I think gambling is a complete and utter waste of time and money. I have never enjoyed visiting the casino with my friends, and when I did, I never placed a bet, considering the practice the equivalent of emptying the contents of my wallet into the toilet.
But hey, that’s me. Many others, for reasons I personally cannot fathom, enjoy gambling. As long as their activities don’t harm others, who am I to stand in their way?
Who am I? I’m not a Catholic bishop, that’s who.
When you’re a Catholic bishop, you believe not only that you are, by virtue of the notion that you are the representative of a deity, able to deliberate authoritatively to the wretched paeons and sinners on how they ought to conduct their lives. You also believe that the law of the state should coerce people to conduct themselves in accordance with your dogmas, regardless of whether they belong to your religion.
You are, in effect, an enemy of liberal democracy. You are an enemy of religious freedom, and the separation of church and state, because for all your bluster about being God’s representatives on earth, about serving a higher power than any that humankind can devise, either the God you claim to represent is utterly weak, or your powers of reason and persuasion are so pathetically handicapped, that you need the earthly powers of the state to force people to do what you want them to do. You have always needed this.
It’s simple, really. Don’t like gambling, drinking or shopping on one of your “sacred” holidays? Then don’t do it. Don’t like others gambling, drinking or shopping on one of your “sacred” holidays? Then make an argument, convince them that they shouldn’t.
Or else prepare to be mocked for your obscene presumptuousness in dictating to the rest of us how we should live our lives. That mockery is a sign that human society is liberating itself from the superstitious and unnecessary fear and awe of old male virgins wearing funny robes. History is pwning you. And that’s a good thing.
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That mockery is a sign that human society is liberating itself from the superstitious and unnecessary fear and awe of old male virgins wearing funny robes. History is pwning you. And that’s a good thing.
I’ll second that.
[...] (h/t arthurvandelay) [...]
You said it much better than I.
Hope you don’t mind but I’m reprinting your last para on my blog (with a link back here of course) it is so good.
[...] Five Public Opinions also blogged about this today, his closing paragraph is sublime: [...]
I, of course, wonder if christian priests don’t do certain activities on sacred/holy days of other faiths?
Matt,
In my mother’s home town a certain mass, I think it was the 9 am was the one you should go to if you wanted a short service as the priest would often finish early to make it to the track.
Hope you don’t mind but I’m reprinting your last para on my blog (with a link back here of course) it is so good.
Thanks, Oz. I have nothing personal against these bishops, you understand. I just think they’re fascists.
They are fascists, exactly. All monotheistic religions are fascists in essence; never have been democratic in any way. I only wish people would wake up to this fact and stop being blinded by this ridiculous get-out-of-jail for free card called ‘spirituality’. Bullshit; it’s fascism in frocks, and the Roman Catholic Church is the mother of European fascism, streaching back for centuries of vicious totalitarian rule.
Think of Mussolini; where did he come from? Italy, home of the historical seat of the pure fascist state of the Vatican.
Liberalism is actually the problem not the Catholic bishops.
Those who ‘have faith’ in the ‘free’ market are exercising a false man-made faith yet have the chutzpah to carry on in hostility against the Church. Those who have ‘faith’ in their greed and in ‘the market’ need to look at facts.
Separation of Church and State is not as separate as you think and is not a sacred cow as you believe’. Without objective moral norms as taught by the Catholic Church we are only left with city yuppy tyranny of relativism. Dictators who are hardly liberal and cuddly also are the ultimate relativists.
Charles: where does the Catholic Church get its “objective moral norms (TM)” from?
Hang on! let me get the popcorn.
I’m also interested in learning from Charles if by “objective moral norms” he means “ideas, behaviours and attitudes he personally agrees with,’ and if by “relativism” he means “ideas, behaviours and attitudes he personally disagrees with.
Furthermore, I wonder if Charles’ faith in his own ability to adhere to the moral dogmas he cherishes is so shallow that he needs the government to force him—along with everyone else whether they share his religious beliefs or not—to observe the moral dogmas of his religion.
Hang on! let me get the popcorn.
I suspect Charles may be a drive-by Troll for Jesus.
Yes he does not seem to have returned.
seantheblogonaut: Excuse me if I’ve misread what you wrote, but, and my humblest apologies if I’m wrong, what you’re saying is that Charles was Jesus?
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