed systems, and be just as thorough-going anarchists as those who select another." (Voltairine de Cleyre).
OK, that's a bit about me, in my own blog. "The Ego and Its Own", we love talking about ourselves. If we are mildly depressed it is clinically called talk therapy.
I cannot accept the incorruptibility of the bodies of saints, it is part of the mystique of the institutional denomination we know as Roman Catholicism. The hierarchy of the Church perpetuates the myth to engage the faith of ordinary ignorant people (I use the word ignorant, not in a pejorative way, but merely to indicate lack of knowledge, which we all suffer from in some fields) and thereby hold onto their wealth and power. Jesus may well have raised Lazarus from the dead, and we can believe that because we know He is God, but the rest of us do not have that power. We can believe that the bodies of saints are incorruptible, but common sense and science, both gifts from God, tells us that this is a complete fraud. The bodies are constantly given worldly attention and treatment to avoid the natural processes of decay becoming visible to worshippers. The only way to reject this sort of deception is to reject the institutional, denominational Churches and get back to God, through Jesus.
