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posted by
n1
on Monday August 11 2014, @05:25AM
from the back-to-wasting-time-on-futile-things-in-meatspace dept.
from the back-to-wasting-time-on-futile-things-in-meatspace dept.
Pope Francis thinks you are spending too much time chatting online, using your smartphone and watching TV, among other things. He did not Tweet the message, but rather delivered it in person to 50,000 German Altar Servers who dropped by for a visit.
Earlier this year, the pope said the internet was a "Gift From God", while warning against isolation caused by too little face time with real people.
Meanwhile, the British government is warning that too much time online is causing mental illness in children "Loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and heightened aggression are some of the possible issues faced by children who may overuse the Internet."
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Pope Francis Urges Young People to Not Waste Time Online
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(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 11 2014, @09:47AM
I can sympathize with you, but that doesn't make your behavior any better for yourself or your environment. First of all, I went to a roman-catholic led school, and even though several of the teachers were priests, the physics- and maths- teachers were not. Actually our school had the best reputation in natural-science related topics in a radius of ca. 25km (and yes, there were a couple of other grammer schools around, usually not led by church). Even religious lessons were held as a science lesson were we learned facts about other religions; facts, neither opinions nor judgement. We had obligatory bi-weekly services as well, which I did not like, but aside from that lessons were not affected by believe.
I quit church a year ago because I didn't want to add to the weight of the popes claims anymore. Still, if you really resent the emotional, biased and apparently abusive treatment you received from the priests around you, stop following their example and start to apply logic and common sense instead of anger. That way people might to pay you even respect instead of / on top of sympathies.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Lagg on Monday August 11 2014, @10:15AM
Therein lies the problem, I don't want sympathy nor do I particularly care whether or not people respect my position on the subject. That's the beauty of it too. I don't need to be an apologist for things like science. I'm angry because I want to be. You don't get rid of problems by ignoring it and pretending that the bible thumper opposite you is giving you any good argument or stimulating discourse. You get rid of them by fixing them, which in this case requires religion and particularly the Pope /or Vatican in this case to be called out for what they are: Manipulative trash. People aren't angry enough at stuff like this, which is why the Pope runs his deluded mouth like he does. He knows that people are just going to uncomfortably shrug him off. I won't. Really though, what does what school you went to have to do with it? You happened to have people who have no business following religious crap in the first place teaching your classes in a school full of cultists? Yay? I mean what do you want from me here? Yes, you can find gold dust in several tons of mud but there's still several tons of mud. Every church and religious school have a few good people in it. The same can be said about maximum security prisons so you'll have to excuse me if I don't see your point.
This thing where people go with the proven-to-be-false mindset of "ignore the trolls and they'll go away" lately really needs to stop. They don't go away. Giving people like this silence merely makes their voice louder.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 3, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 11 2014, @12:00PM
Then I don't get your point. You gave anecdotal evidence that church is a harmful organization, which I agree is a poor way of arguing a point. To prove how poor and unreliable anecdotal evidence is, I gave a counter-example, which you now refuted by basically claiming it's only anecdotal evidence. (Your allusion to gold in mud is clearly a reference to statistical insignificance of my example compared to the huge machinery of the catholic church, but apparently you do not come to the conclusion that your personal experience also only reflects a very limited subset of reality.)
You re-iterate your opinion about the catholic church being obsolete or harmful, putting some time and obviously also some personal spirit into it to make your point, on the other hand you claim it doesn't matter to you if people take you seriously or not. Why do you try to make a point when you are not interested in other peoples opinion?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 11 2014, @04:04PM
I've been following this thread and I appreciate your calm and sincere responses. I have known quite a few religious people who believed in things that I consider silly or pretty clearly insane, but at the same time I've observed that most of them are actually acting like pretty decent people. I knew one particular very nice couple who seemed to ground everything they believed in logic and careful thought (even though I disagreed with some of their conclusions) and eventually I took them up on their invitation to attend their church. It was a shock to me to discover exactly how much loony the service sounded to me after getting to know the couple who invited me. So, I'm prepared to accept that people can be decent to each other, in fact that they usually are, even if their religion is a little nuts.
Then there is the lumping every religion into one group thing. If your religion says everybody should believe the same as you, then fine, I don't care, but I do care what you are supposed to do about people who disagree or change their minds. If your church (or whatever) makes you think you should harm somebody, even "just" mentally, to make sure they believe what you do, then you have a bad religion. Most Christians, Catholics in particular, seem to believe that the right way to handle somebody leaving their church is to pray for them and maybe offer to visit with them. That's a far cry from Islam or Scientology.
I know there are lots of religions that call themselves "Christians" and there are some that are dangerous, but if I find out my sister is going to join the Lutheran church or the Pentecostals or the Mennonites or the Mormans, I don't fear for her nearly like I would if she was joining the Scientologists or Islam. I find it sad that someone can be so embittered by one group that when he escapes, he loses the ability to see distinctions.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 11 2014, @06:49PM
Thanks. I work in an environment with people from >50 different nations in our office; it would be quite chaotic if we would discuss religion on an emotional base.
For the same reason I disagree partially with you about your opinion on Islam: I think that generally, the less educated people are and the less open-minded and the more oppressed they are, the more dangerous they become in their religion. Most Christian countries can afford to be lenient. But considering that we got our position in the world centuries ago by bloodily slaughtering Islam populations, and considering that GW Bush claimed [theguardian.com] God ordered him to liberate Iraq, I have a hard time to accept that Islam is inherently more bloody than Christianity.
I do agree that I perceive violence performed directly in the name of god is more common in Islamic countries in the name of the sharia, but I also met lots of more educated moslems who are as much moslem as most west-european city-folks are christian: i.o.w. it's in their passport, they wouldn't say much against it (well, you never know...), but that's it mainly.
Personally I'd rather follow the Church of the Holy Spaghetti-Monster.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum