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I don't know many people who'd use such broad strokes and attack all Catholics, I certainly wouldn't, but when you started on "I respect other peoples' beliefs, with the exception of the Scientologists who are just batshit mental" I think you've started to trample over your own scruples.
There was a policy of covering this shit up. As has been proven many times.
Are you denying that it has been church policy to cover this shit up by shuffling priests around? And that there wasn't a pervasive "accusations to be dealt with internally first and external second" ethos?
Their child rape is awful. Just like the that committed and covered up by the Catholic church.
I don't, for many reasons, not least the fact that Scientology is all about money and exploitation and has been since the word go. It's widely regarded that the cult was only set up to make Hubbard money.
I don't have respect for any cult, because they're not faiths and beliefs. They're victimisation and abuse.
I'm not denying any of that. I'm taking issue with your assertion that there is "institutional pederasty" within the Church, with the implication that the sexual abuse of pubescent boys is something that is widely condoned and encouraged within the Church. The Church should have punished the perpertrators more, but that doesn't mean that the sexual abuse of pubescent boys is pervasive within the Church. In fact, the statistics prove otherwise. I think that your argument about pederasty is little more than a cheap jibe about priests liking altar boys.
What's fantastic about Scientology is that it's a contemporary religion, in as much that it was formed in our lifetime and we can clearly examine it's claims in a post-enlightenment world. It's clearly a scam, but it still taps into the deep vein of credulity that all religions do.
Christianity has the good fortune of having being created centuries ago: its founders can't be directly scrutinised in the same way Scientology's LRH can. Christianity's claims would be found just as lacking as Scientology's if the J dog was trying to pass off walking on water as a miracle today - especially when Copperfield is making statues disappear.
OK, to qualify my earlier statement: the cover-up of child rape in the Catholic church was, and by all accounts occasionally still is, pervasive. There were edicts from up the upper echelons on how to deal with accusations, none of which were "go to the police". Rapists were shuffled from one area to another in order to try bury their behaviour.
I take the issue too seriously to make cheap jibes about it.
Just to note, I referred to her as a "fundamentalist", by definition that suggests a level of extreme views.
You work in law, you know how inaccurate eye witness reports can be - especially when they are written years after the events.
Given the number of iterations the Bible has been through, the different languages it was written in and the fact that the first recorded English bible wasn't written until the 14th Century, I'd say that puts a huge question mark over what is actually in it.
Certainly there should be questions about how much is actually allegories used by Jesus and how much is interpretation by a translators, based on the twist of a story teller who heard it from someone else who may have been one of the gospels. We can already trace how Christianity has used existing events and festivals which actually bear no relation to the Christian events being celebrated, which again brings into question the credibility of the religion.
That is why I think that the Minchin video perfectly sums up religion.
NB As I previous said, the same can be applied to any of the "good books".
Faith, I have no problem with. Believing that there may be a supreme being, fine by me. Using a book written centuries ago as the basis of your religion... yeah, there we part.
Common atheist misconception. The original Bible was written partly in Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek. "Written partly in" not "translated to and from". It then went to English. The end.
How does that contradict what I said?
Okay. I respect other people's beliefs, with the exception of Catholics who are just batshit mental. Respectful enough?
Your tone suggests it was translated many times - it was not.
Anyway I don't see what relevance when an English version came along has. It would make sense that it happened late - for many centuries English was considered a dirty, heathen language.
Aye, that'll do.
Mind you don't go defending Tom Cruise and J*hn Tr*v*lta though...
Showing his trademark understanding and light touch :no: The girl who posted the video has disappeared. Her video has been deleted for a copyright claim (:eek2:) and she deleted her channel (along with the channel who filed a copyright claim).