The Pope 'whipped himself as a penitence'...

[max_tranmere]

The guy who is the current Pope apparently whipped himself and slept on the floor in order to try and feel closer to god. In his previous job, which he held for 20 years, he was tasked with investigating paedophilia in the Catholic Church (quite a big job then!) but instead just covered it all up. Strange how these people regard harming themselves as the right thing to do in order to feel closer to god. They regard Priests raping choirboys as no big deal, yet lecture consenting Africans on condom use. They talk about material possessions as not being important, yet live in huge palaces and are members of a church with billions in the bank. It is all very weird to me.

[mrmcfister]

Ditto..the whole religeon thing is weird to me.I want the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury to explain Haiti and their 'ever loving God' who tumbles a Cathedral down to kill the Archbishop..oh nd bout 200,000 others apprently.The older I get the more I think their ilk are mentlists!

[Peter]

It's always amused me that if you go into the dock in court, you swear to God to tell the truth....etc, yet if you use "God told me to do it" as your defence, you get locked up as a nut job.

[jimslip]

I reckon the Pope "whipping himself" is a load of tosh, this is obviously Him being disciplined (in his sauna) as well he deserves, the bird with the whip and the frumpy clobber is obviously a nun off duty!!wink!

[img]http://wellspankedman.com/wp-content/up ... tion-3.jpg[/img]

I'm sure His Holiness always wears socks like this!

[Ogre]

Personally, I'd probably go to church if they went all out with this stuff. Gimp masks and everything. Not really my thing but I'm enough curious to go and see it at least once.

[max_tranmere]

Religion is responsible for most of the worlds problems, yet it claims to be there to help solve problems. Some of the weirdest social oddballs become Priests, yet we are supposed to look up to these people. I dont personally. I dont even believe in god.

[Guilbert]

Much of religion has always been a con.

The monasteries got VERY rich in the middle ages in England by taking huge amounts of money off rich lords who thought they could buy their way into heaven.

If you go to a place like Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire you realise it was a HUGE site that must have cost a fortune to build (now destroyed by Henry VIII unfortunately).



The church has conned people by pretending they were selling Jesus's bones or teeth, or that some famous saint was buried in their church and people would pay to come and see them and pray there.

At a local level churches and vicars do some good, but at a higher level then it is just "big business".

I have always said that both the mafia and catholic church came out of Italy, and they are both as bad as each other.

In fact the catholic church has probably been responsible for more deaths than the mafia (and probably more suffering as well).

[max_tranmere]

Well said. I agree totally.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]I have always said that both the mafia and catholic church came out of Italy, and they are both as bad as each other.[/quote]

Not to mention the Catholics' close relationship with fascism. Aligning themselves with Mussolini and never failing to celebrate Hitler's birthday during his term. The Usta?e movement in Croatia as well as it's baby, the NDH; the Estado Novo in Portugal; Engelbert Dollfusses reign in Austria; the SSP of Slovakia; Vargas's regime in Brazil; the Rexists in Belgium......all catholic supported/endorsed/inclined and all fascist/right-wing/authoritarian.

Today fascism is aligned with politicised Islam but lots of white supremacist groups have ties to, or roots with Catholicism. Yep, religion is kak.

[one eyed jack]

Is it really religion that is responsible for the worlds problems? or is it people?

If we banned religion i think we would have an altogether different set of problems. Im no fan of religion but I do appreciate what it means to those who need it, expecially in their hour of need or desperation.

Lets not forget yopu cannot control free will but give people a set of beliefs then you are half way there to manipulating them at least.

Religion itself is not bad, its the abuse or conveniently bending the rules of it that has resulted in the worlds problems through indiividuals who have done so.