Stupid things religious people say

[AFTT47]

When the pope tries to out-insane Jesus: "When a man looks at his own wife with lust he is committing adultery in his heart."

This is interesting because the Pope is acknowledging our animal nature here. It's true that we do have it. It's part of our evolution. Theoretically, a guy could knock up 8000 women in his career and thus spread his genes widely. Like Genghis Khan. No wonder we're all pigs.

Sometimes our basic nature does not serve us well in the modern world. The disagreement is in how to deal with that. Do we acknowledge our basic nature and use intellect to moderate it? Or do we slavishly submit to a guide based on superstition with no evidence of its truthfulness at all?

The answer should be obvious. Sadly, it isn't. Not to most of us at least. But we're making progress. The surveys of religious belief and self-identification are telling. This is especially the case with the most important important demographic - young people.

We're winning. Us old farts might not live to see it but we can take comfort that our descendants will live in a more enlightened world than we do.