Look - the Pope isn't evil!

[Beskar]

So the Pope isn't evil, because he says use a condom if you have an STD?

[Strike For The South]

Just another Catholic recantment in a long line of Catholic recantments.

Nothing more than a black stain on human progress, these little chardes people dance because one crazy Roman emperor had a crazy dream 2000 years ago is most trying on the soul.

Progress is made, the church complains, progress slows, the chruch gives in because there position was bloody indefensible in the first place, progress continues.

Religon is the ultimate roadblock to enlightenment the two are diametrically opposed.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Well I guess that's a fair point then. Although less revolutionary than what people are making out.

I think it's pretty blisteringly obvious, this man has been a theologian for around 60 years. To suggest he would do something "revolutionary" by accident is to massively underestimate him.

So the Pope isn't evil, because he says use a condom if you have an STD?

No, he isn't evil, and everyone who used the condom-thing as a reason to call him evil can now hopefully see they were barking up the wrong tree there. To see why it was such a delicate issue for him to address chec this out from the Gruniard: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...nd-fear-of-god

Theologically, they are correct - eternal damnation is worse than death, but the reasoning breaks down when you consider that they are also sinning by fornicating.

Just another Catholic recantment in a long line of Catholic recantments.

Nothing more than a black stain on human progress, these little chardes people dance because one crazy Roman emperor had a crazy dream 2000 years ago is most trying on the soul.

Progress is made, the church complains, progress slows, the chruch gives in because there position was bloody indefensible in the first place, progress continues.

Religon is the ultimate roadblock to enlightenment the two are diametrically opposed.

Wow, Strike, that Faith of your really died and left some bitterness behind.

[Strike For The South]

Wow, Strike, that Faith of your really died and left some bitterness behind.

Meh, I'm sure I'll mellow at some point

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Meh, I'm sure I'll mellow at some point

You could just mellow now, it's actually a choice, you know.

[Strike For The South]

You could just mellow now, it's actually a choice, you know.

But If I'm not here to take a stand against religon who will?

Unlike Horetores cliched and passee attack on the commoner. I focus more on the machinene of christianty which is constantly qaushing the individual scientest and philosihper.

If my attention span and soberity hold you may get a debateable reply out of me.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

But If I'm not here to take a stand against religon who will?

Unlike Horetores cliched and passee attack on the commoner. I focus more on the machinene of christianty which is constantly qaushing the individual scientest and philosihper.

If my attention span and soberity hold you may get a debateable reply out of me.

You do realise I'm a Christian philosopher (not, I should add, a "Christian Philosopher"). My initial training was in Plato and Aristotle, not Augustine.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

BBC, more nuanced: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11813319

As the journalist says, our world is impatient with subtly.

[Strike For The South]

BBC, more nuanced: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11813319

As the journalist says, our world is impatient with subtly.

So, you can't use condoms unless you are really going to do irrerprable harm to someone (IE give them AIDS). It's these sort of moral gymnastics that are so frustrating. There is nothing logical about it at all, it smacks of damage control.

It isn't so much subtly as its "Well clearly we're wrong and our position makes no sense but a baby or the clap people will get over" It's always facts to fit theroy with the chruch.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I think it's pretty blisteringly obvious, this man has been a theologian for around 60 years. To suggest he would do something "revolutionary" by accident is to massively underestimate him.

No, he isn't evil, and everyone who used the condom-thing as a reason to call him evil can now hopefully see they were barking up the wrong tree there.

I believe the issue wasn't that the Pope was merely being evil, rather that a hard and fast ban on condoms is grossly irresponsible given the daily reality where condoms basically save lives (if not from acute threat of death then at least from a needless STD infection). Merely suggesting that using condoms might not be so bad when you are having sex knowing you are infected by some STD is not nearly good enough. What if you don't know? It's not like those diseases are one night you had sex the next night you feel ill. For the type of STD which is effectively prevented by condoms there is an incubation time which varies, and for quite a few of those diseases you do not even need to have sex to get them.

Theologically, they are correct - eternal damnation is worse than death, but the reasoning breaks down when you consider that they are also sinning by fornicating.

Realistically, he was simply wrong. He still is. Not just merely wrong as in “sorry guys, but I mistranslated the Scripture here”, but every bit as wrong as the Romans who condemned the early Christians for being a bunch of incestuous terrorist cannibals -- to translate the 3 common accusations leveled against the Christians back then to a more modern rhetoric. Now the Christians eventually were accepted, then gradually given more and more power to the point that we ought to have been given a few tasters of divine wrath from the Pantheon. Of course no such divine wrath occurred, nobody has yet had to go and create a whole new human population by throwing rocks over their shoulder so it might be reasonable to assume those early Romans got it quite wrong.

So to sum up, as long as the argument for using condoms is grounded in a practical reality, I'll go for a few more lives saved from needless STDs, and continue to ignore divine beings at my peril. It has worked a good 2000 years for the Christians after all. I also would encourage everybody else to do likewise, and until the Catholic Church cottons on I can only hope that the Church will fade into irrelevance like the Romans did to the betterment of mankind.

[HoreTore]

I believe the issue wasn't that the Pope was merely being evil, rather that a hard and fast ban on condoms is grossly irresponsible given the daily reality where condoms basically save lives

I do not in any way believe the Pope is evil because he wants to ban condoms and sex in general.

I simply believe that he doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about, the pope is completely unaware of what sex even is, and the real problem is that people take the advice of someone who is completely ignorant on the subject.


Kinda like taking legal advice from a dolphin.

[Fragony]

I do not in any way believe the Pope is evil because he wants to ban condoms and sex in general.

I simply believe that he doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about, the pope is completely unaware of what sex even is, and the real problem is that people take the advice of someone who is completely ignorant on the subject.


Kinda like taking legal advice from a dolphin.

Except that dolphins are really cool, I'll take legal advice from dolphins over moral guidance from the Pope anyway, sick puppies.