Maybe it's just me, but I find her remarks about the China earthquake being the result of 'bad karma' funny. (The earthquake itself was a terrible tragedy, mind you. I'm not trying to diminish the impact it created in millions of lives.)

While I personally don't claim* to be a follower of any religion, I do enjoy learning about them. (And there are quite a few.) One of my all time favorite classes in college was "The Philosophy of Religion." And The World's Religions by Huston Smith is one of the books we were required to read. And a book I still have and use.

With the Da Vinci Code movie out in theaters, it's time for me to give my thoughts concerning this whole 'controversy.' (For the record, I've not read the book nor seen the movie; my thoughts are more about the controversy itself.)

In the story, Dan Brown says that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen in direct opposition to Church teaching. Catholic leaders, then, began to denounce Brown and the book. Blasphemy, you see. Groups like Opus Dei, which is part of the stories conspiracy, and even Albinos (the antagonist is one) along with the Catholic Church (or certain members, I don't think the Vatican denounced it officially) wanted either boycotts of the movie or a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie saying that the story was fiction.

To Opus Dei: if you weren't such a secret society, then your group wouldn't have made sense in the book. To Albinos: one bad albino in a story doesn't make all albinos bad. To the Catholic Church: what are you afraid of?

So what is the Catholic Church afraid of? Simple. Questions.

Questions like: What if there's more to the gospel then we've been told?

Dr. Doron Nof, Professor of Physical Oceanography at Florida State University, has a theory that in the Biblical account of Jesus walking on water he didn't actually walk on liquid water, but rather frozen water. Yes, ice. He has a pdf about it.

While it's nice having someone give a scientific perspective on it, maybe, just maybe, we'll realize what the story really is. A story. A tale. Something made up to try to convince us of something that isn't real.

Whilst surfing the web today looking up Toaism and Buddhism, I came across the site, ExposingSatanism.org.

What I thougth was funny was the copyright disclaimer which prohibits non-christians from using their work unless approved by the webmaster/writer.

My Statement of (Non)Belief
(or, Why I Don’t Believe What I Don’t Believe)
I was recently asked by Zhoen to explain why I went from a Fundamentalist, Bible-thumpin’ Christian to a “non-believer.” The answer is simple, yet complex. I could simply say that one day “I started thinking,” but using that phrase would just annoy a lot of people. But basically, that’s what it comes down to. I started thinking about the Bible and religions and came to the conclusion that it was all wrong.