Habemus Papam!

[Nova]

Originally Posted by Exilibur

I like that papa ratzi word play

and btw, /me rants at Nova.

Don't be so harsh when you jugde religion...
While the established church seems outdated, many people still finds meaning through the ethical and moral aspects.

Dont get me wrong, i am not talking about people that believe here. I cant understand that either, but i respect it. simply because it is not my place to judge about that.

And for me, the ethical and moral aspects of church are no longer upheld by church, and SHOULD be common sense ANYWAYS !

[Denny]

Well....ummm....congrats i guess. Personally i believe in god but not in going to church. I feel that wasting a whole sunday being told what god did from another man's perspective other than his own is just a big waste. Don't get me wrong though, i respect someone who does goto church i mean of one too his own i guess. I just don't see any meaning in it.

I mean if god was actually walking the earth do you think he'd waste a whole sunday in church? Nope, he'd be playing CS:S with all the rest of you fine folks.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

who said "God is dead, Marx is dead, and I'm not feeling quite good myself" ?

[KWo]

Originally Posted by stefanhendriks

like i did not care when the previous pope died, neither do i care about this pope.
Why? because it is not somethign useful for this world. Instead this one will probbaly keep on telling the 3rd world and every other country with massive AIDS problems, NOT to use condoms for the sake of religion.

Well, You should read more about latest pope (John Paul the Second) then You will know how big influence for all world they may have. In shortest words - thanks him the communist has been destroyed without any blood (since he was calling the people to take things into their hands - it started this big process - and he told to Soviet Union leaders to don't use weapons against their own people etc.). Another thing - the letter from pope to president of USA and Nikita Chrushtchov (some leader of USSR) during Cuba's crisis. It's old story, so the young people may don't know it, but it's not yet the reason to say "they aren't useful".
Other thing - latest pope started the process to discuss between religions without any hate. If he wasn't useful - why so many people and so many VIPs have been at his funeral?

[stefanhendriks]

my i remind you that religions are still number one of the cause of war? I don't care what this pope 'fixed' later on.

Communism and such, i can't judge about that. But the Cuba crisis was not solved by one pope. Like many other things its not one factor causing war, most of the time there are multiple events.

Call me a real atheist, but religion->causes->war. Power->causes->war

in the end:

Control->causes->war

humans are stupid, they tend to control everying, everwhere, anytime. Since that is not possible, or when there are struggles, humans tend to just destroy that whats in their way, instead of really solving their problems. *sigh*

[von Ryan]

Originally Posted by Pierre-Marie Baty

who said "God is dead, Marx is dead, and I'm not feeling quite good myself" ?

Well, I dunno, but the "God is dead" part I'm pretty sure it's Nietzsche...

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Originally Posted by KWo

If he wasn't useful - why so many people and so many VIPs have been at his funeral?

well... maybe because he's been the most mediatic pope ever ?

Think about it: this pope canonized more people during his papacy than all his predecessors reunited. That's a very good business investment: every third world village has its own particular saint now. Why do you think he travelled so much ?

I disagree to say that he's been responsible of the fall of the USSR-style communism. That's forgetting that the pope's catholic voice had almost no impact on Russia and 90% of the eastern provinces, which are foremost... orthodox.

The only place where he had some impact was Poland, his own homeland. Due the strong monarchist/catholic traditions that used to prevail in this country, that was not unexpected anyway ; as Stalin used to say, "applying communism to Poland is roughly as hard as putting an apron on a cow"

[KWo]

You are right - in Poland he had the biggest influence - but don't forget - exactly since Poland changed the political system also other countries changed their political systems. Everything has been started here, in Poland. Tchech Republic, East Germeny (DDR) , Romania and after - "pieriestrojka" in USSR.
I guess You guys at the West of Europe should learn more about currently story of the East and Central Europe. I guesss even in Italy it's possible now to read books about John Paul the Second and his big influence at all world.
About a lot of saints and a lot of pilgrimages - it shows only how hard has been working. Until end of his life.

One question more - why exactly the people in Italy started call him "Il Grande Giovanno Paulo"? I don't think it's without any reason. Try to understand it.

[Lethal]

Does playing Il2 make a good history lesson, ah hell I don't care I like shooting down Me262s'. The pope has also caused alot of deaths in Africa. I mean honestly would you give up your right to have sex and using contraception to prevent a unwanted child because some stupid book, which written 500 odd years after the actual supposed son of god came to this world?

[Cpl. Shrike]

I tried to believe it all.
But it's all to contradictionary. I don't believe a word from the bible.