I follow no religion but I do choose to believe in God. Choosing = faith Religion = let's see what we can get these daft ****s to do for us. Religion isn't faith, it's politics.
...in the western world religion is also a massive industry. Yet, the indoctrinated lambs follow them all the way to the mint sauce and say thank you for it.
I'm not going to agree with the second bit what with being a regular bead rattler (though yes there are people who do what you describe) but you are spot on with the first bit. One of the local churches is charging every parent £80 for their child to make First Holy Communion which i think is criminal. In ours we do it for free though the down side is poor little Seamus and Geraldine end up having ****s like me teaching them. On second thoughts the £80 sounds like a bargain.
Tell me Dan . You seem to be a pretty intelligent fellow . You know the shenanigans that has went on worldwide within the catholic Church . You know how the hierarchy have delt with it over decades if not centuries . Yet you still attend this church and , I presume allow your children to attend . Why ?
Dan, I know you are active in your church and I mean no disrespect to you or your religion. There are hard working people like yourself doing great things, but, I have to say my feeling is that the political hierarchy of your chosen religion relies on such venerable people as yourself to do it's good while they serve their own interest. To my mind, faith is personal and needs no applied structure to tell you how to do it. To accept applied structure to your faith is to accept it's politic.
I don't have children but if i did I'd be cool with taking them to my church. I've been to the same church for 40 years and there's never been a hint of scandal and I know all the people involved with the different activities . Yep - round the world they've been ****s and I don't have any time for the way the vatican's dealt with it or the different hierarchies - I also don't really care for the pope. but i'm not praying to them and, instead, being part of a community i've always belonged to. It's a cop out - of course it is - and quite aside from exepcting anyone else to understand i'd be a liar if I said i fully understand it myself.
I stole one from the marina on St Maartens 14 years ago. I did bring it back 20 minutes later though. I got seasick. And I needed more booze which was not in any of the wee cubby holes all over the boat or under the seats. That taught me a lesson. Steal a well stocked boat.
Won't someone think of the children for pity's sake. I despair, I really do. Where did it all go wrong for heaven's sake.
Don't be an idiot Toby, not every Catholic has been buggered or even knows of anyone who has been buggered. As much as I think the Catholic Church can **** off for other things (such as it's attitude towards condoms in Africa) I spent 12 years in Catholic school without anything remotely scandalous happening.
There's been less than 6000 known cases of complaints of indecent behaviour from Catholic clergy since records began and if you consider how many clergymen there has been and still are in that time the numbers are very small.