Pope slams gay marriage

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...005962,00.html

This one takes a slightly different angle.

he calls it an "attack on creation" and that we could "protect or endanger humans."

Now, this to me is just sounding more odd, since he also says that freedom cannot be absolute.

[HYHYBT]

Nothing particularly unexpected....

[smileyeagle1021]

The pope has made a bigoted homophobic comment... and in other news scientests have discovered that boiling water is hot.

[jackfaire]

Maybe he is just worried more of his political power is fading.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

The pope has made a bigoted homophobic comment... and in other news scientests have discovered that boiling water is hot.

In a soon to be released companion study, MIT seeks to prove that drinking water quenches your thirst.

Cookie if you get the reference

[Fryk]

Maybe he is just worried more of his political power is fading.

BINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBINGBI NGBINGBING!!!!!!!

I was going to say exactly that.

[Kheldarson]

Pope Benedict is only losing political power because he's no Pope John Paul. Which is unfortunate. But Benedict is a brilliant theologian. Just no diplomat.

[crashhelmet]

The pope has made a bigoted homophobic comment... and in other news scientests have discovered that boiling water is hot.

Smiley, did you even read the article? I know you get defensive on this topic, as a lot of the (IMHO) "fake Christians" have given you cause to, but keep the open mind that you demand the rest of us to have.

The Catholic Church believes that marriage is more than just spending the rest of your life with the same person. The Church believes an additional purpose is to procreate especially since the Church only allows/permits/approves of procreation within a marriage.

Last I checked, we weren't an asexual species. The biological basis of our sexes is not so that one looks better in a tube-top than the other. It's so that we can procreate. That's more science than religion.

While science has found some species of animals that will change change their sex if their existence depends on it, Humans and others haven't been proven to. If you eliminate or reduce one particular sex from the procreational equation, you're going to threaten the existence of the species. Once again, more science than religion.

The Church is taking Science into consideration with their beliefs. It's not homophobia. It's the Catholic Church's stance on marriage, what it entails, and what's expected. As we've discussed in other threads, The Church believes sex is for its biological purpose. That's why the various forms of birth control are forbidden as well.

Now if he came out and said "Fuck them all!!! Let's round them up and kill them!!!! Let's send them straight to hell where they belong." I'd the one of the first to speak out and renounce the Church.

Ch

[ladyneeva]

The thing is though that The Church should not be deciding what a marriage is or what marriage means for everyone on the entire planet, including people who are not members of The Church.

There are other religions. There is even atheism. There has been a concept of marriage since before The Church was ever created, and they do not and should not have absolute authority to claim that any marriage outside of members of their institution is or means ANYTHING.

They can feel free to define what a Catholic Marriage is to their little heart's content. What they cannot do is define what my marriage is, what smiley's marriage or eventual marriage is, or what the marriage of ANY OTHER PERSON ON EARTH who is not a member of their little club is.

The entire institution of Christianity is rife with homophobic, misogynistic or at the absolute least patriarchal concepts. And they are perfectly free to have those beliefs... within their little clubhouses. My life, smiley's life, and thousands upon thousands of other people's lives are NOT part of their little club, and how we live our lives and what civil rights we are entitled to as humans should not be dictated by the rules meant for their club.

[crashhelmet]

But it's not the Catholic Church passing laws that state what constitutes a legal marriage. In fact, the quotes this article cites came from an internal discussion. A "club meeting" if you will. The Pope didn't call a press conference and announce it to the world as Holy Doctrine.

You know what the problem is here? Too many people commenting on shit that they know nothing about or not enough to form a valid opinion. From there it grows like wildfire. Like an internet rumor. Next thing you know, everyone's an expert on the matter.

People start getting offended because they think they're supposed to be offended or because they need to feel offended. Christians can't open their mouths without being called homophobes. All men are misogynists. Whites are racist. Democrats are socialists and Republicans are fascists.

I say we just say fuck it and have complete and total anarchy. Believe what you want to believe, obey whatever laws you want to obey. Otherwise we'll never make any progress. Someone will be offended. Someone will feel oppressed.

Lets just live our lives and pay no attention to anyone else's. When we die, we'll go wherever it is that we believe or to the location of whoever was correct. I'll either be in Heaven because my beliefs were right, in Hell with the rest of my family because we were wrong, or I'll be worm food and returned back to the Earth. I can be honestly be happy with any of those outcomes.

Lets get back on topic though. The Pope didn't make a homophobic comment. That is, unless you wanna call a lesson in biology homophobic. If so, good luck fighting that.

BTW... Freedom cannot be absolute because it would give us anarchy.

CH

[protege]

So this little bit right here:

"For man, the path to be taken cannot be determined by caprice or willfulness, but must rather correspond to the structure willed by the Creator,'' he said.

...means that if someone is gay, chooses to get married (or goes through a civil union, if you prefer) they'll bring down our entire species and civilization? Somehow, I really doubt that will happen. I mean, there are something like what, several *billion* people on the planet? Enough are around that the species will continue to exist.

[jackfaire]

Yes he is correct in the science that says that two gay men cannot impregnate each other.

The conclusion he draws from that fact is that people should not be free to do what they want but rather have to follow the doctrines of his church. AKA God's Will.

That being said we are not currently in danger of being wiped out by underpopulation.

If you want to make a scientific argument here is one. People who choose not to have children are preventing their genetic uniquness from carrying on thus altering or possibly impeding genetic diversity in humanity.

However scientific that is it still doesn't lead to the conclusion that people only have rights so long as they choose to do as they are told.

[McDreidel09]

I would like to second what jackfaire said.

The Pope is correct that you need an egg and a sperm to make life. However, he is making sound like the world is completely underpopulated and the human species is going to go extinct because gay people are getting married.

I'm pretty sure that with approx. six billion people on this planet, we are more than alright population wise.

[smileyeagle1021]

Smiley, did you even read the article? I know you get defensive on this topic, as a lot of the (IMHO) "fake Christians" have given you cause to, but keep the open mind that you demand the rest of us to have.
Ch

I am willing to keep an open mind on many things... the pope is not one of them though. He has already made his position clear and that he is not going to change it... anything else he says at this point is just rephrasing of known 'truths'.

You know what the problem is here? Too many people commenting on shit that they know nothing about or not enough to form a valid opinion.

CH

You mean kind of like the Pope commenting on human sexuality... a man who is a sworn lifelong celibate does not sound like an expert by any stretch of the imagination... that sword can cut both ways.

[crashhelmet]

You mean kind of like the Pope commenting on human sexuality... a man who is a sworn lifelong celibate does not sound like an expert by any stretch of the imagination... that sword can cut both ways.

Prove that homosexual intercourse can create a child, and I'll accept that argument.

CH