Does the Pope Wear a Funny Hat?
Why is the pope (Pope Former Nazi the Third) having a go at Enlightenment? I don't mean the turning on of millions of Christmas tree lights... I'm talking about the popular period in western history where people began moving away from the blind religious nonsense and towards Reason. This was back in the late 1700's.
I know that it may still sting the Arch Catholic that over 300 hundred years ago a vast amount of the Roman Catholic Church's clout when down the toilet as people began to question blind obedience. But really... get over it.
The Pope is going on about how atheists are responsible for the majority of moral injustices and violence in the modern world. He also thinks that without belief in god (his in particular, I think) a person cannot have hope. There is nothing for them without hope.
I have hope. I hope the Vatican gets hit with an earthquake. I'd love to see the press release that the church puts out after that one.
Anyway, the Pope thinks atheists are the bane of human existance. I know there are some kids who'd say that Catholic Priests... and the system that protects them are the bane of their existance. I think there are a large swath of jewish peoples in the world that still think back fondly to the church's endorsement of the Nazi final solution program... oh wait... maybe they don't. But that's not real stuff. That's not something that was the church's fault per se. Not like a half dozen or so crusades to rid the holy land of muslims. Those were order by the Pope's themselves. And good for them. Go get rid of the muslims. Noble noble causes. And don't forget to kill a few thousand christians on the way. I know that in theory they're on your team, but whatever... they had some gold and loot and it needed to be taken back to some wealthy aristocracy in Europe... with only a moderate massive tithe going back to Pope Pillager IV. Ya know what, let's have the 4th Crusade not even get to the Holy Land... that's too far. let's tell the peasants that sign up (re conscript at sword-point) that we're going to save baby jesus' bathtub to motivate them when in fact, we're just going to go raid and plunder Italy.
Mecca, Italy... same difference. The italian christians were clearly deemed by god to be smote. Or deemed by Pope Grouchy McTinkle (the first Scottish pope) to not be paying enough tribute to the pope so he decided to use his thugs (crusaders) to sack the place.
Where were the atheists during all this? Probably dead.
I don't know what my point was...
Oh yeah... the Pope is an Idiot.
If his version of hope and salvation are the ones offered by his god... I'm thankful I've been booted out of the club. An eternity of hypocracy doesn't suit me. I'll take my dirt nap and like it.