William Goodall's Blog Occasional mutterings

(news/international/pope-congratulated-on-size-of-his-balls-201009173095/) POPE Benedict was congratulated on the sheer heft and girth of his testicles last night after the former Hitler Youth member said atheists were Nazis and accused Richard Dawkins of plotting a new holocaust. [From POPE CONGRATULATED ON SIZE OF HIS BALLS]

Hilarious 🙂

Religion’s voice is that of a spoiled child having a temper tantrum.

I have been accused by PalMD of lacking empathy for believers; that’s not quite right. My response to the Islamic uproar over the Florida preacher who was planning to burn the Koran on 11 September was to say that that’s too bad, we have a right to destroy our own property, and that the responses people were making to this trivial event were hysterical and inappropriate.

Informing me that the Muslims are genuinely and sincerely and deeply offended is not informative — contrary to the suggestion that I must have an empathy deficit to be unaware of that, I know that and appreciate the fact that their feelings are hurt and they are angry and outraged. My point is that I don’t care, and neither should anyone else. The Abrahamic religions are all about fostering that feeling of oppression, even when it isn’t there, and hearing yet another one of the more deranged members of the People of the Book whine that we show insufficient respect for their mythology gives me the same feeling of exasperation I felt when my small children would wail about not getting a candy bar in the grocery store. Fine, you can be mad about your deprivation, but that does not obligate me to serve your whims.

Read on [From Sunday Sacrilege: Respect is not the same as obedience – PZ Myers – Pharyngula]

Well said.

This week the pope is in London. You will have your own views on the discrimination against women, the homophobia, and the international criminal conspiracy to cover up for mass child rape. My special interest is his role in the 2 million people who die of Aids each year.

In May 2005, shortly after taking office, the pope made his first pronouncement on Aids, and came out against condoms. He was addressing bishops from South Africa, where somebody dies of Aids every two minutes; Botswana, where 23.9% of adults between 15 and 49 are HIV positive; Swaziland, where 26.1% of adults have HIV; Namibia (a trifling 15%); and Lesotho, 23%.

This is continuing. In March 2009, on his flight to Cameroon (where 540,000 people have HIV), Pope Benedict XVI explained that Aids is a tragedy “that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. In May 2009, the Congolese bishops conference made a happy announcement: “In all truth, the pope’s message which we received with joy has confirmed us in our fight against HIV/Aids. We say no to condoms!”

Read on [From Pope’s anti-condom message sabotages fight against AIDS – Ben Goldacre – Guardian]

A very evil man.