A postscript to my George Lucas / Great Schism rant -

Just for the record, (if there's anyone out there who's actually reading this stuff!) I am a confirmed Catholic, although I haven't done Penance or taken Communion in close to twenty years, and I was married in the Greek Orthodox Church to my wife Maria in 1999, which is allowed for anyone baptized into a branch of Christianity that recognizes the Holy Trinity. All that having been said, I consider my a Catholic in extremely bad standing, and have done so pretty much since I was a little know-it-all brat. My objections to the present day Throne of Peter have softened over time, but I still find the doctrine of Papal Infallibility absolutely indefensible. The Orthodox may have their own quirkinesses, but at least their most authoritative bodies reserve the right to be wrong, human beings being what they are. And that's pretty refreshing for a dogma.

Personally I think religion is more trouble than it is worth, but I respect the rights of others to worship the divine aspect(s) of their choosing, so long as in doing so they don't shoot up abortion clinics or fly commercial airliners into choice Manhattan real estate in the process. Or tell me how to envision God. I tend to vacillate between thinking of the universe as one big happy ball of metaphysical Force-energy (damn you to hell, George Lucas!) and seeing it as a cosmic game of dizzy bat, where we're all spinning, spinning, spinning, and then trying our hardest to run in a straight line, even though we all damned well know that it's a lost cause. Oh, yeah, and sometime's I think God's out to get me personally. But that's probably just the caffeine talking.