Oct 18 2009
Sunday Sacrilege: I Go to Church
See, I go to church. Okay, not very often. The photo above was shot a bit over a year ago in an ancient, mountain-top Sicilian chapel. More recently I ventured into a massive, adobe cathedral in the Old Town area of Albuquerque, NM.
When I go to church I go as a cultural anthropologist. I look, I listen, I read. I soak up the ambiance and the history. I may even take some photographs. Cultures fascinate me.
Is it possible to be both open to new ideas and experience AND to think about these things critically? I think so.
“Critically” has some unfortunate connotations. As if the intent from the get-go is to shoot anything and everything down. But that isn’t the case. The truly critical mind acknowledges the good as well as the bad. Like a film critique.
To me “thinking critically” consists, in part, of doing one’s best to see past sentiment, sales-pitches, and one’s own cultural presuppositions.
Believe it or not, some things can be critically evaluated and found to be both absolutely beautiful and fully false. Like the better elements of religion.
