Won’t get too detailed so I don’t accidentally dox myself or something, but I’ve been considering my life up to this point, and I can’t help but feel I definitely might’ve wound up on the wrong side of history if divine intervention and my own intuition hadn’t gotten in the way.
I know people who work at Neuralink, Facebook, Google, IBM, etc. My college was pretty successful for job placement at big name companies
I’ve been in some of the “financial centers and think tanks” of the world as a student. I was presented with opportunities to engage with their work, especially toward the end of my undergraduate career. Most of these people made me uneasy; at the time, I couldn’t place my finger on why. But I always felt the urge to keep those places at arms distance.
As a gifted kid, I feel incredibly blessed to have gotten out of public school relatively unscathed. I feel incredibly lucky I didn’t join the status quo in college despite the pressure to conform.
This refusal to conform is definitely giving me some roadblocks now that I’m trying to get started in my career, but it does feel like I’ve dodged many bullets on the journey. And I’m glad I’m not part of the hive mind like most of my peers.
Anyone else have the same experience?
Edit to say: thanks to everyone who has commented! Really appreciate knowing others have similar journeys.
Sauce for Catholics being prohibited from reading the Bible? In fact, Catholics have always been encouraged to read the bible -- immediately after determining the canon (of 73 books), pope Damasus had St. Jerome translate the entire bible into latin, as it was the international language used throughout the west (there already were greek translations). There were ongoing translations through and after the middle ages, into various european languages, and monks painstakingly copied them by hand. Churches which could afford a very costly bible before the printing press was invented often chained it like a modern phone book is done, to prevent theft, but encouraged anyone to read the scriptures. Multiple popes encouraged the faithful to read scriptures, and every Catholic mass includes multiple scripture readings. In fact, scripture reading in Catholic churches follows a 3 year cycle currently, ensuring virtually all of the bible is read, every 3 years. https://cruxnow.com/faith/2015/11/a-quick-history-of-the-catholic-church-and-the-bible
There is much more, but I will stay to the point.
You are correct that the current Catholic Mass includes multiple scripture readings. In fact, scripture reading in Catholic churches follows a 3 year cycle currently, ensuring virtually all of the bible is read, every 3 years.
This ^ is post Second Vatican Council.
Prior to that (which is what I referenced) the private reading of Scripture - along with the reading of any publication or viewing any movie that did not contain the "Vatican Imprimatur"- was prohibited under penalty of Mortal Sin.
How do I know this?
I experienced it. It was taught in Parochial Schools. I vividly remember my older sisters checking to verify what they could read or what movie they could attend without sentencing themselves to eternity in Hell.
Modern Catholic apologists deny such things. The older ones must surely know they are telling lies. I suspect (and mercifully hope) the younger ones are only unwitting dupes to the dishonesty of their elders.