Pope says God isn't a magician

[professor]

Just to clarify my position FAF,
The world never ends and Obama is not some kind of antichrist.
He is THE antichrist. The final antichrist in a long line of them.

We (wife, me and her buddy) do joke about the Catholic nonsense.
Having come out from that background, we know more about it than most Catholics do.
Of course, we would have been hunted as heretics when Popery was in full power.
Some of our banter:
The mass- hocus pocus.
The pope- drop the e and add an o in the middle.
The monstrance- the monsterance.
Etc.

[FatAndFaithless]

Planks and dust specks, prof.

[dyresand]

Planks and dust specks, prof.

The pope knows science is right xD
faith 0 science A lot.

[Whateverist]

I love it that prof is calling out Catholic "hocus pocus" but he's been gleefully trying to predict the end of the world and claims Obama is some antichrist.

What was that bible verse about specks of dust and planks in your eye again?

So very much ^ this ^ !!!

I feel you prof .. damned crazy religious loonies who belief a different version of woo from your own,.

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Having come out from that background, we know more about it than most Catholics do.

I know exactly what you mean. I suppose that explains why you're here. We're trying to help you but have to want to be helped.

[Tartarus Sauce]

Of course he's not a magician; he's a delusionist.

[ThomM]

http://io9.com/pope-rails-against-intell...1652162938

Of course he still thinks a creator is needed to set life in motion but then evolution is all good with the pope. Not a new stance for the church but rather a return to a position held up until the last pope regressed.

Makes me wonder what he really thinks about an after life, judgement and heaven/hell. If he thinks of god as a hands-off deity, why would he imagine Him as keeping score on all of our failings in order to decide who to reward with his presence and who to torture unceasingly. I hope the pope will share what he thinks on this eventually.

I don't often follow what popes think. Does anyone know if any popes have ever pontificated against the immortality of the soul and all that rubbish?

Pope JPII said that heaven is not a "place" but "a state of mind".

But the problem the church has in this situation is that it made the mistake already - by excommunicating people for saying the earth is NOT the center of the universe. Back then it could just Burn Giordano Bruno at the stake - and since here was no Universal media - it could get away with it. It could excommunicate Galileo - and do the same. Because - if YOU did not believe - they would burn you or excommunicate you too !

However - as we know - the supposedly church of the one true god -lead by a Pope who is supposed to be infallible - was WRONG. AND since that time - we have managed to discover - horror of horrors - that much of the bible is a bunch of Fairy Tales of ancient cave dwellers and goat herders - and it is NOT an inerrant book. And TODAY - should the Pope come out and support something that turns out NOT TO BE TRUE - it would actually be the end of the church - rather than just something else to cover up.

But - knowing the church - the way around making such a mistake would be to blame the pope - not the church.

[Cyberman]

Some of our banter:
The mass- hocus pocus.
The pope- drop the e and add an o in the middle.
The monstrance- the monsterance.
Etc.

The long dark evenings must just fly by.

[Jackalope]

Just to clarify my position FAF,
The world never ends and Obama is not some kind of antichrist.
He is THE antichrist. The final antichrist in a long line of them.

In all seriousness, prof, I'd lay off the glue if I were you.

[Drich]

Vicar does not mean 'replacement'.

It's a Middle English word derived through Old French from the Latin vicarius, meaning 'substitute'. In other words, a stand-in for the local god du jour.

Your splitting hairs stimbo
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/substitute

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Drich has been saying this very thing (well God's isn't a genie here to grant your wishes) from the beginning, and no one started a thread for me.

When you can speak and write English as well as the pope can Latin, we will start a thread for you.

2 chey

[Cyberman]

No, I have no splitting hairs, but thanks for your concern. The word 'replacement' carries an implication of substitution, sure, but 'substitute' does not imply replacement. In the case of a vicar, s/he is a de facto stand-in for a god, a figurehead for the devotion of the faithful - not a replacement for a god.