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Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | Reason : In the News | print version Print | Comments

Document Hell is real and eternal: Pope

by Richard Owen

Reposted from:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21460061-2703,00.html

Thanks to Ebu Gogo for sending this in.

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.

Addressing a parish gathering in a northern suburb of Rome, Benedict XVI said that in the modern world many people, including some believers, had forgotten that if they failed to "admit blame and promise to sin no more", they risked "eternal damnation - the inferno".

Hell "really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more".

The Pope, who as cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic doctrine, noted that "forgiveness of sins" for those who repented was a cornerstone of Christian belief. He recalled that Jesus had forgiven the "woman taken in adultery" and prevented her from being stoned to death, observing: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation ... the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind".

Vatican officials said the Pope - who is also the Bishop of Rome - had been speaking in "straightforward" language "like a parish priest". He had wanted to reinforce the new Catholic catechism, which holds that hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically".

Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a church historian, said the Pope was "right to remind us that hell is not something to be put on one side" as an inconvenient or embarrassing aspect of belief. It was described by St Matthew as a place of "everlasting fire" (Matthew xxv, 41).

"The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a hell on earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife," Professor Bagliani said.

In 1999, pope John Paul II said heaven was "neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God, which is the goal of human life".

Hell, by contrast, was "the ultimate consequence of sin itself ... Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy".

In October, the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a "halfway house" between heaven and hell, was "only a theological hypothesis" and not a "definitive truth of the faith".

Comments 1 - 50 of 78 |

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1. Comment #27967 by Cancerfish on March 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm

 avatar'In 1999, pope John Paul II said heaven was "neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God, which is the goal of human life".'

I wonder what he thinks now?

Other Comments by Cancerfish

2. Comment #27968 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on March 27, 2007 at 1:07 pm

 avatarThis is really good news. Let them shout this stuff from the roof tops, God is a monstrous tyrant who will punish you in eternal fire for your honestly held opinions.

Even the most deranged tyrant eventually lets their victims die, but not God, because he loves you!! He loved you so much he's willing to roast you on a spit for eternity. Although love may not be quite the right word we're after here ...

Other Comments by briancoughlanworldcitizen

3. Comment #27972 by GBile on March 27, 2007 at 1:14 pm

 avatarWhat is a 'Pope' ??

What is a 'Bishop' ??

What is a 'Cardinal' ??

Other Comments by GBile

4. Comment #27973 by USA_Limey on March 27, 2007 at 1:15 pm

 avatarCrazy of course, but I have to say I do have more respect in many ways for the religious conservatives of any faith like Ratzinger than the wishy washy liberal types. Let me clarify; I believe the steadfast conservative types who really belief in the absolutes of their particular faith are a much smaller minority than we would suppose; but as others far more eloquent than I have pointed out they are sheilded and supported from criticism by the 'moderate' religious types who probably don't believe in hell but go along with the rituals and all that crap. What it comes down to for me is I WANT the pope to say hell is a real place just like I want Jerry Falwell to say the rapture is imminent. Their lunacy must make the moderates squirm and it is they we must shake loose of their cosy and complacent addiction to the warm fuzzy feeling of their religion.

Other Comments by USA_Limey

5. Comment #27978 by AtheistJunkie on March 27, 2007 at 1:32 pm

 avatarI wonder how he knows that it's real??

Maybe I should ask him if I'm going to win the lottery. I'm sure that knowing that such crap exists is much harder than lottery.

Other Comments by AtheistJunkie

6. Comment #27979 by TheRationalist on March 27, 2007 at 1:35 pm

This story has been the subject of a fairly lengthy blog over at

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/03/therell_be_hell_to_pay.html

It's interesting that the theists who normally populate the Guardian's forums are unavailable for comment and seem unprepared to defend hell. They are embarrassed, I suspect, by this element of orthodoxy. This lends support to the currently popular atheist position of openly questioning scripture and (I'm afraid) of ridiculing it where necessary. If literalism is viewed generally as absurd then religion cannot sustain itself in any neaningful form. This is why authoritarian moralists like the pope are so desperate to assert the kind of madness we see in his vision of a non-metaphorical hell.

Other Comments by TheRationalist

7. Comment #27980 by RossJohnson on March 27, 2007 at 1:35 pm

I love this:

"God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation ... the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind"."

So... the gift is that you don't get to suffer for all eternity, which is the default condition. Fantastic!

Other Comments by RossJohnson

8. Comment #27981 by Janus on March 27, 2007 at 1:37 pm

 avatarGood. Anything that makes the Pope look like a fundy nut is a good thing.

Other Comments by Janus

9. Comment #27983 by Fedler on March 27, 2007 at 1:39 pm

 avatarGBile,

What is a 'Pope' ??

The Pope, based in the Vatican in Rome, is the figure head for Christianity throughout the world. Similar in role to that of a President.

What is a 'Bishop' ??

A Bishop in Christianity is the leader of a particular region or territory, roughly about 3-4 per state here in the U.S. The Bishop of a territory reports to a corresponding Cardinal, who covers an even larger area.

What is a 'Cardinal' ??

A Cardinal is higher than a bishop, but just below the Pope in terms of 'rank' (if clergy can be said to have a rank system). I think there are 6 Cardinals representing the United States.

I apologize for my North American chauvinism, but that's how the church hierarchy is roughly defined in the United States. I imagine it's at least somewhat similar in other countries. In a very generalized way, the progression from highest to lowest would be "Pope – Cardinal – Bishop". Beneath the Bishops are your local parish priests.

Other Comments by Fedler

10. Comment #27985 by Eamonn Shute on March 27, 2007 at 1:51 pm

 avatarRichard said that "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction. Jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic-cleanser; a misogynistic homophobic racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully".
It is nice to see that the Pope agrees with him! :-)

Other Comments by Eamonn Shute

11. Comment #27986 by Kevin Ronayne on March 27, 2007 at 1:52 pm

 avatarIf at first you don't succeed, try scare tactics. So limbo is out, but eternal fire and brimstone is back in? What ever happened to Papal infallibility?

Better luck next time, Joey.

Other Comments by Kevin Ronayne

12. Comment #27988 by FraserH on March 27, 2007 at 1:56 pm

New to this so nowt fancy, but ...

'Hell, by contrast, was "the ultimate consequence of sin itself ... Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy".'

so all us atheists are already in hell! Those comments about us ending up in/burning in hell are all a bit redundant.

Other Comments by FraserH

13. Comment #27989 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:05 pm

 avatarFedler wrote:

Beneath the Bishops are your local parish priests.


And off to one side are Monsigneurs. This is where they shunt priests who are good enough to be Bishops, but can't, for example because they're gay. One (gay) one told me that of the six Monsigneurs invested at his sitting (or prostration?), three were gay.

Other Comments by Shuggy

14. Comment #27991 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:12 pm

 avatar
In October, the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a "halfway house" between heaven and hell, was "only a theological hypothesis" and not a "definitive truth of the faith".

I thought Purgatory was the halfway house, and Limbo was a sort of Nowhere Land for babies (especially "unborn" babies, ie concepti, embryos and foetuses).

"definitive truth of the faith" indeed! Translation: thing the church gets really nasty if you disagree about.

Other Comments by Shuggy

15. Comment #27992 by shetlandforpeace on March 27, 2007 at 2:17 pm

I'm with you on this one USA Limey.

The more that 'authority' figures spout this stuff, the deeper the hole they're digging.

It's the 'moderates' - those who are more open to reason - that will hear this and think again about the 'cultural value' of their monolith.

Other Comments by shetlandforpeace

16. Comment #27993 by Rick Stromoski on March 27, 2007 at 2:22 pm

>>>Beneath the Bishops are your local parish priests.

And beneath the priests, you'll usually find an altar boy.

Other Comments by Rick Stromoski

17. Comment #27994 by Shuggy on March 27, 2007 at 2:24 pm

 avatar
The Pope, based in the Vatican in Rome, is the figure head for Christianity throughout the world. Similar in role to that of a President.

Hang on, the Pope is only head of the Catholics. Protestants and Episcopalians (Anglicans) don't recognise him except as Bishop of Rome. Some Protestants consider him the Antichrist.

The Bishop of a territory reports to a corresponding Cardinal, who covers an even larger area.

They have archbishops between bishops and cardinals, though there can be cardinal archbishops. It's confusing, because Episcopalians don't have anything above Archbishop and (at least the Anglican ones) consider themselves Catholic.

(if clergy can be said to have a rank system)

They most certainly can, only they call it a hierarchy (= rule by priests), and it's the original rank system.

Other Comments by Shuggy

18. Comment #27997 by PaulJ on March 27, 2007 at 2:32 pm

 avatar
Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful...
Just like the the bread and wine, which really does change into the body and blood, not just symbolically.

This is what you get when metaphors are taken literally, betraying thought-processes lacking in subtlety.

Hell-fire and damnation, not to mention gnashing of teeth, which always struck me as an odd image...

Other Comments by PaulJ

19. Comment #27998 by mikebreed on March 27, 2007 at 2:37 pm

This nuts idea about Hell, and our 'free will' to accept Salvation, reminds me of the line quoted by Christopher Hitchens in the superb debate with Stephen Fry (http://tinyurl.com/33g6hb): "We are created sick and commanded to be well."

Not sure who wrote it originally, but it's as succinct an expression of the insane premise of Christianity as any I've heard.

Other Comments by mikebreed

20. Comment #27999 by Fedler on March 27, 2007 at 2:51 pm

 avatarShuggy,

Thanks for the clarity on the rank system re: Pope vs. Cardinal vs. Bishop. I knew there were subdivisions within each rank, but the cobwebs in my memory were making it hard to remember. As you indicated, it all gets rather convoluted at times.

Rick Stromoski, good one!

Other Comments by Fedler

21. Comment #28000 by jeepyjay on March 27, 2007 at 2:52 pm

 avatarThe Pope says, when addressing a parish gathering: Hell really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more. But: Vatican officials say the Pope was speaking in simplified language like a parish priest to local idiots, and [officially] Hell is a state of eternal separation from God, symbolical rather than physical.

In other words there are two versions, one for the peasants and one for the intelligentsia.

The usual doublespeak.

Other Comments by jeepyjay

22. Comment #28001 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 2:52 pm

 avatar"Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol"

"hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically"

What a contradictory article! Which one is it?? Hell literally or symbolically? I read elsewhere it is the latter.

Sometimes atheists are just as stupid as theists.

Other Comments by Henri Bergson

23. Comment #28002 by infidel_michael on March 27, 2007 at 2:54 pm

"state of eternal separation from God"

What the hell does this mean?
Is there eternal suffering or only eternal boredom, or simply "we don't exist anymore" or what? This state is even consistent with non-existence of God -> godless reality is hell, by this definition.

This definition doesn't say anything what is the hell about. It is completely meaningless. But when they're talking about flames and burning souls, everybody laughs at them. So theologians decided to use meaningless abstract phrases, rather than concrete but ridiculous ones.

Other Comments by infidel_michael

24. Comment #28004 by denoir on March 27, 2007 at 2:55 pm

 avatar
'In 1999, pope John Paul II said heaven was "neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God, which is the goal of human life".'

I wonder what he thinks now?


Not much, I would wager.

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanise the faithful, the Pope has said.


These findings were the result of years of empirical research and will after now passing peer-review be published in Nature's April edition. The pope's previous work on non-equilibrium thermodynamics as well as quantum electrodynamics approaches to space time curvature has allowed him to accurately quantify "eternal fire". The scientific community was surprised by the predictive accuracy of the "eternal fire" model that has by now been verified by a number of independent researchers.

This new knowledge is a revolution for the study of exothermic processes and reactions while at the same time the pope demonstrated beyond any doubt that hell is a real place and not just a metaphorical device.

--

NOMA my ass.

Other Comments by denoir

25. Comment #28005 by jeepyjay on March 27, 2007 at 2:55 pm

 avatarSnap Henri!

Other Comments by jeepyjay

26. Comment #28006 by mtg101 on March 27, 2007 at 2:58 pm

 avatarWhat? The Pope believes in hell?! What's next.... bears believing that the woods are a good place to shit?

Other Comments by mtg101

27. Comment #28007 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 2:59 pm

 avatarSnap!

Other Comments by Henri Bergson

28. Comment #28009 by Planeswalker on March 27, 2007 at 3:05 pm

Of course I'll believe in Hell when the Pope says it exist! Seriously, has the Pope ever been wrong about anything? I don't think he has! He is obviously the most reliable and researching source of information you can possible get. How is Dawkins going to argue with this?!

Other Comments by Planeswalker

29. Comment #28010 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:22 pm

I am confused by HenriBergson saying the article contradicted itself and sometimes atheists can be as dumb as theists.
Where does the article contradict itself?
It just reports what the Pope said and what the Vatican official said afterwards to try and regain some credibility( in their eyes atleast).
Undoubtedly atheists can be as stupid as theist but where does it happen above.
Or do you just like insulting people generally?

Other Comments by the great teapot

30. Comment #28012 by Reg on March 27, 2007 at 3:26 pm

"God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation ... the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind"."

More than a little fib spotted there. Its history is in fact littered with the corpses of those men, women and children that resisted the imposition of their christian faith.

"In October, the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a "halfway house" between heaven and hell, was "only a theological hypothesis" and not a "definitive truth of the faith"."

Limbo is also a form of competing dance where participants must bend lower and lower to fit through the gap and avoid disqualification from the game. Thankfully science is now deciding the height of the bar and will soon have their god of the gap scraping its non-corporeal butt, squirming in the most mysterious ways, in its last dance.

The LHC becomes active later this year. All atheists should make a pilgrimage to Cern at least once, as it is a magnificent example of the things mankind can achieve despite religions ball, malice, malevolence and chain.

Other Comments by Reg

31. Comment #28015 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:29 pm

 avatarTeapot:

The article is entitled, 'Hell is real & eternal: Pope'. But then it reads that he does not mean real, really. So what's the point of the article!

Other Comments by Henri Bergson

32. Comment #28016 by jonecc on March 27, 2007 at 3:29 pm

"The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a hell on earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife," Professor Bagliani said.


This is precisely what has not happened. Measured in terms of hours of intense human suffering, hell is massively, indeed infinitely, worse than anything humanity has ever managed. In fact, given the psychotic sadism of the Papal God, it's hard to see how poor finite humanity could ever hope to compete.

Other Comments by jonecc

33. Comment #28017 by mmurray on March 27, 2007 at 3:32 pm

 avatar
"Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol"

"hell is a "state of eternal separation from God", to be understood "symbolically rather than physically"


The first statement is by the present Pope the second by the previous Pope. So no conflict -- just different Popes.

Michael

Other Comments by mmurray

34. Comment #28018 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:33 pm

The point is the Pope said it, then a vatican official- not the Pope- said something different.

See you all in hell

Other Comments by the great teapot

35. Comment #28019 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:36 pm

 avatarThat's not the point the article conveys. the point is the title, obviously.

I'm waiting for you – I'm already in hell (London).

Other Comments by Henri Bergson

36. Comment #28020 by ryanbooker on March 27, 2007 at 3:37 pm

 avatarDid I read that right? Pope John Paul II said it's a fuzzy wuzzy feeling about your connection with God, and Pope Benedict XVI said it's a literal place of fire and pain...

Don't both these clowns have a direct line to God?

This comment came direct from JPII's hell. It's wonderful to be someone who freely and definitively separates himself from god(s).

Other Comments by ryanbooker

37. Comment #28021 by Henri Bergson on March 27, 2007 at 3:40 pm

 avatarIf by 'union with God', the Pope means something like Kant's noumena, or the experience Aldous Huxley had after taking the cactus drug Mescalin, then maybe he's onto something.

It's all a matter of definition. Language creates more illusions than Catholicism.

Other Comments by Henri Bergson

38. Comment #28022 by the great teapot on March 27, 2007 at 3:44 pm

Look don't shoot the messangers.
If god can change his mind about slavery,killing children for disobeying elders and stoning for collecting firewood on the sabbath he can change his mind on his garbage disposal policy as well.

Other Comments by the great teapot

39. Comment #28023 by Nikki on March 27, 2007 at 3:45 pm

"Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire"

Is it the one in Norway? I thought that place was frozen over for most of the time.

Other Comments by Nikki

40. Comment #28028 by Russell Blackford on March 27, 2007 at 4:11 pm

When I first glanced at the headline, my brain "chunked" it as something like: "Hell is a real and eternal Pope."

That would have been about right.

It would also have made a more interesting article.

Other Comments by Russell Blackford

41. Comment #28029 by Priapus on March 27, 2007 at 4:17 pm

Friday September 30, 2005
Guardian Unlimited

The top 100 intellectuals, in alphabetical order:

Chinua Achebe, 74, Nigeria, novelist
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79 - Egypt, cleric
Ali al-Sistani, 75 - Iran/Iraq, cleric
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 35 - (female) Somalia/Netherlands, politician
Jean Baudrillard, 76 - France, philosopher/cultural theorist
Gary Becker, 75 - US, economist
Pope Benedict XVI, 78 - Vatican, religious leader (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...!!)
Jagdish Bhagwati, 70 - India/US, economist
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 74 - Brazil, sociologist/former president
Noam Chomsky, 76 - US, linguist/author/activist
JM Coetzee, 65 - South Africa, novelist
Gordon Conway, 66 - Britain, agricultural ecologist
Robert Cooper, - Britain, diplomat and writer
Richard Dawkins, 64 - Britain, biologist and polemicist
Hernando De Soto, 64 - Peru, economist
Pavol Demes, - Slovakia, political analyst
Daniel Dennett, 63 - US, philosopher
Kemal Dervis, 56 - Turkey, head of United Nations Development Programme
Jared Diamond, 68 - US, geohistorian
Freeman Dyson, 81 - US, physicist
Shirin Ebadi, 58 - (female) Iran, human rights activist
Umberto Eco, 73 - Italy, philosopher and novelist
Paul Ekman, 71 - US, anthropologist
Fan Gang, 52 - China, economist
Niall Ferguson, 41 - Britain, historian
Alain Finkielkraut, 56 - France, essayist and philosopher
Thomas Friedman, 52 - US, journalist and author
Francis Fukuyama, 53 - US, political scientist and author
Gao Xingjian, 65 - China, novelist
Howard Gardner, 62 - US, psychologist
Timothy Garton Ash, 50 - Britain, historian and commentator
Henry Louis Gates Jr., 55 - US, theorist of race
Clifford Geertz, 79 - US, anthropologist
Neil Gershenfeld - US, physicist and computer scientist
Anthony Giddens, 67 - Britain, social and political theorist
Germaine Greer, 66 - (female) Australia/Britain, writer and academic
Ha Jin, 49 - China, novelist
Jürgen Habermas, 76 - Germany, philosopher
Václav Havel, 69 - Czech Republic, playwright/statesman
Christopher Hitchens, 56 - Britain/US, essayist and contrarian
Eric Hobsbawm, 88 - Britain, historian
Robert Hughes, 67 - Australia, art critic
Samuel Huntington, 78 - US, political scientist
Michael Ignatieff, 58 - Canada, human rights theorist
Shintaro Ishihara, 72 - Japan, politician and author
Robert Kagan, 47 - US, political commentator
Daniel Kahnemann, 71 - Israel, psychologist
Sergei Karaganov, 53 - Russia, foreign policy analyst
Paul Kennedy, 59 - Britain/US, historian
Gilles Kepel, 50 - France, expert on Islam
Naomi Klein, 35 - (female) Canada, anti-globalisation journalist
Rem Koolhaas, 61 - Netherlands, architect
Enrique Krauze, 58 - Mexico, historian
Julia Kristeva, 64 - (female) France, philosopher and feminist
Paul Krugman, 52 - US, economist and commentator
Hans Küng, 77 - Switzerland, theologian
Jaron Lanier, 45 - US, virtual reality pioneer
Lawrence Lessig, 44 - US, law scholar
Bernard Lewis, 89 - Britain/US, historian
Mario Vargas Llosa, 69 - Peru, novelist and politician
BjØrn Lomborg, 40 - Denmark, environmental sceptic
James Lovelock, 86 - Britain, scientist and Gaia theorist
Kishore Mahbubani, 57 - Singapore, diplomat and author
Ali Mazrui, 72 - Kenya, political scientist
Sunita Narain, 44 - (female) India, developmental environmentalist
Antonio Negri, 72 - Italy, philosopher and activist
Martha Nussbaum, 58 - (female) US, philosopher
Sari Nusseibeh, 55 - Palestine, philosopher/diplomat
Kenichi Ohmae, 62 - Japan, management theorist
Amos Oz, 66 - Israel, novelist
Camille Paglia, 58 - (female) US, critic and feminist
Orhan Pamuk, 53 - Turkey, novelist
Steven Pinker, 51 - US, linguist
Richard Posner, 66 - US, judge and author
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 80 - Indonesia, author and dissident
Robert Putnam, 64 - US, political scientist
Tariq Ramadan, 43 - Switzerland, writer on Islam
Martin Rees, 63 - Britain, astrophysicist
Richard Rorty, 73 - US, philosopher
Salman Rushdie, 58 - Britain, novelist and commentator
Jeffrey Sachs, 51 - US, development economist
Elaine Scarry, 59 - (female) US, literary theorist
Amartya Sen, 71 - India, economist and author
Peter Singer, 59 - Australia, philosopher
Peter Sloterdijk, 58 - Germany, philosopher
Abdolkarim Soroush, 60 - Iran, scientist/religious theorist
Wole Soyinka, 71 - Nigeria, playwright and activist
Larry Summers, 51 - US, economist and academic
Harold Varmus, 64 - US, medical scientist
Craig Venter, 59 - US, biologist
Michael Walzer, 70 - US, political theorist
Florence Wambugu, 52 - (female) Kenya, plant virologist
Wang Jisi, 57 - China, foreign policy analyst
Steven Weinberg, 72 - US, physicist
EO Wilson, 76 - US, biologist
James Q Wilson, 74 - US, criminologist
Paul Wolfowitz, 61 - US, head of World Bank
Fareed Zakaria, 41 - US, journalist and author
Zheng Bijian, 73 - China, political scientist
Slavoj Zizek, 56 - Slovenia, sociologist/philosopher

Other Comments by Priapus

42. Comment #28030 by Fishpeddler on March 27, 2007 at 4:18 pm

 avatarMy best friend is recovering from a somewhat fundamentalist upbringing. One of the things she is struggling with the most is her residual fear of hell. She heard so many fire-and-brimstone lectures when she was young that, despite her newfound ability to intellectualize that hell doesn't exists, it still haunts her at a very primal level. I'm not confident she'll ever completely get over the damage that was done. It makes me sad and angry that the Pope felt it necessary to reinforce the incalculable misery this absurd notion has caused.

Other Comments by Fishpeddler

43. Comment #28035 by tommymato on March 27, 2007 at 4:42 pm

When I was very young, catholic priests used to scare us with this lovely explanation of hell and eternity:

Imagine you are standing in a lake of fire. The pain is so bad as to be worse than the worst pain you can possibly think of.

Now imagine that there is a huge ball made of brass, as big as the sun. Every 1000 years a butterfly takes off and flies towards it. On reaching it, the butterfly's wing gently brushes the ball's surface.

By the time that ball has been worn away to nothing, your suffering will have only just BEGUN !


Pretty cool story to tell kids, eh?

Other Comments by tommymato

44. Comment #28037 by APPlet on March 27, 2007 at 4:44 pm

 avatarHymn 42 from Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" springs to mind here....

Oh Lord, please don't burn us,
Don't grill or toast your flock
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock
Don't braise or bake or boil us
Or stir-fry us in a wok ...
Oh please don't lightly poach us,
Or baste us with hot fat
Don't fricasse or roast us
Or boil us in a vat,
And please don't stick your followers
In a rotissomat ...

Other Comments by APPlet

45. Comment #28038 by Zaphod on March 27, 2007 at 4:48 pm

 avatarThe pope is retarded.

Other Comments by Zaphod

46. Comment #28039 by FXR on March 27, 2007 at 4:50 pm

 avatarhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1572646.ece

I'm not sure what type of organisation timesonline is but they seem to be deleting anything but very mild statements that criticise Herr Ratzinger.

Perhaps I was being too harsh:

"It would be difficult to imagine people any more deluded than the misfits who populate the environs of the Vatican.

In a saner world the ravings of Herr Ratzinger would be done in the padded cell in which he truly belongs.

How sad that there will many people who will have nightmares because of this kind of nonsense. How many more children will be mentally scarred having fallen into the grip of these twisted allegedly celibate fools.

I wonder did he discuss his statement first with the Sugar Plum Fairy before making it."

Other Comments by FXR

47. Comment #28040 by PaulJ on March 27, 2007 at 4:50 pm

 avatar
The first statement is by the present Pope the second by the previous Pope. So no conflict -- just different Popes.
So not only are different religions claiming incompatible and mutually exclusive 'facts' about the universe, but different heads of the same religion are doing it.

Ludicrous.

Other Comments by PaulJ

49. Comment #28047 by vega on March 27, 2007 at 5:30 pm

 avatarConfucius say: "Do not trust man who wears fish on head".

Other Comments by vega

50. Comment #28049 by sane1 on March 27, 2007 at 5:40 pm

 avatarWhat sort of stuff needs to be put in your head for it to come back out as such bizarre nonsense? What is so hard about recognizing the profoundly more respectable position of the "disbeliever?" The pope is nuts. Drivel.

Other Comments by sane1
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