Entry 770, on 2008-05-15 at 21:50:44 (Rating 4, Religion)
I really don't know whether to admire them or laugh at them! I mean, they believe the most nonsensical garbage I've ever heard but they also make a reasonable effort to support modern science and they do take notice of the facts. Who are "they" in this case? Well, they are my old friends the Catholic Church again!
My favourite examples of their absurd core beliefs are the virgin birth and the trinity. These are just so obviously, absurdly fake that I can't believe anyone could talk about them without bursting into laughter. The virgin birth is an obvious elaboration. It didn't appear in early gospels and was just sort of added into the story as a nice embellishment. In fact many pagan gods were born this way so I guess it gave Jesus some extra credibility!
And the trinity is so silly. The early church sort of accidentally created these three entities (what the hell is this holy spirit thing anyway? I can't figure it out) which all were required to be gods but they were also dedicated to monotheism. The obvious answer? They are all the same thing of course! Makes perfect sense - if you really want it to.
OK, that's the negatives. What about the positives? Well the Catholics do accept evolution and they have a fairly healthy attitude to science. There are the objections to genetic engineering, birth control, etc, but I can forgive those.
Then there's the latest news from the Vatican. In an article entitled "Aliens Are My Brother" (I almost burst into hysterics just typing that) the Pope's chief astronomer, Father Funes, says that the Universe is so vast that other life forms may exist, that life on Mars cannot be ruled out, and that intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.
Apparently Father Funes is the director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome and is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world. I'd like to see what sort of papers he has authored! And isn't it ironic that they have an astronomer after the way the church persecuted one of the first modern astronomers, Galileo. Father Funes just says that mistakes were made, and it is now time to turn the page and look towards the future. I guess that's reasonable.
But this is just like kindergarten stuff really. He believes these aliens could be free from sin. Maybe their equivalent of Eve didn't want to eat the apple! Its just like a story made up by a five year old. I mean, puh-lease!
Maybe the Catholics just want to genuinely modernise their belief system or maybe they want to prepare themselves for the discovery of life in other parts of the Universe. Imagine the effect that sort of discovery might have on superstitious people. But if its something the church is comfortable with and has already discussed then it wouldn't be such a big deal.
As well as this brilliant bit of deductive reasoning the church is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. It seems that they are prepared to change their ideas around to fit in with whatever happens to fit the current zeitgeist. I just wish they would officially get rid of those silly virgin birth and trinity things as well!
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