Resignation of a Pope

Since it's on just about every news channel at the moment, I thought I'd bring up the whole Papal resignation thing.

I read this article (among many others) and noted the following quote about Atheism:

benedict wrote:It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice; rather, it is grounded in the intrinsic falsity of the claim. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope.

Good riddance to a pope who conflated Atheism with Nihilism.

We're constantly bombarded with a need for tolerance people's religion, but we're expected to put up with people representing atheism in the worst possible light for their own personal agenda.

All I can say to this is that whatever morality lead this pope to protect and cover up child rape while excommunicating those who mentioned it, is not a morality worth a second look. That kind of morality deserves to be eradicated.

Happily most of the mainstream news sites at least seem to spend a line or two mentioning that he was involved in the cover-up.

I agree with you about eradicating the 'morality' of the catholic church. That being said - I'd like to share with you one of the most impressive catholic priests you'll ever hear:



This guy was sacked from his parish - presumably because he was something of a rebel. When Aronra came to Australia he met with him. It's one of the rare times you'll hear Aronra speechless.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Maguire

I read this article (among many others) and noted the following quote about Atheism:

benedict wrote:It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice; rather, it is grounded in the intrinsic falsity of the claim. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope.

Religion-based justice was created by people too (unless you believe god exists and spoke in their ear).

The advantage of not believing in sacred eternal truths is you can re-evaluate beliefs and progress. Which is why religion lags behind on so many ethical issues, and tries to rationalise obscenities like deterring people vulnerable to AIDS protecting themselves with condoms.

Nullenvoid wrote:I'd like to share with you one of the most impressive catholic priests you'll ever hear:

Nope. Not remotely impressive.
Blows his own trumpet at the first oportunity, and is full of bullshit.

I HAVE met an impressive catholic priest, but I wouldn't be impressed by THAT old windbag.

LOL - I guess you're tough to impress.

What about the other catholic priest (the one you mentioned) impressed you?

nullnvoid wrote:LOL - I guess you're tough to impress.

What about the other catholic priest (the one you mentioned) impressed you?

Well, he was really nice to my elderly aunt in Ireland in her final months, which I viewed as a professional niceness.
He did seem sincere though, and was well spoken of by the locals.
Then my aunt died, and he was very helpful, without being pushy.
Then, at the funeral, I went up to him with a donation for the parish, which was several hundred Euros, and he flatly refused to take it. I tried very hard, stressing that it was for the parish, not a personal gift, but he said, "I'll take care of that personally, it's something I want to do". He was very fond of my aunt, and wanted to do something to mark her passing.
I had to give up in the end.

A priest who won't take money, even when pressed, is impressive, even to cynical old me.

nullnvoid wrote:LOL - I guess you're tough to impress.

No, I really didn't rate him. He dived straight in with all the "good works" he's been involved in, it just sounded like he was blowing his own trumpet as loud as he could. And of course, he's just spending other people's money, and taking the credit.

Then, when talking about the debate of Dawkins with Cardinal Pell, he was all bullshit.
That debate is notorious for the idiotic performance by Pell, but he was talking as if Pell was some sort of master debater.
He's a liar, in other words, or extremely deluded.
I've seen  that debate myself, it's on youtube. Pell was pathetic.

All Dawkins said was that he didn't claim that he KNEW that there was no god. Something nearly all atheists would agree with. Pell seems to think that is some sort of huge admission. It's not, it's common sense. Nothing can be claimed to be known 100% certain, unless you are mad, or a liar.

To try to spin that debate as some sort of masterpiece by Pell makes your priest a bullshitter to me.
It's not that I'm deliberately being anti, it's just as I see it.