A Corpse is a Corpse, Of Course, Of Course

The exhumed body of Padre Pio, a saint considered a miracle worker by his devotees, attracted thousands of pilgrims on Thursday when it went on display 40 years after his death.

Padre Pio is one of the Catholic Church's most popular saints and during his lifetime the Italian monk was said to have had the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Jesus' crucifixion on his hands and feet.

The economy of this southern town revolves around the cult of Padre Pio and heaving crowds waited to see his body, displayed in a crystal, marble and silver sepulcher in the crypt of the monastery where he spent most of his life.

His face was reconstructed with a lifelike silicone mask of the type used in wax museums because it was apparently too decomposed to show when the body was exhumed.
"He seems like he is sleeping. Even if they had to re-do the face, its better remembering him this way than looking at a slab of cold marble," said Domenico Masone, deputy mayor of Pietralcina, the town where Padre Pio was born.

Some 15,000 devotees attended a Mass said by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican department that oversees the Catholic Church's saint-making process, before the body went on display in the afternoon.

"He knows what I want from him," said Antonio Zimbaldi, 19, who attended Mass with his face, except for his lips, covered with white gauze.

"I have been devoted to him for as long as I can remember." Zimbaldi's entire body was burned in a fire caused by a gas explosion two years ago.

A corpse knows what some poor burn victim wants? Hell, everyone probably knows what he wants! But it is rather sad that he thinks a medically-restored corpse will help him... sad indeed.

The Pope is an Asshole

The Vatican's transcript of Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical, a letter to the church's bishops, reads: "The atheism of the 19th and 20th centuries is - in its origins and aims - a type of moralism. ... It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice."

Oh, yeah? Well fuck him and his legions of brainwashed stooges.

The Humongle Dongle (what?) blog states it nicely, saying: I hold that the Catholic Church is the most evil organization on Earth. I have yet to observe any institution so consistently opposed to human progress and happiness. All of the Catholics I know suffer from the same mental illness: neurotic guilt. And it is an illness, albeit a self-imposed one.

What makes us human is the faculty of reason. It is our means of survival. Without survival, no value is possible. It follows that the exercise of reason is a precondition of value, and is thus the basic virtue of humanity. What does Catholicism have to say about this? Let's turn to the story of Adam and Eve. Before their encounter with the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve are blissful and happy, but live as animals. They have no knowledge of good and evil, no knowledge even that they are naked. God forbids them to eat the fruit that grows on the Tree of Knowledge, but the serpent entices them to do the opposite, and they gain knowledge (i.e. the faculty of reason). It is this that Catholicism (and all other Judao-Christian philosophies) place as original sin. According to this belief, our very means of survival, that which makes us human, is also that which makes us evil. According to this belief, humanity is evil at it's core. And this is what 1/3 of the world accepts as right and proper!

In the absence of reason as a virtue, Catholocism sets up a philosophical system we are told to accept on faith, for no other reason than that the Bible says it's true. If reason is our means of survival, and faith is the opposite of reason, then faith is our means of death.Catholicism also states that this is man's original sin, and that we are all in need of forgiveness because Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge. What would you say if someone suggested you be sent to jail because your great-grandfather murdered someone? In our society, we reject the idea of ancestral guilt. Why should we accept it in regard to religious sin?

Catholicism places is system of ethics in consistent opposition to the requirements of man's happiness here on Earth. For instance: sex for pleasure is bad, pride is bad, sacrificing your own happiness for the benefit of someone else is good. It's no wonder that the conclusion drawn from the practice of this moral code is that happiness is unachievable to us here in this world.

Catholicism promises that happiness is to be achieved in some supernatural heaven. Tell me, where is the evidence that heaven even exists? If a man accepts this moral code and practices it, he finds himself leading an unsastisfying life. If a man accepts this moral code and doesn't practice it, he achieves all of the values he would need to be happy, but instead experiences guilt. It's a brilliant catch-22 they've set up for us. Follow your religion consistently, and your screwed; follow it inconsistently and your screwed as well.

"Thou shalt honor thy mother and father." Suppose one's parents don't deserve honor? According to this commandment, we should love, respect and obey our parents, without regard to their character. Is Hitler deserving of such love we usually reserve for parents? How about Charles Manson?

The Catholic Church consistently opposes all advances we make to improve human life. Catholics speak out against birth control, which enables us to experience sexual pleasure without the risk of creating a life which we are unprepared to care for. At one time, Catholics spoke out against vaccinations, open heart surgery, pacemakers, and many other ingenious advancements that have prolonged and enriched human life. And yet, this is the institution that many of us use as the barometer for virtue and good.

I reject Catholicism in its entirety. I hold that reason is not my original sin, but my original virtue. I hold that pride is not a sin, but the virtue that tells me my life is good and worth preserving. I hold that my life is to be lived for the achievement of my own values, and no portion of it is to be sacrificed to anyone else's wants, whether they be the wants of God, or of other men. I hold that Catholicism is evil at it's root, and all throughout. This doesn't mean that all Catholics are evil (although the high-ranking members of clergy certainly are). What it does mean is that many, many otherwise good people have been outwitted by the most horrendous impedement to their own happiness that has ever been devised: bad philosophy.

The Negligent Religious?

From The Guardian:

If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them.

It used to be the case that we tended to excuse drunk drivers when they crashed because they weren't entirely in control of their faculties at the time, but now we have wisely inverted that judgment, holding drunk drivers doubly culpable for putting themselves in that irresponsible position in the first place. It is high time we inverted the public attitude about religion as well, finding all socially destructive acts of religious passion shameful, not honourable, and holding those who abet them - the preachers and other apologists for religious zeal - as culpable as the bartenders and negligent hosts who usher dangerous drivers on to the highways. Our motto should be: Friends don't let friends steer their lives by religion.

Amen!

Obama is Frustrated... Rightly So.

Barack Obama said he is frustrated by questions about his religious beliefs and patriotism, particularly because his presidential rivals are not questioned in the same way.

“It frustrates me that people would even have a question about something like that because they don’t ask the same questions of some of the other candidates and that concerns me,” Obama said here Monday night.

I can understand his frustration. But until religion becomes a non-issue in political campaigns in the USA (OK, that'll never happen), this type of bullshit will continue to happen.

In an age where journalism is dead and the truth is irrelevant, any old lie will do, as long as it is entertaining and stirs the masses. Did you see The Daily Show yesterday evening (4/21)? They actually had a clip from MSNCB (I think) where pundits watched Obama briefly scratch his face with his middle finger and they actually debated whether he was flipping Hillary off? Is this what "news" has come to?

I'm afraid it is.

For the record, Obama is not a Muslim, wearing a flag pin says absolutely NOTHING about your patriotism, and I need a fresh cup of coffee...

UK Says: Faith is Evil

A CHARITY set up by an ardent Christian to fight slavery and the opium trade has identified a new social evil of the 21st century - religion.

A poll by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uncovered a widespread belief that faith - not just in its extreme form - was intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution.

Pollsters asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society, updating a list drawn up by Rowntree, a Quaker, 104 years ago.

The responses may well have dismayed him. The researchers found that the “dominant opinion” was that religion was a “social evil”.

Many participants said religion divided society, fuelled intolerance and spawned “irrational” educational and other policies.

One said: “Faith in supernatural phenomena inspires hatred and prejudice throughout the world, and is commonly used as justification for persecution of women, gays and people who do not have faith.”

Many respondents called for state funding of church schools to be ended.

The findings contrast with Rowntree’s “scourges of humanity”, which included poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling.

Poverty and drugs remain, but are joined by issues such as family breakdown, young people’s behaviour and fears over immigration.

Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, rejected the indictment of faith. He said: “People meeting together, week after week, for worship, support and education in church, synagogue, temple, gurdwara and mosque can not only help people build local community but can teach children to become good citizens.”

However, Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said he was “extremely pleased”.

“Britain has had it with religion,” he said.

I always liked the Brits!

Priest Off!

I thouhgt I'd share this little video as a tribute to the pope's visit to the US.

Condi's Gotta Go!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chaired repeated White House meetings approving specific torture techniques before they were used -- then lied about it to Congress.

And this is the person many neocons are touting for Veep? Well, I guess it makes sense... she'd be carrying on the lamentable legacy of Cheney, wouldn't she?

Watch the video and add your name to a list asking that Rice resign!

Another Stupid Dead Christian

Emma Gough, 22, of Telford, Shropshire, who was a Jehovah's Witness, died after giving birth to twins at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the inquest heard.

She would not have a transfusion because of her religious beliefs.

Now here is a story I like. The idiot who refused treatment is the one who dies. Good riddance to colossal stupidity, I say.

Now what about those twins? Let's hope they are not raised with the same ridiculous beliefs. Can't say I hold out much hope for them though. If you read the linked story you'll learn that the family was involved in continuing to refuse a blood transfusion for old Emma, the Jehova's witness. Mathematically speaking, that means we subtract one idiot but likely add two more... one step forward, two back... oh well.