1. Does the Pope wear Prada?

Comment #205702 by fiagottpf on July 7, 2008 at 5:17 pm

... pope's red shoes were from luxury house Prada, the Vatican finally put the matter to rest. Benedict, 81, is a "simple and sober man (who is) not dressed by Prada but by Christ," the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano wrote last week,

christ is selling shoes now?
Yet more religious cobblers.

noting that the (red) colour symbolises the blood of martyrs.

and tomatoes.

These include lace or richly embroidered surplices, centuries-old mitres and a red wool camauro cap with ermine trim that goes back to the 12th century and had last been worn by John XXIII, who died in 1963.

from horrific ermine-scalp poisoning.

Benedict has also brought back the ombrellino, a small umbrella used to symbolise the pope's temporal powers.

and the power to keep his head dry.

... the use of age-old liturgical accessories was aimed at reinforcing a "sense of mystery"

for his next audience, his holiness is to wear a Zorro mask.

The pope caused a stir at an open-air mass in southern Italy last month when he offered communion wafers to pilgrims kneeling on a prie-dieu - a type of bench used by a person at prayer.

a bench

Kneeling for communion was never prohibited, but the practice - along with many others considered as reflecting a paternalistic interpretation of the priesthood

fellatio?

was largely abandoned after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s.

Marini predicted that the pope would continue to offer communion wafers into the mouths of kneeling pilgrims ...

where else is he considering puting them?

Comparing practices before and after Vatican II, he added, is "mistaken and typical of highly reductive ideological views".

"We're not fascists anymore, honest"

One prelate, on condition of anonymity, told AFP of his misgivings about the changes underway at the Vatican.

"Honestly, she thinks she's god's gift to god!"

2. Prayer refusal pupils 'disciplined'

Comment #205687 by fiagottpf on July 7, 2008 at 4:32 pm

Ah! I was wondering what the hell Gillian Gibbons was up to these days.

3. Faith schools undermined by 'Government witch hunt'

Comment #201817 by fiagottpf on June 30, 2008 at 9:39 am

"The latest report, by the writer and broadcaster Cristina Odone"

There's a slight typo there; that should read 'writer, broadcaster, and former editor of the Catholic Herald, Cristina Odone'

4. Richard Dawkins lecture at ASU's Tempe Campus

Comment #185721 by fiagottpf on May 28, 2008 at 11:11 am

Last month I had the good fortune to see Richard lecture at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.
There is a webcast of his February lecture here:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/08/webcast/dawkins_webcast.html

I also recommend the lecture given by Sir Jonathan Miller:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/08/webcast/miller_webcast.html

5. Six 'uniquely' human traits now found in animals

Comment #185552 by fiagottpf on May 28, 2008 at 4:08 am

On the subjct of animals exhibiting empathy, ealier this year I watched a documentary on the story of a pod of bottlenosed dolphins saving a group of New Zealand lifeguards, detailed here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3613343

I found the description of the moment when two of the lifeguards tried to swim free, and one of the dolphins deliberately put itself betwen them and the great white, simply amazing.

As for animal intelligence, I recall seeing another documentary (note to self: watching too many documentaries?) on how a local council in England tried to solve the problem of crows stealing rubbish from its street litter-bins by using deep bins with black plastic bin-liners inside them.

This completely flummoxed the crows, for a matter of days!

By then the crows had realised that they could stand on the rim of a bin, pull up some of the the plastic sacking in their beak, lift their legs one-at-a-time to stand on the newly gathered material, and repeat.

6. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185539 by fiagottpf on May 28, 2008 at 3:31 am

Hmmm.
Not sure how I feel about this.

I'm tending toward thinking that the town council have made the right decision, but for the wrong reason.

7. Lab agrees to test Shroud of Turin for new theory

Comment #182801 by fiagottpf on May 21, 2008 at 1:52 am

"If we are dealing with the burial cloth of Christ, it is the witness to the birth of Christianity.

But my faith doesn't depend on that outcome."

Nicely hedged Sir!

8. In God's Name

Comment #182799 by fiagottpf on May 21, 2008 at 1:46 am

I watched this programme when it was on and my initial reaction was "what a shower of morons".

How can someone so lacking in rationality qualify to be a barrister?
Then I remembered our former beloved leader.

After sober reflection, my reaction is "Yeuch!".

9. Clegg 'does not believe in God'

Comment #101210 by fiagottpf on December 20, 2007 at 5:15 am

Although it may sound like a wishy-washy answer to an ardent atheist, Nick Clegg gave the best answer he could, and he has my sympathy.

I am an atheist yet my daughter attends a catholic girls school.

Her mother and I agreed that she should attend a single-sex school, and there is only one here in Liverpool which is not either protestant or catholic. My daughter did not get in there when she applied however, because their entrance policy is to give precedence to girls who are muslims.

Sometimes you just can't win!

As we are divorced, her mother takes my daughter to church on her weekends, and I take her to one of the local art gallerys or museums on my weekends.

If my daughter questions me about religion, I begin by saying that "Protestants/Catholics/Muslims/Jews believe that ...... "

Occassionally she asks me what I believe, and I reply that "I don't".

10. A third of adults believe God watches over them

Comment #87780 by fiagottpf on November 13, 2007 at 5:03 am

Could these two ladies be related?

"The questionnaire was designed by Tearfund, in conjunction with Jacinta Ashworth, an independent research consultant of Research Matters"

From (http://www.researchmatters.co.uk/about.html)
Jacinta Ashworth
Research Matters
Bridle Road,
Maidenhead,
Berks
SL6

==================================================
From
http://www.st-pandm.freeserve.co.uk/Mag2000Apr.html

St Peters with St Marks parish church,
Furze Platt,
Maidenhead
Berkshire

From The Parish Magazine of April 2000 ...

"They stand at the front of St. Peter's each Sunday morning and lead the songs of worship and praise but... who are the Music Group ...
... the group now has Jacinta Ashworth as an additional pianist"

(later editions are not online)

11. Washoe, the sign-language chimp dies

Comment #86337 by fiagottpf on November 9, 2007 at 2:09 am

I found this video on the TED website.
It looks at the work Susan Savage-Rumbaugh has done with bonobos...

Enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/76

12. Review of Richard Dawkins' new book 'The Fascism Delusion'

Comment #85187 by fiagottpf on November 5, 2007 at 8:55 am

On religion and fascism:

"Fascists dress in black and go around
telling people what to do, where as priests..."

Father Ted Crilly