The Pope Says (completely simplifying reality for the consumption of the sheep-like masses)

The pope says that atheism has caused the worst atrocities and crises in history... Yeah....

I remember all those history lessons we had in school on the great atheist wars....um, yeah... NOT.

Specifically, what wars, conflicts or upheaval have atheists been responsible for, assuming one is logical enough not to confuse atheism with political regimes like communism and does not confuse healthy leaders with psychopathic megalomaniacs.....

Every war happening NOW is due to people fighting over interpretations of religion - especially when religion is allowed to mix with politics - and every war ever fought has a religious base in some sense. See G. W. Bush for current reference.

As a modern society, we MUST stop believing in, running our lives through, and basing our politics on fantasy. There is no old white guy running the planet from a seat on a cloud somewhere in the sky. Such beliefs are demonstrably ridiculous and are little different in substance from belief in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny - except we usually divest our children of those beliefs before the children are scarred for life.

Healthy, logical, intelligent people spend their time learning. They do not rely on old fashioned writings done by people who had little practical understanding of the physical world and specific political agendas to attend to. Nor do they bow down to anyone, regardless of title, without a thorough prior examination of said person's credentials. The pope is case in point. Check this out by the way... if you're concered about hypocracy, you might be interested in the possible back story here....

Now. A great post from ABC New Forums. Many people are commenting today on the pope's 'insights.' The following was contributed by Louis R. Phx and includes a couple of excellent quotes from Robert Heinlein, a popular and controversial author of 'hard' science fiction.

"The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history. "

"A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain - then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?"

"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so...".

"When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives."

"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it. "

Robert Heinlein

In my opinion, the Pope has become quite full of himself. A claim to be able to speak for any deity, automatically puts [his] words under suspicion.... How exactly is he different from the Mullahs that say, 'if you are not with us you are against us'? How long before this Pope begins to preach, 'join us or be destroyed'?

Louis R. Phx

For the record, the pope is on record with such comments, which he made not three months ago.
Put "'No Salvation' Outside Catholic 'Church" into a Google search and man, will you get a does of how self-serving and egotistical the Catholic church is. Astounding!

Anyway, the pope said (and I paraphrase a lot), that anyone/any church that is outside the Roman Catholic fold does not belong to 'true Christianity.' Catholic organisations are expert ot reinterpreting those old scrambled-together writings that constitute the 'word of god' to support their postulation that they're it. They hav it all figured out and they're they only group with the 'keys' to heaven - wherever that is....

There's a reason there are so many people and organisations that fit the 'outside' description; perhaps the majority has seen the light, so to speak, and realises that religion is not only fantasy, it is destructive, false and without any provable merit.

More on this subject:
Anything by Richard Dawkins
"God is not Great," by Christopher Hitchens.