The Catholic Church has spent its lifetime obsessed with accumulating as much power and wealth as possible, and "converting" (aka brainwashing) as many people to the cause. I'm not surprised that you think this is something to boast about.
What I want to know, how is he able to withstand all this publicity. And the 2nd thing, how did he get elected in after JPII? And guys, enough with the catholic bashing? I'm not catholic, but it's a tad unneccesary.
I remember watching a documentary on the American "End Timers", who believe that the end of days is happening now. Part of their belief is that the Aids epidemic in Africa is a sign that the end of days is coming. The worrying thing was that they were setting missionaries up in Africa, where the use of condoms were portrayed as being a sin. They were trying to encourage and facilitate the end of days, by meddling and making the situation worse to suit their beliefs. They are also active in Israel and Palestine, where they believe that a massive war will herald the beginning of the end of days. It was quite scary, especially as the movement in the US is reported to have some very powerful followers, and they generate massive amounts of money. More on end timers here: http://www.endtime.com/ The documentary is still available to view on 4od, but I think it's only viewable for UK residents: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-doomsday-code/4od BTW these end timers are not catholics, they are baptists iirc.
THIS JUST IN: CATHOLICS DO NOT BELIEVE IN FLAT EARTH THEORY, CREATION SCIENCE OR THE END OF DAYS. BEWARE THERE MAY BE CATHOLICS LIVING NEXT DOOR TO YOU! UP NEXT: SPORTS The pope has to love gays, it's part of the remit. However if you insert your man parts into anything other than your wife's girl parts and jiggle with anything other than the intent of procreation then as far as he's concerned you're going to hell, and he will happily pray for your immortal soul. It's a paradox, most religion is, best enjoy it or ignore it. The AIDS thing is directly related to the above. The child abuse thing, yeah, welcome to huge organisations that will do almost anything to protect themselves. In addition this thread makes jesus cry, and the 12 million didn't include money for police. God only knows what it's being spent on, housing entourages, feeding them with more than a couple of loaves, and detailing the pope mobile no doubt. My suggestion - email a plastics manufacturer and get lots of little crosses, pope flags, and assorted memorabilia made up for you sharpish. There are fortunes to be made.
Is this directed at me? Are you saying I am brainwashed? I have reread my posts and cant find anything that would constitute a boast, would you care to enlighten me? Are Catholics fair game to have a go at now? If anyone slated any other religions on this forum they would at the very least be warned quite possibly banned, why is it ok to have a go at the Catholic Church and its followers? You dont have to agree with our beliefs/leader/the way we do things but to start name calling and such is bang out of order. If you are going to post derogatory comments about the pope/catholic church then at least provide where you are getting your information from. Anything else is potentially libellous.
No matter what you believe in, some atheists just feel they have the rights and need to call you brainwashed and the religion nothing but fairy tales. I don't think that's personal.
The thing I dislike about Christianity (catholic, Anglican or whatever flavour) is the fact that it has had to adapt what it preaches to suit the masses, in order to put bums on seats in churches and keep the money coming into the coffers. But religion is an absolute, according to the bible. There is god, we are his creation. We have tenets that we are supposed to live by as Christians, but the church keeps moving the goal posts and redefining the tenets on which the religion is based. This is more than enough reason for me to be sure that religion (and God) is nothing more than a man made creation, and one that developed as a means of explaining that which we didn't understand.
It saddens me that even in the 21st century, so much of human life is still based around religion. I'd have thought we'd have grown out of that medieval crap by now. The Pope is just more deluded than all his followers. Either that or he's a genius for getting so many billions of people to follow him for absolutely no obvious reason...
Oh please. Heres one of the things I absolutely detest about organised religion - they think they are exempt from the rules that everyone else has to follow. Its a free country and its a free (to certain limits) forum to discuss what we want, and that includes the bashing/slating of religions, individuals, companies, governments, organisations, or whatever you want. If I started a thread questioning the actions of Microsoft, or the Australian Labour Party, or Oxfam, or Scientology, providing the threads were about legitimate topics of discussion and not flamebait, I would not get warned or banned. So yes, Catholics and Catholicism is more than fair game to have a go at, because thats the essence of living in a free society.
Go search through other threads and I promise you it isn't just catholicism that's been on the firing line. In fact I'm quite sure it hasn't been /bashed/ nearly as much as islam or scientology, just to name a few. But this is getting seriously OT.
Classic example of religion right there. Can't fight the logic so just stick your fingers in your ears and scream: "lalalal one plus one does NOT equal two lalalalalala"
At the end of the day it isnt that much money respectivly. Then again it is an obscene amout of money for one man (granted he will have a large entourage). The church has ample money to fund his trips to visit his flock, i dont see why i should pay for it, same goes for royalty, they have the money so should pay. Then again i have a rather bias view on this, God has no place in my life, and incresingly less of an influence in this country. I can understand why people would be upset by this but i am entitled to my views, i dont mean to offend. Imagine for instance if the tax payer had to pay 12million notes for a 4 day visit of Richard Dawkins (I know he already lives here, bad example i know) There are a fair few Athiests in this country but i expect thoes with faith would be up in arms. Have your Pope...but i do not agree with what he stands for and i do not want to part with my money for his visit...
There are many things that famous/powerful people get during their travels which they certainly don't need, however. You can bet the pope will be flying in style with a very nice jet with plenty of accomadations, even though any old plane would get him there just the same. You can bet he'll have very nice quarters wherever he ends up staying, even though a Motel 6 is easily enough for a person to live with. His non-flight transportation will certainly be quite plush, even though a bullet proof Honda Civic would get him there just fine. I don't even want to think of the cost of transporting his precious little bubble-mobile. I get that you mean it's not hard to understand why it will, but it's still a bit hard to understand why it should.
I'm sorry but what a load of nonsense. As others have said people are free to discuss anything within reason, including other religions, and even make negative comments about without being warned or banned. Catholicism is taking some heat here because it's a thread about the UK taxpayer being asked to pony up £12 million in a time of major cutbacks across the board to pay for the visit of the head of an organisation which is openly anti-gay, opposes equality, is actively fighting against the common sense approach to cutting down on HIV and AIDS in Africa by denouncing the use of condoms and has been complicit in the covering up of child abuse. Not to mention that, like all religion, there is a level of indoctrination and control that the Catholic Church are keen to retain and they have obtained a huge amount of power and wealth through the control they have been able to wield over the ages. Assuming you're talking about the Queen she gets far less money from the State than is pumped back into it from the Crown. We, as the texpayer, are on the far better end of the deal when it comes to Royalty and the cost of their upkeep as opposed to what we get back from them in terms of revenue.
Yes but none of those had a direct insult to a forum member for following there faiths. No matter though I have added the bigot to my ignore list so I don't have to read his shi t posts anyway now.
Meh so you got upset about something he said and now call his opinions "**** posts"? Right. Sure, people have their own reasons to believe in stuff, and it can be a very personal thing. But when you (well I) personally don't believe in anything, it all DOES seem weird. The way how all religions trying to convert people into believing in their beliefs and acting/thinking in a certain way does seem quite a lot like brain washing. To me it makes absolutely no difference which religion we're talking about here, obviously this time it's catholicism, but really it's all the same. Well that's my opinion anyway, and no members of any particular religion should get offended by that.
As someone here said he could use an old plane and stay in a cheap hotel and get a cheap bullet proof car. I have a better suggestion, Rome to london on ryanair costs about £40 and he even gets to bring a suit case with his funky hat. There are plenty of cheap holiday homes around the country. And for a bullet proof car why not loan him one of the queens cars she has quite a few and at least 2 of them are bullet proof. It would even save a few trees and keep the tree huggers happy
This thread is about the english economy and about how shockingly large amounts of money are being used form tax payers... not a rant about the pope :/
