Pope To Visit Bradford Council Estate? How Bloody Funny Would That Be!

The storm brewing around the leaked government memo suggesting the Pope should bring out his own range of condoms and stay the night in a Bradford council flat has provided me with quite a deal of amusement.

You can just imagine Pope condoms, I wonder if they’d be shaped like his little hat? Can you imagine him getting into a life in a high rise tower block and standing next to a smack head?

“Third floor please love…”

” ‘ere! aint you the pope?”

What gets me is how completely unable to take a joke Catholics are. The Vatican is kicking off which is rich given the sort of things they’ve been engaging in recently.

In the Telegraph I read the best quote ever. A ‘senior’ source at the Catholic church in the UK said

“This does beg the question of how seriously this visit is being taken by the Government.
“All of our dealings with this Foreign Office team have suggested they don’t have any understanding of Catholicism and that’s how this issue seems to have come about.
“Why did they even have this brainstorming session in the first place? The Pope’s itinerary was decided a long time ago, so it’s not as if there was much room for extra events to be laid on.”

Who in their right mind would take this visit as serious?! The Pope will come, parade around waving at everybody like he’s royalty in his plastic car and whilst doing so cause madness and mayhem, divert traffic and cost money. He’s a Homo sapiens not a God and he’s only in his position because he was picked by the church, not because he’s somehow extra special.

I think the Foreign Office are more than fully understanding of the fact that the Pope is an abomination who has overseen and covered up countless abuses, even if they can’t say that publicly.

This is a prime example of the religious saying ‘because I take this way too fuckin’ seriously you must too’.

The whole thing is a joke, and let’s face it Catholics are pretty joke worthy material aren’t they! Catholics get over yourselves.

The Problem With The Catholic Church Is Its Obsession With Forgiveness

The words ‘Catholic Church’ are now, to many, synonymous with ‘scandal’, ‘whitewash’, ‘cover up’ and ‘immoral’. This week’s letter from the Pope to the Irish church highlights his continued short sightedness.

Catholics are among some of the most intolerant of all religious groups. Their stance on issues like homosexuality, abortion and contraception has always been steadfast. Behave in such a licentious way as to be attracted to someone of the same sex and you’re heading for an eternity in hell. Have sex for any reason other than to procreate and God, apparently, frowns upon you. Suffer a horrible rape and bear a child and to abort the pregnancy is abominable.

When compared with the unquestioning forgiveness granted to paedophile priests the church’s unwavering position on the above issues is nothing short of hypocritical.

At the heart of this issue of abuse is the very structure of the Catholic Church. The church is like a powerful nation, a nation which is governed by a dictator. The dictator answers to nobody on this planet, he is the ultimate authority and believes he is only accountable to god. As god exists only in his mind, the dictator has absolute control. Underneath the dictator are a host of officials granted the job of running local affairs. They are forced to abstain from normal sexual relations, suppress their natural sexual desires, and then allowed unlimited contact with children. This nation has a set of laws which were drafted up thousands of years ago at a time when everyone thought the Earth was the centre of everything and the most important place in existence. These laws are not subject to any form of social evolution. They are the same as they were when they were written, they cannot, and will not be changed. It matters not what we learn about the workings of the planet; it matters not that we now understand quite well how homo sapiens work and think; it matters not that the world has recognised it’s need to relegate certain things to history. None of these things matter, the law is what it is and it will remain so.

At the heart of this dictatorship is a small group of powerful people who consider their job to be the absolute protection of the international community’s opinion of their nation. They will stop at nothing to ensure they don’t get bad press and to ensure they are viewed as a friendly nation. Their agents operate secretly and swiftly to silence those who may damage their reputation.

Is it any wonder then, that a group as powerful as the Catholic Church continues to be involved in such horrific scandals? How can they possibly keep up with the rest of the world when they continue to live in the dark ages? Are they completely blind to the consequences of suppressing sexuality, making it a taboo subject, and forcing their officials to pretend they don’t have desires? And how can they route out the problem causers when they believe that merely offering a word of regret and repentance up to the sky fairy will fix their perverted desires?

We know all too well how those that are capable of abusing children are very rarely ‘rehabilitated’. Left freely they often go on to re-abuse. They have a serious malfunction in their conscience that either enables them to ignore it, or worse, leads them to believe they’re doing nothing wrong in the first place. The enlightened among us know that a priest is no different from the rest of the human race. We know that such perverts need more than sending on a ‘retreat’ by their Bishop.

In normal civilised society most of us could not readily forgive a child abuser. Not so the church. They repeatedly allowed the sick bastards back into service because they’d been ‘fixed’ by god.

What is needed here is a mass cull of clergy. Every single person who has been implicated in this scandal needs to be totally stripped of all their duties. Every person who has aided and abetted these criminals should be shown the door. This included those bishops who helped cover it all up; “I did it because my boss told me to” is not a valid defence. My moral compass would stop me from being able to do it, so the church who, after all, think they are the pillar of morality, should have known better.

The Pope’s pitiful letter to the church this week shows us he is no better than those in Ireland. We’ve already found out he himself failed to report sexual abuse when it was brought to his attention. He helped cover up the same sort of crimes whilst in Germany. The church may be trying their hardest to distance Benedict from responsibility but it does not watch.

For the Pope to stand any chance of fixing this issue his letter should have clearly pointed out the need to sack the guilty. It should have outlined a procedure for instantly suspending anybody suspected, whilst being investigated. Sure, people are ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but when kids are involved it should be a case of ‘not allowed near children until proven innocent’. This concept is one the church appear to have a problem with. Benedict outlined in the letter his ideas for fixing this crisis. His solution: to use Lent as an opportunity to do lots of praying, and to use Fridays for the next year to do more praying. Oh, and to do a tour of Ireland. This, apparently will:

“…lead to a rebirth of the Church in Ireland in the fullness of God’s own truth, for it is the truth that sets us free.”

The Pope is completely blind to the fact that he himself is part of the very problem.

Why Can’t Catholics Just Be Nice?

The Telegraph – Popes Brother Admits Slapping Choirboys

This is not in the least bit surprising. I think I’m now at the point where the Catholic church can do whatever they want and I will not be surprised.

It makes no difference to me that this guy is now saying he is sorry. The fact he thought he could throw his weight around just because he was in charge goes against the very essence of what they tell us Christianity is about. This guy worked in a place where yet more abuse allegations have surfaced and quite frankly I don’t believe he knew nothing about it.

The Catholic church is one of the world’s biggest evils.

Is Imposing Religion On Children Abusive?

The above is a question I’ve heard asked and discussed many, many times. In short, the answer is yes.

Religion is a personal choice, it’s one that adults choose for various reasons. These reasons usually boil down to the fact that it makes the follower feel better. Whatever the reasons for following religion, the important point here is that an adult is capable of making such a decision. Putting aside the fact that the overwhelming majority of religious people I’ve met are incapable of discussing their religion using logic and reason, they are still (usually) of sound enough mind to make an informed choice.

They can learn about evolution and choose to reject it. They can learn about the age of the earth and choose to believe it’s as old as the Bible says. They can ignore the hypocrisy and stupidity of the Bible/Qur’an or whatever other book they read and choose to follow it blindly. They can turn away from religion if they want. Most children in religious families do not have this option. They are simply told what to believe. In other words, they are indoctrinated. They are labelled as a ‘Christian child’, a ‘Muslim child’ or a ‘Catholic child’. As Richard Dawkins points out in The God Delusion we’d be appalled if we referred to a child as a ‘Labour child’ or a ‘Tory child’. We’d object to a child being used as an extension of their parents political belief. We’d say a child isn’t old enough to understand which political party they belong to. Why is religion any different?

Let’s remember we set an age of consent for sex, the reason being that children are not mature enough to consider the consequences of their actions. There is a minimum age for voting because children are not capable of understanding politics enough to make an informed vote. If children cannot do these things then they can never be expected to understand religion. I know plenty of adults who are still not able to decide what they believe.

Humans have evolved so that children listen to their parents unquestionably. If we tell them Santa delivers their Christmas presents, they believe us. If we tell them the tooth fairy will collect their broken teeth, they believe us. If we tell them God created the Earth in 7 days, started with Adam and Eve and requires us to live our entire lives according to the Bible, they believe us. If we tell them it’s wrong to be gay, they will believe us, and then experience absolute turmoil when they realise they are gay. To take a young mind and fill it with such rubbish can only ever be abusive.

The religious will obviously disagree. They argue that it’s their right to bring up their child according to their belief. But that is just the point. It is their belief.

This is one of those issues where society as a whole displays double standards. They scorn at the Westboro Baptist Church for making their kids stand with ‘God Hates Fags’ signs and they would no doubt scorn if a parent brought their child up as a witch or devil worshipper. They would be disgusted if a nutter who thought he lived his life in servitude to an alien god from Venus taught his young child to do the same. But some of these are the same people who will fill their child’s mind with their own delusions. What they are doing is taking their own life choices and imprinting them on their children. Children are so open to being imprinted, the Westboro Baptist church are a prime example of this. The children of the Phelps’ family believe exactly what their parents believe because it’s all they’ve ever been told. Could there be a better example of how dangerous this can get?

There will always be a small number of slightly liberal Christians who will not force their children to believe as they do. They are, however, a small number. All too often I read or hear stories of those who were forced to attend church, forced to pray and severely chastised if they even dared speak against the Lord! The fear of punishment is enough to qualify as forcing.

Can it ever be right to teach an innocent child that if they’re attracted to the same sex they’ll burn in hell? Based on nothing more than your own interpretation of an ancient text. Is it just me who sees this as atrocious? Children should be allowed to be innocent, to think about playing and having fun and not worry about going to hell. The sort of psychological damage this can, and does, do to kids is awful. I personally know of so many people who went through absolute turmoil, and some, complete ex-communication from their families, all because they reached an age where they realised that their whole childhood had been built on a lie. Because as they got older they realised their religion was incompatible with the realities of life. This issue is often magnified in Muslim families, where some are prepared to resort to murder if a family member turns from their religion. These families are completely self centred if they put their own opinion before loving their family.

I will be accused of thinking the way I do purely because I’m an atheist. I refute this. To impose any of our beliefs on our children in such a way that they do not question what they are told is indoctrination. This is not reserved for religion alone. We should encourage our children to think for themselves and not just pass on our own beliefs. It is equally abhorrent to bring a child up reading their horoscope, force feed them racist or homophobic views, tell them they belong to a particular political party, imprint our own bad eating habits on them (how many fat kids do you see with fat parents?), pass on our irrational phobias or our modern obsession with our image (how many kids do you see wearing makeup and mini-skirts?).

We need to question the parental ability of people who force their own beliefs on their kids. At the end of the day what is our job as parents? To give our children the start and the skills they need to be ready for life as an adult? Or is it to turn out mini clones of ourselves who think and act exactly as we do? Too many parents are choosing the latter.

Surprise Surprise The ‘Miracle Cure’ Nun’s Miracle Cure Was Not So Miraculous

In 2007 Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre was at the end of her tether. She’d been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for years and in a final attempt at securing a supernatural recovery she got all her cronies to pray to the late John Paul II. Hoping he would intervene from on high her fellow nuns cried out to the former Pope. This, not surprisingly, did sweet FA. ‘Not to fear!’ she thought, ‘I’ll write my name on a piece of paper that oughta do it!’ (I just made that last bit up. For the record, she’s French). I’m not sure what she thought the piece of paper would do. Maybe she could slip it in his pigeon hole for when he had a minute? So you can imagine her conclusion the following day when she apparently woke up cured! It must be the Pope, it just must be!

What followed was a concerted effort by her fellow loonies to get the Pope elevated to a Saint. The minimum requirement for which is to have performed a miracle. A little bit strange then that we have so many saints, as none of them have performed a single miracle! Anyway, it was looking good for John Paul as the medical staff were unable to explain her sudden recovery. The Vatican had even sent their men in black to investigate whether it was a genuine miracle.

Now she’s back in hospital and Ill again and it’s looking very likely that she’s got a similar disease to Parkinson’s but which goes into sudden remission.

It’s so funny how much money the Vatican spend on all this. It’s even funnier how these crazy mofos will believe anything, including that some old bloke who rode around in a plastic car has cured them from beyond the grave. I think she’s now back in hospital, although, if you ask me, it’s the wrong sort of hospital …

The Catholics Are At It Again

Times Online – Catholic adoption agency seeks exemption on gay adoption regulations

It’s no surprise but the Catholics are flexing their muscles again and still refusing to enter the 21st century. A Catholic adoption agency is now seeking permission in the High Court to refuse to give children to gay couples despite the law. They’re going on about how other Catholic agencies have been forced to close as a result of laws prohibiting discrimination.

They’re claiming that by being forced to close the effect it will have on the children waiting to be placed outweighs the harm caused by refusing gay couples. The fact is they are not being forced to close. They are choosing to close rather than cast aside their outdated practices. It cannot be just accepted that religion is used as a trump card, one that allows them to do anything. If we allow one religion to discriminate we have to allow all to do so, the opportunity for abuse this creates is massive. I don’t need to list the horrendous things that people have done because it’s ‘their religion’.

Other agencies have gone in the right direction, they’ve dropped their religious status and started concentrating on putting kids in good homes. Religion should not come into the process of placing needy kids in loving homes. It is founded on incorrect notions and age old traditions and it should be kept away from children who have lost their parents. The choice to follow religion should be made by adults who understand what it is they are choosing, it should not affect where or with who a child is placed. These kids need to be in loving homes where they get the things they need. Who do these Catholics think they are to decide that because a couple are of the same sex they can’t provide this?

I just hope the people sitting over this case see sense and see that the freedom of gay couples to be themselves is far more important than allowing a religious group to discriminate against them because a book they decided to follow says they have to.

It’s an inescapable fact that we are all animals on this planet. We are Homo Sapiens and we evolved in the same way as everything else. We are not bound by the rules conjured up by our ancestors. The sooner this adoption agency wake up to that the better.

The Pope Spouts Yet More Verbal Diarrhea…And We’re All Paying To Listen…

Every so often the Pope emerges from his hidden world of luxury in the Vatican and makes a carefully constructed statement. His usual aim is to upset and anger as many of the ‘heathen’ world as possible with comments that are more often than not absolutely vile.

Once again he speaks.

This September the wannabe god plans to make an official visit to the UK where he will no doubt continue to bless us with his nonsensical rubbish. His latest self appointed mission is to convince us that by introducing equality laws that stop the Catholic church from discriminating against homosexual people, and anybody else who’s lifestyle choices they don’t agree with, we are in fact breaching the human rights of the religious.

Pope Benedict, in a letter to English and Welsh bishops claimed our equality laws place “Limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs”. He goes on to urge the Church to fight against the laws with “missionary zeal”.

The Pope is correct in his insistence that the religious should be free to practice their religion. Regardless of how delusional their beliefs, a society in which people are forced to believe a certain thing can only be a bad thing. It is an internationally agreed basic human right that we should be afforded the freedom to practice any religion. But it is also a basic human right that we have freedom of thought and freedom to choose to disregard religion, or be gay, or have a sex change.

Alongside these rights is the right to not be discriminated against in the application of your human rights. This right trumps all other rights. By attempting to use their right to religious freedom to be allowed to discriminate against certain groups of people it is in fact the church who are breaching rights. It cannot be just accepted that you can do whatever you want as long as it is your religious belief. The right to not be discriminated against was made to protect people from the evils of the religious idiots. Not for them to perversely and grossly distort in order to achieve their own agenda.

Unfortunately we have to listen to this rubbish. It is the downside of free speech. What we should not do is support it. Which is why it is appalling that the taxpayer is funding the Pope’s coming trip. At an estimated cost of £25million we’re picking up the bill for the insane old guy to parade around in his bulletproof car and wave at his sheep.

If he wants to come we can’t stop him. But he lives surrounded by gold statues, has millions donated to him, and has more than enough money. Why aren’t the Vatican or his sheep paying? Hopefully there’ll be a Susanna Maiolo lurking in the shadows to take him down a peg or two…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/equality-laws-unjust-pope-uk

Is It A Surprise The Catholic Church Covered Up Their Excessive Child Abuse?

Well today it was proven that the Catholic Church has been doing what we’ve suspected for a long, long time. Abusing their position of power by raping innocent children.

The church has been abusing it’s position for years and while many have suspected the existence of abuse, the scale and widespread awareness within the church has come as a shock today. Senior priests tried to hide the abuse and the police turned a blind eye.

How this awful scandal could happen is easy to understand when you look at the history of Ireland. When the Irish Republic was established in the 1920’s the church had a grip on most of society. They ran the schools and hospitals and 90% of the population were Catholic. The police were very much under the thumb of the all powerful Catholic church.

The only good thing that can be taken from this sorry affair is that it adds yet more weight to the argument that there is no place in the modern world for the Catholic church. For years they have been unwilling to change and unwilling to bring in sufficient child protection policies. Now we know they’ve also gone to great lengths to cover up the truth and protect their name. This from people who are meant to be ‘men of god’? The outdatedness of the church stretches right up to the top and is not limited to the Irish church. This year the Pope’s ridiculous and damaging comments that condoms offer little help to the fight against aids are proof that the Catholic church, like every other religious institution, still live in a time long gone by.

People are slowly waking up to the truth. Never in history has the Catholic church had such a small membership. The archdiocese of Dublin has ten times more priests over 70 than under 40 and they barely have enough priests to give one to each of their 199 parishes. Numbers of people wanting to be priests are diminishing quickly and congregations are shrinking. Clear proof that people are realising how ridiculous the church is.

Perhaps this abuse happens because people never suspect a priest will do something like this. Let’s remember, however, that this awful treatment of the vulnerable is not limited to the Catholic church or religious groups but happens everywhere.

I long for a religion free world.