Pope Benedict Rocks!!!

[Vin DSL]

Stressing that they were not his own words, he quoted Emperor Manual II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, the Orthodox Christian empire which had its capital in what is now the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Speaking in Germany, the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things.

The emperor's words were, he said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Right on!!!

[lokki]

So I'm guessing you aren't aware of what lead up to the Crusades? Nor that several Popes did exactly the same thing themselves, putting to death those who opposed them or refused Christianity?

How many people have been killed for believing something different than the guy with the sword?

[Joel]

lokki I wouldn't waste your time arguing this one. Watching Vin DSL in these forums, he will argue anything for the sake of arguing. It takes a muppet with a naive worldview to support such words.

Further testiment to that is that he posts with the words "Right On." Nothing really insightful, only a thread posted to cause controversy. He as per usual will return later once there is a number of threads and start his ego-building crusaide to get into as many arguments with as many individuals as possible in the one thread. Only to note it down on a piece of paper and try for a new personal best next week.

Regards,

Joel

[sacxtra]

comment deleted

[Vin DSL]

'Pope must apologise in person'

Cairo - Muslims deplored on Friday remarks on Islam by Pope Benedict XVI and many of them said the Catholic leader should apologise in person to dispel the impression that he had joined a campaign against their religion.

"The Pope of the Vatican joins in the Zionist-American alliance against Islam," said the leading Moroccan daily Attajdid, the main Islamist newspaper in the kingdom.

"We demand that he apologises personally, and not through (Vatican) sources, to all Muslims for such a wrong interpretation," said Beirut-based Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world's top Shi'ite Muslim clerics.

[mattsiegman]

Meh, it was just a lead in to a speech. He was only quoting someone. I don't see what the big deal is. (Although I'm glad the Pope had the guts to say the quote )

[sacxtra]

comment deleted

[lokki]

It's funny that Vin took the same interpretation as the Muslim world; that the quote was meant to insult Muslims today.

Taking it in context, I think the Muslims should simmer down... there is no need for the pontif to apologize. I wonder how long before the conspiracy theorists claim the Pope and Bush are working together to create more support for war.

[Vin DSL]

Hahahaha! I'm a Catholic, you stupid moron...

They touch one hair on his head, when he goes to Turkey next month, and that's the end!

Forget you New Mexico faggots! It's gonna be 1 billion of 'us' against 1 billion of 'them' -- straight up!

[lokki]

Hahahaha! I'm a Catholic, you stupid moron...

They touch one hair on his head, when he goes to Turkey next month, and that's the end!

Forget you New Mexico faggots! It's gonna be 1 billion of 'us' against 1 billion of 'them' -- straight up!

"you stupid moron"

Wow. You really did run out of wit a long, long time ago. Better go scour more blogs from which to steal your would-be insults. I must have really gotten to you, Vin, because you are reverting to simple invective epithets (that's "mean name-calling". I figured I'd spare you the difficulty of trying to look that up... wouldn't want to raise your heart rate by typing more than you have to).

I frankly don't recognize the Pope as any kind of authority. He's like an SCA king who takes himself too seriously. I wouldn't mourn his loss any more than I would the Croc Hunter. It's unfortunate that the world makes him important based on a fiction, a creative interpretation of delusional history.

You, Vin, are among the biggest sheeple I've ever encountered. You are as bad as any religious zealot that you've ever insulted, but your cranium is far too thick to see it, and what's worse is that you've chosen to be that way. Egocentrism seems to run rife through the Catholic church, and you are a shining example of what is wrong with how Christianity is taught. You are utterly unable to think for yourself.

You fear me. You fear anything that doesn't line up with your world view. So very pathetic. As for insulting gays, I'm pretty sure most of them don't go for guys like you, anyway, so stop flattering yourself.

Your faith is false, and your devotion to it has driven most of the world's problems. How's that fit within your guilt-based ideology? I'm sure your bed blisters would go away if you got your sweaty ass up from your computer or vinyl truck seat more than 10 minutes in a day.

For your claims of your IQ being so high, you certainly don't display anything more than a 2nd grade humor. Or is that the control group you tested against? Even then, I'd be surprised if you broke average, unless you sat on the top students.

[mattsiegman]

lokki, you best not be dissin' Catholicism. I'm Catholic too. I'm not saying Vin is right w/ his views, and they are definatly not all supported by the Church.

The papacy has been around for almost 2000 years, and has had it's problem, but it's kept the same essential message for 2000 years, through hundreds of popes. The pope is the head of a church containing over 1 billion members (although I doubt even half of them pratice the faith properly), so I would say he's a little bit more important than the croc hunter, and needs to take himself very seriously.

I would hardly call the Bible a "creative interpretation of delusional history" as MANY accounts in it can be cross referenced to early writings, other religions' version of the Bible, etc.

You also must remember that the Catholic Church has done an amazing amount of good things for the world.

Now, I'm not defending Vin here, but I do agree with the sentiment of: if they touch one hair on his head, there will be hell to pay.

[Ron]

Where were you after the assassination attempt on John Paul II?

Would you follow his example, and forgive?

Or would you follow His teachings, turn the other cheek and forgive?

I'm just playing Pontif's advocate.

[Frank Broughton]

(snip)
The papacy has been around for almost 2000 years, and has had it's problem, but it's kept the same essential message for 2000 years, through hundreds of popes.

The above is not a true statement. Take a look here at one of my sites for some inventions and changes: http://fbbc.com/messages/catholic_herisies.htm

And here is an open standing letter to my Catholic friends: http://fbbc.com/messages/rice_letter_to_catholic.htm

[mattsiegman]

Frank, there is no point in arguing you, as I doubt I would ever get through, and I honestly don't have the time to refute all of that. Let's just agree to disagree and not start a war over this, mkay?

However, some things in that letter are flat out wrong:

1. The Bible plainly forbids making any image for worship and bowing down to any image.

In Exodus 20:4 and 5 the Scripture says: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

And any honest reader knows that that Scripture forbids using an image in worship, bowing down to it, praying before it, and serving it. And yet the Catholic Church not only has images, but encourages people to pray to images, to the crucifix, to images of Mary, to images of saints. Here Roman tradition violates the Bible, and the commandments of men take the place of the commandments of God. That is sin.

Correct, and we tell people not to worship images. We do not worship images. We use them as images, as reminder, etc. We pray to God, we do not pray to images. Any Catholic who prays to an image is wrong. We start our prayers with "God", "Dear Lord", "Jesus", etc. Not "Image of God", "Crucifix", etc.

2. The Scriptures command that "a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife..." (I Tim. 3:2).

The Roman Church says that a bishop must have no wife at all. It even makes foolish pretensions that Peter put away his wife, though there is not a scratch of history in the Bible or out to indicate anything of the kind. It is a clear case of putting human tradition ahead of the Bible.

Actually, the Sacrament of Marriage is what keeps priests from being married. The Church teaches that a man would not be able to fully devote himself to his wife and to the Church and fulfill the duties of both. We do have some priests (I know one) who are married because they converted from the Orthodox Church. Additionally, I don't see what the problem with unmarried priests is anyway...

There is no hint in the Bible that New Testament Christians ever regarded Mary as more than another good woman. She had no authority among the apostles. No one was taught to pray to her, to do her homage, to adore her, or to partake of the unscriptural worship which Catholics do, but call it by other names. Thus the Roman Church has brought a plague upon itself by adding the commandments of men and traditions of men to the commands of God.

We do not worship Mary. We do adore her, and pray for her intercession. She is, after all, the mother of God. He respected her enough to perform the miracle at the Wedding at Cana before his public life was set to begin...

II. The Roman Catholic Idea of a Church Is Wholly Unknown in the Bible and Contrary to the Bible

You tell me, dear friend, that the Catholic Church is "the true church." But you found no such term in the Bible and no such idea in the Bible. The Bible says nothing about any nationwide or world-wide organization. The idea of a church as a denomination is utterly foreign to the Bible. No such organization can be "the true church" because nothing like that is pictured or promised in the Bible. They had nothing like that in Bible times.

Matthew 16:18

New American Bible

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, 13 and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew16.htm

New Internation Version

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...8;&version=31;

King James Version

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...18;&version=9;

Do I need to go further on this one?

I will not refute all of that, because like I said above, I don't have the time; additionally, I am not a scholar in all things Catholic.

[Ron]

My questions were simpler, Matt...