Come On Down

[poliphilo]

A sci-fi fantasy I'm fond of- The Saga of the Exiles- predicates an alien intervention at the beginning of the 21st century (in fact, any time now.) The aliens- who are nice chaps- allow us the join their Federation, but on certain conditions. One of the conditions is that we abandon all but one of our religions.

And we do. Just like that.

How I wish. How I wish....

For some reason the religion we choose to retain is Roman Catholicism.

A certain leeway is allowed. People are permitted to flavour their Catholicism with Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever they used to adhere to. But I don't remember there being any Muslim-flavoured Catholics or Southern Baptist-flavoured Catholics.

It's a silly book.

I wonder how long it's actually going to take us to get beyond our religious differences.
How many thousands of years.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Several years ago, a rare whistling swan settled in for a few weeks in a local waterway. People drove out to see it. Mostly we see swans in parks, with their pinfeathers clipped to keep them from flying far.

The newspapers came out to take pictures.

Soon afterward, a stupid hulk with a rifle shot the swan.

If he hadn't, another stupid hulk with a rifle would have.