The Hobby Horses of Belief (and assorted hazards)

Pawwed Rig

Personally I think the priest is right here. Let him start refusing everyone who isn't living a strict Catholic life.

Interesting to see how many people he still had in his congregation in 12 months time.

Hotblack Desiato

Will there be a questionnaire? If so it'd probably rival filling in the census form.

Hotblack Desiato

Plenty of st00pid in this one.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/john-wayne-jesus-letter/

A longstanding myth about legendary actor John Wayne, also known as "The Duke," resurfaced in a Facebook post on June 11, 2024. The user wrote: 

I like to hear stories of people getting saved John Wayne got saved 3 weeks before he died God used a young girl that had to have her leg amputated a Christian girl to witness to John Wayne threw a letter it touched John Wayne's heart and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ. This shows the love of God that God gave John Wayne another chance before he died ain't God good. So we should never give up on anybody for God can and will save them

Pity God couldn't give that girl another leg.

Or Facebook posters some spelling and punctuation lessons.

But of course you love hearing stories (which may not have a shred of truth) which reinforce your delusions. 👍️Saves having to think about stuff. Thinking is hard.

robindch

Ralph Fiennes dons red robes later in the year for Conclave, Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) directing:

https://twitter.com/FocusFeatures/status/1813952618198389019

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122403747#Comment_122403747

Good practice for him playing Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, so.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122401416#Comment_122401416

Pity God couldn't give that girl another leg

That girl losing her leg was a sacrifice that God was willing to make.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122403747#Comment_122403747

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!"

2026: Conclave II - This time it's personal.

Hotblack Desiato

It seems that our newfound all-inclusive kowtowing to woo is proving unworkable in practice.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/07/19/national-day-of-commemoration-and-faith-communities/

Sir, – I attended the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, on July 14th, as I have done for many years.

It is a wonderful ceremony in a wonderful setting, with all the main personnel and institutions of the State represented – the President, the Council of State, the Taoiseach, the Cabinet, the Defence Forces, veterans of service in the United Nations and leaders of the main churches and faith communities.

It was expertly choreographed, with a final flypast of aircraft, perfectly timed to catch the last strains of the national anthem.

It seems churlish to be critical of any aspect of such a fine ceremony. But there is one glaring flaw. Two-thirds of the ceremony were taken up with readings from the representatives of faith communities and churches.

There are now 10 such groupings represented.

They are the Christian churches of Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Methodist and Georgian Orthodox. In addition, there are the Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu communities and the Humanist Association.

The faith participants have grown in number and, undoubtedly, they will grow further in number as time goes by.

According to the Taoiseach in his opening remarks, the National Day of Commemoration is an occasion to remember “all those Irishmen and Irishwomen who died in past wars or on military service with the United Nations and other international organisations in the service of peace”.

This is not a religious ceremony. Therefore, it seems strange that each faith community should be given an individual participation slot and that their collective participation should be allowed to dominate the duration and much of the ethos of the commemoration.

I believe that it is time for the Government to review the content of the National Day of Commemoration with a view to ensuring a better balance in future ceremonies. – Yours, etc,

JOE COSTELLO,

Dublin 7.

This is the sort of thing that annoys mildly irritates me about the HAI - they're giving religious woo credibility by putting it on an equal pedestal with reason.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122401416#Comment_122401416

Awful netiquette to quote oneself 😮 but it's too late to edit my post to add…

We could translate this as God as the ultimate violent partner. "Do what I say or it'll work out really bad for you." I'll save you... from my abuse - if you do what I say. It takes a very special kind of mind to see that as a good thing.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122405193#Comment_122405193

All of those childhood cancer deaths are there to make us pray harder.

Igotadose

News out about a highly-placed priest, founder of an order who rightly should have been exiled, instead coddled by the RCC despite his depravaties. RCC took 50 years to finally do 'something,' during that time who knows what this Cardinal Maciel got up to.

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-legion-pius-xii-abuse-91744e8054aa839647633e1d56372165

Hotblack Desiato

Maciel was well known to be a wrong 'un for decades, but nonetheless JPII was a big fan for whatever reason (allegedly, due to the large donations his order attracted and passed on to the Vatican)

Hotblack Desiato

Trouble 't mill in SoCoDu:

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/08/24/church-withdraws-access-to-playing-fields-as-row-with-rugby-club-deepens/

Relations between the church and a minis rugby club in south Dublin have soured further as the club has had access to its playing field withdrawn just as its players are returning to training for the new season.

St Brigid’s RFC is in dispute with Foxrock parish over plans by the latter to sell the playing fields to Geraldines P Moran GAA club with whom it shares the facilities. The parish manages the site on behalf of a Dublin diocesan trust.

…

A separate letter between the church and the rugby club states, inter alia, that St Brigid’s “acknowledges that any right to the future use of it for sporting purposes will be subject ... to the consent of, and agreement with, the GAA club”. This, they say, falls far short of an unequivocal future right of access on existing terms and conditions.

While the parish says in its statement that it has “repeatedly asked the rugby club to set out any legitimate concerns” so that they can be addressed, St Brigid’s says this has been on condition that its officers sign the letter making their future access subject to the GAA club’s consent. Club officials say they have been legally advised not to sign the letter making that commitment.

This is what happens when facilities that should be community owned (and were undoubtely paid for by community funds in the first place) end up in RCC ownership.

Hotblack Desiato

Got this in the door today. "God loves a trier" as the saying goes but I doubt I'll be schlepping from D22 all the way over to Fairview on a Saturday morning for a full-immersion baptism any time soon.

As they say, any effective marketing campaign needs a call to action, so they should probably cut out most of the small print and big up the eternal burning in hell thing. (Consultancy services available to churches of all kinds at competitive rates, call now!)

Apparently this crowd are big in Japan China.

Hotblack Desiato

Dunno how others feel about this but even as a kid I always thought the "Holy Spirit" was the most made-up nonsense going. You get a warm feelz inside and its ghod! Took quite a while longer to intellectually dismantle the Jesus etc. stuff, but the HS was something which is a mandatory RCC thing I never bought into and I doubt many box-tickers do either.

I do remember seeing a poster on the wall in convent school (male, hence before "First Holy Communion" so aged at most, at that time, 7 🙄 ) which said "Spread The Good News" and my little mind thought to itself the unutterable thought "What's good about it?" What was good about it?
Nothing. It was just mental abuse and often physical abuse as well. Those nuns were bítches.

CptMackey

I just remembered thinking why did God kill his kid to wipe away our sins that he created.

As I got older I just realised it was all made up

whatawaster81

Has anyone read or listened to Bart Ehrman. I find his stuff good in understanding on a practical and real level why it's all nonsense.

For those that don't know him he was raised an evangelical and is a biblical PHD scholar who doesn't believe in it. So he can explain why it's all nonsense and knows what he's talking about.

He's a lot of podcasts, interviews and debates on Spotify.

smacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122570041#Comment_122570041

Read a couple of the books some years back, Lost Christianities is a good read for the early history surrounding Christianity and the different early flavours of it.

whatawaster81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122571696#Comment_122571696

Cheers. I'll have a look for that.

Ehrman talks a lot as well about when each of the gospels were actually written and how they were embellished as they were transcribed in the following centuries.

He gives good examples of inconsistencies between them particularly around the resurrection.

He has a good podcast with some good stuff in it.

robindch

Ehrman is interesting in that he started off as a fundamentalist christian but, like Daniel Everett (author of the excellent Don't Sleep, There are Snakes), he questioned his religious views when confronted by evidence that the prevailing views could not be supported, before eventually abandoning his views. Unusually for christians, he also learned Ancient Greek well enough to be able to criticize English translations of the bible - which, if I may inject a personal opinion regarding many translations of the original (contested) texts - often apply lipstick to a pig.

robindch

I always thought the "Holy Spirit" was the most made-up nonsense going.

The figure of the holy spirit made sense in the world of ancient Greece, where Plato's 'Forms' were studied, understood and accepted. At the time, the prevailing Greek and Roman gods were beings with a real-world existence - sitting on mountains, living in palaces - and real-world tastes - quaffing wine, molesting humans and the like.

The holy spirit can be seen as a transmutation of the base metal of this kind of real-world deity, into the eternal gold of the a deistic Platonic Form - and the main reason, I believe, that the the bible claims that 'blasphemy against the holy spirit' is unforgivable since, in a Platonic world, it's essentially cursing the perfect form of the deity.

Hotblack Desiato

This really is like something out of Father Ted.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2024/09/28/priest-appeals-for-return-of-gods-influencer-relic-lost-at-ploughing-championships/

A relic of a teenager to be canonised as the first saint of the 21st century in the Catholic Church has been missing since put on display at the Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co Laois, last week.

A lock of Blessed Carlo Acutis’s hair, in a small black box, was brought to the Vocations Ireland stand there, along with relics of St Padre Pio, by Capuchin priest Fr Bryan Shortall as part of a drive to attract more people to the religious life.

Fr Shortall recalled how, as he turned to bless people at the stand, “I left it down, beside the St Padre Pio mitten, and when I turned around it was gone. Someone must have picked it up.”

…

Fr Shortall explained that relics were venerated because of their close association with a person now believed to be close to God. Usually they are “part of a saint’s body or their clothing. It is a way of getting closer to a person, like having a jersey belonging to Ronaldo or Messi or something of Taylor Swift’s,” he said.

Igotadose

Anyone can become a saint these days. Must really be hard up.

whatawaster81

He became a saint because of his use of internet and social media to spread the faith. It's a cynical ploy by the Vatican to be down with the kids

Oh yeah and the two qualifying miracles he's attributed with.

Hotblack Desiato

A recently deceased pope who was a notable defender of known paedophiles got the nod recently, so anything goes.

Hotblack Desiato

Vatican Bank fires two employees for getting married. No, they're opposite sex…

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vatican-bank-fires-newlywed-couple-violating-new-workplace-114428458

Employment at the Vatican is often highly sought-after by Romans, since it usually involves income tax-free salary and benefits that can include below market-rate housing and access to the Vatican's health service and tax-free supermarket, department store, gas station and pharmacy.

Well tax collectors were the bad guys in the bible…

The bank had previously donated around 50 million euros a year of its profits to the pope to pay for the Vatican bureaucracy, but profits have fallen in recent years.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122686945#Comment_122686945

Getting married was a problem but not this?

it took the “difficult decision” to fire the couple, who have three children,

Hotblack Desiato

Apparently they didn't have a policy against that.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122689223#Comment_122689223

Exactly, so nothing to do with religion.

Peregrinus

Not uncommon in finance and certain other industries to have a rule against a married couple working together — the potentials for conflict of interest/evasion of security protocols are obvious. In most cases, if a couple who work together marry (at least) one of them has to move to a new role so that the couple will not be working with one another. From the article, it seems that the IOR is so small that this isn't a feasible solution, so their rule is that one of the couple must resign. If neither of them will resign this become a disciplinary matter; hence the firing.