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Hi! I'm pretty sure the movie you saw was The Name of the Rose, a murder mystery starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater. The Catholic Church evolved out of Messianic Judaism and Neoplatoism, with pagan iconography and holidays tossed in for good measure. Once Constantine gave the go-ahead with the Milan Edict, the Arians and Athanasians began murdering and torturing each other over the the orthodoxy of the Nicene Creed. It's been going on ever since. If they weren't harassing each other, they were killing and or bullying anyone who disagreed with them (e.g. indigenous folk worldwide, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Hindus) early scientists such a Tycho, Corpernicus, Da Vinci, Galileo, Darwin--the list goes on and on. I totally believe in America's first Amendment. One of my favorite quotes is from the movie Dogma-- Rufus: He[God] still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the sh*t that gets carried out in His name - wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the factioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it. Bethany: Having beliefs isn't good? Rufus: I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant. The history of religion in Western culture in written in the blood of people who were just trying to mind their own business and follow their personal spiritual path, IMHO. If you don't think it doesn't happen anymore, look at Zionism, Islamic jihad, Waco Texas...all the inevitable fruits of extreme orthodoxy/theocracy. When the infrastructructure of the Roman Empire collapsed, the Roman Church rushed into the vacuum. They kept Europe 'in the dark' for over 500 years. They sold enough slivers of the True Cross to stock several lumberyards. Pick up a history book. Take the blinders off your brain. FRITH!

"I think its better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can\\\\\\\'t gene"
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