The problem with much of what passes for religion is that there are no filters to tell the crap from non-crap. And when people are filled with crap they become obnoxious, noxious, odious, stinky, hypocritical, stupid, and their brains melt into some kind of spiritual soup.
In Fresno, California recently, a crepe myrtle tree began oozing fluid. The poor tree had the misfortune to be located near the Roman Catholic St. John's Cathedral. As you might surmise, some of the parishioners from the cathedral immediately saw this as evidence of a miracle. This juicy stuff is God's tears claimed at least one woman.
Did the cathedral prelates confront the women to tell them this was not a miracle, and the liquid they saw was not God's tears, because even according to Roman Catholic doctrine, God is a spirit and spirits have no physical flesh or form and therefore cannot "weep"?
So far as I know, the prelates in charge of the cathedral did not do that. And we all know why: They may believe such nonsense themselves and/or are aware that such nonsense drives simple folks deeper into the fold of Roman Catholic piety which usually means they give more of their money to the Church so the Church can continue to peddle its odious doctrines while offering a haven for pedophiles and other abusers.
So what is this fluid oozing from the crepe myrtle? According to an article in The Huffington Post by Cavan Sieczkowski, "an arborist says the liquid is not 'tears' at all, but excrement from aphides, small, soft-bodied insects that suck the juice from plants. It's excrement or crap!
Contrarily, a Jesuit priest, James Martin, doesn't want to let go of the "miracle" thing so while he notes that this kind of phenomena can be "easily explained by science" he also believes "that God can speak to us through natural means, as a way of reminding us of God's presence. Sometimes God gives us a little nudge -- explicable or inexplicable - as if to say, 'I'm here.'" Like maybe by weeping "tears" from a crepe myrtle.
As I wrote initially, religion is often a problem where there are no filters to siphon the crap from the non-crap. The filters in this case ought to be the cathedral poohbahs and people like the editor-at-large of America magazine, Fr. James Martin.
But, unfortunately, that isn't the case. The prevailing philosophy in this and in too many other similar situations is "Let the people live with their delusions and ignore reality because we need them to continue to believe in our own special delusions thereby keeping the Roman Church afloat and thereby saving our jobs."
What all of this does prove, however, is that too often religion is simply crap!
And here ends the lesson for the day.