Things you do to relax!

I'm Christian Catholic, but not a creationist or whatever. I believe in a non-literal meaning of the Bible, which is basically the story of Revelation, rather than a literal history of the world. I believe that a lot of the Biblical stories are a metaphor (or, to use the Patristic/Medieval terminology - allegory). That makes me not reject any scientific discovery, but stay firmly within some ethical beliefs (I am not against homosexuality, my best friends are gay, in fact socially they are the only men I can tolerate in a very LONG run; also I wouldn't mind gay marriage, Proposition 8 sucks, California people; I have issues with abortion though).

Most recently I am rediscovering, or rather discovering philosophy. My favorite of the 20th century "systems" (systematic philosophy ended on G. W. F. Hegel) is hermeneutics, which derives, of course, from Christianity (hermeneutics was originally a method to understand the Bible), but became an existential philosophy or even practical (hermeneutics = understanding, hermeneutical philosophy assumes that we try to understand the world around us through conversations - German Gesprach, a Hans-Georg Gadamer term - and helps us understand OURSELVES more, it assumes a general contact between us, other people and tradition). My research deals with heavily Biblical/Christian period of culture as well, namely 17th Century. I also believe in a very personal (ie. conversational) relation with God, who, hopefully, has a plan. Why? One of the reasons is surely that I didn't get a proof against His existence (with the right interpretation of the Bible you won't reject science as is, the relation between religion and science isn't so conflicting. As an example, I should give an example of Michal Heller. The man is a physicist. He deals with the creation of the Universe (cosmology) and his research is heavily respected by his peers (as far as I know, Heller is famous in the physics society), but also a Catholic priest, theologist and philosopher (philosopher of science, namely). I don't think he openly tries to find a mathematical formula to prove God's existence (we don't live in the Middle Ages anymore, people! Faith is faith and there is a choice between reason and faith and the choice is made in full consciousness, as Kierkegaard discovered it in the 19th Century, reason and faith are at constant fight and believing is difficult). Another reason for me staying Christian Catholic is taking the Pascalian bet (we don't lose anything if we believe in God, so it's better to believe just in case). And I also like the notion of something above us. I strongly believe that we shouldn't think we are completely alone in the world and nothing spiritual exists, because we need some humility in approach to reality.

Ready for attacks now.