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Permalink Reply by Ed on March 14, 2013 at 8:00pm

For God's sake people, why was this new pontiff not named Pope Peter? Or Peter the Great II. It would of made the present state of catholic disarray so much more palatable.

The pomp and circumstance led with the gilded robes of this overindulgent institution makes a gay parade during the New Orleans Mardi Gras look anemic. 

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Olson-Hyde on March 14, 2013 at 8:16pm

Ever heard of Opus Dei - a cult and offshoot of the catholic church

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_Opus_Dei

I wonder if this latest pope is going to live in the gardener's shed, or maybe in one of the apartments that our own fabulous Bishop George Pell built at the Vatican for visiting pilgrims at a cost of $23 million. That is where all the visiting, voting bishops stay at the moment. The only people who live in humble dwellings are the sheep of the catholic church. He can't give up any trappings, 'cause the bishops and their entourages will stamp there feet, and run him out of town. This pope will not cause waves of any sort, it is not worth his job.

He is vehemently against gay marriage, and has attacked the laws for equality in a number of countries

'At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God'. But they will change tack, as they do, and try to get laws stopped, by debates on social issues like parental surrogacy. The thing would be to ask the Argentinean people what they think of him and the court cases he has had to front up to. He will be another Teflon pope. It would be extremely hard to get a squeaky clean pope of any sort these days, with the amount of scrutiny going on by journalist and atheists.

If I give up my personal cook, can I become pope.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on March 14, 2013 at 8:47pm

Greg would be SO lost, and for what? the chance to wear a funny hat?

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Permalink Reply by Professor Robert on March 14, 2013 at 11:18pm

A whole $23 million?

That's about the average cost for building a small, ordinary hotel in an average American city.  With contingency or complexity of excavation with neighboring buildings in close, as there are in Rome, the cost would be more.

Somehow a build cost of a typical Embassy Suites doesn't seem that extravagant.

The robes look funny, but they cost less than an average business suit.

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Olson-Hyde on March 14, 2013 at 9:05pm

@Heather - I agree, and nothing will change without seculars pushing. Masturbation is still on the mortal sin list - http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=243471

Professor Robert - Atheists aren't evangelical, we just want to live our own life, without intrusion of myths and legends, and fear of hell, unless they are funny of course, but sadly, the bible is not funny, it is horrendous, and the followers are gullible sheep. If every theist followed their particular brand of religion, to the word, there would be rape, pillage, general mayhem, the swallowing of poison and playing with snakes, so it is lucky that they cherry pick these days.

@Kairan - nothing will change with the new pope, gross misappropriation of monies through their own bank and insurance companies, dragged kicking and screaming to court about pedophilia, he is a product of his generation and national culture, plus the usual brainwashing, in his case, the catholic church. There are books out, by Argentineans condemning him, but I haven't read them.

http://www.alternet.org/world/new-popes-disturbing-past-revealing-f...

There are still trials going on in Argentina, and probably more will come out, but, like all popes, he will be Teflon.

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Permalink Reply by MikeLong on March 14, 2013 at 10:40pm

"Atheists aren't evangelical, we just want to live our own life without intrusion of myths and legends"

Speak for yourself. Personally the only way I can see to live my life without intrusion of myths and legends is to address the problem that the vast majority of humankind lives their lives consumed by myths and legends - too many of which effect me directly.

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Permalink Reply by Real Life James Bond on March 14, 2013 at 10:45pm

I find that kind of sad, that an Atheist cannot live without feeling some of the repercussions of religious institutions.

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Permalink Reply by Professor Robert on March 14, 2013 at 11:34pm

@Suzanne, do you have myths and legends intruding on you on a regular basis?  Perhaps you live near a hellmouth and should call Buffy.

Even the most fundamentalist of theists doesn't follow the Bible "to the word", so that is another straw man.  Catholicism in particular is not fundamentalist, because, well, we compiled the Bible.   We think that God reveals himself through creation, and can be found through the study of nature and science; that God also reveals himself through humans and human history.  The Bible is an important collection of that history of revelation, but then so is the oral tradition, and other things.

So yes, we Catholics would join you in criticizing anyone who was silly enough to believe what you think religion is.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on March 15, 2013 at 12:17am

RE: "Even the most fundamentalist of theists doesn't follow the Bible 'to the word', so that is another straw man." - Robert, with all due respect, that simply isn't true, and may be an indication that you don't actually know many fundamental theists.

Not too long ago, in a conversation with a theist (I didn't reveal my own atheism, so that wasn't an issue) in a discussion of the 6-day creation. I pointed out that days were the result of the earth's rotating on its axis before the sun, and that according to Genesis, the sun wasn't even created until the 4th day, making it impossible to determine that days 1-3 were actual 24-hour days. I was trying - diplomat that everyone knows me to be - to give her an out in terms of explaining dinosaurs and opening the door for at least the consideration of evolution, but she would have none of it: THOSE DAYS WERE 24-HOUR DAYS!!!!!

And she was not an isolated example - so much for your straw man theory.

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Permalink Reply by Professor Robert on March 15, 2013 at 12:36am

Yet, if you were to continue to ask that theist about other things in other parts of the Bible (eating pork or shellfish, perhaps?), I bet you would have discovered that those she did not follow.   So she was not following the Bible "to the word", even though as you point out she was a fundamentalist believer in the creation parable.

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Permalink Reply by RobertPiano on March 15, 2013 at 12:41am

We think that God reveals himself through creation, and can be found through the study of nature and science;

Why do you believe God revealed himself and gave incorrect information? Why would he not say "hey, I made this entire universe with multitude of galaxies, and I made life such that it evolves from simple to complex, oh and here is an important equation e=mc**2 and btw did you know 111111111 squared is 12345678987654321. And also don't bother praying, it doesn't work. I made homosexuals too, please love them because I do."

 No, God said, hey, I made you, but still, let me see if you will kill your child for me, and I'm gonna have Noah save rats,snakes (oddly) and roaches from a big flood. And you must worship me or I will torture you, and Adam ate this apple, see, and eve was made from his rib and in your own intellect trust not...it's ridiculous.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on March 15, 2013 at 1:13am

I'd have been ready to believe if he had simply mentioned the Lamb's Laptop of Life --

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