Kudos to a Pope. What Hath Reason Wrought?

  I’ve never claimed to be infallible...I’ll leave that imaginary condition to the Papal Office.  It’s entirely possible that I may have been wrong about Pope Francis.

[Pauses while gasps from readers die down]

OK…take a breath and relax.  I’m neither going soft on religion, nor handing out any accolades to the Cat-Hole-Lick Church.  But I had placed this pope in the same class as all other popes; unmoving, iconoclastic, a slave to historic doctrine, a foe of modernity, gays, women, heretics, and just about anything else that doesn’t conform to Catholic doctrine. 

Today the pope came out with an interview to America magazine, a Jesuit publication, in which he said the Church has been “obsessed” with contraception, abortion and gay marriage.  That maybe it’s time to move away from that emphasis and focus more on acceptance and love than staunch anti-activism (that’s my term, not his).  A few weeks ago he offered an olive branch to atheists, acknowledging one needn’t be a believer to be good or do good – that people can be “good without God,” as the oft invoked atheist slogan goes.  This is a far cry from the words of his predecessors.

Both stories here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/pope-francis-gay_n_3954776.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/pope-francis-good-atheists_n_3320757.html


Does this mean the Church is going to suddenly reverse itself?  That it will countenance gay marriage, openly gay priests, a woman’s right to choose, condoms and “the Pill”?  Of course not.  It will take centuries for that kind of reason to migrate into the Church’s dogma. For the time being, it’s just words.

What it means, however,  is that the Cardinals screwed up. I doubt they intended to choose as pope who is not simply a robe wearing, pope mobile riding, drone, mouthing the same old Catholic script and digging in his heals against the changing tide of society and its evolving mores.  My guess is they are in a tizzy over this pope’s new tone and emphasis.

More importantly it also means that the Church has taken a baby step toward modernity, perhaps because of the pope’s realization that no society, culture, or religion lives for ever like a rock in a stormy sea - no matter how old or how venerated it cannot remain untouched by the world around it.  That they must either adapt or die the death of irrelevance and obsolescence.  

Pope Francis has set that adaptation in motion. Whether it has legs, whether it will out live him, whether it is embraced, nurtured and expanded upon by the next pope, the Catholic hierarchy, and the next generation of Catholic laypeople remains to be seen. But I know this… if this kind of reasoned heresy was uttered by a pope 500 years ago, he’d have been the unfortunate victim of an accidental ingestion of poison.

No, not willing to embrace the pope and kiss him on his fat face.  And I’ll remain skeptical as to where this will lead, if anywhere.  But I’ll give him kudos, and a tip of the hump just for having the sense and guts to realize the time has come to shake up the old guard to whom condemnation, persecution, and sex obsession is the Church’s  raison d'être.

Good for you, “Padre”.   

Another tragedy, another call for useless prayer.

In the wake of the horrific, inexplicable and all too common tragedy at the Washington D.C. Naval Shipyard, predictably the religious have rolled out their call for prayers for the deceased victims. 

While I have nothing but sympathy for those victims, and their families, I’ve never understood this "praying for the victims" nonsense. Praying for them to do what, precisely?  To come back to life? To not go to hell? To go to heaven? To spend less time in purgatory? 

Hasn't their post life outcome already been predetermined either by their simple belief / faith in Jebus as god (or their lack of belief); and/ or their good works; or their good works alone,  depending on which contradictory verses and absurd doctrine the given Xtian  embraces?

Why would the god thing need or want its inferior creations to appeal to influence god thing’s decision on what to do with the dead victims in the afterlife?  Heck… he's god thing - he wrote the rules, no?  The deceased either met the god thing's criteria for this or that or they didn't.

Praying for the victims is simply another nonsensical meaningless platitude, like saying "god bless you" or the ever popular and grating "our thoughts and prayers are with you." Useless gestures by the pious meant to make them feel good and reduce their own feelings of impotence in the face of a violent world. Sort of like busy work for the religiously stupid.  

I suppose to them praying seems less insipid than just  "baaaaaaing" in unison. While the effect would be the same, the latter would be much more amusing.

Remembering

Twelve years ago this day my eldest son had a brush with death, but happily escaped from World Trade Center Tower II in time.  Almost 3,000 of our fellow Americans weren't as lucky that day.

Remember that day.
Remember the fallen.
Remember our lost innocence.
Remember what religion and religious fanaticism breeds. 

I love you, Josh.

Fasting for Peace: A sure way to starve to death

The pope declared today September 7^th a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria.  I’m going to go way out on a limb and guess it will have all the impact of sticking a needle in your eye to end child abuse by the Cat-hole-lick church.

Shouldn't the pope have been praying for peace everyday his entire life? Why haven't all Catholics, all Christians? After all, there hasn't been a single year in written history where a war hasn't been waged.


Funny how the faithfully deluded always talk about "free will" and then pray to implore their god thing to intercede in man's affairs and change man’s mind  - effectively eliminating free will. They never let that bother them though. Their whole belief system is a web of contradictions and confused logic. I even had one confused apologetic religionist tell me he doesn’t pray to god to influence humanity, he “prays to humanity to influence itself.”  Talk about the ultimate in polytheism! I wonder how that’s working for him.  


So, either they haven't been praying for peace all along; haven't been praying hard enough; or there is a more obvious and reasoned reason why prayer hasn't been effective in bringing peace, anymore than it has been effective in re-growing amputees' limbs.


So why wait for a missile crisis and chemical killing of civilians? Did it tip the scales thus implying their prayers would be more effective now...more than they have been when civilians were being killed by high explosives, or more so than than when people were being hacked to pieces with swords and axes?


As far as fasting goes: Super! Maybe it will reduce the line at the local Subway sandwich shop for the lunch time crowd...well, at least in the Vatican.

Islamophobic? Christian Centric? Republican? Southern and Stupid? Then Pass a Non-Law.

North Carolina has been developing a reputation for stupidity above and beyond the norm for the South. Their latest foray into absurdity involves having passed a law outlawing Sharia law in their state.
Let me be clear: I have no love for Islam; less or about the same love as I have for any of the Abrahamic religions. But the fact is NC's legislators, and the GOP in particular, are utterly mindless beyond all reason. They have become “Sharia-phobic.”

If they are concerned about religious, or ethnic, or philosophically based laws supplanting the law of the land then where is the NC law against the practice of Chthonic law, of Talmudic Law, of Lakota Sioux law?  What's that ? They never heard of those things but now will get to work on it right away?  I doubt it.

The orthodox Jewish community has been practicing Talmudic law in this country for generations. As an example: to get a divorce all the husband has to do is repeat “I divorce you” three times and it’s a done deal.  It’s called a “get.”  Not exactly in concurrence with any state law.  But if people who are Hassidic Jews, or Muslims, or Amish, or whatever want their lives guided by a series of traditional laws that have zero impact outside the confines of their culture and community then I couldn't give less of a bowel movement.

Naturally if the Jews started to observe the 613 laws of the Old Testament precisely, and started killing their children for disobedience, as is called for in the Tanakh , US law  would step in. But that doesn't seem to have been an issue thus far. Similarly, if Muslim women are subjected stoning for being raped, or girls offered up for marriage at age nine, then US Law would intervene as murder and pedophilia are in violation of US law.

So why haven’t North Carolina, and the handful of similarly knee jerk states that passed similar anti-Sharia bills, outlawing the practice of Talmudic Laws within the orthodox Jewish community?  We all know the answer to that. If in doubt re-read the title to this article.

In a nut shell the point is simple, so simple even a fundie Christian could understand it: passing a law against installing laws that would wholesale trump, supersede, replace or run counter to the Law of the Land of the United states and against the will of the people is already ...ALREADY... unconstitutional, and thus could not happen.  There is no way Sharia law, Talmudic law, or any other legal system, can be imposed on anyone anywhere in the USA. Thus NC has passed a law for which there is no possibility of violation.

Thank you North Carolina legislature. Without your leadership one might have gotten  the impression this country was heading toward sanity. 

Take two prayers, and call me when you have full blown AIDS.

I get a lot of inspiration for my blog articles from the Huffington Post Religion Section, and the comments left by the devout.  It’s a veritable font of religious idiocy that keeps  me informed of the latest spiritually inspired craziness.
Yesterday there was this doozie: 
Pentecostal Minister Convinces HIV Patient to Refuse Medicine Leading to His Death Bed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/24/pentecostal-minister-hiv_n_3806693.html

This article prompted lots of comments. One of my favorites was from a Xtian who posted the oft repeated hackneyed internet parable about the drowning man who prayed for god to save him - refusing all human aid - only to drown. When he reaches heaven he asks god why he didn’t save him, and god replies “I sent the Coast Guard, a Life Guard and a Helicopter…what more did you want?”  The story was much longer of course.

The point being that god thing provided man with all medical knowledge and technology we have, thus failing to partake of it is man’s folly. Naturally it generated baaas approval from the religiously wooly. 

I asked for, and am still awaiting, the parable that explains why god infects and kills millions of children with the HIV virus he created. I won’t hold my breath.   But I digress…

Back to the article.  In reality the Pentecostal minister’s advice is totally in keeping with the basic premises of religion: delusion and false hope.

After all, only with religion do people refuse their critically ill child medical aid that could save his life in favor of "prayer healing," which invariably allows him to die. Only in religion is the fabled mass extinction of the planet's inhabitants, human and animal, acceptable behavior; the genocide of tribes by Hebrews good and necessary; the handling of deadly snakes reasoned; and instilling in children the fear of some eternal torture chamber for simple lack of belief reasoned.  Nothing like that kind of bizarre thinking exists outside of the "spiritual" world.

But there is a kernel of logic behind the minister's advice. If prayers are always answered and one dies by substituting prayer for medical treatment it was god’s will.  The shaman would no doubt justify it by proffering god answered his prayer with “No!”, and thus he would have expired from the disease even with medical treatment. With god, any crazy thinking is sound.  

Why should any of us be surprised that a religious fanatic shaman councils a fellow religious fanatic to ostensibly commit suicide by faith? I’m only surprised it was news worthy enough for publication. 

Religious Persecution: Christianity’s just desserts?

"I don’t see how you can turn your back on the persecution of Christians in foreign countries simply because others who have held their same faith at another place and time in history were atrocious."

Above is a paraphrased comment from a Christian bemoaning the persecution of Christians and condemning me for my reference to Christianity perhaps receiving its long over due and just desserts.

All right thinking people oppose persecution for any reason: ethnicity, race, religion (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, etc.  I am no exception.  But the fact of the matter is when people embrace a world view that has been the cause of pain, suffering, genocide and simply bad manners for some 1700 years, don’t expect me to cry a river when “karma” bites  believers in their collective asses. 

Here’s my reply:

Your "faith" is washed in blood and has been since its inception by your cult’s founding fathers. That you prefer to ignore that fact is simply a function of typical religious denial...or lack of education.

The persecution and killing of those who held varied views of Jesus' divinity; 1700 years of Jewish persecution thanks to Christian doctrine; misogyny tantamount to the all out persecution of women; the eradication of indigenous peoples and their culture all over the planet; condemnation of the natural condition of homosexuality which relegates gays to 2nd class citizenship even today; US fundamentalist Xtian clergy who encourage African nations to eradicate gays - and African Xtian clergy who are supporting their killing while imprisonment of gays in other countries is endorsed by good Christians following their Lard's words.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You dare cry "persecution" while you wash your hands of these Christian inspired and propagated acts as  though they are ...what … one offs?  Bullshit.

Call it "karma", or "what goes around comes around". Or "you reap what you sow" or "those who live by the sword - die by the sword." -  one doesn't have to believe in boogie men and dead man-gods to see the truth of those sayings and apply them to the faithful upon whom wrath has fallen.

”It’s unfair to hold a grudge,”  you might say “for the actions of others long ago.” But how different is it from the actions of your god who in your scripture condemned Jews for generations because of some Jews' supposed roll in your man-god’s death. Or your god’s condemning all humanity with an eternal curse, because of some supposed disobedience by the supposed first man and woman millions (Oh, that's right..thousands) of years ago. Talk about grudges.

I don’t endorse retribution by persecution. I deplore it.  But perhaps the anger and actions taken  against Christians are directly due to your perverse religion's bloody and unjust history.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of the offending culture taking proactive measures to prevent its resurgence. After all, history has a way of repeating itself.