Pope Resigns

[mesh control]

There's lots of evidence of demons and ghosts

Such as?

Bahhahahah

[BryanM]

One of his classic quotes, about the idea that Man could do what god cannot: create a world that isn't a shitpile to live in:

"It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope."

This from the guy heading the organization that was all about teh inquisitions. Yeah, no.

[Ed Oscuro]

A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope."

this is not the way of criticizing the atheist worldview

arguably he is confused on both counts: first, who said that justice had to be created; two, how do you get from there to "without hope?"

I hope this isn't the best the guy had to offer for that famed reasoning because this is quite poor imo.

[Vyxx]

There's lots of evidence of demons and ghosts

Such as?

Please we are waiting.

[Lord Satori]

I'm not going to bother proving it, because anything I say/post will be brushed off as fake.

[mesh control]

You should not say such things if you can not, or will not, verify the subjects existence.

[BryanM]

I abstained from saying the pope used to shove metal expandable pears into people due to [citation needed], despite my own wishes on the matter. Surely you can be a better man than I.

C'mon; I want to beweive.

[Mischief Maker]

There's lots of evidence of demons and ghosts

Such as?

Please we are waiting.

You ever start playing Pac-Man? You're just going around, solving the simple maze, gobbling up the pellets. You know, relaxing enjoyable casual fun about on the same challenge level of a JRPG. Now I don't know if it's just me, but less than a minute after starting up this game...

...fucking GHOSTS man!

[BIL]

Ghosts in the machine no less. It reminds of this time I was enjoying Wolfenstein 3D's third secret level when I turned a corner and saw a fucking ghost.



Floppies went right in the shredder after that.

[system11]

I abstained from saying the pope used to shove metal expandable pears into people due to [citation needed], despite my own wishes on the matter. Surely you can be a better man than I.

C'mon; I want to beweive.

Now now, the pope didn't do that.

It was just people who worked for him, because their victims didn't believe in the same sky pixies, or indeed any sky pixies at all.

I am an atheist, if that is what it means to not believe in sky pixies and a label is really needed. I think religion is stupid - it depresses me that so many people still use it as a crutch to cope with what they can't understand, it depresses me that people are stupid enough to unquestioningly believe what they are told, and it depresses me that some people entertain the notion anyway just so they can belong to a group. However, while some results of religion have been like turning the evil dial to 11 (notably Western religions in the past and Eastern extremism now), others such as 'do unto others' becoming a societal norm are beneficial. Then again that's offset by (for example) the pro-life agenda, which I believe was a Catholic invention.

We should really as a species be growing out of this now having learned our lessons and taken from it that which worked - but it's taking a lot longer than it should have. Against other failings of our species though, it ranks pretty low.

[BIL]

I first encountered metal expandable pears in various deeply messed-up Italian horror films, and in my naivete once assumed they were the fictional produce of twisted movie makers. Should've known better!

The history and usage of metal expandable pears beats ghosts as a topic of conversation, imo.

[BryanM]

As far as I can tell, they were only used as a gag. The maiming and such may be nothing but lies after the fact, thus the needed [citation].

[system11]

I first encountered metal expandable pears in various deeply messed-up Italian horror films, and in my naivete once assumed they were the fictional produce of twisted movie makers. Should've known better!

The history and usage of metal expandable pears beats ghosts as a topic of conversation, imo.

Give an evil man or a group of indoctrinated small minded rabble the opportunity or excuse, and they'll make every horror film you've ever seen seem like Sesame Street in comparison.

[BIL]

Indeed they will and have. Those were very innocent days. Who needs fiction when there's humanity?

[BryanM]

The sacking of Nanking is one of those fun things they never tell you in school. Hell, WW2 from start to finish could (and should) be told through a series of everyone's atrocities.

The score boards tracking every squad's "kill count" during Vietnam certainly brought back shades of the Japanese decapitation contests. Fun fluffy times.

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the burrito.

[Lord Satori]

As far as I can tell, they were only used as a gag. The maiming and such may be nothing but lies after the fact, thus the needed [citation].

They were an object of fear, more than anything. They didn't actually work, but they scare the hell out of people, but yeah, when the church was in power, some of the most sinister torture devices were invented. Sorta makes you wonder why some people hate religion so much, huh?

[Mischief Maker]

You should try to read it taking in account the context in which they were written or compiled. For example, most of the old testament books were compiled sometime bettwen 800-600 a.C.

[Acid King]

Read a few stories about this this morning. Rumors abound that Pope Benedict ordered an investigation of Vatican clergy after the Vatileaks scandal and discovered a whole lotta gay sex, and his resignation is linked to the fact that he'd like to hand deliver the report about the Vatican's gay subculture to his successor to ensure it isn't buried.

[idchappy]

Read a few stories about this this morning. Rumors abound that Pope Benedict ordered an investigation of Vatican clergy after the Vatileaks scandal and discovered a whole lotta gay sex, and his resignation is linked to the fact that he'd like to hand deliver the report about the Vatican's gay subculture to his successor to ensure it isn't buried.

I wonder if he'll be dispatched before he can hand the info over

[EmperorIng]

As far as I can tell, they were only used as a gag. The maiming and such may be nothing but lies after the fact, thus the needed [citation].

They were an object of fear, more than anything. They didn't actually work, but they scare the hell out of people, but yeah, when the church was in power, some of the most sinister torture devices were invented. Sorta makes you wonder why some people hate religion so much, huh?

You mean the Papal Inquisition, which acquitted 90% of those charged, and whose death rate was ridiculously small?

Or the Spanish Inquisition, which was a strong-arm tactic by the Spanish monarchy to deprive the Jews and Muslims of Spain of their land through torture tactics?

One of those things is not like the other, and your constant, blissful ignorance is grating. I'd like to know if you have ever actually read the transcripts of those trials, or you are just going off of what you see in movies.

[Ed Oscuro]

I for one have full faith in the documentary version of the Inquisition directed by Mel Brooks.

[EmperorIng]

It's the only true, unbiased account.

[BryanM]

You mean the Papal Inquisition, which acquitted 90% of those charged, and whose death rate was ridiculously small?

More along the lines of the Albigensian Crusade, effectively a genocide against other fledgling religions (ideally: Cathars) in the region. Frankly I'm fucking surprised there was anyone left to murder immediately after that one.

"Yeah, there was a period of time after murdering the fuck out of everybody, there were only a few more people he needed to murder to finish the job."

(This also continues the fine historical tradition of forcing undesirable groups to wear pieces of flair for the rest of their lives.)

(Context for those off the ball.)

[Mischief Maker]

You mean the Papal Inquisition, which acquitted 90% of those charged, and whose death rate was ridiculously small?

RIDICULOUS! So few people were killed for straying from church dogma, it turns the whole inquisition into a sad farce.

Besides, 90% of people were acquitted. Like Galileo Galilei who after being presented with "the instruments of persuasion" was placed under house arrest for a mere 360 years until he was finally acquitted in 1993 for the crime of saying the Earth revolved around the Sun.

[Ed Oscuro]

That's not really what happened to Gallileo. They basically have never quite forgiven him for being straight-up gangster.

[BryanM]

Still astounded this one church has over 1 billion members. You can't even get that many people to agree steak burritos are awesome.

.... but what I really want to learn about is these goblins/demons I've been hearing so much about.

[Mischief Maker]

Rumors abound that Pope Benedict ordered an investigation of Vatican clergy after the Vatileaks scandal and discovered a whole lotta gay sex,

I'm sure that shocked him right out of his Prada slippers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GasO8ME22jQ

[Mischief Maker]

Still astounded this one church has over 1 billion members.

A staunch opposition to birth control has its benefits.

[dex]

As does counting someone as a member just because they got dipped in water as infants.

And apostasy is notoriously difficult in the Catholic church at least - I have a friend whose application (in which he explicitly named himself atheist) was thrown away after 2 months of deliberation because "once saved, always saved - you might still change your mind". In the end, he had to write a letter so blasphemous he would get excommunicated anyway if it wasn't granted.

[Ed Oscuro]

And apostasy is notoriously difficult in the Catholic church at least - I have a friend whose application (in which he explicitly named himself atheist) was thrown away after 2 months of deliberation because "once saved, always saved - you might still change your mind". In the end, he had to write a letter so blasphemous he would get excommunicated anyway if it wasn't granted.

What were the stakes of this application? I mean, if you're looking for a job with a church, you might want to rethink that as an atheist. But someday I ought to present the local Good News Outlet with a robo-Jesus, "programmed to say all the things that you need to hear!" It'd be at least as sincere as doing that as an atheist.