An American Pope!

[noletaire]

There are fields that lend themselves to preying on the weak of mind not unlike religion. However, if someone chooses to believe in something or have faith that something works no matter if it's a placebo, cross or a shrink who am I to dispute that. I don't have to agree with it but if it works for them go for it. Seems there a vast amount of people out there willing to spend lots of money on that stuff. I'm not one of them though.

Agree 100%. Weak minds are easy marks. Ironic that both psychiatry and religion are a money pits. You’ll be saved, you’ll be healed, just pay up 💵💵. The priest and the psychiatrist both offer a form of salvation and will exorcise your demons but for a price. What a racket

I'm neither.

its all good. I thought Seminoleed was referring to you. I don’t know what your profession is

 

[BrianNole777]

Agree 100%. Weak minds are easy marks. Ironic that both psychiatry and religion are a money pits. You’ll be saved, you’ll be healed, just pay up 💵💵. The priest and the psychiatrist both offer a form of salvation and will exorcise your demons but for a price. What a racket.

Religion is free, at least mine is.

It's like free money and eternal salvation are being given to us and not the other way around.

There's an old saying that if you don't like being in church, you won't like being in Heaven.

 

[GeddyLee09]

I am not certain with which premise you are disagreeing. I have not suggested "pumping the rainbows and unicorns everywhere;" I am not sure what that even means. I also do not know what you are referencing when you say "standards for everything are bad enough."

I was referring to a negativity bias that is pervasive in our culture and society and is directly associated with many of the on-going and worsening ills that we have observed, e.g., increased tribalism, divisiveness, insecurity, anxiety, isolation, loneliness, depression, pessimism, antagonism, etc. I am not advocating for a shift to a positivity bias, aka "toxic positivity," which also increases alienation and distrust. I am advocating for a balanced, pragmatic perspective that acknowledges our relative strengths and weaknesses and encourages collaboration and cooperation.

That negativity bias is cultivated by the media. It's a WWE model of good vs evil or religions model of heaven vs hell. It can be used in any situation and people dive right in. The weak take it seriously and fall into some of the behaviors you mentioned. If people weren't so weak things like this wouldn't hold so much influence.

 

[GeddyLee09]

Religion is free, at least mine is.

It's like free money and eternal salvation are being given to us and not the other way around.

There's an old saying that if you don't like being in church, you won't like being in Heaven.

Religion annually contributes nearly $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the U.S. economy, according to a September 2016 first-of-its-kind study that Melissa Grim and I published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.

$1.2 Trillion Religious Economy in US | RFBF

religiousfreedomandbusiness.org

Thats just in the US. That money doesnt come from free unless you mean free like food stamps or medical care for the poor.

 

[BrainVision]

That negativity bias is cultivated by the media. It's a WWE model of good vs evil or religions model of heaven vs hell. It can be used in any situation and people dive right in. The weak take it seriously and fall into some of the behaviors you mentioned. If people weren't so weak things like this wouldn't hold so much influence.

Your post seems to instantiate the same artificial dichotomizing of people ("the weak" versus the strong) that it simultaneously appears to critique. Relatively strong people are not immune to feeling insecure, depressed, anxious, lonely, pessimistic, antagonistic, etc. All people possess relative strengths and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses do not exist independently from the contexts in which people live. The media reflect the people. If the media, which I contend is no monolith and has no cohesive or coherent organization or agenda, have a negativity bias, then it is because the society which they serve has a negativity bias. If we would like to strengthen people, which I most certainly would, then I think we achieve that through supporting their weaknesses and facilitating their growth.

 

[GeddyLee09]

Your post seems to instantiate the same artificial dichotomizing of people ("the weak" versus the strong) that it simultaneously appears to critique. Relatively strong people are not immune to feeling insecure, depressed, anxious, lonely, pessimistic, antagonistic, etc. All people possess relative strengths and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses do not exist independently from the contexts in which people live. The media reflect the people. If the media, which I contend is no monolith and has no cohesive or coherent organization or agenda, have a negativity bias, then it is because the society which they serve has a negativity bias. If we would like to strengthen people, which I most certainly would, then I think we achieve that through supporting their weaknesses and facilitating their growth.

It's not artificial its nature. In the wild the animals that feel lonely, depressed, anxious and insecure become food. I don't think that pessimism and antagonism are necessarily bad trains of thought. Not always helpful but it depends on your perspective. The lion and the gazelle probably think differently about things. If relatively strong people feel insecure, depressed ect.. they are not relatively strong.

 

[TC Nole OX]

Pope Leo XIV on Studying the Church Fathers!

 

[goldmom]

Not even a remotely fair comparison:

1) Boy Scouts are a secular organization. The Church is a spiritual institution with its entire mission to combat immoral behavior, sin, and to uplift people, providing them comfort and solace. Yet the Catholic Church has become actually a safe haven to perpetuate the very crimes and immorality it was created to fight against.

2) The Boy Scouts is a modern organization, founded in 1910, so its a little more than a century old. The Catholic Church has been committing these type of crimes against for almost one-thousand years. On record,circa 1051, clerical sexuality immorality has been a real issue. Peter Damian condemned priests engaged in sexual immorality in his book Liber Gormmorrhianus. Pope Leo IX supported Damian's endeavors.
Sexual immorality was also a big issue addressed by the Gregorian Reformation in the mid 11th century.

Even more insidious than all of this, is the in-depth and consistent manner in which the Catholic Church would cover up thousands of cases of child rape done at the hands of Catholic priests... the very people that are charged with providing spiritual guidance, comfort and compassion. This is very core of pure evil, to harm young children you are supposed to protect.

I’m impressed with anyone from a backwoods primitive Babdust Holiness Word School of Duh-vinity who can use such big words and spell them correctly.
Who feeds them there snakes y’all’s Mail Order Circuit Ridin Preacher hands out to the congregation intelligentsia on Sunday during the week?

Apologies to everyone else in advance but I do not appreciate the religious intolerance being spewed by someone indoctrinated in prejudice.

 

[goldmom]

This past week I visited Vatican City in Rome and attended the daily Mass in St. Peter’s. (Not led by the Pope)
I was struck by the hundreds also in attendance from all cultures who displayed the utmost respect and reverence for the service. I think many were curious about the service and wished to observe and learn. Among those were Hindus, Asians, and Muslims dressed in their cultural garb who along with more western cultures were in awe of the setting. I’ve never seen such a beautiful interior of a church and even the “side altars” were more elaborate than any American Church I have been in.
What an experience and frankly an appreciation of how the early Church gave artists and craftsmen opportunities to display their incredible talents.

 

[noletaire]

Religion annually contributes nearly $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the U.S. economy, according to a September 2016 first-of-its-kind study that Melissa Grim and I published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.

$1.2 Trillion Religious Economy in US | RFBF

religiousfreedomandbusiness.org

Thats just in the US. That money doesnt come from free unless you mean free like food stamps or medical care for the poor.

This^^^^. The Catholic Church wealth is in the trillions. At that point, your primary role is that of a financial institution.

 

[BrianNole777]

This^^^^. The Catholic Church wealth is in the trillions. At that point, your primary role is that of a financial institution.

The primary role of the Catholic Church is to provide everyone with the best life after death.

"What a priceless gift it is to live in the universal embrace of God's friends, which comes from communion with the life-giving flesh and blood of his Son, to receive from him the certainty that our sins are forgiven and to live in the love which is born of faith! The Church desires that everyone should partake of these riches, so that they may have the fullness of truth and the means of salvation "to obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rm 8:21)."

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...rumentum-xiii_en.html#The_Joy_of_Evangelizing

 

[seminoleed]

This past week I visited Vatican City in Rome and attended the daily Mass in St. Peter’s. (Not led by the Pope)
I was struck by the hundreds also in attendance from all cultures who displayed the utmost respect and reverence for the service. I think many were curious about the service and wished to observe and learn. Among those were Hindus, Asians, and Muslims dressed in their cultural garb who along with more western cultures were in awe of the setting. I’ve never seen such a beautiful interior of a church and even the “side altars” were more elaborate than any American Church I have been in.
What an experience and frankly an appreciation of how the early Church gave artists and craftsmen opportunities to display their incredible talents.

Did you even get to see the Pope? If so, did he ask how I was doing?

 

[goldmom]

Did you even get to see the Pope? If so, did he ask how I was doing?

Pope Bob and I talked a little baseball but your name never came up…

 

[goldmom]

This^^^^. The Catholic Church wealth is in the trillions. At that point, your primary role is that of a financial institution.

So every entity with large financial holdings is just a financial institution? Countries too?
Is there something inherently illegal about that?
Mega Churches are extremely wealthy. The LDS Church is an enormously wealthy institution.
Catholic Charities and other global outreach groups in the Church provide support to people that need help and support.
I agree that the resources accumulated over 2000 years make it possible and that if they were to offer for sale some of the treasures I saw on display they could do even more - but I think they believe they are the correct ones to preserve and protect these treasures.