The Pope, yes the chap who thinks that covering up abuse and protecting abusers was a rather good idea, has an article in today’s UK Guardian. It is understandable in some ways, for the foundation of his position is not just on sole basis that he has an imaginary friend, but also because a lot of other folks consider him to be a rather fine fellow despite the evidence to the contrary.

Let us now take a brief look at what he writes …

“… responsibility towards the poor and suffering are largely uncontroversial …“

It is truly not a great start to find this statement from the leader of an organization that has not only been responsible for an almost uncountable degree of child abuse and suffering by the hands of its clerics, has to this day persisted with a policy of covering up and protecting the abusers, and has also vigorously pursued a birth-control policy in Africa that results in the pointless death of millions. That, by any definition, is a completely new meaning for the word, “uncontroversial”.

He also has some truly good news for us …

“Not only faithful believers but also outside observers are noticing with concern that regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and that their number is constantly diminishing; that recruitment of priests is stagnating; that scepticism and unbelief are growing.“

There appears to a slight typo there, the words, “with relief” appear to have been accidentally rendered as “with concern“.

He then moves on to ponder over what to do about this and concludes …

“The essence of the crisis of the church in Europe is the crisis of faith“

Sure enough, it is another piece of semantic abuse. The facts that have been disclosed have become a wake-up call for many millions, motivating them to ask foundational questions such as “Why do I believe this stuff?“, and “What evidence do I have that it is true?“. Because the conclusions deployed are not to his liking he renders the term, “crises” to describe the result, but it is more accurately described as a leap forward into rationality and reason. After pondering over this thought, he then asserts that being more religious is the means to resolving this.

Moving on, he asserts that the folks in Africa are a lot happier being Christian, ponders over why this is the case, and soon concludes …

” … is this certainty, based on faith: I am wanted; I have a task in history; I am accepted, I am loved …“

So lets break this argument down into its parts …

Claim: “Folks in Africa have a lot more joy” – Evidence presented for that claim: zero.

Claim: “They are like this because of their faith” – Evidence presented for that claim: zero.

It then all concludes with this claim …

“Where doubt over God becomes prevalent, then doubt over humanity follows inevitably“

The entire thrust of this dispatch to the world (or at least to those that read the UK Guardian) appears to be rooted in this last statement, everything that came prior was manufactured and crafted to lead to this conclusion. To sum that up, “We need god because if we don’t just believe then we are a lot worse off”. None of the steps along the way to this conclusion have any evidence, and nor does the conclusion itself have any evidence to verify that this claim is true.

What is true is that many of those who have chosen to exercise “faith”, have been grossly abused and have also greatly suffered by the hand of those that assert this claim, and yet even today the leader of the group that did this, and perhaps also the very architect of the cover-up, still chooses to skate over this “petty gossip“, a term known to the rest of us as “factual disclosures”.

With or without belief, most people retain a considerable degree of empathy towards their fellow humans and so choose to reach out and help. There is nothing magical about “faith” that makes such actions exclusive to believers. I, as a non-believer, do not doubt humanity, but I do indeed not only doubt due to a lack of any evidence their ridiculous supernatural claims, but I also doubt their moral integrity, and that second doubt is firmly rooted in mountains of ever increasing factual evidence.

If you do still truly believe, then now is the time for you to begin to seriously ask yourself some questions as to why?

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