Meet the world’s most influential witchdoctor

18 03 2009

From The Guardian:

The Pope today reignited the controversy over the Catholic church’s stance on condom use as he made his first trip to Africa.

The pontiff said condoms were not the answer to the continent’s fight against HIV and Aids and could make the problem worse.

Benedict XVI made his comments as he flew to Cameroon for the first leg of a six-day trip that will also see him travelling to Angola.

The timing of his remarks outraged health agencies trying to halt the spread of HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 22 million people are infected.

The Roman Catholic church encourages sexual abstinence and fidelity to prevent the disease from spreading, but it is a policy that has divided some clergy working with Aids patients.

The pontiff, speaking to journalists on his flight, said the condition was “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.

Rebecca Hodes, of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, said that if the Pope was serious about preventing new HIV infections he would focus on promoting wider access to condoms and spreading information about how best to use them.

Hodes, the director of policy, communication and research for the campaign group, added: “Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans.”

Millions of lives are at stake owing to the sad fact that this man’s ill-informed and anti-scientific utterances are taken seriously. (That, compounded with the—hopefully diminishing—human desire to flush one’s brain down the toilet, ignore reality and prostrate oneself before dogma and self-appointed authority.)





Things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City IV

12 01 2008

The week in fundie . . .

  1. The city council of Green Bay, Wisconsin, installs a nativity scene above the entrance to the city hall–simply to spite the Freedom From Religion Foundation and their “Madison values.” (The Carpetbagger Report)
  2. Middle-class parents in the UK are baptising their children late to ensure they are eligible for enrolment in tax-payer funded faith schools. (The Times)
  3. Won’t the real Mike Huckabee please stand up? The Nation uncovers the uber-fundie that is the Republican presidential candidate.
  4. “God’s Basic Training”–the Christianisation of the US military. (Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
  5. Pope Benedict: teh gay marriage is a “threat to world peace.” (365Gay.com)




Look at these videos while I claim this blog on Technorati

18 12 2007

Technorati Profile

Vatican World Travel’s special offer: Take a trip to Lourdes and bypass Purgatory

Pat Condell: “Why does faith deserve respect?”

Pat Condell: “Miracles and Morals”