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Do you REALLY care about the next Pope?

How much do you care about who the next Pope is?


  • Total voters
    106
Like what? Tell me one demonstrably true thing that religion can do that cannot be done just as well or better through secularism.

Have you never heard of hospitals, schools, food programs, etc... supported by churches? I'm not a religious person, but your disdain is inexplicable...
 
He'll continue to chase people away from the Catholic Church then, which is fine by me. There's a reason the church is failing much faster than any other religion on the planet and it's sitting in the Vatican.

Like I have said many times..........I don't worship the Church...I worship Jesus Christ and so does every Catholic I know.
 
Like I have said many times..........I don't worship the Church...I worship Jesus Christ and so does every Catholic I know.

Worship whatever imaginary friend you want, the fact remains that the Church that you claim to be a part of is falling apart.
 
Have you never heard of hospitals, schools, food programs, etc... supported by churches? I'm not a religious person, but your disdain is inexplicable...

And tell me any of those things that cannot be done secularly. Come on, answer the question I actually asked, not the one you want to answer.
 
And tell me any of those things that cannot be done secularly. Come on, answer the question I actually asked, not the one you want to answer.

I'm not saying they can't, but evidently the need is there that is not being filled by the seculars. What drives your hatred?
 
The whole solipsistic nonsense is actually very easy to disprove

Translation: I don't know what to say.


Which is why scientists, which are overwhelmingly atheist, are so irrational, right? :roll:
?

I am a scientist, and I am an atheist. So, laugh all you want, but answer my questions, when you are done laughing.


I find it funny how many people can only imagine a single label must apply to a person.

YOU DO?! Then what is all this stuff about Catholics being irrational? Pullin' mah leg?


What is it that you think you're going to learn that we don't already know?

If I knew what I am going to learn, I would know it already, no?

A (good) scientist does not try to prove or dispove anything; hypotheses have their use, but they are not central to the scientific method. As a scientist, you study phenomena. You "establish the perimeter" of your empirical competence (your ability to collect meaningful data), and you go from there. When someone claims, say, a "communion with God", you register it. Maybe it is sheer nonsense, maybe it is something else. You don't make value-judgements based on the sensitivity of your instruments - be it a pH-meter or a human brain.

Sure, if someone says "Gays sould be stoned to death because my secret God-meter says so', you should resist fiercely. But wouldn't it be the same if I said "My not-so-secret pH-meter says so"?

Imagine yourself, briefly, in the middle of that political turmoil surrounding the first recognition of the HIV epidemic. For a year or two, it really appeared that AIDS is a specifically gay disease. Hard data had suggested so - being limited to a couple of locations in California. As time passed, we have realized that that was a complete illusion - an artifact of trivial epidemiologics - but if, at that point, it would be not LA and SF, but some less fortunate cities, somewhere in Russia or China - the "authorities" would certainly "have taken measures".

Religion would have nothing to do with it. They would justify it by "science". Just like the Nazis and the Soviets had justified their crimes by "science". Would it matter for victims?
 
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I'm not saying they can't, but evidently the need is there that is not being filled by the seculars. What drives your hatred?

Many of those things are being done secularly, many of the largest charities out there are secular. Those secular charities can manage to do the good work that the religious are, without the religious baggage that the religious charities drag around. Believe it or not, you can feed the hungry without requiring them to hear a sermon first. There are many religious charities, like the Salvation Army, who refuse to help anyone that doesn't listen to their spiel. If you're a non-theist, you can starve as far as they're concerned.
 
Many of those things are being done secularly, many of the largest charities out there are secular. Those secular charities can manage to do the good work that the religious are, without the religious baggage that the religious charities drag around. Believe it or not, you can feed the hungry without requiring them to hear a sermon first. There are many religious charities, like the Salvation Army, who refuse to help anyone that doesn't listen to their spiel. If you're a non-theist, you can starve as far as they're concerned.

What baggage do charities provided by churches pose for the recipient? It's your turn to answer the damn question, what is fueling your hatred?
 
Translation: I don't know what to say.

No, it's off topic in this forum, it's against the rules to drag a discussion off topic, it's part of the rules that you agree to when you sign up for these forums. I'm sorry that you don't take your own commitments seriously. I told you where we could discuss it, by all means, go start a thread there and I'll be happy to discuss it with you. Hell, I've written about it on my blog, you can go look there too. It's hardly an issue I refuse to handle, I just refuse to do it in the wrong place.

So enough of that absurd nonsense out of you.
 
What baggage do charities provided by churches pose for the recipient? It's your turn to answer the damn question, what is fueling your hatred?

Seriously, you just quoted the answer to your own question. Do you actually read?
 
I already did, but you're not answering. What is fueling your hatred of religious charities? Is it that ideas that you don't agree with bother you?

What part of "they are forcing their religious beliefs on the people they purport to help" can you not quite get through your head?
 
It's hardly an issue I refuse to handle, I just refuse to do it in the wrong place. So enough of that absurd nonsense out of you.

I see. And what you were saying actually has some direct realtionship to the topical issue of "caring about the next Pope"?
Fine, the "absurd nonsense out of me" is over and out. Yours may flow unimpeded.
 
Here's the Forbes list of top charities: United Way, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Feeding America, American National Red Cross, Food for the Poor, American Cancer Society,World Vision, YMCA, and Goodwill Industries.

The 100 Largest U.S. Charities - Forbes
 
I see. And what you were saying actually has some direct realtionship to the topical issue of "caring about the next Pope"?
Fine, the "absurd nonsense out of me" is over and out. Yours may flow unimpeded.

If you're afraid to debate it, I understand.
 
He'll continue to chase people away from the Catholic Church then, which is fine by me. There's a reason the church is failing much faster than any other religion on the planet and it's sitting in the Vatican.

This is an untrue statement. The Church is growing not shrinking.
 
If you're afraid to debate it, I understand.

Debate what? You are not making any arguments, beyond pure profession of blind prejudice.
 
What part of "they are forcing their religious beliefs on the people they purport to help" can you not quite get through your head?

How does someone "force" a belief on another? Your issue is deeper than having to listen to a few words...
 
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