excellent excellent post! I converted to catholicism after a period of not being anything and it was really from the fundamental conviction that if the Christian community is not united then it isn't really anything. At that time vatican 2 seemed to be taking the Catholic church straight towards the people: there were even strong connections with the Spirit movement that was sweeping the world at the time (when taize was first thought of.)
My feeling now is very different.In this 21st century, there is a new pressure upon us to respect and understand that God may not be wanting us all to think the same. Looking around me, any God who can come up with 30,000 different types of spider is not a God who is in any shape or form a conformist . . . .
In psalm 149: 'God takes delight in His people'. not because we conform to some kind of pre-ordained model but because each one of us IS different and must find his own way - which sounds the exact opposite of what you were saying but it really isnt. My feeling is that this is actually the crux (somehow) of what Christ came to tell us.
I sometimes get the odd feeling that man's main problem is his inability to understand that 'truth' is not going to be found in a set of ideas or a 'creed' or a philosophy at all. 'Truth' is a living thing because it IS God Himself: the hidden one and that ultimately it is only when we fall silent and listen that we will be able to discern God . . . .
just as we have to learn to let God be God (whatever His shape or His meaning or His truth . . .[that's obedience come to think of it]) so do we have to let Truth be Truth - something that will ultimately allude us because we always need to try to pin it down - like a butterfly collector. The only way we can appreciate the truth is to watch it as it flies past us in a zigzag pattern amongst the happenings of our own life.
I really liked your post - which is why I am quite carried away just now. It may not seem at all relevant to what you were saying but in my own mind it really is . .
in one thing you were wrong though when you said 'does anyone ever really alter their view on anything here?' because thats what I thought you had done in your earlier post. Another point about that, change in human terms doesnt happen quickly: we take years to change but change we do. Teresa of Avila said that we are always changing: we are either growing or diminishing never staying the same and this forum - as flawed as it is bound to be - seethes with signs of God of this I am quite certain!
I must now go and do some slow breathing exercises . . .