Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

What language is your religion

Posted: December 21, 2008 by datechguy in catholic, tech
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From the Curt Jester here is a rather funny list of what programming language is your religion:

C would be Judaism – it’s old and restrictive, but most of the world is familiar with its laws and respects them. The catch is, you can’t convert into it – you’re either into it from the start, or you will think that it’s insanity. Also, when things go wrong, many people are willing to blame the problems of the world on it.

C++ would be Islam – It takes C and not only keeps all its laws, but adds a very complex new set of laws on top of it. It’s so versatile that it can be used to be the foundation of anything, from great atrocities to beautiful works of art. Its followers are convinced that it is the ultimate universal language, and may be angered by those who disagree. Also, if you insult it or its founder, you’ll probably be threatened with death by more radical followers.

For some reason the Catholic Church is not included and he thinks about it.

Now a programming language that reflected the Catholic Church would be a cross between Basic and machine language. Basic gives it the James Joyce ‘here comes everybody’ aspect and machine language would give it the direct access to God that we have through the Eucharist. The Catholic Church can nourish anybody from the humblest peasant to the most brilliant theologian. Like most languages an interpreter is required for compiled code. In computing if you don’t have a valid interpreter/compiler the code you write will end up either doing nothing or not what you intended. The teaching magisterium of the Church gives us that interpreter in real life. A good interpreter/compiler also has lots of error checking. On our own we are often prone to errors and so being informed of our errors is to our good to ensure that we write valid code. Often we think we are writing valid code only to find that when we go to build it something is not exactly right. You can’t just tell the interpreter/compiler you are sorry for writing bad code, you have to repent of your coding error and fix it.

He goes on quite a bit on it. I would lean toward machine code myself but that’s me.

What we believe

Posted: December 20, 2008 by datechguy in catholic
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One of the things that I have been very frustrated with over the years are the number of my fellow Catholics who don’t know what Catholic teaching actually is.

A lot of this comes down to apathy, but you also have people who are ill informed by either teachers who don’t know what they are talking about, denominations outside the church who have their own false view of the Church, the media who love of the church is almost as large as their love of George Bush and groups of “Catholics” who want to change the rules or redefine sin to fit their own worldview.

Well with the internet there is no excuse for ignorance on this matter so I have added several permalinks to the Vatican including links to the Bible, Canon law (the internal law of the church) and most importantly to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

This link is the most important because it is the document that contains what Catholic belief actually IS. Not what other people say it is but the bottom line. If you want to know what the Church says on any matter that is where you go. It is very complete, footnoted and well referenced.

If you prefer a copy that you can read on the go you can also pick it up at Amazon here. Hardcover here.

Every Catholic should have one of these, outside of scripture it is the most important book on your faith to have. If you are a non-catholic you will find it an excellent reference to what we actually believe. So pick one up or permalink the page so you can be informed.

No it won’t. It’s a religion

Posted: December 19, 2008 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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The JammieWearingFool points out that the imminent birth of Bristol Palin’s son (due tomorrow) will be a death blow to people who are insisting that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s grandson rather than her son.

No it won’t.

You have to think of people who follow conspiratorial type stuff as people following a religion. Excuses will be followed by clarifications but in the end the belief will not be dropped, remember William Miller and the 2nd coming.

The only thing that will be missing is the tax-exempt status. (Believe me the collection plate WILL exist).

Two reasons to read Jay Nordlinger

Posted: December 17, 2008 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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I was reading Jay Nordlinger today. You should read him too. These two quotes show why:

Longtime Impromptus readers may remember something I had to say from Davos, one year. Lord Carey — the former archbishop of Canterbury — stood up. Sitting next to a Saudi potentate (Prince Turki, I believe), he said, “Sure, you can have your mosques on every corner of Europe. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a church in Saudi Arabia one day?” (I have paraphrased.)

I thought of him — thought of Carey — when reading this item about Russia: “The Saudis have recently asked permission to build a mosque in Moscow, a city where there are only four mosques and 2 million Muslims. The Russians, however, are saying they want, in return, an Orthodox church in Saudi Arabia.”

Interesting.

And another one also on religion:

Finally, a reader said, “Jay, thought you might like to see this T-shirt. We made a dozen to sell at our church — sold out in one Sunday (usually a dozen shirts will last us a couple months).” The man included a picture of the shirt. And it says, “Go ahead and say it . . . Merry Christmas!”

Interesting what qualifies as subversive and daring in America these days.

If you like this style you might also want to consider his book,
Here There and everywhere. Amazon for some reason is out and may not restock but you can get it here.

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