Vindicarre wrote:
Ahhh, yes, here come the ad hominems. No I am not a liar and I have not "been caught in such things before". I know better than to demand you cite any instances of such, as they don't exist,so I won't bother.
Talya wrote:
When you link it, I'll believe you.
First go here:
Wiley Then click the Athens option.
You're fortunate for several board wipes. Anyway, the link doesn't work. Password protected you see, so I'll have to take your word for it.
Wait, no I won't.
Quote:
Yet, you continue to use the numbers for pedophilia and sexual abuse of children interchangeably.
I don't see how you can say that....the figures mentioned in either case are only representative of those who sexually abuse children (and then, only those who get caught). There is no way to determine how many are pedophiles who do NOT eventually sexually abuse children. (If one believes such an animal commonly exists at all, that is. Which I don't.) Of course, the church figures of 1.5-5% of clergy is also only talking about those who abuse children. I really don't believe the specifics of the underlying psychological condition are relevant here, anyway. I don't care whether the boy-buggering bishop is actually a clinical pedophile.
Vindicarre wrote:
Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Dad's not wrong about the Catholic Church, or the havok they have wrought on Northern Ireland. His mistake is assuming his church is any different in a meaningful way.
Farther wrote:
I don't excuse religion, just like I don't excuse the rest of humanity. It's my opinion that singling out one segment, when humanity is quite capable of inhumanity, is the mark of prejudice, and you admitted to prejudice a few posts back.
As a gleeful misanthropist, I have very little but contempt for humanity as a whole, and in particular, human organizational structures. I have on several occasions demonstrated my disappointment with
humanity in general, and everyone here who has paid attention will verify I lump religion right up there with government, big corporations, and even trade unions. They're all just means by which humans attempt to dominate and control each other, and worse yet, large organizational structures take on metapersonalities, independant of the views of those who compose them. All too often, those metapersonalities are at best sociopathic, while at worst utterly villainous. My lone concession is that we need at least a
little government. We don't need the rest of them, not in their current forms. But here we are discussing the Catholic Church, not humanity as a whole. If the Church is reprehensible, it is reprehensible. We don't need to compare it to other churches or organizations or society at large to find out how reprehensible it is relative to the rest of you buggers*. Its relative moral standing cannot excuse it. (Though it can certainly condemn it.)
* "you buggers" referring to the unwashed masses of idiots that the world is primarily populated with.