Can organised religion and their idiotic leaders keep up with times?

(by C. Tsotsos author of The secret of the elements)

How hard is it for any organised religion to keep up with times? Do church leaders work a lot to preserve their irrational institutions? Or do they try to ignore science and development, hoping that it will go away of its own accord? Ignoring social and technological progress carries a hefty price, and occasionally the infallible fall into fallacy. The Catholic Church admitted in 1992 that Galileo was right and the decision of the papal court was wrong! It took them almost half a millennium. In an attempt to be redeemed, they erected a statue of Galileo in the middle of the Vatican. It was not the followers that put pressure on the priesthood for that incongruity but the academic and scientific community. The congregation simply could not care less about science to consider the church’s silly heliocentric views further. They choose not to see. Even admitting the mistake is not a victory of the scientific community, as some might say, but rather the church’s need for modernisation that led to a decision like that. Like an ageing company, they decided to cut their loss and change their marketing plan in a bid to stay afloat. 

 

No matter how hard they try to appear modern, the church’s old fashion ideas slip up into the light every now and then. On a visit in Africa, Pope Benedict XVI, in line with the strict and not so modern dogma of the Catholic Church, suggested that using condoms does not help to prevent Aids. In fact – he said – it makes it worse. Now this man is clearly a crazy idiot and someone has to restrain him. A fanatic crazy idiot is too dangerous to have loose. You can imagine the damage he caused. The following moment, thousands of Catholics in an Aids ridden country, ready to have sex, looked at their condom, contemplating whether to use it or not. They must have thought “well if the Pope says so, fuck it”. This is murder is it not? The next day, many of his supporters in Europe were trying to defend him, amidst demonstrations against his comment. “I understand where the pontiff is coming from” one said “absence helps, not condoms” said another. I suppose people defended Hitler too “The Jews brought it on them, they obviously wanted to be gassed by the millions”. The Orthodox Christians were laughing, the Muslims were laughing too, but the joke clearly is on them, since similar occasions of fanatic defence of the Dogma, or Faith, even if that contradicts common sense, was and is demonstrated by them too, everyday.


Humans use their computer, their cars, fly on planes, take the train, talk on cell-phones, eat packaged food, use solar powered calculators and watches, and the whole planet seems smaller everyday. They relax and take technology and science for granted; there is no mystery in it anymore. The mystery lies with god, a man made believe creator and the promise for life after death.

 

(by C. Tsotsos author of The secret of the elements)