I need to post images of beautiful women, preferably half naked. Is that sinful? Is this image sinful? Or is it art? I hunger for beauty at times. I suppose a woman dressed in nothing but her bra and panties in a provocative pose is problematic for some, but what the hell. I like this image. Plus I can’t stand that stupid image of Chris Less being the first thing that pops up on my blog. I need to move on from that.

I also get tired of the more heavy debates on things, especially when it comes to religion. When I first started blogging a few years ago, I used to have a more religious oriented blog, but I could not stand the comments people were making, so I started this one instead. So I think I need to write some more light-hearted, less religiously thematic posts. Writing about and debating religious issues gives me a headache after a while. Everyone, including myself I suppose, Christian and non Christian, Catholic and Protestant, thinks they have a monopoly on the truth in their own entrenched positions. Not that there is anything wrong with that, and many people are sincere in what they believe to be the truth. But sometimes the debates can get nasty, as many believes they are right, and have little tolerance for those who disagree or look at the world differently. Uggh. I get sick of it all. Too much rancor. I think I probably prefer sticking to writing about God and spirituality in general and for the most part leave particular religious denominations or beliefs  and controversies out of this, except on occasion.  Writing about beautiful things, art and literature, or culture in general, even politics, is more pleasurable for me. God can be found in those things too, in a more general way.

As far as my own religious beliefs, I guess I would consider myself a Christian, although many Christians would not, based on my writings.  I am sure a lot of Catholics would consider me outside of the Church, based on my writings or opinions on certain matters. My version of Christianity is informed by my own life experiences more so than any type of theology or Church teaching, not that I am denying the importance of those. But for me there are grey areas, both in theology and scripture.  As I once said, I am really not a “rule” person. When younger I used to be a very conservative, orthodox Catholic, but as I got older I found life too complex, people too complex, faith too complex, to remain in that paradigm. I am still fairly orthodox when it comes to all the big issues, the nature of Christ, salvation, the sacraments, etc, but on some other theological or moral issues I am more open to different interpretations of things. At first I thought it would interesting to engage that in this type of forum, but now I realize it causes me more internal strife than anything else, so I need to not write as much about those types of things. I also enjoy using sarcasm and satire when I can, and that can easily lead people to misinterpret what I am saying or what I believe.

I don’t want this blog to be source of evil in anyway, or to lead people down a destructive path, so I wonder about some of my writings and postings. I don’t know. But I also suppose, in a very secular world, at least writing about God in some way is a good thing. I think just bringing the notions of God or spirituality into a highly technological and industrialized society, with all its fragmentation and impersonality, is a good thing. What the specifics of that may be, I will leave for the most part to others.  I also think writing about God in the context of sexuality and even eroticism can be a good thing, although it can be difficult to navigate through that one. I don’t claim infallibility.  It is always a work in progress.  Perhaps I will write more on this later.

So here’s to a celebration of one of the God’s great creations, the beautiful woman.