My reaction to the old 'Pope in a Bulletproof Car' observation.

Forgive me reposting a comment I made earlier today on reddit, but this was before I had joined the site.

Someone posted the old "faith in action" demotivator featuring the pope in the pope-mobile. I made the following comment. I repost this mostly to see two things; the kind of response I get on a site I just joined as well as anyone's knowledge of what the apologetics use to explain the inherent hypocrisy of putting god's right-hand man in a bullet-proof bubble.

"It's not that people are arguing that faith can stop a bullet. It's the ridiculous assertion that when bad things happen, "it's god's will", but then god's own agent, captain of Team Catholic, the most important person in the church rides around in a bulletproof car.

It seems fishy that the most holy man in the world, who is pretty much guaranteed a place in eternal bliss in heaven, and who preaches that everything that happens is god's plan would be afraid of getting shot.

If he was shot, it was gods will and trying to change that would be a sin.

If he was shot and died, he gets to go to heaven and live in eternal bliss.

It strikes me as either a very hypocritical way to run things or proof that the pope knows he's preaching BS, is fearful and wants to maintain both his life and his power.

There are plenty of ~~examples~~ parables of prophets and people of faith walking into impossible situations and depending on their faith to see them through.

The head of the church, meanwhile, is so terrified of a bullet and has so little faith in his own god to see him through, he's carted around in a bulletproof glass bubble.

Does anyone else see a kind of irony to this? Or start to wonder about their own faith in their god when the pope shows so little himself?"

Original link here.

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Comment by Laura Benedict on September 1, 2011 at 7:52pm: The unthinking sheep (er, I mean people) who believe in organized religion and all that jazz don't think about the inherent hypocrisy in that religion. I could go on and on for quite some time concerning the many hypocrisies I have personally witnessed, and then again about those I have heard/ read about. "You just don't have enough faith," is a bully tactic used by most religions to ensure their people do what the religion wants them to.

Comment by Colin Tomele on September 1, 2011 at 8:02pm: Yeah, my point is that the hypocrisy is so obvious that they make up these rules about critical thinking and reasoning. They call these traits that make us separate from other primates and animals evil. Inside the great papal circus tent, it makes sense - and it's scary to push against the walls - but once you tear through that thin fabric of lies, it's so damn apparent the brainwashing and propaganda and mind control that are used.

I like using the sheep label; followers brand themselves as sheep (as they are taught to do from near birth), happily so, and their owners leaders call themselves shepherds. It sounds derogatory and generalizing, but it's what we have to face if we want people to simply look at their world and choose their own reality. You can't make up your mind if RULE #1 is that questioning the rules means you will be tortured for eternity.

That's mental abuse in my book.

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