http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=253987

*Sheesh* - I've only been here 4 months and already I'm going to break one of the unwritten "never talk about at a party" rules...but being an amateur all-sorts-of-things-that-end-with-ologist, I'm too curious for my own good - and probably XP :)

Browsing around various highly-recommended homenodes, I notice a lot of monks mentioning their faith, generally Christianity. This is interesting to me, not being something I'd come across to such a degree in other online communities, or indeed in my own particular experience of the programming / scientific community. I don't mean 'not coming across Christians / Muslims / Buddhists etc.', but either (a) the issue not cropping up in a 'technical' context or (b) if it does, finding a generally lower rate of 'believers' than *appears* to be the case here in the Monastery.

I'm not about to set out my stall at all, and I really don't want to turn this into a discussion about religion per se, more about the degree to which it applies or not to your work / attitude to tasks / participation in the Monastery, but I should simply say that I count myself as 'religious sometimes', with no capital letters involved anywhere.

Of course, this is all completely to do with *my* perception of my past experience and the extremely small sample of homenodes I've visited, but it does seem to me that the 'active perl community' particularily has a high degree of Christians. Is this to do with Larry? Or the preponderance of US programmers? Or does the Monastery metaphor naturally attract those with religious 'leanings'? I personally prefer the metaphor to (say) a 'University' or 'PerlKnights' or something.

Am I completely wrong? Is it irrelevant? Or very relevant - is your faith an integrated part of your life and hence obviously your work?

Looking forward to some interesting replies,
Ben.