Monday 12 April 2010

Arresting the Pope

For many people, the Pope is an arresting figure.  Now, two prominent atheists hope to change that slightly.  They hope to make him an arrested figure, arguing that no-one deserves it more.

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, and Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, plan between them to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity.”

Says Dawkins: “This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.”

Says Hitchens: “This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment."

The priest & paedophile scandal should be the death knell for any notion that the Church is an organisation providing moral leadership. The arrest of its putative head would be a fitting postscript to the public realisation of its clear and institutionalised moral degeneracy.

Stories about what’s planned by Dawkins & Hitchens here and here, in The Times and The Telegraph respectively. [Hat tip Marcus Bachler]

Seeing the back of Ratzinger:

holy_pope_703810a

Seeing the backside of God:

GodsBottom

Seeing the back of both together: Priceless.

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13 comments:

ZenTiger said...

It would make sense that well known atheists act irrationally and let their bias ignore the facts of the case.

Here's the facts behind the story that broke where there was an alleged "cover-up". Turns out, no cover up, the priest had already been to the secular courts, and had been taken out of active duty, and the only thing the Pope is guilty of is approving him being defrocked.

Then 15 years later, some-one else lays charges against this priest, and the media makes wild accusations that just don't stack up.

If this is the new rationalism driven by atheistic thinking, it would seem we are devolving.

Some Inconvenient Facts Get in the Way of the Mob Mentality

Pro-Whaling said...

May be Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Htchens would like to hire Peter Bethune to do the arrest on their behalf.

Dave Mann said...

A couple of years ago I saw this Ratzinger character pontificating to the masses on the big screen in Saint Peter's Square.

I can honestly say that the man's body language, tone of voice and facial expressions were the most evil, hate-filled and twisted that I remember having seen in a human being. I turned to my wife and said "Well, if THAT is the representatyive of these people's God, I would hate to see what their fucking devil would look like!" (this didn't go down too well with a bunch of pilgrims who overheard me).

The huge congregation all seemed to be mooning around with a sort of terrified/panic/grief expression on their faces and literally hundreds of the thousands there were blubbering.

Frankly, I couldn't think of anything worse than being infected with this kind of mental sickness and I would absolutely love to see Dawkins and Hitchens pull off a spectacular arrest on British soil.

Richard McGrath said...

Pat Condell (check him out on You Tube) said in one of his rants against religion that the Catholic Church is airing its dirty linen but has found that much of it is semen-stained.

I wish Dawkins and Hitchens every success.

Anonymous said...

Mr Dawkins is just making a dawk of himself.

Any rationality he once possessed went out the window.

radio gaga said...

now now, expecting homosexuals posing as priests ( & surrounded by teenage boyz) to remain celibate is a BIG ask

Anonymous said...

Boys of a 'delicate nature' have long been solicited toward the priesthood, by priests who 'understood' and wished to 'protect' them from the bigotry of christian zealots.
And that is about the best spin you can put on this.
Ken

Anonymous said...

Whatever else becomes of this exercise it is well and truly time that in 2010 the conceit re the vatican being a sovereign state be abolished.

Peter said...

The priest & paedophile scandal should be the death knell for any notion that the Church is an organisation providing moral leadership

Yes, it is obviously what many are hoping for and for some, the claim to moral leadership is the real source of outrage. Why did sex offender Roman Polanksi have so many supporters among Hollywood, and are they going to be subject to the same scrutiny as the Vatican? Is anyone planning to arrest Nicolas Sarkozy for helping Polanski escape justice?

Anonymous said...

That's pretty pathetic Peter.

The film industry makes films in exchange for money. Say what you like about Hollywood, but it's never asserted itself as the final arbiter and enforcer of morality while its leaders sexually abused small children.

Judge Holden

LGM said...

This matter is easily dealt with.

If an arrest is made and charges are actually laid, then it becomes the business of the prosecution to present evidence to support the accusation that the law has been broken. The prosecution must provide evidence sufficient to persuade the Court that there is a case to answer. If that is accomplished, then it becomes a matter for the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused has indeed committed a crime. If the prosecution can't achieve this, then the accusation fails.

So there are some tests to be passed.

In this particular instance there are two verions of the story. Let's see which is correct. Let the evidence speak!

LGM

Cassanova said...

The problem with those catholic priests is that they need to get laid regularly perhaps with the nuns, but I know that it is something forbidden by the Catholics itself. See, when they don't get laid on a regular basis and with young boys around them, then they view young boys as substitute for intimate partners (it is natural by God's creation to seek companion be it a gay partner, hetero partner, young people, etc,...).

Catholics should allow priests to get marry, have live-in girlfriends or otherwise have pussy vibrator, otherwise these recurring problems will never go away.

Ruth said...

The problem is not that they can't get married - the problem is that they are paedophiles.