catholicism
oracknows | March 13, 2017[NOTE: Due to the windstorm last week, I was knocked out of the blogging game for a while and even had to stay in a hotel for one night. We did get our power back late Friday night, but we also didn't get Internet back until much later in the weekend, because our cable went out too. So, I thought I'd have a new post for today, but, alas, I did not. So, continuing on the them of Friday, I thought I'd repost an article of a sort that I almost never do any more. This one was posted over 11 years ago and was last reposted over 5 years ago. Tomorrow, I'll definitely be back.]
The patient list for…
aardvarchaeology | April 8, 2013I found something pretty wild in an essay by J.L. Borges this morning. There's a 13th century Norse saga about the Buddha. And the story has other fine twists as well. This all revolves around a legendary tale of the Buddha's early life.
In the 6th century BC a son was born to a petty king in what is now Nepal. He was named Siddharta, and it was prophesied shortly after the boy's birth that he would become either a great king or a great holy man. His father then kept him carefully protected from contact with religion and human suffering, apparently to keep the boy away from the holy-man…
grrlscientist | July 11, 2010tags: Top Catholic Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing His Own Sons, ethics, religion, catholicism, Catholic Church, television, criminal activity, news, pedophilia, child rape, Pope John Paul, Marcial Maciel Degollado, streaming video
This video explores the question; "how much money would you want in exchange to be raped and sodomized throughout your childhood years?" This is a question that I also would like answers to. Any thoughts?
On one hand, I am completely sympathetic to this guy's situation, but on the other hand, I cannot help but wonder how a man who was raped as a child by his…
grrlscientist | July 10, 2010tags: Stephen Fry on Catholicism, Intelligence Squared Debate, religion, catholicism, Catholic Church, poverty, sexuality,homosexuality, AIDS, HIV, condoms, pedophilia, child rape, culture, Stephen Fry, streaming video
Stephen Fry provides his very articulate and thoughtful opinion on Catholicism and the Catholic Church at the Intelligence Squared Debate.
grrlscientist | June 6, 2010tags: Christopher Hitchens on The Ten Commandments, religion, cults, ethics, morals, catholicism, christians, Vanity Fair, streaming video
In this streaming video, Christopher Hitchens deconstructs the ten commandments and then rewrites them so they actually are an ethical code and so they mean something for everyday life.
grrlscientist | May 8, 2010tags: Mexican Bishops Ask for Forgiveness, catholicism, religion, sex abuse, child rape, pedophilia, social commentary, cultural observation, Al Jazeera, streaming video
As the Vatican tries to defuse growing anger over child abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops in Mexico have released a statement asking victims for forgiveness.
Church authorities in Mexico have now admitted that one of their priests, Marcial Maciel, had over a 40-year period, preyed on nearly 200 young seminarians and children, including two of his own.
The Vatican has continued to deny allegations of a…
grrlscientist | April 3, 2010tags: Vatican Easter Speech 2009, Pope Ratzinger, catholicism, religion, cults, satire, parody, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, streaming video
Just in time for Easter Sunday! Here is an except from the Vatican Easter speech (translated into English, of course). He does forget to mention the hundreds of thousands of children who were raped in His Holy Name (amen), but he does manage to talk about nearly everyone else in the world.
grrlscientist | February 27, 2010tags: comedy, humor, funny, fucking hilarious, religion, cults, institutionalized mind-control, streaming video
The meaning of christiantiy -- in their own words. Rather damning, in my opinion.
grrlscientist | January 23, 2010tags: The Ten Commandments, religion, social commentary, cultural observation, George Carlin, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, satire, parody, streaming video
There's no LOGICAL argument against anything George Carlin says in this routine. Obviously Christians will argue but then as George says LOGIC is something religion has a big problem with.
George Carlin (1937-2008) was a champion of free speech. Some (like me) think he was the greatest comedian who had ever lived. Here's one of his classic skits where he comments about the ten commandments.
grrlscientist | January 17, 2010tags: religion, school, religion, catholicism, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Dave Allen, streaming video
Irish Comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) remembers his introduction to religion -- his first day of school.
David Tynan O'Mahoney (Dave Allen) was popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada in the 1960s, 1970s and also in the 1990s; he became known in America through reruns of his shows on public television.
Allen's act was typified by a very relaxed, intimate style -- he would sit on a chair, smoking and holding a glass of whiskey. An atheist[1] (according to Allen himself, "…
razib | April 12, 2009Gallup has a new report up, This Easter, Smaller Percentage of Americans Are Christian, which is rather self-explanatory. These data aren't surprising, other surveys report the same general finding. Here's an interesting chart with some long term trends:
I want to point to the numbers for Catholicism. In the early 1990s I remember reading popular press accounts about how Catholicism would become the dominant religion of the United States in the early decades of the 20th century because of immigration. That doesn't seem like it's panning out. Why? The American Religious Identification…
palmd | January 28, 2009Look, the Pope gets to make the rules---it's his club and he gets to decide who plays and who doesn't. The Vatican does not claim to be democratic. That being said, all decisions rest on him, and him alone, and cannot be blamed on "the will of the people". The buck really does stop with Papa. So when he invites rabid anti-semites back into the fold, it's a reflection of his personal beliefs. Catholicism, and Christianity in general, places a premium on forgiveness---it's some good shit for the soul, and the story of Pope John-Paul II reconciling with his would-be assassin is truly heart-…