Religious Thinking

For the last few weeks, I’ve been talking to a Catholic on Twitter. We’ve discussed a wide range of topics, and while the conversation never really goes anywhere, it’s been interesting to get a Novus Ordo (Modern) Catholic’s take on things, to compare to my Tridentine (Traditional) Catholic upbringing. Most recently, I said that I was against religion because of all of the bad things it does. He (side note, I don’t actually know if it’s a man or a woman) asked what Catholic teachings say they should do bad things.

Off the top of my head, I pointed out that women couldn’t be priests, that birth control interrupted god’s plan, and slavery. These are by no means the total list, and maybe not even the worst offenders. These were just the first few that popped into my mind. Here’s his response. Naturally, I won’t include his username for his privacy, and the only editing I’ve done is to form it into a paragraph. The content is unchanged.

I asked you to give me examples of how you think Catholic Church teaching harms people. And you gave examples of how Church teaching helps us grow. Women are placed in a position of honor in the Church. The first living tabernacle of Jesus Christ was a woman. The first Christian was a woman. Women were blessed with the honor of giving birth. The responsibility of priesthood would only take away from this honor. Priesthood is not a position if honor but a position of service. Birth control only takes away the gift God gave women. It us a form of rejecting Gods love. Not to mention that the world health organization has labeled birth control pills as class one carcinogens. what do you mean by slavery???

And this, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up why religion is so dangerous. It takes otherwise nice people, and fucks up their minds. If this person were not religious, and saw this quote, he would be disgusted. Just as I am. Just as most of you are. But add religion into the mix, and it sounds perfectly normal. Also, notice that he only wanted to know the bad things CATHOLIC teachings do. I assume, he could readily find teachings of other religions that are bad. But not his. He’s got the true religion.

First, let’s address the birth control part. I didn’t specify what form of birth control. Some studies have shown that some oral contraceptives increase the chances of cancer. Condoms do not. The morning after pill does not. The sun (as created by god, according to the Catholic theology) does. In fact, he created the cancer in the first place. Soda causes cancer. Processed foods cause cancer. Everyone has to look at the pros and cons of things, and pick which is more important. For some, the birth control pills are worth it. For everyone condoms are. And if people used condoms, we wouldn’t even need the morning after pill. He said that birth was a gift from god. This of course assumes his god exists. It still doesn’t mean everyone wants children. Or perhaps they don’t want children yet. Here was my original point, though I didn’t clarify it originally. The Catholic Church said that condoms were not allowed. Because of this, AIDS is ravaging Africa and their population has expanded to the point where they don’t have the necessary resources to feed themselves.

Next, women. Did you see how he tried to hide blatant sexism with what the Church thinks is best for women. Not what WOMEN think is best for themselves, they are the fairer sex after all, but what the MEN in charge think is best. How priesthood would diminish womenhood. Women have a place of honor? Just not power. Again he mentioned “honor”. The priesthood is a position of service. Just like women are treated. Servants. This is the same mentality that says women should stay in the kitchens, or prevents them from driving in certain Muslim countries. Can you imagine if he had said that women should not be President because they have a “special place” in society and electing them as President would “take away their place of honor”? It’s utter nonsense, and I’m sure most women are outraged by this antiquated, sexist, immoral, and demeaning mentality.

Finally, slavery. I can understand the confusion on this one. After all, both Yahweh and Jesus condoned slavery. Yahweh even commanded that the Israelites enslave their enemies. So here’s a history lesson. During the age of exploration, while Europe was claiming land in the New World, many Native Americans died due to illness brought by the Europeans. Thus they had a labor shortage. The pope, Nicholas V, came up with a brilliant solution. He had been fighting with the Saracens in Northern Africa and Spain. So he told King Alfonso V of Portugal to conquer the Church’s enemies by any means necessary and to “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery”. This was so successful that the pope applied this to the other European kings and expanded this into Africa.

The fact that this person on Twitter sees all of this as acceptable shows how religious dogma and indoctrination has ruined his thinking. What sane people would see as horrific, he justifies as his god “helping us grow”. It’s disgusting. In fact, when I first read his reply, I tried to reply, then changed my mind and deleted it because I was so angry. Then I tried again. And deleted it again. There was no way I could fit this rant into 140 characters. This mentality is what’s keeping this country in the dark ages. Only when we rid the world of this superstitious and oppressive mentality, will we get anywhere as a society.