Recycle or go to Hell, says the Vatican

[Don't Look Behind You]

click here

So to summarise, the Vatican decided that the old deadly sins were just too outdated, so they made up some new ones:

1. Drugs
2. child misuse
3. pollution
4. prostitution
5. gene manipulation
6. greed for gain
7. luxury

.....funny how they don't seem to get how the old deadly sins were clevery enough formulated to be accurate to any time and nation by addressing the human nature in general and not just particular actions.....
Anyways, their new "deadly sins" happen to be very easy to categorize into the old ones again.
Long live primitivity! Sure, religion should have the nice function of trying to make people do good things, but that doesn't mean you have to take all thinking out of the business. The beauty of religion, for atheists like me, has always been the endless interpretation possibilities....but that's dying a painful death nowdays, hm? Now individual actions are labled as wrong instead of being part of a mind set that is "wrong"......becuase that would just involve too much thinking from the average Joe?

....does this ring anyone elses's bullshit alarm?

[Person In A Duck Suit.]

I see nothin' wrong with this. If you don't recycle, Earth will basically be Hell anyways.

How the fuck is this a bad thing? Or is it just another thread for people to bash religion?

[Apathy's_Child]

Where in the Bible does it say anything about drugs? Jesus drank wine, for fuck's sake.

The recycling thing sounds pretty cool, but it seems like religion can be divisive enough when the Vatican have to establish scriptural precedence for sin. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea that they can openly say what the fuck they like.

Still, it's not THAT much of a leap, so I'm overall pretty unflustered by this.

[Solumina]

I think this is a bit stupid, not because I want to bash religion, but simply because it was a really stupid idea. The old deadly sins were just fine and presumably are still bad things to do. They could have easily made a list of however many worldly/social/global/whatever sins that is completely independent and I think that would have had a broader appeal as well as making a greater statement.

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by Solumina

I think this is a bit stupid, not because I want to bash religion, but simply because it was a really stupid idea. The old deadly sins were just fine

So......... telling people they'll go to Hell for overeating makes more sense than making wilful pollution of a planet which EVERYONE has to live on (including people who don't have access to the shit we use that's eventually going to end the world but have to suffer it anyway because........ well, that's being poor for ya) a sin? I'm not entirely sure this is the most logical response but hey, each to their own.

[Methadrine]

Originally Posted by Don't Look Behind You

2. child misuse
7. luxury

Hypocrites.

[CptSternn]

That list is a summary of what they said. They didn't make a simple list like that nor did they say any of those above terms as posted. Here is the original story with link...

http://news.**********/s/nm/20080310/ts_nm/pope_sins_dc

Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

"(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.

The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.

Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively "green."

It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.

Girotti, who is number two in the Vatican "Apostolic Penitentiary," which deals with matter of conscience, also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.

But Girotti also bemoaned that fewer and fewer Catholics go to confession at all.

He pointed to a study by Milan's Catholic University that showed that up to 60 percent of Catholic faithful in Italy stopped going to confession.

In the sacrament of Penance, Catholics confess their sins to a priest who absolves them in God's name.

But the same study by the Catholic University showed that 30 percent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God's intermediary and 20 percent felt uncomfortable talking about their sins to another person.

[Solumina]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

So......... telling people they'll go to Hell for overeating makes more sense than making wilful pollution of a planet which EVERYONE has to live on (including people who don't have access to the shit we use that's eventually going to end the world but have to suffer it anyway because........ well, that's being poor for ya) a sin? I'm not entirely sure this is the most logical response but hey, each to their own.

Gluttony isn't (or at least didn't used to be) about food, and I never said that this new group of sins was a bad thing, just that the way that they have been brought up (the "new" deadly sins) is fucking stupid

[Solumina]

btw Cpt you link is broken cuz of *s

[CptSternn]

sol -

Are you new here? The * issue has been addressed a dozen times. See, before they sacked the last group of mods - those mods banned words that they found in my posts to keep me from posting.

One such term which is still banned is yah00.c0m. just replace the asterix with yah00.c0m (i.e. news.yah00.c0m).

Although I have raised this issue multiple times in the improvement forums, it appears the current owner does not know enough about the system to make changes to it, which includes the removing banned words.

[Solumina]

um...yeah not new, one of the older members actually, but I was thinking that you may want to repost said link with breaks in it since it was ****ed

[Lapin]

Sternn, why exactly were they trying to stop you from posting?

[Solumina]

Oh there was a lot of bad blood there, it was not a fun time. The funny thing is that most of them were lovely people until you tried to bring up a political issues that they didn't agree with (and they didn't agree with anything sternn brought up)

[Lapin]

Oh my. That's rather rude. Why didn't they just debate him instead of banning him? Banning someone because they have different political views seems immature.

[Solumina]

It started out as debate but it quickly devolved into bitching and whatnot (neither side really acted with a great deal of tact but for the most part Sternn at least appeared to try and use logic) and it was months of nastieness at a time when the site was having quite a few other issues

[Lapin]

Were these the supposed "Good Old Days" of G-net?

[Solumina]

Nah those were the "Oh fuck what happend to our happy place?" days

[Lapin]

Oh. So that was when things started to go downhill?

[CptSternn]

In the end, those mods banned me. Ironically enough, they then pissed off the current powers that be and they themselves were all banned and I was unbanned.

...but thats a story for another thread. You can look at old posts in the POLITICS section to get a feel if you really want to read a bunch of old drama.

*Note, some of the best bits (including some of my less tactful responses and all the pre-Iraq-War arguments) were all deleted by the same mods prior to their departure.

That being said, back to the topic!

I am a fan of the new sins listed. I think there is a need to address these areas. Lets also not forget the sins as listed need to be put into context as well.

For example, if you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, your not going to burn in hell for gluttony. If you take a day off from work, your not going to hell for sloth. These ideals are based on person(s) who make such acts a common place in their lives to the point they affect their daily routine.

Same goes for the new ones listed. If you fly/drive on holiday from one country to another there will be some emissions - that doesn't mean you will be guilty of a sin. Now, if you buy a big SUV just to drive for no other reason than you like SUV's, well that might be an issue...

What I also like about this list is that it directly conflicts with the current teachings of evangelicals in America. The whole 'doctrine of wealth' which those TV evangelists preach is now being directly challenged by the Catholic church.

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by Solumina

Gluttony isn't (or at least didn't used to be) about food

Uhh........ yeah. Yeah, it is. I believe you're thinking of greed, which is more about avarice, and is a whole separate sin.

[Lapin]

Originally Posted by Apathy's_Child

Uhh........ yeah. Yeah, it is. I believe you're thinking of greed, which is more about avarice, and is a whole separate sin.

It's my understanding that Gluttony was excess to the point of making yourself sick. In anything. Food, alcohol, etc. Abstinence was its counter virtue.

[acidxrainbows]

The Vatican is the richest country in the world. Luxury is a huge sin? Funny...the Pope has his own Hummer.
It amazes me the BS the Vatican can come up with.
(Note: I don't hate Catholics or anything--the Vatican/Pople just scare me/annoy me.)

[Wednesday Friday Addams]

Now as a biotech student there is another reason il be going to "hell"