Farseer, I don't see a problem with this topic or your post. Actually I consider this discussion to be very much "on topic" at these boards. The guideline about avoiding religious/political etc posts is so that I can delete/ban stuff when someone comes here just to troll/preach their own beliefs without any intention to participate in other discussions. Also, thank you for sharing your experience. I can imagine it wasn't an easy thing to write about. 
I've always found it very intriguing that the two fantasy authors I consider to be the absolute best in their field ever are/were practising Catholics. I don't know or understand that brand of Christianity as well as I should or would like to, but I'm going to guess there's a certain basic belief in or acceptance of the possibility that there are things that can't always be explained rationally... and growing up with that undercurrent around strengthens one's imagination. Or that's my theory anway.
Take miracles for example - there's a difference in simply accepting them as God's work or trying to explain them away as natural phenomena with the added "and maybe that's how God works". I'd imagine the world is a much more exciting place when you believe that anything CAN happen, and maybe there really ARE dragons, unicorns and selkies out there.
Re: what's been talked about previously... I'd like to say I have no problem with any religious group setting up their own rules and trying to follow them as long as they don't want to ~save~ the rest of the world by forcing everyone to live up to their standards. But that's not really true, because there's so much brainwashing and abuse going on in many religions and religious groups that it's just difficult to stand by and watch it happen. But then I guess that makes my a hypocrite for wanting to ~save~ THEM and make them live in a way I think is good...
I've always found it very intriguing that the two fantasy authors I consider to be the absolute best in their field ever are/were practising Catholics. I don't know or understand that brand of Christianity as well as I should or would like to, but I'm going to guess there's a certain basic belief in or acceptance of the possibility that there are things that can't always be explained rationally... and growing up with that undercurrent around strengthens one's imagination. Or that's my theory anway.
Take miracles for example - there's a difference in simply accepting them as God's work or trying to explain them away as natural phenomena with the added "and maybe that's how God works". I'd imagine the world is a much more exciting place when you believe that anything CAN happen, and maybe there really ARE dragons, unicorns and selkies out there.Re: what's been talked about previously... I'd like to say I have no problem with any religious group setting up their own rules and trying to follow them as long as they don't want to ~save~ the rest of the world by forcing everyone to live up to their standards. But that's not really true, because there's so much brainwashing and abuse going on in many religions and religious groups that it's just difficult to stand by and watch it happen. But then I guess that makes my a hypocrite for wanting to ~save~ THEM and make them live in a way I think is good...
"Green nubs on the dry sticks of the clematis promised that the appearance of death was not death itself." - Ship of Destiny
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