yolland said:
You know, it just occurred to me that the proposed connection point of religion to apocalyptic violence has shifted in the last several posts from "access to the divine and the infinite" to something much more specific: a preoccupation with the afterlife. And here, perhaps, is another way in which my own religious background might be predisposing me to interpret things differently. As I mentioned in passing, while most Jews do hold vague notions of some type of afterlife or another, we don't collectively dwell much on this topic, nor do we generally regard it as a crucial aspect of our faith. I don't know, Irvine, if you were raised to believe in an afterlife or not, but perhaps this could be another point of divergence in our interpretive tendencies.
i think this is a good point of difference in our perspectives.
i was raised Roman Catholic, in a kind of suburban let's-just-be-nice-and-go-to-mass-when-we-can sort of way. i was baptised, confirmed, know how to act accordingly in mass, still remember most of the songs, etc.
i do remember, however, taking it very seriously when i was little -- like when i was 7,8, and 9 years old. i used to keep a rosary under my pillow and pray at night, i used to walk around and ask for Mary's help (as we Catholics do) for things like math tests and swim meets. i eventually outgrew that, but i do sincerely remember that the idea that, 1) god was everywhere and watching and metted out punishments and rewards for behavior, and 2) i'd better be careful of too many demerits lest i somehow wind up in hell. or, at the very least, i better scoot my butt to confession every month or so.
though i'm rather passionately agnostic these days, i still enjoy (like Melon) the "culture" of catholicism, and often find it similar to judaism in many ways -- that it's almost an ethnic identity as well as a religous one, but perhaps that's because i grew up in Connecticut and everyone at my church was either Irish (and had family in Boston) or Italian (and had family in New York). though my mother was Irish, and grew up in brooklyn ... but you get the idea.
the grand point is that i can't help but think that if i, a rather typical suburban Catholic, felt so acutely (and even, to a lesser degree today) the need for works in this life and a great concern with heaven, then i can only posit that a madras would turn this concern into an all-consuming obsession.
especially if, you know, you're an 19 year old male, you can't get a job, all the women are kept under lock, key, and burka, so you can't even go on a date let alone get laid, then the afterlife sounds pretty tempting when given the shite state of affairs in this world.