Organized Religion Discussion Thread

[Mjting]

I...would go with nix on this one. Roughly for the same reason(and Sforza is obviously continuing his trend of providing entertaining, yet trolling answers) lol.

[NiX]

Yeah, let's have eunuchs leading this stupid religion.

[Fox]

Just let priests get married. What's the deal? Won't make them any less holy or respectable. -_-

My mom knows a couple of priests in Ilocos who are married and have their own families. I've met them and i can say that they have a helluva lot more personality and are more interesting than the average unattached priest we have here. They drink, play sports and get around town, usually acting like your average citizen. These guys wouldn't even be recognized as priests until they get up to the pulpit. Hell, i even sold an airsoft rifle to one of them a few years ago.

Maybe there's just something about letting priests live ordinary lives when away from the church?

[NiX]

Ordinary priests live like that too. Their lifestyle usually just depends on whether they're secular or in a religious order. But even that doesn't always apply.

Let's bring Jesus and Mary into this too. Would it make them and their acts less holy if they weren't virgins all their lives? I don't think so. It's just sex and reproduction for God's sake.

It's Paul who spewed all that bullshit about being better at what you do when celibate.

"For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am ... I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction."

Idiot. Just cuz he couldn't get any, he had to drag countless others with him.


EDIT - Very relevant comment on the link Jake provided:

...that includes India, Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, the United States - and, of course, Africa.

Resticted? - A cunning placement of the word. It leads to the phrase "certain negative situations" which suggests that this is a rare, or isolated, phenomenon.

The real story is of unrestricted sexual behaviour in vast territories by large numbers of priests. (The stories of black African priests in Africa violating black nuns have been around for years.) Amazingly, there is no reference to South America where similar practices are well known; and the only mention of bishops is that they must become more aware of these situations.

The solemn Vatican spokesMAN, Father Giulio Albanese, seems to be telling a completely different story - about missionaries under stress in third-world countries; whereas the primary story is about celibate priest-offenders who are natives of the region whose faith-obsessed young women they jubilantly rape in a rage for paternity.

Praise the Lord, and pass the plate for more vocations and more donations. The heroic third-world priests need your faith and money for more children or quicker abortions.

Who will be the first (repentant) priest-rapist UP for canonization? Who will be the first nun canonized for meeting her death on the abortion table in a missionary hospital?

They'll be the news stories worth telling.

[Hempire]

I lol at 'organized' Church now.
That castle the Pope lives in is a symbol of LOLPASSTHEWTFLOLmessage that failed....as people focused on the cross and not on the fish as people clicked on the 'subscribe' button of "Christ" ianity.

oh. Opus Dei....they are lol too with lots of money.
UA&P...
....thanks for giving me an indirect 'liberal' education.

These dinosaur memes are awkwardly keeping up with the times.......i'm just waiting for a meteor to finish them off. By that i mean the whole organized hierarchy bullshit things.....i like *some* ideas but the execution of the 'beliefs' just fail as a whole.
Ah catholic church, thanks, for making me who i am because of what you/it ended up as.

[NiX]

The problem actually is that there's an overemphasis on Paul's teachings rather than Jesus'. -__-

[Grim]

If I interpret Jesus' teachings correctly, he is against an organized religion that is more focused on the rituals, doctrines and hierarchies rather than the sincerity of the heart. But I don't think he's against organized religion entirely if it creates and nurtures a relationship with him. It's just that the Catholic Church as it exists in the present is helping people less and less to create that connection.

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say, 'See, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

Either way, one does not have to belong to the Christian belief in order to do good - the parable of the Good Samaritan tells us that much. On the other hand, it also tells us that even the seemingly devout can be the most wrong. It's interesting to note that this was a reality two thousand years ago as much as it is today. I guess mankind really never learns.

[NiX]

That's EXACTLY RIGHT.

[atdsutm]

Religion is manmade and will have human errors. it will be the same shit as it is 2000 years ago being run by humans

[Hempire]

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Ahihihihi ()/

[J.E_Magog]

Celibacy. Good interview. I love tihs show.
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/wat...-Tom-Doyle

[NiX]

Nice link, JE.

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/tra...-Tom-Doyle

Transcript of that interview.

[Twin-Skies]

A member of the Filipino Freethinkers blog I visit posted this article on the matter of priests here in the Philippines with pending sex abuse cases:

http://filipinofreethinkers.org/2010/04/...ilippines/

I can't really say anything else at this point - reading that article has, quite honestly, made me too angry to think straight.

Monsters. I wish there was a hell, only so we can throw their sick asses in it.

[NiX]

In that case, I really wish that hell had levels. Cuz I don't wanna be in the same level as them.

[Shintetsu]

What Grim said. Basically those who think they're doing the best/right thing may just be the very people who have committed the worst mistake. i.e., the catholic chuch.

The same goes for every other religion out there. I personally think that being a member of a certain religion isn't enough to save you. You can't just be a "christian" and do shit at the same time, you're being the biggest hypocrite of the religion you 'think' you're part of.

On to the possibility that the world is ending, I vaguely remember a passage in Revelations that said something about 144,000 people at the mount of Zion. If that were true, the ratio of 144,000:billions of religious people, both dead and alive, could be a representation of just how few people actually are doing the right thing.

I get how organized religion can help spread the 'good news', but if it's coming from the mouth of these people, it's hardly doing any good at all.