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https://www.wsj.com/articles/popes-china-calculation-clashes-with-image-as-champion-of-oppressed-1517600924
http://archive.is/8KMX1
Pope Francis ' recent decision to replace two Chinese bishops loyal to Rome with selectees of the country's Communist government, heralding his broader moves to reset the Vatican's ties with Beijing, has drawn cries of betrayal from advocates of the country's long-persecuted "underground" Catholic Church.
The pope's actions in China are characteristic of a leader who has repeatedly practiced realpolitik to achieve important goals. But they clash with Pope Francis' image among many Catholics and others as a defender of the oppressed—a profile likely to be further tested by his campaign to improve Vatican-China relations after seven decades of estrangement.
The pope has decided to recognize seven government-appointed Chinese bishops, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a major concession to Beijing in pursuit of warmer relations and—in the very long term—possible reestablishment of diplomatic ties broken in 1951. As part of that decision, Pope Francis has moved to replace two bishops loyal to the Vatican with prelates from China's state-controlled Catholic church.
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Monday February 05 2018, @09:31AM (11 children)
A supernatural ponzi scheme then?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 05 2018, @02:56PM (10 children)
In a Ponzi scheme no actual product is delivered. So yes, presuming it isn't actually true. And I believe we'll all find out the truth eventually on that one. (Or you won't.) Ricoeur's Wager would be persuasive to me to take the bet if I weren't already persuaded by other reasoning.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 05 2018, @04:13PM (5 children)
A little reading of Ancient Near-East mythology, comparative religion, and logic will dissuade you of that one. I'm no atheist, but I also know enough about the former subjects to know that if the Abrahamic God exists, *he's* the maximally-evil being, not his supposed antithesis Satan.
And, have you thought for a moment about what real immortality would entail? Not just "living a long damn time," but actual, conscious, eternal existence. It would be eternal Hell. At some point, no matter how fast your God expands your mental capacity and gives you new experience, things would start to loop. You would have spent $IMPOSSIBLY_BIGNUM years voluntarily suffering the kind of torture it's impossible for us even to imagine in numbers of permutations we can't conceive of JUST to have something new to experience. And you'd still start looping at some point.
No, there's the thing none of the greedy believers ever stop to think about: eternity, for any mind that is not-God, becomes inescapable torment. And don't try to get out of this with "well God could wipe your memory then." In this context, that's equivalent to partial or full death, i.e., reincarnation, *not* eternal continuation proper.
The more you start to think about this thing's actual promises, the more you start to see how insane and evil it must be if it exists.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @05:40PM (1 child)
Are you sure? Because you sure complain like one.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 05 2018, @08:46PM
Quite sure. And if my "complaining" bothers you, snowflake, you can go elsewhere.
Look at it this way: I'm the loyal opposition. I've seen enough bad religion to be even more upset with it than atheists are, because it gets in the way of good religion.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Monday February 05 2018, @06:41PM
No, there's the thing none of the greedy believers ever stop to think about: eternity, for any mind that is not-God, becomes inescapable torment. And don't try to get out of this with "well God could wipe your memory then." In this context, that's equivalent to partial or full death, i.e., reincarnation, *not* eternal continuation proper.
I read some sorta-sci-fi book ages ago where they had this premise that people (or whatever sentient species) were really manifestations of some immortal soul, so basically these immortal beings all live in some plane of existence, but as you say, it gets pretty boring after a while, so they incarnate into a new body somewhere, and live out a lifetime there, and then die and return to the eternal plane. Perhaps that would make immortality bearable: every time you live a lifetime, you're starting fresh, with no memories, but you're not actually "dying" since once that body dies and you return to the eternal plane, you have full access to all the memories from that lifetime, plus all the other lifetimes you experienced, so no information is really being lost.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:05PM (1 child)
Agree. Or at least he would be if he were omnipotent. The inherent logical contradictions of his typical sales pitch to pre-technological cultures aside, Yahweh is an Anunnaki, and he's wanted for crimes against intelligent life in 9 systems. (The whales here on Earth very likely have an open-and-shut case against him.)
He's the one who gives the Anunnaki a bad name. Humanity had been put on a solid trajectory for acceptance in the Galactic Federation within 2k to 3k years under Anunnaki sponsorship. He ghost wrote that book "Revelation," not only because the extrapolations in there are obvious to anybody who's seen the sociological data Enki's expeditionary group published, but to sneak in a clever meme to attempt to prevent the Queen of Heaven from stepping in and initiating an emergency first contact.
Should the "whore of Babylon" (gee, who else makes up funny little nicknames for his opponents?) make her presence overtly known and begin performing "miracles" (demonstrating sufficiently advanced technology pursuant to an emergency first contact scenario), what will the humans do now that their global culture is almost entirely under the control of Yahweh's lies?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 07 2018, @03:53AM
The sad thing is, that is massively more coherent than the actual plot of Christianity. And, say, Mass Effect 3.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @05:25PM (3 children)
You will find out. Just watch the sunrises and sunsets for six months, and then explain it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @06:36PM (2 children)
And make sure to shut your brain off before trying to explain it, if you want to think like a theist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)
No, you're going to need to turn your brain up higher than you've ever done. There is a question you've never had.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @07:57PM
But will you UNDERSTAND the question?
Forty-two?!