Volume 1: About
page 11:
The Author
Fool: n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war-founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting—such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand has warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion, he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. Bierce, s.v. "fool"
Bierce conveniently excludes himself from the ship of fools, to stand apart and judge their folly. But do we have any choice?
The foolishness that this site sets before you logs (quite incompletely) a personal journey. This journey had some interesting twists and turns, and has given me a sort of personal experience of thousands of years of religious history. The purpose of this site is to apply the lessons learned to the religious problems currently besetting the world.
I was born into the Roman Catholic Church and became deeply involved with it, entering a religious order. After my solemn profession (but before ordination) I was asked to leave. There followed a long period of disentanglement from Catholic doctrine. In the last twenty years I have actively sought alternatives to the Catholic position.
After a long period in the dark, I see a little light on the religion question. The major battle now seems to be over, and some interesting ground covered. This site is the first step toward documenting this journey from Catholicism to 'natural religion'.
A collection of articles written along the way is contained in the history section of the site.
More detailed and immediate information (but very disorganized) is to be found in transcripts from notebooks written while finding my way from Roman Catholicism to natural religion.
(revised 26 May 2013)
