Misplaced MINDS

Two new SAINTS were added today. Wow! Big day for so many people in this crazy world!

The news covering the event sparked a surprising comment from my sweet wife who grew up Catholic but has been essentially irreligious most of her life. She was openly critical of the goings-on in Rome, asking me, "What gives the Pope the right to judge some former popes of deserving the rank of 'Saint'?" Naturally my retort had to do with exactly that term - RANK!

I had to explain again how foolish the whole system of the Catholic church has always been, but that within that foolish belief system, the sitting Pope, with his team of cardinals (and whatever extended church governmental advisors he taps) has the perfect right to make that delineation. And can do it for anyone he chooses. After all, the whole business is simply that - a business set in the mental concrete of a madness accepted and solidified through the ages. If I thought millions of people were going to see my words here and if I cared what they thought of me personally, I would need to avoid saying how abjectly foolish the whole concept is. Not too many years back, I would also be putting myself in danger of some vindictive action on the part of fanatical believers of any ilk. And please understand again, they are ALL THE SAME, in my estimation. "They" meaning all believers in any supreme being of any name or slant. None of it makes sense or has proven to be good for humanity.

My wife's point was that if someone actually dies and deserves to be called a "saint" then it should be "God" who makes the call. Trying not to laugh, I had to point out the obvious - that none of the whole concept of belief in a supreme being has anything to do really with what a supreme being directs. It is ALL simply what human beings, fearful of the unknown, conceived and foisted upon other ignorant humans.

The same power of the Pope over sainthood even extends to millennia gone by! At some point around forty years ago, the sitting Pope apparently decided that old St Chris really wasn't all he had been cracked up to be. He got demoted, even after all the centuries of "hearing the prayers" of travelers. I Googled St Christopher to check my minimal knowledge of the matter and got into reading some of the website that is proudly educating the public about all things Catholic. Their sub-head is "Inform - Inspire - Ignite." Well, a brief reading of that home page did ignite some laughter for me. Those very pompous folks who made the decision to demote old Chris, along with Ursula and apparently many other traditional saints, made the call because the basis of the early proclamations of sainthood had been in "legend" and in "Pagan mythology!" Hey, you there, with the power of almost infinite information available here on the Web, read ANY of the information relating to the foundations of religious belief itself. It is ALL based in legend and "Pagan mythology." That's all there is, folks!!

So good luck, Catholics. Now you have a couple more saints who apparently are ready and waiting to hear your prayers. In my view, if a human wants to get on his or her knees and suffer the degradation of actually praying, it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference what name of god or saint is called upon. Why not try Tinkerbell!