A true melange

I can only add my thanks to Stephen Colbert to that of so many others including lalcorn. Colbert said what we all would like to think we'd have the balls to say to the people in the best position to do something about reporters voluntarily choosing to be gagged. Lalcorn has a nice roundup of links, including a link to most of Colbert's speech.

On Monday, Miranda asked, "How probable is it that Jesus and Mary Magdalene where married? Is the Holy Grail a object or a person/family lineage? Would you rather live in a world without religion...or a world without science? How much weight should non-canonical text be given?"

My answers:

It's not very probable that Jesus was married, but it's interesting to speculate about the possibility.

The Holy Grail, to me, is "just a movie." It really holds no meaning at all to me, mostly because it tends to be attractive to Magical Thinkers, of which group I don't belong.

I'd personally rather live in a world without religion than one without science. Now, had the question been phrased "...a world without faith in God...," well then, my answer might be differerent.

The non-canonical texts should be read and studied, but there is a reason the Canon was chosen (by a committee of fallible humans). Sure, they may have goofed and excluded something that 'should' have been included, but short of finding out that the whole story of Jesus' life and ministry was a complete hoax, start to finish, I doubt there's anything in there that's going to shatter my faith in any but the most unimportant things.

Through link from RLP, I found a wonderful poet with a blog of her own.

I N N I N G S always has interesting things. Here are some of my favorites from the last few days:

Sounds of NYC, from sirens to subways
Why do I not feel sorry for this man?
Chrisopher Gilber is a very interesting photographer. I especially like the picture of the dog in the backseat.

Claire Joy over at Flavor of the Month has a wonderful ending to her post today about comparisons. Rather than massacre what she says by rephrasing, I'll just quote:

God does not compare us in judging us, if He even judges us at all. As every snowflake is unique, so is every single piece of creation. We are unique.

Perhaps the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not forbidden because God wanted to test our capacity for obedience. Perhaps it was forbidden because it was useless information that would only create a stumbling block to our growth with and in our Creator. There's no comparisons, no right way to do it, no perfect path to Wisdom.

This is the kind of insight, the kind of shifting perspective that I've been needing for months. So, thanks Claire.

And now, it's getting to be Cow-Dust Hour, so I'll sign off.