Reaction To The Pope

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

I'm not too fond of many of the things the current pope stands for (these things contributing to my decision to break from the church). This is one of these things.

I do believe that so long as someone is not harming or violating the rights of another person in any way, they should be permitted to do as they wish. Do I support hedonism? Not exactly, I believe in the right but just because someone has the right doesn't mean that they're going to do it. We still possess the ability to choose for ourselves, and thus the mere legality of an issue doesn't mean that everyone will do it.

I dislike much of the way the Conservative part of our nation has handled many of the issues such as this. Really, equal rights should apply to homosexuality as well. I don't believe it evil, I do feel there is a God and I believe that God doesn't care what religion we are or what our sexuality is so long as we lead basically good lives.

[Brian The Pink Shark]

im catholic and i dont believe in a lot of the things the pope says, and it is because of people like him that ther is so much homophobia in the world

[Rye]

That's just stupid. I've never took what the Pope into consideration of my morals and beliefs, and I'm sure not going to start now.

I find religion so ironic sometimes. It's supposed to bring people together yet it starts wars and discriminates. It's happened from the beginning of time and it sure isn't ending any time soon.

[Brian The Pink Shark]

since religion doesnt do what it's supposed to do(bring people together like Rye said) then does that make Buddhism the only possible true major religion?

[gokufusionss1]

pope decalres gays wrong shock,
what next? murder is a sin!

[Destai]

I agree with The Captain on everything.

The Pope is irrelevant, or should be irrelevant.

I think hes just an old man clinging to an outdated book. In my opinion hes done his time. He was more suited for back when christianity was more strict and fearful, when everyone attended church and you were expected to follow or have your corpse rot in hell. Again, I think hes out of date.

[DMKA]

I agree with The Captain (as usual) and Unne (not so usual).

[Besimudo]

"In my opinion, the more liberated we get as a society, the better, because we get closer to who we are and away from the image driven culture that has come to dominate our lives."

Yep. And that is what all revolutionary movements are based on, namely, the freeing up of personal privileges. However, the west (Britain, Anglo-America), unlike continental Europe: is a slow delivery of progressivism i.e. it ain't happening overnight but it certainly is happening. In these nations the moral codes are corroded slowly and degenerative laws - especially infanticide - become everyday place in society. The liberalism we have become acquainted with is the comfortable rebel that delivers policy that is well intended but in hindsight produces dire outcomes.

To contrast, the French experiment with liberalism manifested so rapidly that everything was liberalized to the extreme ... The mentally insane were freed from imprisonment and innocent people were beheaded for the state - many of whom were initial supporters of the liberal movement. Of particular relevance was the fact that the liberalists of then outlawed religion ... just as they slowly denature our traditions in modern liberal movements.

Besides this, people are molded by society not because of the wonders of liberalism. 'Who we are' is significantly based on our influences and denying this would mean that the core flesh i.e. the animal human is truly who we are as this would be all that humans have in common except societal influences.
We are less mobile today than before; the majority of people in the world cannot migrate due to nationalism (also strongly associated with liberalism) and capitalist economy.
We are less mobile due to state-governed education: it was much easier to gain an education in ancient Greece than it is today. Additionally, the Greek education was universal - mathematics, philosophy, music - Today’s academic courses are scrutinized by rationalism (another "benefit of liberal politics) and our universities (once church institutions) have been hijacked by corporate agendas, so called professional learning; hence, the explosion in finance and engineering courses in the past century.
We are less mobile due to social-engineering. The establishment of constitutional government lead to the rapid development of peripheral institutions e.g. comities, agencies, public servants, policing.
Most liberal minds are probably unaware that policing was born from the liberal movement. Montesquieu, a French philosopher - was an avid libertarian and he suggested the separation of powers into branches. Although this system seems 'conservative' it was infact generated via liberal minds. Apparently, the establishment of these separated powers would 'free-up' authorities and end corruption ... nice going Monty!

since religion doesn’t do what it's supposed to do(bring people together like Rye said) then does that make Buddhism the only possible true major religion?

Religion is mysticism, salvation and understanding ... if 'bringing people together is a consequence well it's only exterior to the former intrinsic role of religion. Anyhow, Buddhism is that main reason that Tibet was invaded by secular China ... is that bringing people together?

P.S. Catholicism is to only major religion that encourages alcohol and has massive festivals ... does that Catholicism the coolest religion?

im catholic and i dont believe in a lot of the things the pope says, and it is because of people like him that ther is so much homophobia in the world

No. It’s the whole conscience of sex. Sex should be more about man and woman reproducing and developing loving families than just scoring! Our fascination with lesbian, gay, bisexuals, curio, group ... the list goes on, indicates a degenerate appeal to sex that the west has developed. This is not a good thing! I am sure people agree .. sex like any other activity should not be abused.

Homosexuality is much like usury. It is a practice that suits itself, was previously banned and was only accepted after the typical excuse ... well people already do it so we should make it legal.
If people want to be homosexual well there is nothing stopping them ... but the practice should not disintegrate an already dying tradition - marriage.

I think hes just an old man clinging to an outdated book. In my opinion hes done his time. He was more suited for back when Christianity was more strict and fearful, when everyone attended church and you were expected to follow or have your corpse rot in hell. Again, I think hes out of date.

Firstly, the bible is not Microsoft Office '89, it doesn't go out of date. It manifests our traditions, our morals and ethics, our laws and most importantly our road to salvation.

People followed because they wanted to learn the way to salvation and understand the realms that operate beyond physical experience.
People in the past were not idiots: the academics spoke better than Shakespeare, the craftsmen built utilities to last and please the eye, the peasants produced abundantly without manufactured fertilizers or machinery.

In comparison, modern man is happy to settle as a higher form of ape, embraces mass produced technology but never masters it - by then a new fad is abusing our precious resources, and most of us never find a fulfilling occupation ... quite sad really, especially when we think we are so damn intelligent. This is reminiscent of the Roman ego obsessed with materialism and progress, but then, at least the Romans were intelligent.



Anyhow, cheers.

[Wiegrahf42]

"Religion is the opiate of the masses"
-Karl Marx-

[XxSephirothxX]

To quote one of my liberal Catholic friends, "I hate the Pope."

[Dr Unne]

I don't see how you can be Catholic and hate the Pope. I'm pretty sure that a big part of Catholicism is the decent (or supposed decent) of the line of Popes straight from Peter the Apostle, who was appointed by Jesus himself. The Pope isn't always considered right, but I believe he can say "The following comes straight from God: Pink shoes are evil" and then it's considered 100% correct, for all Catholics, for all time, literally. No later Pope could even say that the previous Pope was wrong. Has any Pope ever made that kind of proclamation about homosexuality? I'd be interested to know. Anyways if you say "I hate the Pope" you probably don't have much business calling yourself Catholic, by definition.

The Catholic church isn't completely opposed to common sense and rationality, but they do seem to take hundreds of years to catch up to the rest of the world, when it comes to things like morality and science and reality in general.

[Garland]

I think the idea of Papal Infallibility only applies when the Pope is sitting in his special chair. At least, that's how CNN seemed to word it. Anyway, I think the Pope has every right to publish a book on his views. The book isn't being entered into the church cannon. As the head of the Catholic church, his views shouldn't suprise anyone. I don't agree with the views from the book that were specified in the original post, and I haven't read the book, but I'm sure it isn't a total waste of paper.

[Destai]

Responding to Besimudo, Sorry i meant the pope and not the bible was outdated like I said in the end of that post. Although i do think the bibles full of useful advice and sets the ideas of right and wrong in alot of peoples mind I do think parts of it cant work with modern society and are incorrect. It was written and probably edited by man, right?

[nik0tine]

I have huge amounts of respect for the current pope. I don't necessarily see eye to eye with him on everything, but he is a great man either way. I am somewhat offended by some of the comments made by people in here.

The fact that the pope is sensible and level headed on MANY issues is why I respect him so much. That's far more than I can say about most Catholics, or Christians in general. Hell, it's more than I can say about most people

[mythus]

Even I find that statement dishearting. Isn't the Catholic faith supposed to be based off the teachings of Jesus? Didn't Jesus teach love and acceptance of others, showing that by going to those outside of the Jewish faith and even dining with those the priest labled as unclean? Even if the church says being gay is a sin, they should not label those who choose that lifestyle as evil. That is just wrong, and really doesn't seem like any form of acceptance to me. You don't have to agree with the lifestyle, but you still should not judge those who choose it. The Pope, of all people should show that, instead of judging.