No more 'Mr. Nice Guy', that's my motto from now on! Just the other day I was nice to little Georgie Moonbat (aka, George Monbiot) and then he goes and writes something monumentally stupid and puts me into a bad temper. In a blog post entitled Cardinal Sins ('Oh, very witty, Wilde!'), little Georgie takes a swing at the new Pope - and misses by a mile! He takes him to task for failing to be active in support of so-called 'Liberation Theology', an idea so foreign to the teachings of Jesus Christ that I am amazed any Catholic could ever dream it up, let alone support it. Matthew 22.21: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". In other words, true Christians should not concern themselves with earthly matters of governance but simply lead their own personal lives according to the teachings of God as expressed by his Son on earth. So leading people into political action against governments that will prove to be almost certainly futile and probably life-threatening is not what the followers of Jesus Christ should be doing. It is not life on earth with which Christians should be concerned but the promised 'life' after death. This life, according to Christian theology, is merely temporary, a testing ground, if you like, upon the record of which you will be judged for what you will receive in the next life.
Now let me make clear, as if you didn't know, that I am no Christian, indeed, I am not even a theist of any sort. I squat, quite comfortably, thank you, on the fence of agnosticism. I view Christianity (and Christians) with the same degree of bemusement as I do Muslims, Wotan worshippers, the 'Wee Frees, Mithraists, atheists and all those other people who seem to require more than what is around them to attract their wonder and their awe. So, I feel no need to protect Pope 'Frannie' from the likes of little pipsqueaks like George Monbiot. My only reason for grumbling away here and now is that little Georgie should know better. I mean, he's an intellectual and all that sort of thing; you know, he sits around all day reading books, writing articles for 'The Graun', opining from time to time on my TV and, for God's sake (no pun intended) he's 50 years old and should know better!
Buck up, little Georgie, or I'll set 'DM'* on you!
*For the sake of any newcomers who may have stumbled in here by mistake, 'DM' is the 'headmaster' here and he's a stickler for detail!
Wee Frees are Christians, Duffers: not to my taste, but somewhat less mad than Roman Catholics, as measured along the sane-to-bonkers dimension of the flavours of Christianity and near-Christianity.
I class Roman Catholics as near-Christian because, in addition to accepting the divinity of the Trinity (the odd three-in-one nature that God shares with the convenient light oil) they attribute divine properties to the Pope (he's Infallible you know) and the Virgin Mary. So they go in the nearly box, alongside Mormons.
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 14:59
This article says everything that needs to be said about Moonbat.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100207349/the-radicals-who-rage-against-tory-austerity-called-for-austerity-themselves-five-years-ago-hypocritical-much/
Posted by: Dom | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 16:40
I was raised Catholic, but I'm certainly not one now, not after the child-abuse scandels. I care nothing at all about the Catholic Church, but I wonder if I can answer DM because I think he is mistaken.
Infallibility is not a divine property. It simple means that on issues of morality, the Pope has the last word. You can make appeals to a priest, bishop, cardinal, and so on up the line, but there is nothing after the Pope. The Papacy is something like the Supreme Court in this sense. As far as I know, there has been only one statement from the Pope that is said to be infallible.
Concerning the divine properties of Mary, yes, you are right there. That's a bit of silliness that goes back to the dark ages, and there is probably a little bit of Freudian Mother-worship behind it.
Posted by: Dom | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 16:46
My stepdaughter reads the Guardian. She believes everyone in the world should be entitled to live just where they want to. She believes there is no need for armies, because any problem can be settled by rational people applying log. She doesn't seem to believe in Piskies, which is odd, as she is half Cornish.
And that is the problem with Moonbat - he believes in all sorts of silly things - like my stepdaugher.
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 17:33
For "log", read "logic"
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 17:34
"I mean, he's an intellectual and all that sort of thing; you know, he sits around all day reading books, writing articles for 'The Graun', opining from time to time on my TV and, for God's sake (no pun intended) he's 50 years old and should know better!"
These facts are no more supportive of him being an intellectual, than of him being a ridiculous deluded son of privilege. I did warn you about being soft on him over the McAlpine damages case, but you wouldn't listen. Now God has shown you the truth, by making Monbiot utter yet another pile of piss.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 19:29
I know I'm going off at a tangent and it's a matter you've touched on before, but people are so funny, aren't they?
From a personal perspective, as a devout agnostic (I was raised 'Welsh Chapel' and don't attend church but when people shoot at me, or I'm hanging from a ledge by my fingernails - I get down on my knees [figuratively as there's never much room on that damned ledge] just in case! Oh and when I hit my thumb with a hammer I do not profane to 'random fluctuations in the flow of causality' either!) I feel almost all the 'attacks' on Christianity aren't as such, but are actually attacks on the people professing to be Christian, a significant difference, no?
The other observation? Well, you know all these anti-christians? They all seem to be not so much anti-religion do they? They all seem to line up to support some weird and wacky foreign religion/ideology (the further away and obscure the place it originated the better apparently). It brings to mind the 'religion' of a character in one of Terry Pratchetts books (Thief of Time), a small, bald monk of a barbarian lineage, living in a monastery, on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Yep, you guessed it, he believed in 'The Way of Mrs Marietta Cosmopilite, 3 Quirm Street, Ankh-Morpork, Rooms For Rent, Very Reasonable'.
Why is everyone but 'thee and me' so weird? And you're a little strange.
Just Sayin'
Posted by: Able | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 20:37
"... almost all the 'attacks' on Christianity aren't as such, but are actually attacks on the people professing to be Christian ..."
Great point. I've said before that I have a soft spot for Christianity. I consider it a Great Leap Forward in human development. And I'm an agnostic in your sense. When I'm laying on my death bed, I'll pray. Why not?
Posted by: Dom | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 21:50
"Infallibility is not a divine property." Then they really should have thought of another name for it.
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 21:51
Thank you, Able, you sent me to bed tonight laughing my socks off - and I was already laughing at the comment from 'W'!
BOE, alas, I must confess - as this is a religious thread! - that I think Hell is when the Devil plays back all the daft things you said when you were young, so I have a sneaking sympathy for your step-daughter. The real tragedy only unfolds if, like little Georgie, she is still repeating the same nonsense 30 years from now!
Dom, you touch the heart of the matter, I think, and I amy expand a little on it tomorrow.
DM, what I was trying to get across was that I find the worship of any god incomprehensible. I can understand it in earlier ages when it was, I think, a sort of faux-scientific theory to explain the inexplicable but today that is so difficult to do that, rather oddly, I sort of admire anyone who can keep their faith. I think I may expand on this tomorrow - you have been warned!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 19 March 2013 at 22:00
An addendum which I'm er.. addending(?) in the middle of, yet another. night shift (having finally shoveled all the violent, incontinent drunks out the door - but thats doctors for you).
"I think, a sort of faux-scientific theory to explain the inexplicable"
Speaking for myself (which I am still occasionally allowed to even if my solicitor recommends against it) I'm not sure if you mean explanations of 'the meaning of life, the universe and everything' (42 as everyone knows) in which case I'll disagree, or a hoped for rationale for why excrement keeps flying my way, girls always turn me down, my hair has fallen out and I can't fit into those nice trousers I saved from 1978 due to my waistline inexplicably expanding, nobody likes my singing and I can't afford that new Ferrari I so richly deserve. There BETTER be a reason or God(s) and The Universe are going to be facing one seriously disappointed and pissed off Able let me tell you!
I like (another fictional, if not up to your classical literary allusions) the philosophy of a Dean Koontz character Stormy (Odds deceased former girlfriend and love of his life in the 'Odd Thomas' series). She viewed this life with all its suffering and travails as a training ground for the next, which rather than being some 'paradise' was where we get to fight (?what) using all the skills (eg. how best to deal with an inebriated anaesthetist and clean P off your shoes) and perseverance (eg. by doing without Ferraris!) we learn in this one. Only afterwards, if you fought well, will you go on to a 'better' place, or not. The world as a 'Boot Camp' has a certain poetic fitness (and those who've had it easy [and had Ferraris] will be in trouble, not being used to all this privation).
Also here are some of the profound sayings from the Way of Mrs Cosmopilite, which I have found both comforting and useful in explaining lifes ups and downs to other less enlightened colleagues/students/patients:
"Hard work never did anybody any harm"?'
"There is no time like the present"
"You've got to learn to walk before you can run,"
"Seeing is believing,"
"It does you good to get out in the fresh air"
"It won't get better if you pick at it"
"Eat it up, it'll make your hair curly"
"Everything comes to he who waits"
and my favourite:
"Because"
Posted by: Able | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 06:00
I should perhaps, have pointed out that my step daughter is 53!
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 09:21
Your precepts indicate a very fine moral mind, Able, you should consider analytical philosophy and give up that medical stuff! Incidentally, I like Koontz but only when he writes straightforward thrillers, the mystical stuff turns me off.
BOE, ref. step-daughter - Oh dear!
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 11:57