As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentiethSo this man, this ex-Member of the Hitler Youth, this almost-certainly-responsible-for-protecting-paedophile-priests man, who's on record as equating Homosexuality as great a risk as Global Warming, this frickin' idiot who believes condoms make HIV worse, this misogynist throwback that believes over half of the followers of his own faith are incapable of being full participants, this leader of a millennia-old organisation that's crippled entire societies, persecuted it's own members, colluded with or at best stood by whilst the Nazis performed their atrocities, is now reaching out to have a pop at Atheists?
century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from
public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and
thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”
Let's be clear: Hitler and the Nazis were dicks. So was Pol Pot. And Stalin. The 20th century was literally teeming with Class-A dicks in positions of power, and the 21st century doesn't appear to be shaping up any differently. Whenever you've got dicks in charge, Bad Stuff happens. Really bad stuff.
But it's not like Atheism makes people into dicks. Or at least, not at any rate greater than Theism makes people into dicks. And lest we forget, the great struggles of our age (and for most of recorded history) are being waged by dicks operating under the banner or at least fig-leaf of a religious alignment. Al-Qaeda? Hardly a poster child for the atheist movement. Jihads? Fatwas against harmless writers? Again, not the work of the religiously-abstinent. And that's without even looking at the motivations or known affiliations of the major players of the toss that our side has kicked-off (but we know how much their Faith told them to go invade oil-bearing countries...)
Stuff like this... well, it punches my buttons I'm afraid. It's the hypocrisy I can't stand. I mean, I understand the reasons for it: power's nice, the vatican must be a comfy place to live what with all that gold and all, I can see it's a good idea to keep promoting the "no no, we've got the answers, everyone else is wrong" line to keep the people hooked. But so much of this crap goes against the facts and even common sense. It's not that I don't swallow any of it, what bothers me is that I live in a world where anyone can swallow this sort of guff.
If ever you needed proof that humans aren't rational beings, just point to the nearest Pope and the number of people who buy into that whole "everything he says is absolutely true" schtick.
Oh and by the way: Hitler almost certainly wasn't an Atheist. Go Google it. If you're hard of googling, try:
....Way to get the sources right, Ratzinger. Stay Classy.
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