23/09/2002 - 6:27 p.m.

The bells call out to Mass

There was a guy standing outside the Union today. A big black guy dressed in a really awesome sort of coat -looked kind of like the pictures you see of Jesus- yelling about salvation. "Put your faith in Jesus! Don't put your salvation off!" (OK, I'll put it on my calendar: Tuesday next, My Salvation.) I didn't stick around to listen much longer because I had places to go, and the last guy that was around just ended up getting verbal abuse from the crowd. I may not agree with what he's saying, but I also don't think that swearing at him is the way to solve anything.

Problems with modern religion? Looking for someone to blame for the phenomenom of three religions with origins in the same cities? Blame Abraham. Uh-huh, one guy, three religions.

This really makes me think. If it's the same guy, shouldn't we all essentially believe the same thing? I realise that things change and people see different sides of things, but why should things be so drastically different that we get three religions out of it?

In the end then, it's not really about religion; it's about which group of people gets to claim ownership over the places of worship. Everything comes back to property. The US government was set up to protect private property, the Civil War was about whether people were property (Don't feed me that state's rights stuff, that came later. The South said it at the time: the Civil War was about slavery), the "correct" way to fight a battle is to obtain and hold land (same goes for war), the revolutions in France and Russia begun because the people had nothing and the aristocracy had everything, heck, the Sanskrit word for war is said to originally mean "desire for more cows", before the Babylonians had zero they just said things like "oh, yes, Amahdrahan, he's lacking in goats" to mean that the number of goats Amahadrahan had was zero.

I don't believe that the way to fix these property problems is for everyone to be "equal". It's like George Harrison said, "You have to be happy with the problems you have now when you have them." That's Hinduism for you.

I may not be religious, but I do like to have a way to live my life, and for that I can believe in religions. If you need one to know how to live your life, that's OK. That's grand. I don't think I do, but that's OK. However, I still don't understand the old man in the frock.

It occurs to me that of late I've had a lot to say about religion. I guess it's because I've been reading the Bible so much for Humanities.

Actually, if I could pick a 700 page book to read, I think I'd rather read Moby Dick. I've started it four times, but I never have the time to finish it. Requires getting involved in it. Some summer...