When we think about religious believers, we tend to think that they all actually believe in the belief system that they identify with, however that might not always be the case. Many religious believers are brought up in the traditions of religion but might not really believe in the actual beliefs – and really, who can blame them. Many of those beliefs are pretty ridiculous.
Tag Catholic Church
Yesterday, I spent the day finishing out my term as Minority Election Inspector in a Catholic dominated town. This gave me the opportunity to talk to local Catholics. Apparently out of the nine Catholic Churches in the area, at least four and maybe as many as five are closing. My fellow officials were upset about this, but me, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Pope Francis is a huge improvement from Pope Palpetine Benedict. Francis is a much nicer guy and I like how he pretends that he is concerned about the poor. However, when it comes to the actual policies of the Vatican and the Catholic Church, nothing has really changed at all.
When you first think about Pope Francis and President Obama, you might not think they have much in common aside from holding a position of leadership and tremendous power. Upon careful inspection however, they do seem to share quite a bit in common.
Jamaica is a lot like the US as far as religious demographics are concerned… well sort of. About 65% of the country is Christian and about 20% have no religious affiliation. America has about 80% Christian and 20% with no religious affiliation. So who makes up the additional 15% in Jamaica? Jews, Muslim, Rastafarians, and closeted Obeahs. That last one is really pissing off the Christians.
It seems that the Catholic Church has resurrected something other than Jesus in a cracker. They are bringing back indulgences. That’s when the Church extends your imaginary life a little bit in Purgatory in exchange for your bribe… or in this case, following the Pope on Twitter during some religious youth conference.
There was a recent article on Huffington Post about whether Christians should be watching Game of Thrones. This to me is just another example of Christians being afraid of fiction.
Who would have guessed that the man in the funny hat is just a figure head? Over the last week or so, we learned that the Pope isn’t in control of the Vatican and that what he says isn’t infallible… okay we already knew that second part.
Yesterday, the Pope made the news again by calling for an end to the “cult of money.” This Pope is very different from the last Pope in that he actually cares what people think about him and he has made a concerted effort to give the appearance of being humble. The media seems to have bought into this narrative. Make no mistake the Pope’s humility is as fictional as the deity he worships.
A few years ago, the now Pope emeritus wanted to create a “dialog” with atheists… who aren’t strident in their lack of belief. Only, “noble atheists” were invited and to the Pope, that means that no atheists who are actually critical of the Catholic Church were welcome. Now Catholic bloggers have taken up a similar call for a “dialog.”