And dude #3, we’ve had replacement panic since we first discovered replacing things. I realize it’s cool these days to blame religion for everything, but scapegoating religion only distracts from trying to deal with true problems of human nature.

Also, he should stop his ridiculous opposition to stem cell research.

In general, the catholic church should focus a little less on children, methinks.

Catholicism is a choice. We can criticise choices all we want. Replace it with another choice: gamer, taxi-driver, scientist, mall-cop, doctor.. renders it a lot less harmful than your allusions to racism, sexism or homophobia.

If you read the entire article, you will see that digital technology wasn’t even the main point. It was mentioned at the end, almost as an aside, not in the form of a declaration or dire prediction, but rather as a warning on a personal level, and a statement that universities have a responsibility to its students to help them navigate those risks, to develop a framework of conscience and morality, and to prepare them to contribute to a civil society.

I am usually very much opposed to what any representative of organized religion says, but in this case I think his remarks were quite reasonable.

The mentality whose ideal is that human life is properly lived in sacrifice to a supernatural being, and that suffering is proof of virtue. The worship of suffering is fundamental to Christianity, a religion whose central figure is glorified for dying a horrific death for the sins of mankind. Several years ago, a prominent religious conservative said of the Schiavo case, “Terry Schiavo . . . is suffering in obedience to God’s will.” He added: “Isn’t suffering in pursuit of God’s will the exact center of religious life?”

Human life is sacred–not because of supernatural declaration, but because of the unique nature and glorious potential of the individual, rational human life: to think, to create, to love, to experience pleasure, to achieve happiness here on earth. A genuine culture of life would leave individuals free to pursue their own happiness–free from coercive injunctions to sacrifice themselves to religious dogma. Such a culture is what technology seeks to create. Of course they are against it.

Says the former Hiltler Youth.

Besides, as much as I want to I can’t really bring myself to hold HJ membership against people who were only children at the time. Everyone was. They didn’t know what it meant, or what they were becoming a part of. We hear from Germans all the time who say, “yeah, I was there for the Third Reich, but I knew something was wrong and I never believed any of it and I hated Hitler!” BS. There were some people like that, sure, even many people, but the impression we get is that MOST knew exactly what was going on and was against it.

It was an all-consuming culture. One where deviance could get you killed. “Following orders” is not a valid defense but Benedict was just a kid in the Evil Boy Scouts. What was his crime?

Arikizzle, folks are born into Catholicism, just like any other religion. Remaining a Catholic is indeed a spiritual choice, but the mindset and culture of Catholicism don’t just go away when one stops believing or chooses to believe something else. Read Joyce. The terms I was thinking about (I should have been more explicit) were these kind of non-choice things that are (like one’s religious background) determined at birth: like “Jew,” or “homosexual,” or “Pacific Islander,” etc. The point was that a broad-brush damning of any group for any reason is quite simply unacceptable for rational, intelligent denizens of the twenty-first century. We Catholics have a saying “hate the sin, love the sinner”: dispute our doctrines all you wish, but kindly leave off the inaccurate shotgun condemnations of our entire religious-cultural group, thanks.

A further note for the haters: we Catholics, being rather into the guilty self-condemnation trip, have been over all this WAY before the rest of you even bothered to think about it. We’d find much of your scorn cute and silly if it weren’t so contemptibly ignorant and gross. We’ll bash ourselves, thanks, we’ve got millennial experience and we’re all Jesuitical about it.

That said, I’m breathlessly awaiting Pope Maladict’s successor: let’s get a liberation theologian at the helm! Time for redemption!

I think it was if not obligatory, a really bad idea not to be a member.

Anyhow, the Pope and the RC church decrying the moral decadence of the internet while sitting on the worlds largest and oldest Pornucopia of jazz mags and Bongo literature.

Hilarious.

Yes, that part is patently obvious to everyone.

I’d rather say it once for all rather than eyeball the several screeds: and I think the general anti-Catholic screed and its not-being-moderated is for everyone to discuss, not just the moderators and me.

You see, we get about 700 comments per day on BB Prime. I have neither the time nor the inclination to read your mind to determine exactly what you find offensive. In fact, there’s a strong probability that what is offensive to you is dear to the hearts of many other readers. So if you’re not willing to point out what you object to, please stop complaining.

http://static.flickr.com/6/9958184_1d3029f0e7_m.jpg

Well they did like it a lot better when all the books were in Latin, and only the clergy could read and understand books.

Power.

They had a lot of it.
They lost a lot of it.

They wants it back, they do.

Let’s not give it to them.

Tdawwg “Are we still re-trying the Catholic Middle Ages at the bar of History?”
Well, considering a bunch of what was then is still in effect, yes (contraception, anyone?). It’s not our fault they’ve based their view of the universe on an obsolete model.
“…I’m breathlessly awaiting Pope Maladict’s successor: let’s get a liberation theologian at the helm!”
Good luck with that. Maybe I’ll get a pony for my birthday, too.

BUT

Kids concentration spans are shortening, their ability to absorb and process large tracts of information is vanishing, never mind their ability to speak properly or construct a decent essay of any length… Essentially I agree with a lot of what #8 says, and though I love electronic communication, the ‘net and its associated benefits, I’m aware that our society and youth are necessarily different from us due to the culture and communication methods that are prevalent in the world today. I’m not saying it is all bad, and in many respects there is little difference between me escaping into a brilliant book for hours when I was a child, compared to today’s youth playing an online game etc., apart from the multimedia-enhanced experience and thus possibly less use of the imagination.

It’s a shame if we can play with people halfway across the world but cannot play in our own streets with our neighbours’ children… We realise actions have consequences, grow emotionally, and learn subtle communication cues that are missed in an online or fast-moving world…

Zak

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/09/nobel-laureate-says-the-internet-makes-us-dumb-we-say-meh/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/dec/08/nobelprize.classics

I think one can argue with it, but hardly dismiss.