I'm sorry to see that Robert has stepped back from being the leading religious blogger in this community and I hope that all is OK in his household.
Strange as it may seem, I miss reading of his church's Sunday sermons, his discovery of ever more weird and dysfunctional 'saints' and his exclamations, sorry, explanations of Catholic doctrine fabulous as they may be.
I see it to be my responsibility to fill the void if you like and post on something religious, indeed, something with a Catholic theme.
In 2009, Intelligence Squared hosted a debate between Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens against Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe over the motion “The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World”. You can see by the calibre of the debaters that this was going to be quite some event and it was. If ever you have an hour and a half or so this is well worth seeking out to watch in its entirety.
For this post, I've selected Stephen Fry's argument in the debate - against as you can well imagine - and it is 19 minutes of intelligent, sensible and heartfelt belief that is edgy because it is heartfelt and impassioned and the nervousness of this very clever and well educated man underlines how important it is to him, and others, to expose the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church.
Please watch this regardless of which side of the debate you are on. I never had the opportunity to watch this with my mother who died in 2004 but I would love to hear that the Catholic Church 'has the balls' to screen this at Sunday Mass instead of the sermon.
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I've watched this many times.
ReplyDeleteRichard (of RBB)
Do non-Catholics never display hypocrisy?
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy is not a scientific word. Hypocrisy depends on perception. Perception is often not aligned with truth.
But what did you think of Fry’s argument?
Deleteoh yes I will watch it some time. I might do a debunk.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that.
DeleteIn the first minute Fry lies about how the Catholic church treated Galileo! Galileo was not tortured. He was treated comparatively well in prison, even having a servant. Galileo had no proof for his theory, and that is all the church was saying. And he was wrong! The universe does not rotate around the sun!
ReplyDeleteSo, threatening an old man with torture (which is documented by the way) is ok in your books?
DeleteTe church was saying more than that Galileo had no proof for his theory. The church was saying that the bible didn’t support it.
Robert this is typical of you and the Catholic Church. You ignore the big issues of the church’s evils and concentrate on some minor detail.
DeleteParents threaten their children with torture (a spanking) all the time.
DeleteYes his theory was at odds with a literal interpretation of some parts of the bible. But the Church is not static, and evolves as our understanding of God's creation increases.
That some members of the Church were evil does not undermine the truth it teaches.
"Galileo had no proof for his theory, and that is all the church was saying. And he was wrong! The universe does not rotate around the sun!"
ReplyDeleteRob, you need to read up on Coperncanism. Your facts are wrong.
Richard (of RBB)
He also says that Purgatory is not in the bible. Well what are the following texts about if not the need for cleansing before entering heaven?
ReplyDelete“But nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]” (Rev. 21:27). Hab. 1:13 says, “You [God]… are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wrong…” How many of us will be perfectly sanctified at the time of our deaths? I dare say most of us will be in need of further purification in order to enter the gates of heaven after we die, if, please God, we die in a state of grace."
I just hope that you don't own any guns.
DeleteAh, Heaven's overrated. Whatever happened to goodness for goodness's sake? Why does there always have to be a reward? Where really is the good in such a system?
ReplyDeleteRichard (of RBB)