Let's talk about monotheism

Looking at the choices of monotheistic religious bouncing around the world, one has little choice but to accept Catholicism. Now, we can only talk about this if you accept a few premises:
1: There is only one God.
2: God is larger than the individual and not subject to opinion (AKA objective truth).
3: God is for all.

A: Any religion started by human beings holds no candle to Catholicism, the only religion on Earth that claims to have been started by God walking among us. This removes from consideration:
Aa: Protestantism. So Luther and his ignorant ilk knew better than 1500 of tradition of the religion start by God? Pfeh!
Ab: Islam. So, God, after sending Himself to Earth, changes his mind on deep issues of morality and cosmology, sends an angel to a human being to preach a gospel that contradicts what God himself said? This one is a non-starter.
Ac: Mormonism. Pretty much ditto the above, but they seem to kill a lot fewer people.

B: All of the pseudo-religions of the Enlightenment era are simply ridiculous. They attempt to pare down Christianity.
Ba: Deism. So, God exists and is objective. Where did you get that idea? Zoroastrianism? You got it from the Christian tradition and just got rid of what you didn't like.
Bb: Agnosticism. These goons agree with statements 1, 2,and 3, but can't put any details together. The common thread here is an arrogant expulsion of the brilliant minds of the past. Or maybe spiritual cowardice.

C: Zoroastrianism is its own special case. It's monotheistic the way dolphins are fish. There is a "good god" and an "evil god" struggling for dominance under a larger, impersonal god. Further, the system makes little claims to universality. It's a pre-Christian notion of divinity. It reeks of tribal religion, where "my god is better than yours," the way tribes used to worship the various Baals.

D: Judaism is another singular example. It is a legitimately divinely inspired religion, though it seems to fail on point 3. To the Orthodox (that is to say, good) Jews, God is for the "chosen people."

Thus to reject Rome is to obliterate the only source of monotheistic legitimacy.

Huh?

I planned on signing up for Blogger Pro, but they keep saying "come back next week." I wanted more control over this before I get into it. I may have to start over somewhere else.

A quick note on civics

Right wingers are typically big on civil obedience and the rule of law. Law is, in its purest, the exertion of force to promote certain behaviors and discourage others. Catholic social teaching is quick to point out that laws that go against the Law of God are void - even "social justice" buffoons believe in disobeying laws that they consider unjust.

Now, let's prove this. There are two extremes we must touch on. First, an immoral act is not made moral by the mere passage of law. Slavery was not a moral decision, nor was the euthanizing of retarded children in pre-Christian Greece. Yet, both of these acts were violable in civil society. Next, no act that is moral (or neutral) is made immoral under the law of man. The social drinking of alcohol is not immoral, and Prohibition did not change this. To use an example that even our righteous teetotaling friends can grasp onto, attendance at church is a moral act, despite its constant harassment by regimes throughout time and around the globe.

Here's the gist: Whatever is handed down by the potentates of your jurisdiction is of little consequence. The only way it might affect moral decision-making is incidental: If, by flaunting the punishments laid down by civil authorities you risk the destruction of your life or the well-being of your family, you may have moral culpability. To look back at the Prohibition example, if you were to homebrew in that era, you have every right to do so. However, if your potential jail sentence would risk the financial and emotional health of your wife and children, there may be some sin involved in your tippling.

The logic is simple. Unfortunately, we can't all go around doing exactly what we consider right, because most of us lack the clarity to be trusted. Thus the argument for a value-positive (that is to say explicitly Catholic) governance. But that topic's for another day.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer city.

Blackouts in NYC. Howabout the other 1/6 of North America? You hardly heard that anyone else had an outage. Those self-centered downstaters nauseate me. I wish they's just float off into the ocean.