"A minority of people, usually people without religion, are frightened by the future.....It's almost as though they've … nothing but fear to distract themselves from the fact that without God the universe has no objective purpose or meaning. Nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss...life without purpose, without constraints."It's a riot, I know. Here's someone who shops lies to children for a living, and he's talking about a life without purpose. But the thing that hit me as I read this is that the roman catholic church is doing exactly the same thing the GOP is doing right now: jumping off Bridge Sanity into the dung-filled ocean of rightwing nonsense -- and leaving their core constituents in the dust.
That's my point. The vast majority of Americans realize, I think, that the GOP has become an odious monster. Most Americans don't like rightwing lunatics. While many are fooled by the inaccurate reporting foisted on them by just about every media outlet, GOPers with sound minds are horrified that the GOP has slipped into full-bore insanity. This is not what they hoped for.
I think the roman catholic church is making the exact same mistake. It thinks its flock will happily jump into the abyss with it. They won't. Most catholics are pretty normal, from what I've seen, and they are secretly or not-so-secretly disgusted that their church, an organization they had hoped to trust all their lives, has turned into an overflowing toilet.
The Catholic Conference of Bishops has been euding pus for a long time (and will squeeze out a lot more now that odious NY archbishop timothy dolan heads it). This group actually hands out anti-gay DVDs to the dioceses (that is so hard for me to believe!) and takes every backward position it possibly can. It's like they've decided to piss on humanity -- and they're letting loose a major stream right now.
But both the GOP and the roman catholic church are making a huge error. Most of their members are not insane, craven, hating machines -- and they will turn on their masters. Soon, I hope.
The time we are living through right now is a period of mental illness that will pass. And in the wake of the illness, as it ebbs away like a bad headache and we remember who we are, the warlords in charge of both the church and the GOP will be remembered by their constituents as disgusting and perverted creatures who tried to push a new Dark Age upon humanity.
I do love dear cardinal Pell's statement that atheists are "frightened of the future." Uh, just sayin', but aren't the people who look at the facts with open eyes and update their view of the world in order to accommodate reality actually the ones who aren't afraid? And on the other hand, aren't the people who hide in a 2,000-year-old book without meaning, who duck and parry each time reality knocks on their door, the deluded ones?
We atheists see purpose in our lives, even if the universe has no meaning. That's what they don't get. Humans apply themselves to their lives and seek and find meaning in real things -- you know, the stuff that actually exists out there. And you know what? Our purpose includes whacking religion at every opportunity.
So keep saying stupid things, Pell (BTW, he also agrees with the pope that condoms don't slow the spread of AIDS; in the article, he says condoms make AIDS "worse" in Africa!) and we'll keep laughing at you. Is it a deal?
But watch your membership rolls, fellas. They're dropping, as I'm sure you've noticed. Why do you think that is, cardinal guy? Could it be that you're a monster who's scaring folks away? Just sayin'.
