Be careful what you wish for

For some reason, I have been thinking about the silly asses of the European Union and their attempt to ignore the part religion has played in the history of that continent. They are not the only ones who attempt to either rewrite or ignore historical truth.

For all the secularists out there who are about to celebrate what has commonly come to be called, "Valentine's Day," rest assured that the original "St. Valentine's Day," owes its name more to Chaucer than to the martyrologies of the Catholic Church. Check out the Canterbury Tales, especially the "Parliament of the Fowles" for more on the mating habits of the birds. There are at least three Valentines in the martyrologies, all of whom have their feast days on February 14. There is no certain connection between any of the Valentines and the ideal of romantic love. But there it is, no matter how loose the connection.

I laugh when I hear of the various political subdivisions of our nation attempting to scrub away any religious reference to their locales. One such happened out in California in either the City or County of Los Angeles. The uproar there had to do with the cross on the government emblem. It had been there for years bothering no one when all of a sudden somebody noticed it and the thing had to be got rid of, as it was in very short order. So, what do you do with the name of the city? It is named for, "Our Lady, Queen of the Angels." That's the shortened translation from the original, anyway. Up to the north, the state capitol of Sacramento was named for the Holy Eucharist. You might take a notion to visit, "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi," or, in its more common form, Santa Fe. If the secularists had their way, we would be busy renaming large portions of this country for years to come. Closer examination of our March celebration might bring us closer to the altar rail than to the bar rail if we properly honored St. Patrick on his feast day. Or it might, for the sake of secular consistency be done away with altogether.

The fact is religion has played a part in the history of the world no matter how you look at it. It is time to note something I feel is quite interesting and which has more to do with book cataloging than with religion in particular. Bear with me. The Dewey Decimal System for cataloging books has been in place for well over a century and its purpose is to give every book its proper place in the library's collection of knowledge. This must be done in some sort of order and so it is with the Dewey system. All man's knowledge can be filed in this system and it is done so from the most elementary to the most complex. Beginning with the 000 - 099 numbers are filed what are called "Generalities," that is, general knowledge. Books with 100 - 199 form divisions deal with philosophy. The very next division - 200 - 299 - contains works on religion. That is to say that among the most basic concepts in all man's knowledge, religion comes in nearly first once you get rid of generalities and then proceed through philosophy. It is almost as though the system says that all knowledge begins with philosophy which leads directly into religion. All the rest comes later.

Get that last bit straight and you cannot go wrong. Ignore or reject it and miss out on all the fun.