As I was removing dust from this shot for about half an hour, I began to wonder what it must be like to work on this sort of thing for months or years. And whether the sculptor believed in what he was doing or was just working on commission. Which lead me to wonder about the devout Christians around the world that still do believe in what to me are ghastly fables. (Of course, never a good idea to write about my own feelings regarding religion, since my own agnostic take on it brings out: a) resentment b) a desire to help me find the true path, or c) pure hatred.

And frankly, although the world is in conflict, with innocents being killed in the name of religion, I have a fairly dim view of humanity to begin with, and believe that if it weren’t religion, we’d just invent something else to fight over (uhm – countries?). Or, as in the satire by Swift – which end of a hard-boiled egg to break, the fat end or the skinny end. I haven’t seen fist-fights break out over Apple v. PCs yet – but it isn’t that far-fetched. In short, without something to believe in that makes some sort of sense of our brief stay here, we really would have to invent it. Don’t remember who said it, but my thoughts are along the lines that if God didn’t create us, we would create him. (Sorry for all the currently politically incorrect gender language, but it’s pretty much part of the whole religious deal).

At the same time – I’m also not purely scientific – i.e. I believe what I can see and touch. No, I have had many spiritual experiences – and believe there are things beyond what we dream – or at least that some of our dreams can touch another realm. But I don’t have a name for this, though I would trust a shaman or maybe a Zen master before someone from an organized religion.

And after all, I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but my ideas are surely in the minority, especially in the U.S. or France, or Belgium. But then again, we do have this free speech thing so what the hell.

This and some other shots to be posted later, are part of the exterior, sort of a small garden outside the church which my friend Dirk brought me to; and I’ll get to the wide shot and interiors next.