The Book On Pope Francis

Dennis Gruending judges.  The result: Pope F is pretty good when it comes to gays, the poor, and the Climate (very good there, actually, IMHO).  Not so good when it comes to wymen.  Also hasn't done much to roust out the Church Pedos.  But better than the last guy, who was 100% a dick. 

This Time Its Papal!!!

Best headline of the day:

Pope Benedict learnt nothing from his time in the Hitler Youth

...although the piece itself doesn't live up.

Best comment of the day:

...when the Pope busts out with this kind of brute medieval crap, it’s really hard to restrain oneself from pointing out that he is an elderly man who dresses up in a white kimono and pointy wizard’s hat, waves about a golden shepherd’s crook and pretends to hear voices from a supernatural being who tells him what kinds of sexual acts are good and what kinds are filthy. Apologies to Catholic sensibilities, I love the rituals and respect the intellectual tradition, but, you know, come on.

The hat also makes him look like a 7 foot condom.

Update: dozens of pictures that make the pope look sinister! Click here and feel the terror!

It's Tough Being The Vatican's Top Exorcist

High points of the Maria Mensajera interview with famous Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth:

An exorcism wouldn't have worked with Hitler or Stalin. They were in too deep.

90% of exorcisms involve "spells", often cast by envious co-workers. That's obviously why my pens keep disappearing.

The Pope supports Exorcists. He also blames Galileo for The Bomb.

Your typical Vatican Exorcist is on call 24/7, even working on Sunday. He also get babes up the yin-yan. No wait, that's James Bond.

Pope To Catholics:

Stop Having Fun!

Jesuits To Pope: We're Here, We're Queer, and We'll Dance If We Want To.

The Pope's Anti-Science Hit Piece

From the 1990 speech that got Pope Benny in trouble with the staff and students at La Sapienza university, interspersed with my Ordinary Language translation:

If both the spheres of conscience are once again clearly distinguished among themselves under their respective methodological profiles, recognizing both their limits and their respective rights, then the synthetic judgment of the agnostic-skeptic philosopher P. Feyerabend appears much more drastic. He writes: “The church at the time of Galileo was much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself, and also took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo’s doctrine. Its verdict against Gaileo was rational and just, and revisionism can be legitimized solely for motives of political opportunism.”

When Galileo was observing the rings of Saturn through his telescope, he was acting like a very scoundrel. Those inquisitors spanking him with switches? They were the real defenders of reason.

According to [Ernst] Bloch, the heliocentric system – just like the geocentric – is based upon presuppositions that can’t be empirically demonstrated. Among these, an important role is played by the affirmation of the existence of an absolute space; that’s an opinion that, in any event, has been cancelled by the Theory of Relativity. Bloch writes, in his own words:

[...]

Curiously, it was precisely Bloch, with his Romantic Marxism, who was among the first to openly oppose the [Galileo] myth, offering a new interpretation of what happened: The advantage of the heliocentric system over the geocentric, he suggested, does not consist in a greater correspondence to objective truth, but solely in the fact that it offers us greater ease of calculation. To this point, Bloch follows solely a modern conception of natural science. What is surprising, however, is the conclusion he draws: “Once the relativity of movement is taken for granted, an ancient human and Christian system of reference has no right to interference in astronomic calculations and their heliocentric simplification; however, it has the right to remain faithful to its method of preserving the earth in relation to human dignity, and to order the world with regard to what will happen and what has happened in the world.”

The difference between a heliocentric and earth-centered view of the world is merely instrumental. You can do more elegant calculations assuming that the Sun lies at the Center of the Universe. Whether the earth really orbits the sun, or vice versa...it's all relative. If that prick Galileo had recognized that simple point, those red hot irons would never have got shoved up his ass.

And it isn't just yer old Pope saying it; some German commie even agrees with me.

From the point of view of the concrete consequences of the turning point Galileo represents, however, C.F. Von Weizsacker takes another step forward, when he identifies a “very direct path” that leads from Galileo to the atomic bomb.

To my great surprise, in a recent interview on the Galileo case, I was not asked a question like, ‘Why did the Church try to get in the way of the development of modern science?’, but rather exactly the opposite, that is: ‘Why didn’t the church take a more clear position against the disasters that would inevitably follow, once Galileo had opened Pandora’s box?’

No Galileo, no nukes. Think about it. A lot of people these days say that the church should have deuced the little nerdlinger, not just stuck him in the pokey.

It would be absurd, on the basis of these affirmations, to construct a hurried apologetics. The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation and from being inscribed in a still greater form of reason …

Not that I necessarily think that. But I'm just gonna let it hang there: no Galileo, no nukes.

Yer Pope, over and out.

Prestigious University Tells Pope To Fuck Off

Apparently, in the past Pope Benedict has indicated his satisfaction with the outcome of Galileo's trial:

The astronomer had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, in contradiction to church teachings at the time, and he was forced to renounce his findings publicly.

In comments made 15 years ago when he was still a cardinal, Pope Benedict is reported to have called the trial "reasonable and just."

During his speech, the pope -- then Cardinal Ratzinger -- quoted an Austrian philosopher Paul Feyerabend, saying, "At the time of Galileo, the church remained more loyal (or faithful) to reason than Galileo himself.

Shockingly enough, it was only 15 years ago that the Earth's moving through the heavens became accepted Catholic doctrine, and apparently Pope Benny still has doubts.

In any case, the Pope was forced to cancel his visit to La Sapienza university when students protested his anachronistic views and academics at the university signed a letter demanding that the trip be called off.

Good on them.

The other interesting thing is how Philosopher of Science Paul Feyerabend's name crops up. The Pope I think misreads Feyerabend here. PF's argument is that the Vatican applied canons of reason and justice to Galileo's case that, while perhaps self-consistent, in fact do not apply to cases of real scientific inquiry. But Feyerabend had a way of writing that lent itself to misinterpretation, and it is also not entirely clear whether he would have disapproved of his theories being used to defend anti-science positions like that of the Pope, or of Creation scientists, for that matter. He did, after all, defend Astrology and seemed to be quite sincere about it.

Spinning The Pope On Climate Change

What he said, and an excerpt:

Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits and to exhibit towards nature the same responsible freedom that we claim for ourselves. Nor must we overlook the poor, who are excluded in many cases from the goods of creation destined for all. Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow. It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances. If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations. Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying.

What Climate Change Deniers want you to hear, by Simon Caldwell of the U.K. Daily Mail:

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

...which, if you read the Pope's speech, is entirely bullshit. "Prophets of doom", "scare-mongering"--these phrases are all Caldwell's. The Pope does not mention the Bali conference, but there is nothing in his speech that seems contra to its goals.

Jews In The Clear!

Or at least Pope Benny won't re-institute a prayer calling for their conversion, as was threatened earlier in the week. Quite a come down after John Paul; the best thing this new guy has done is not to insult the Jews and not to entirely embrace Biblical literalism.

Hell Exists, And The Food Is Shitty

...warned Pope Benedict yesterday. He also noted how difficult it was to find a decent masseuse. "Their hands there are calloused and quite indelicate," complained the pontiff.

Professor Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a medieval history specialist at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, agreed:

"The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a hell on Earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife."

Yeah, tell me about it, grampa. My definition of Hell on Earth is a Motel 6 outside of Tuscson Ariz. when the hooker next door is working her way through a whole platoon from the local marine base.




Pope Benedict: The Service Here is Very Poor