Ye Revelations of the Pope Himself:

“the Pope said, but “the claim that humanity can and must do what NO GOD ACTUALLY DOES OR IS ABLE TO DO is both presumptuous and intrinsically false”. (emphasis mine)

“We must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world is not in our power,” the Pope wrote. “Only God is able to do this.”

“We can free our life and the world from the poisons and contaminations that could destroy the present and the future.”

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Well, Verne…I have to agree with you.  It certainly is baffling to say the least.  It does sound strikingly close to “don’t worry about it….GO SHOPPING. But be “green” about it.

I find it shamefully hilarious that he says “what no God does or is able to do”  ahhh…..sure….OK.  But if humanity thinks they can “overcome” they are…what was it…“both presumptuous and intrinsically false”.  Because “only God is able to do this”......but…but..but..you just said, “what no God does or is able to do”...?  I mean is this one of those “mysteries of God”..?  or is it the “baffling by God’s chosen”...?  Would someone tell the man he can’t have it both ways.  His “spin” is crazy…must have a diploma from the ol’ diploma mill itself, Oral Roberts University.

To recap: We can free our life AND THE WORLD but we can’t so we have to let God do it because he’s the only one who can, but of course he can’t because he can’t do what no God can do.  You guys got that…?!

One can argue that the unspeakable evils the Roman Catholic Church perpetrated were in the past, that it no longer torture and kill as a matter of policy.

But one official policy that the Pope is adamant about is endangering the world as we speak. He stands in the way of all means of family planning except limiting sex. In just the last forty years, we have doubled in number, from 3 billion to 6.

This sheer increase means that we cannot avoid also increasing our economic activities. The resulting impacts on the environment such as global warming, and resource depletion, such as oil and water, become more evident each day.

Before this is all over, more suffering will be visited on the human race than the Inquisition ever did.

#117224 by Verne Arnold on 11/30: “The Popes comments are just baffling and plain wrong….”

He’s gone from quoting a bloodthirsty Byzantine emperor (his last gaffe) to now quoting Karl Marx as being supposedly a safer alternative, ha ha.

Ironically, he didn’t criticize the Byzantine emperor but the Turkish Moslem ruler who he was competing with for domination of the Middle East 600 years ago.

This time, he hasn’t taken any chances and has set out to criticize Marx - so I wonder who he was really talking about? They didn’t provide a text…. http://fratres.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/spe-salvi-saved-by-hope-pope-benedict-xvis-second-encyclical/

But these “encyclicals” are written by biblical scholars, not the pope. That’s why they are supposedly always in a “clear, limpid style”, as limp as it actually is, uhh.

Atheism has led to some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” known to mankind, the Pope said yesterday.

He added: “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.”

Say What!!!

That just glosses over the horrific history of crimes and cruelty committed in the name of humans’ various religions, especially Christianity.  I don’t see how we could do any worse today, than has already been done, in the name of Christianity over the centuries.  The Popes comments are just baffling and plain wrong.

Certainly, the officially atheist Soviet Union had an evil government. However, there is nothing they did that hadn’t already been done by religious governments down through the ages. Thus we can conclude that neither theism nor atheism provides a sure-fire cure for bad government and evil policies.

Since all religions are based on faith in things which cannot be demonstrated or proved, they are notoriously bad foundations for governments, which are force wielding institutions. Combine faith and force, and you get sheer madness.

Some have argued that communism, though officially atheist, was in some sense a religion, in that its dogmas were considered unchallengeable, much as are religious dogmas.

So we may be able to conclude that tolerance for opposing viewpoints, and a reluctance to force viewpoints down others’ throats, is a better foundation for good government than either theism or atheism.

The Pope, bless his everlasting soul, is right to condemn evil atheist governments. But as Jesus said, how can you criticize the mote in your neighbor’s eye, when you have a beam in your own?

Old goat! What a lot of garbage, uhh…......

Of all the evils visited on this earth, not one organization, not even the Nazi movement of WWII can match the cruelty the church has historically displayed towards humans over the centuries. 

The church “used” to be relevant.  The reason for this is that if you did not believe or decided to sleep in one Sunday they just burnt you at the stake or seized your property or both.  The church brutally forced society to recognize them as relevant.

But, today the church is “irrelevant” and getting more irrelevant all the time (despite what goerge bush and his wealthy TV evangelists tell us)

People today understand the church for what it truly is, a political organization that collects dues from its members and lobbies our political leaders to try to regain “relevance” in our modern world.

Christianity is a religion based on blood and has a bloody history as one would expect.
Only in Christianity is it a sin to kill another human being, but it is ok if you do it in the name of god(war, Spanish inquisition, witch trials…..)

We are a strange lot.  Since the time of Jesus, virtually everything we know is constantly changing and evolving which is natural and normal.  Everything except the bible?  It is the only thing in our entire western world that is unchanged. People still cling to words written 2,000 years ago as their guide to life.

Oh well, let the Pope in his funny red hat say what he wants.  Just keep sending In your 10% tithe and pray and all will be well.