[BenignDesign]

I skimmed this a minute ago: http://www.msnbc.msn...science-science

The Pope has announced that (1) the Big Bang did happen and (2) God made it happen.

So... now the Catholics have to believe in Intelligent Design?

I'm not Catholic, so admittedly, I have no clue how this works. Do they all just accept whatever the man with the big hat tells them?

- Creation happened.
- Ok.
- Contraceptives bad.
- Ok.
- Pope is not Sith.
- Ok.
- Creation didn't happened.
- Ok.

How does an entire religion move from one end of the spectrum to the other just because Darth Sidious said so?


On a more ironic note, this massive shift in beliefs was announced on Epiphany. The Pope epiphanized. Yay Pope!

This post has been edited by BenignDesign: 06 January 2011 - 08:58 AM

[lordofduct]

Quote

Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

A formless void, then a demand of light, and this was the first day...

we're talking ancient poetry, I could see someone saying, "well ok, this could be applied to the big bang."


I also used to do some Hebrew studies with a friend of mine. She showed me this really cool story about the creation where the creation was described as a large bowl being CRACKED (emphasized for volume) open and the quick spilling of matter into the void, filling the void with light. It said then the liquid from the bowl then hardened into the lands and mountains... blah blah blah.


Now I am far from the religious type. But I look at it as a lot of abstract analogies and metaphors. Let's just say that God did communicate to ancient man (or alien species, or some other extra spectacular being)... man isn't going to understand the birth of the universe. Shit he isn't going to understand that there is something above that big blue sky, and what all those white specks in the night sky actually are.

So instead it's described in a layman version that these ancient us can understand. But also this layman version needs to also be filtered into their ancient language that lacks words to describe things like stars, planets, the big bang, etc. What do you end up with? A over simplified, abstract, and poetic version of the world that is open to interpretation.

So yeah, I can see it.




I also look at it like the age of the world. The bible doesn't say anywhere how old the world is. This 6000 year thing comes from one guy who sat down and summed the ages of all the descendants of Abraham and devised the age from that. But this also wasn't the most accurate because people like Noah and the sort we described as centuries years old (some translations put him dieing at like 350 years of age). And there's huge gaps where they just presume the age of one parent and the birth of some child.

But even then, in Genesis, all the animals and other crap were made before us. We were on day 5, leaving only day 6 where we were given our stupid job of naming animals. The first 4 days was when he created earth, sky, animals, etc. But I mean who says it's actually 4 days?

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 06 January 2011 - 10:06 AM

[BenignDesign]

I understand the concept behind it all.

My question is how do millions of people just suddenly, simultaneously just stop believing in one thing and start believing in the opposite.

Especially when you look at the historical significance of religious belief systems.

Suddenly the Pope says, "Oh, yeah... sorry for all those people we killed because we thought our beliefs were right. We changed our collective mind now. Our bad." WTF?

This post has been edited by BenignDesign: 06 January 2011 - 10:00 AM

[lordofduct]

But the Pope doesn't just change his mind either. Just as he affects the followers of Catholicism, he is affected by his followers. And it's been a growing belief that God could have created the universe via the big bang.


Take the Earth being round... we knew the Earth was round. Catholics knew it. It has been recorded by scientists as being round since 300 BC, and we even got a freakin' picture of it when we went into space. Yet the Church didn't openly concede it's roundness until the 20th century (Pope John Paul II officially referenced Isaiah in the Bible as proof the book says the Earth is round).

The Pope is just catching up to the popular demand of his followers.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 06 January 2011 - 10:17 AM

[Craig328]

He's just trying to make the church more relevant by bringing it forward a few hundred years so people who have less and less in common with the church's teachings stay with the church. It's all about the tithes.

What the pope hasn't figured out yet is that if he makes the cannonization process a pay-per view event...and uses real cannons...they'll have more money than...well...more money than they do now anyway.

[BenignDesign]

lordofduct, on 06 January 2011 - 11:15 AM, said:

The Pope is just catching up to the popular demand of his followers.

Up next...

The Pope gives his blessings to condoms, abortion, divorce and sex with donkeys!

Cuz, you know... you gotta keep up with popular demand.

[hookiethe1]

It's the same old shit they've always carried on with:

"Your theory is wrong because BIBLE."
"But we proved it with scientific method."
"Well...uh...GOD DID IT!"

Craig328, on 06 January 2011 - 09:20 AM, said:

...they'll have more money than...well...more money than they do now anyway.

Holy Jesus fucking Christ, do you have any idea how much money they've got now? Even if I believed in the Catholic church I wouldn't give them anything. It's been theorized that if you took all the wealth of the Catholic church and put it into a single pile, it would be a fucking big pile.

This post has been edited by hookiethe1: 06 January 2011 - 10:29 AM

[Craig328]

I've never quite figured out what their beef is with condoms. Abortion, donkey sex and donkey divorces I get...but condom use always kinda seemed like a reach.

Nowhere in the bible do the words "jimmy" and "hat" appear together.

[BenignDesign]

In Biblical times, it was a James hat.

[hookiethe1]

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

So... now the Catholics have to believe in Intelligent Design?

I meant to mention this before, but I forgot, isn't this kinda the central theme of Catholic and pretty much any other religion?

[Craig328]

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 11:28 AM, said:

In Biblical times, it was a James hat.

Touché.

This post has been edited by Craig328: 06 January 2011 - 10:36 AM

[supersloth]

didn't they basically already believe in intelligent design, now they are just pointing at the things science has found?

just another nazi trying not to fade into irrelevancy.

[Craig328]

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 11:28 AM, said:

In Biblical times, it was a James hat.

You'd think it'd be "Peter hat".

[BenignDesign]

hookiethe1, on 06 January 2011 - 11:34 AM, said:

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

So... now the Catholics have to believe in Intelligent Design?

I meant to mention this before, but I forgot, isn't this kinda the central theme of Catholic and pretty much any other religion?

supersloth, on 06 January 2011 - 11:36 AM, said:

didn't they basically already believe in intelligent design, now they are just pointing at the things science has found?

just another nazi trying not to fade into irrelevancy.

I always thought the Catholics believed the same things as all the other Christian churches just with Saints and rosaries...

[hookiethe1]

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 09:42 AM, said:

hookiethe1, on 06 January 2011 - 11:34 AM, said:

BenignDesign, on 06 January 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

So... now the Catholics have to believe in Intelligent Design?

I meant to mention this before, but I forgot, isn't this kinda the central theme of Catholic and pretty much any other religion?

supersloth, on 06 January 2011 - 11:36 AM, said:

didn't they basically already believe in intelligent design, now they are just pointing at the things science has found?

just another nazi trying not to fade into irrelevancy.

I always thought the Catholics believed the same things as all the other Christian churches just with Saints and rosaries...

It is the same thing, "intelligent design" means some "intelligent" deity "designed" us and all the stuff we can poke a stick at.