I've found that I've seen a slew of comments from various sources, Twitter, Facebook... that's it really, regarding the Pope's visit. Most of them, if not all, from a negative standpoint. The strange thing is that it annoys me reading these comments, not just because a lot of them seem to be in remarkably ill taste, but also because it seems like suddenly people feel compelled to be outraged and demand something is done because he's a religious figure. I'm well aware of the child abuse issues, but that seems like the fuel for the fire which is random outrage. Berlusconi, that absolute twat of a man, visits the UK and the majority of what is said about him seems to be based it humour at his philandering and general idiocy, rather than wondering how a man such as him can be running a country. In particular I don't get why Richard Dawkins is so vocal about all this. I don't hear anything from him, apart from every now and then he pops up to say "evolution" then disappears again, but as soon as the pope decides to visit, he's all "arrest the pope" and "[it's] a despicable outrage". What's your angle? Why are you so compelled to have a go at the pope, but ignore other people who stand for worse things? it it just because he doesn't chime up "yes, evolution, you are clever" whenever you mention it?
It kinda feels like, hey look, here's a religious figure, lets jump all over it, because it's something we don't agree with and religion is always fun to have a dig at. I kinda feel like religion is the whipping boy for a lot of people, the kid that never stands up for himself and everyone always makes fun of, so if you take the piss out of him everyone will get a laugh, except them obviously... kinda sounds like school was for me, oh the memories.
The main thing that seems to have urked people, not least Richard Dawkins, is his speech which contained the following:
Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny” (Caritas in Veritate, 29).
The main point of contention being that the word atheism was used in relation to the Nazis. Yep I can see why that could annoy people, saying that atheists are nazis... well, sort of. The actual phrase is "atheist extremism", which is remarkably similar to another phrase I've heard banded around quite a bit int he past few years "Muslim extremism". Is it just me or have people decided that the word extremism mean "everyone associated with the preceding word". The wider muslim community seems to have been painted with the bastard brush since extremists screwed everything up for them, and that seems to be the assumption being made with what the pope said too, by atheist extremism he means anyone who doesn't believe in God
I don't really think this is what he was trying to say, so it seems a little silly to jump on this point as a way of showing that the pope is a nutter and that he hates everyone. What he seems to be saying, so how I understand it, is that the Nazis tried to force religion (jewish, christian, muslim, tarvuism) out of their society, and that didn't go so well. Atheist extremism, ie. the extremist views of some atheists that God has no place in society what so ever and should be removed, is not a good thing, in the same way that muslim extremism, ie. the extremist views of some muslims that they should kill those who disagree with them. There is seemingly more pressure to remove religion from society and the pope doesn't think this is a good thing.
So anyway, in conclusion. I don't see the point of taking issue with the pope, there are far, far worse people out there that get ignored and in essence the pope is harmless. Religion is too easy to take the piss out of, so why not try something more challenging. Atheism extremism doesn't mean anyone who doesn't believe in God.
No doubt there are holes in my reasoning, please point them out to me and I'll try to fill them, or at the very least point at something and say "look at that" whilst I run in the opposite direction.
transcript taken from:
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/518808-pope-s-holyroodhouse-speech-transcript (I assume he didn't tamper with it)
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