Religion and stuff

For some reason I have been pondering religion and stuff lately. As a Catholic, I take it for granted, go to Mass on Sundays and sometimes during the week, and confession once a month, which makes it as much a part of my routine as going shopping and washing. It helps me make sense of life, keeps me out of the worst sort of mischief and gets me through the rocky passages that we encounter from time to time. But increasingly I find myself coming under attack, openly, or in an attitude of sniggering, or in a kind of coldness, because I hold to this position. So why do I stick with it?

I find the clergy mediocre on the whole, and the hierarchy, at least in England and Wales, unimpressive. And a lot of trouble has been caused by people acting, or claiming to act, in the church's name, to say nothing of recent scandals where people in authority have covered up.

On the other hand, there are plenty of front line clergy who do a first-rate job, often in difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances, having given up the opportunity to enjoy a well-paid job and comfortable life.

In the final analysis however, the quality of the clergy and the disreputable events in the history of the church are beside the point. It is the message that counts. I have no problem with that message, and it is important to distinguish between the teaching that is being put across and the, sometimes bad, teachers who are carriers of the message. One has to look behind the messengers and their own behaviour. This is difficult but has to be done.

In this respect it helps to be a Catholic as it possesses the authority given to Peter by Christ (Matthew 16)

'And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.'

Now I know that the meaning of this has been argued over for more than 1000 years, but to ascribe any other meaning to this text demands mental gymnastics, and for what?

If one does not hold to the authority of the magisterium of the church, then what authority do you go to? One cannot work these things out for oneself - there just is not enough time in an individual's lifetime. The Catholic church has built up a body of tradition over 2000 years during which time everything that could possibly be argued over has been debated and discussed to the minutest degree.

One consequence is that all the arguments have been thoroughly tested in all conceivable circumstances and the orthodox line can be relied upon. When at times it has seen unfashionably restrictive, events have had a habit of proving it right.

And so I regard the Catholic church as giving good guidance and helping me to maintain what is, I hope, a reasonably balanced view and understanding of the world and what goes on in it. The price is that I am told I cannot, or should do all sorts of things I would rather enjoy doing, which I think is what really puts most people off.

I make no apologies for posting a picture of the Pope as someone who is steadfast in maintaining what was entrusted to Peter in the event described in Matthew 18.

The Zombie Train that refuses to die

The Guardian has published a couple more articles against HS2, one by specialist rail commentator Christian Wolmar, and another today by journalist Simon Jenkins. The main arguments in favour will doubtless be wheeled out by the commentators: the need for capacity and the disruption caused by upgrading existing routes. HST itself will severely disrupt services to Euston during the construction period. Capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost by a variety of measures, provided that it is accepted that the additional traffic will run at existing speeds. It is not generally known that the Midland main line is, or was, four track all the way from London to Trent Junction, between Nottingham and Derby. This is because the additional tracks are separate, having been added for coal trains which trundled down to Brent sidings, on the edge of London, from a collection point at Toton in Nottinghamshire, where the Midland Railway build a huge marshalling yard. Beyond Derby, the main l...

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Importing people to sustain demand

I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...

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Beyond electrification

In an earlier post I suggested a core list of lines which ought to be in an electrification programme spread over twenty years of so. This leaves a residue of routes which it is unlikely will ever be electrified. This include for example All lines beyond Glasgow, Stirling and Aberdeen All lines west of Exeter and Swansea All lines west of Chester Shrewsbury - Chester Everything not listed in my previous blog - electrification plans only scratch surface Some of these routes carry main line services to London and other cities on parts of the network that are already electrified or included in electrification plans. Others are self contained and others carry light traffic - less than a dozen trains a day. The current plan is that main line services will be operated with the hybrid trains on order from Hitachi, but this is a costly, wasteful and ineffective solution. The performance of the trains will be inferior to the present Inter-City 125 trains on non-electrified lines and the ...

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