Stephen Fry on the Catholic Church

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Hyperbole is allowed on the web.

I read that somewhere.

Of course,but not by me when it is insulting my Mum.

[Aiza]

OK, so show me these papers of yours. I'm a sponge; I'll soak that shit right up.

Sure,
http://atheistforums.org/thread-13215-po...#pid295922

I posted them earlier as a counterbalance of sorts in the "harms of religion" thread. A few are superfluous, but if you see the "religious people have lower mortality risk" and "people who are very religious have significantly healthier marriages than those where both are irreligious or only the wife is religious", there should be the studies in question.

There isn't a devout catholic worth a shit.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...954/-1/RSS

The pontiff is also under increasing fire for a 2001 Vatican document he later penned instructing bishops to keep such cases secret.

Ahaha wow. Not only is this another link on the already debunked Hullerman case, but also a terrible dig at De delictis gravioribus? Its like its 2008.

If you ever read the letter yourself, you'd know it was discussing ecclesiastical cases of all sorts, as in the literal court proceedings. Not of criminal cases (which is pretty obvious given that plenty of cases went to criminal court even after 2001).

Minimalist, do you even bother to check the facts of the things you write, or do you just copy+paste every single conspiracy theory you hope to be true?

[Cato]

There isn't a devout catholic worth a shit.

Perhaps take a bit of care with the sweeping generalistions Min. My 86 year old mother is a devout Catholic and the kindest most compassionate person I know,with a strong social conscience and personal ethics. My father was also very devout,but he was a bit of a cunt.

padraic,

We buried my grandmother three years ago. She was 93. Aside from the fact that she had ten kids she could have been a nun. That was the measure of her devoutness. When she was 80 she would drive the 'older' people to the doctor and the grocery store and ride roller coasters with me. She was a tough, strong woman. Everything in her life was about getting into heaven. At her wake (her maiden name was McGinnis, so imagine the wake) my uncle said 'don't be sad, she had been living for this day her entire life'. I was immediately very sad.

So, stop your special pleading; it's distastful. As far as being a cunt; let me tell you about Grandpa!

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

So, stop your special pleading; it's distastful. As far as being a cunt; let me tell you about Grandpa!

Special pleading my arse. Such a sweeping generalisation is a form of bigotry (although Min has admitted he was using hyperbole,rather than being literal) It's also a logical fallacy of one sideness..aka " the black swan theory"


I could not give a flying fuck whether you dislike any statement I make. Get over yourself.


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The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that an event is a surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight.

The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:

The disproportionate role of high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology
The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities)
The psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs

Unlike the earlier philosophical "black swan problem", the "black swan theory" refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory