Religion - I am A?

[angus]

I'm Catholic.  My new wife is an Atheist.  Neither one of us is particularly devout or devoted though.  I haven't been to mass in over a decade and have no particular religious convictions, and she often prays and insists in a belief in God.  I suppose it's as difficult to be a good atheist as it is to be a good Catholic, and probably requires much more faith.  My sister keeps telling me we're both really agnostics, as we don't have sufficient faith in our native religious indoctrination to realistically call ourselves, respectively, Catholic and Atheist.  I disagree with my sister, who is a Catholic but refuses ever to call herself one.

[angus]

Shake is an agnostic too, I think.

Not frylock, though.  He's all Zoroastrian fire and brimstone!  Go Frylock!

Not sure about meatwad.  I think he's into whatever shake and frylock tell him.

[angus]

You remember when Dr. Whatley became a Jew just for the jokes and it made Jerry Seinfeld mad?  ("This offends you as a Jew?"  "No, it offends me as a comedian".)  Shake reminds me a little of George.  Like the way Boomhauer on KOTH reminds me of Kramer.  Who needs a life when you have a TV?!

[angus]

Meatwad's a muslim?!  

I haven't watched as much TV lately, I must admit.

Frylock doesn't seem like a turn the other cheeck, love your enemies kind of guy, so I'd be surprised if he wanted to join a Christian church.  He's all old-testament vengeance and wrath.  Meatwad, on the other hand, is agnus dei personified.  But then, as has been pointed out on this forum, Islam is the religion of Peace and of Submission, so maybe that's not such a stretch.  

Shake likes fashion, and all things fashionable, so I'm tempted to say he's a candidate for Richard Gere Buddhism.  But then Lisa Simpson showed us what confusion exists about the various atheistic religious traditions in this land of monotheism, so there's room for interpretation I suppose.  

I imagine Carl to be an agnostic as well.  

[angus]

Dr. Weird is a pre-Judaica monotheist too, like the Zoroastrians.  I assume everyone is a Zoroastrian unless they state otherwise.  The bane of Western cultural acclimation, I suppose.  Ah, well.  I'd probably think he was from an atheistic (ancestor worship and such) or polytheistic (pre-Captain Cook pacific islander) if I weren't white.  That just goes to show you what good writing those folks at Adult Swim are up to.  Or what good drugs are available near my home.  Either way, I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Drippy yet.

[angus]

I'm Catholic, but you know, we aren't really Christians, because we worship Mary and statues and have the anti-Christ leading our Church and supposedly aren't biblical.

I don't think it's unfair to say that it is the least monotheistic and patriarchal of the monotheistic religions.  Can you imagine a Jew or Prot or Muslim or Zoroastrian talking Trinity?  (No, I don't mean the Catholic-lite Episcopalians, either)  It is no coincidence that the French missionaries had a much easier time in Indochine and the Spanish had such an easy time converting polytheists to catholocism than prots have.  In fact, I believe the Bishop of Rome allows a great deal of latitude and interpretation, still, in the prefectures of South America.  I myself have witnessed ceremonies in Guatemala and Peru which are performed by Catholic priests but which also make allowances for preColumbian dieties.  I don't claim to understand it, as Christianity, like all monotheistic faiths, seems to require exclusivity, but I'm certain that in parts of the world Catholocism co-exists with polytheism.  And that it is the very nature of its mysticism which makes it easier for Catholocism to do this than the more abjectly monotheistic religions do.  

[angus]

Well, you're much better versed in this subject than am I, but I still think that's a very subtle and difficult thing for most folks to get their minds around.  I'll assume the Eastern rite churches have the same trinity, but that Lutherans and Calvinists and Presbyterians don't.  Not sure about evangelical protestants and Mormons.  And, not to offend, but I think it may be viewed by some scholars as a departure from strict monotheism.  I was taught to pray to Saints for intervention, for example.  I'm sure other monotheists don't do that.  Anyway, I know that wasn't your original point.  Your point was about misconceptions.  And I agree, misconceptions abound when it comes to religion.  Not just about Catholocism.  Imagine how Muslims must feel right about now.

[angus]

I was taught to pray to Saints for intervention, for example.  I'm sure other monotheists don't do that.  

Another misconceptions.  Catholics are not to pray to saints and others, simply to ask them for their prayers.

damn, you're right.  I can still remember father burleson giving my mother the last rights like it was yesterday, even though that was 13 years ago.  I can still hear him saying, "Saint whatever, pray for us, ..."  I can also probably still recall hail holy queen and others which are prayers to saints to p  ---

Oh, wait, I have an epiphany.  I have to think about it some more, but might that just be an understanding among anglocentric (or, more broadly, Germanic peoples), as opposed to Romance peoples, due to language.  For example, in Latin and Spanish, the same verb is used for "to pray" and "to ask" in some senses.  Pedir is the spanish word, I forget the latin.  Oh, I have to think about this more, but I can imagine "Asking Mary" getting turned into "praying to mary"  Oh, seriously, think about it.  OOh, this is the sort of historico-linguistic hypothesis that needs some more thought.  But you can see how that might happen.

[angus]

Just when I thought the ghost of Bonjovi was dead, someone comes along and puts an old bonjovi lyric in my noggin.  Dammit.

[angus]

Egyptians were resurrectionists too.  Like Catholics.  I guess that's why they were mortified at the thought of looters coming in to steal their treasures.  Never know when you might need a comb, or your cat, or a bottle of honeywine in the afterlife.

Did William Shakespeare write the King James bible?  Or is that just an urban legend?

[angus]

So my hypothesis about how the "praying to saints" misconception came about doesn't necessarily hold.  Unless there's a similar construct in Greek (or Hebrew).   Oh, well, it was just a fleeting idea.  

Anyone know how to say "to ask" and "to pray" in greek?  Are they the same word, or are they different words?