who told you that?
My priest at Sunday school when I was a kid. I had been coerced into attending a couple of times. Fact is, I thought going to mass once a week was enough dedication of my time for religious purposes. It did encroach on my limited fishing and sailing time, as did the bother having to attend school, do household chores etc.
Another kid dragged to Sunday school started off in fine style. He announced to the priest he had been warned not to attend Sunday School by his non Catholic dad. He said that the priest was going to "brain wash" him. The priest laughed uproariously at that... and told him <<of course>> he was going to brain wash him.... he was going to get brain washed by something or other anyway...why not the Catholic faith? Seemed a sensible argument to me at the time.
Anyway, the Catholic gestapo were not up to much in my neck of the woods, and I managed to stop attending Sunday school after one or two more attendances. Fishing is a quiet reflective pastime, and my mind would typically wonder about all sorts of things. Gradually I adopted a simple Christian set of values to live by, without any external further education made necessary.
Studing other religions, even in a superficial way, there are several themes that are similar.
I'll finish up with a quote from one of my heros ...Tristan Jones, a fairly well know single handed sailor here...
With respect to religion. I found it has mostly been very difficult to converse on the subject with single handers, and they nearly always shy off the subject. Eventually I realized, looking back on my own experience, this is because they shy off it even with themselves. I consider this the healthiest thing to do.
/edit. I would bet a lot of dollars he believes in God or some such entity though.
/edit2 I not talking just about humans... All living things. Just that humans are regarded as a special case.
Earlier on the page he mentions that once alone at sea a "sixth sense" strongly develops and other single handers mention the same effect. I personally think he talking about something that develops over the years though, it doesn't just click in once land falls over the horizon.
He has written several books, the one I am quoting is just a hodge podge of stuff on sailing, not a normal reading persons book. I'm just the kind of person who is fascinated about which is the best knot to tie on a hook though -g-
amazon.com |
