Comments (20)

I'm an atheist (formerly evangelical Christian) who believes in peace, joy and enlightenment from science and truth.

The straight record: There is no evidence Abraham or Moses existed, and good evidence AGAINST Moses and Joshua. Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula have been searched for evidence of Israelites camped there for the requisite years, and there are no Israelite markers or litter for 400 years in Egypt or 40 years in the desert where their garbage would have accumulated. The Joshua years were a peaceful time, when Jericho was a small unfortified village, not the great walled city it only became AFTER the Israelites took over.

The kings from David onward are probably a good list, just as we have good POTUS lists today. Fairy tales and magic like Elijah's fire were sprinkled in wherever the myth-makers saw fit.

Nineveh never had a citywide revival like the one Jonah supposedly caused.

The Book of Daniel has the wrong identities for the kings it describes and completely invents a fictitious king, Darius the Mede. It was written to describe a time 400 years earlier than its writer, who had not perfectly researched the time. Similarly Esther is the story of a great war which could never have happened in the well-documented time described. These are alternate-historical fictions like Gone With the Wind or Forrest Gump.

There is no record of a messianic preacher who was named Jesus and had the right descriptions, nor any unusual earthquakes, eclipses or bread-multiplications at the right time, yet Josephus should have written much about the former (the famous Jesus Letter of Josephus is a confirmed forgery), and Pliny the Elder should have written about the latter. Everywhere that should have Jesus-evidence, doesn't, so there is reason to say he didn't exist, or only existed as a common man.

Revelation "predicts" a great war in the OLD Roman Empire which never happened, so its author John is a false prophet.

Biology of neurons has confirmed that the "soul" comes from the brain and does not outlast it, and is not from "God."

Catholicism takes most of its hallmarks from Mithra, a pagan religion which was "syncretized" into part of early Christianity.

Lastly, if God wants people to "believe" in his existence, he ought to take a public stroll down Times Square!

As an old ex-catholic I understand the pride of the Papacy that still exists among practicing Catholics, and particularly in Central and South America. My girlfriend is from Ecuador and would be mortified that I spoke a critical word regarding the Pope.

My problem is simple - I'm Irish. We feel quite free to criticize any and all things related to the Church and the Papacy in particular - probably it's in the Celtic blood.

The innocence of childhood should not be carried over into adulthood - adults often revere religious traditions to the point of assuming the continuing truth of those traditions regardless of the associated human failings that are all too clear historically.

For those that wish to follow the Sermon on the Mount and the dictum of loving your neighbor as yourself, you could do no better. This is perhaps the ultimate teaching of Christianity - the Pope has no authority that transcends this teaching. Jesus himself believed this to be true - all things fall into place with this practice.

hey that's my cousing and i'm really proud to watch her following the pope... It was a really special moment when i realice that she and all my family in the Unites States where with Benedict XVI.

I'm from Guatemala and hopefully the Pope will come someday.

It was a very special day for Trinity. Not because it was a parade or the pageantry of the day but rather because she knew that she was going to see the Pope. She understands who the Pope is and what a joy it is to get even a fleeting glimpse of him. Not being Catholic, it's probably difficult to understand such an outpouring of love.

I could understand the negativity in these comments if she had created a derogatory sign towards other faiths or atheists, but she didn't. I can't understand why you would think that teaching a child to love others as Christ loves her is some type of abuse. We've taught our children that God loves every single human being on earth even the ones that we have trouble tolerating.

We've also tried to teach our daughters not to judge others, perhaps some of you could use that lesson as well.

Peace

What is quite revealing to me, a strong Catholic in this day and age, is that by just saying one is Catholic there often wells up an automatic negative response against the person who has proclaimed this fact and their belief. No Lutheran, Protestant, Quaker, Baptist, or any other admission of faith from any other religious person elicits such a strong and negative response.
From my point of view the public is aware that this "Catholic" religion is truly important ...evidenced by the strength of the public's response against this particular faith.

that`s my cousin! yei

Look at that six year girl kid brainwashed by his parents... so sad!

(I'm sorry for referring to her as a "kid" previously)

"Yea, have you never heard........... out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" Mt.21:16

Or; "Genius is childhood revisited". Baudelaire

All Pope
All Day
Can't Make Our World's Woes
Go Away

By the way-

At the end of today's Papal Mass, one of the network commentators gushed over "the enormity" of the event.

I guess he's either a Satan worshipper or a person in dire need of a dictionary.

All Pope
All Day
Can't Make The World's Woes
Go Away

By the way-

At the end of today's Papal Mass, one of the network commentators gushed over "the enormity" of the event.

All Pope
All Day
Can't Make Our World's Woes
Go Away

By the way-

At the end of today's Papal Mass, one of the network commentators gushed over "the enormity" of the event.

I guess he's either a Satan worshipper or a person in dire need of a dictionary.

According to religion, God all along wanted us to join him in Heaven. So why not create us there instead of one step away on a broken, imperfect Earth?

The strongest probable answer is that God does not exist. Humans are a type of non-comformist gorilla (especially my sister) who first rose to prominence within the last 100,000 years at most, a mere blip in Earth's multi-billion year history.

God tells us that “every way of a man is right in his own eyes”(Proverbs 21:2). It is the way of human nature, yet God also tells man that only He can reveal the true motives of the heart—the
mind of human nature. But who is really concerned about what God has to say? Man has always been determined to live his life his own way—the way that he sees fit, and as he does this, he considers himself to be right in his choices and decisions. But this is a lie, because the very core and inner working of human nature is based on pride and selfishness—self being first.
Whether man likes it or not, this base nature is the cause of the problems we experience. It is the cause of conflicts, arguments, dissension, envy, competition, hatred, wars, stress, and
unhappiness in life. Far too many people say
they believe in God, yet they choose to believe they crawled out of slime and evolved into man. God said concerning man, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Roman 1:28). In these verses, God is simply saying that since man does not choose to know Him, then He
(God) will release man (distance Himself from man) so that man can experience the consequences of his wrong choices,resulting in human suffering and the pollution of his mind. So, how truthful is our history? Man doesn’t accept the story of Adam and Eve as part of his history. He does not
accept or teach the history of Noah and the flood. These two things alone keep man from learning the most basic lessons of life. History should teach us how to live in the present, as well as the future. As some people in the world have experienced, after it was too late, if we do not learn from the mistakes (lessons) of the past, we are destined to repeat them. This is
exactly what has been going on ever since we were put on this earth—a complete failure to learn from our mistakes and turn to God. God is going to bring an end to 6,000 years of man’s way, man’s government, man’s religion, and man’s own self-inflicted misery. You live at the pinnacle of all human history. Before man was ever created, God purposed to allow him to have his own
governments and religions for a 6,000 year period. This time has come and is almost complete. Time has run out for man!

Here we witness medieval Patriarchy in all it's age-worn glory. The pomp, circumstance and the vast wealth of the Papacy and the Vatican extend far beyond anything we might see when the British celebrate the the ancient heritage of the Royal Family - although with this tradition there is at least the circumstantial chance that a Queen might be holding high office! Not so with Catholicism.

Of course all 6 year olds love a parade!! It's just that a lot of 6 year olds are much older than 6.....well, nothing wrong with that, unless you take both parades and yourself too seriously.

Noah and Moses probably never existed, but the story has its own internal verisimilitude, like Star Wars. Genesis lists various descendants of Cain, ending with Tubal-cain and his sister Naamah. Since Naamah is the only woman mentioned in the list, she is assumed by many ancient and modern theologians, including the wacky, fun-filled Tim LaHaye, to have been the same as Mrs. Noah. Other names have been proposed for Mrs. Noah (eg. Joan of Ark!!!), but I like the idea of Noah and Naamah, like Amos and Andy, Frick and Frack, or Pick and Pat.

Well, at least the lettering on the poster is handwritten, as opposed to excessive number of juxtaposed typeface letters, cut from newspapers and glued to the poster board.

Noah's wife Naamah was a descendant of Cain.

Kenneth spewed: "Look at that six year old kid brainwashed by his parents... so sad!"

What is truly sad is the old, cynical bigots on this blog all day. Get a life.

The is a girl, btw - and I am sure she had a very exciting day.

Kenneth writes:

"Look at that six year old kid brainwashed by his parents... so sad!'

How right you are. As Richard Dawkins points out, it's another form of child abuse.

Look at that six year old kid brainwashed by his parents... so sad!