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Ahh joy - the Vatican has today announced se7en new-and-improved ways a Catholic can enjoy eternal damnation, with the gnashing and the wailing and the constant repeats of General Hospital:-
1) genetic modification
2) human experimentations
3) polluting the environment
4) social injustice
5) causing poverty
6) financial gluttony
7) taking drugs
To be honest I was having far more fun ticking off the old ones. These are a walk in the park for anyone who lived through the 1980s!
I suppose with #1 & #2 it will be much like it was with all of the other science that they used to call heretical. They'll be a retarding factor in human social and technological evolution until such time as things are accepted by society at large. They they themselves will adopt them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mindgames
I believe that we shouldn't treat the Popes at the hospital. As much as they have opposed scientific research, I think they should have to rely on the power of prayer, not our secularist witchery.
I think I'd need to see how they define some of those. Social injustice and causing poverty in particular. Financial gluttony? The Vatican isn't exactly low key on the gold accents and such. And taking drugs? Is that any drugs or just illegal ones? Last I checked, God didn't make the laws. Would say marijuana be a sin unless you had a prescription? I'm all for good healthy advice from respected and even spiritual leaders, but clarity and consistency are fairly important to me as well.
While 3 and 4 are things I hope folks are against (noting Forrest's point on definitions therein), this really strikes me as a silly proclamation from a church. Eternal damnation? While I respect the right of worship for all catholics amongst us, how do they expect adult human beings to believe this ? New sins? :1orglaugh
OEC
Someone clearly came back from the dead and was like, Dude, we totally missed part of the list.Quote:
Originally Posted by One Eyed Cat
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :thumb:Quote:
Originally Posted by ForrestBlack
Surely the Roman Catholic church is guilty of at least 2 through to 6, and I'm not certain they haven't done the other 2. They did condone the Nazi party...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mindgames
Funny thing is that, except for points #1 #2 and # 3, there's really nothing new on this list issued by the Church.
In 1891, there was a papal encyclical, De Rerum Novarum, that pretty much attacked the problems of social injustice, poverty causation and financial gluttony, while essentially simultaneously stating that socialism and the like was also a no-no.
The Christian Democratic and Christian Social parties and movements that have appeared in Europe since that time are essentially products of that encyclical.
As for myself, well, not being Catholic, I don't feel especially bound to pay attention to any pronouncements the Church and its officials may care to make on any given issue, just as they pay me and whatever pronouncements I make no mind at all.
ya gotta just love the vatican
No fucking way. I swear, when I read this, I thought it was a joke and that it just wasn't very funny. The subject reads like a headline from The Onion.
Taking drugs was one of the 7 worst things they could come up with, really?
For the record, our knowledge of genetics stems from deliberate gene modification efforts by a monk, but he used the old fashioned "breed this plant with that one" method.Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Spiral Dancer