Do You Agree With Albert? :: Science Religion Religious Essays

Do You Agree With Albert? INTRODUCTION I can’t seem to find the right words to begin a new chapter in my life. This is not only a research paper for a class in school any more. It symbolizes the beginning of what I have longed to do since I arrived at Santa Clara a few years back. I have had a yearning for a philosophy that makes sense to me personally; one that does not have to conform to anything I have studied so far. This is my chance. Although the format I have chosen is not the most elegant, it does organize my thoughts in the clearest way. My thoughts are summarized like a diary starting with my initial impressions and quickly jumping from idea to idea in an effort to understand Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics. DAY 1—PRELUDE TO LITERATURE Growing up as a young boy in Mallorca, Spain, I attended Sunday Mass with my mother and brother every week, never really giving it another thought—it was just something we did out of habit. I was content being a Roman Catholic for as long as I can remember until one very important episode in the fall of 1996. I was registering for my new high school (a Catholic one for the first time) when I noticed there was a special discount for practicing Catholics. Of course, to prove your religious affiliation, a letter from your Church’s pastor had to be submitted. This is when my faith in institutionalized religion took a major fall. For my family to be recognized as practicing at our church, a minimum sum of $250 a year had to be donated. Typically, my mother dropped in a few dollars when the collection basket was passed, but the parish had no way of determining how much had actually been donated. If there was no record of family contributions, the letter could not be w ritten. To clarify this discrepancy, they offered a personalized envelope to drop into the collection basket to regulate how much money we actually donated. In one fell swoop, a $250 check was donated and a letter of recommendation yielding a $1000 waiver sent out. Beginning that day, I could no longer face the institutionalized Church and since then have looked for other sources of inspiration in different religions—particularly Eastern Philosophy.