As a family obligation, I went to Midnight Mass Christmas Eve/Morning. I was raised Catholic, and though I no longer attend mass regularly or follow the church's beliefs/rules/dogma/threats at all anymore, I still repsect my father's devotion to the church as it is an important part of his life and has held him together since the passing of my mother. So when he asks me to, I attend mass with him as I don't want to insult him or piss on the extreme sacrifices he made to pay the huge amounts of money to send me and my 5 siblings through 12 years of a Catholic education, some of which I still value and retain fond memories. Anyway, having listened to decades of the Catholic Mass, I've heard the recited dogma over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And over. But they said something at the beginning of the mass Christmas Eve that blew my mind out the back of my head, and quite frankly royally pissed me off. Some fat deacon who's probably enjoyed his share of young choir boys came out and began a sort of chant, the point of which was to state the number of years that had passed since important events in the church's history. Well. right at the start of this chant he began with...(to get the full effect, chant this like a bored, fat monk out loud...)

"It has been 5,999 years since God created the world."

What? Once again....WHAT???? Everyone sat there and didn't bat an eyelash, having just been told that the world is 5,999 years old. Why would they declare such an absurdity? If you read the Bible literally and add up the times and lifelines of all the characters, the world is only about 6,000 years old, but what kind of a moron can take that literally? I've heard that there are fantical fundamentalist groups who are trying to get schools to teach this as reality. They argue that since the Bible adds the world up to being only 6,000 years old, it MUST BE SO. Any scientific evidence to suggest that it is actually billions of years old is wrong. Whatever, I've always written this off as the ramblings of idiots, but I was thrown off guard to hear this declared at midnight mass. Remember, I've listened to the same cartholic schpeel for many years and went through formal education having it stuffed down my throat. I thought I'd heard all the absurdities that the church had to offer, but now THIS! How can anyone with any more than a quarter of a brain accept such a concept?