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1. 

   Coyoty said, 3 months ago

   SPIDER CHOSEN AS NEW POPE: Vatican stresses need for someone who can handle web of conspiracies and sinful clergy.
   
   

   Spider Conducts First Mass
2. 

   jukeofurl said, 3 months ago

   That’s why they call it Papal Bull. . ..
3. 

   Radish said, 3 months ago

   The hat met its own papal end sickle.
4. 

   rmacprivate said, 3 months ago

   Maybe the church should hire one of those L.A. spin doctors the celebrities use when they are in trouble.

   Or better yet, declare that they have been “born again” like politicians used to when they were caught in compromising situations.
5. 

   TruckDriverFritz said, 3 months ago

   re Manti, bit mean, on a few levels, but laugh out loud funny.
6. 

   Ajax 4Hire said, 3 months ago

   You stand in the dark and do not believe there is a sun.
   If I am in the darkness, I still have the light of the Son (of God) in me.

   I’m sorry but your description of “belief in fictional” comment is to backward and dark ages for me. I prefer to live in the light, to bask in the glory and share in the advantage of having the Lord on my side. You can have it too, all you need to do is ask.

   Both the Son and the Sun is real. All you need is eyes to see.
   Even in the darkness, I have the light in me.
   Good bye.
7. 

   TheTrustedMechanic said, 3 months ago

   @Ajax 4Hire

   Thank you for your kind but thoughtful reply. Regardless of those who think we believers are nuts, what is the harm in believing? Aside from those who take it to violent extremes (the crusades, jihad, etc.) most “believers” I know are good people who treat others with respect, kindness and compassion. At least that’s the ideal. So where’s the harm? But do beware of those “Christian run” businesses. Everyone of them around my area (thankfully not that many but enough) is run by a crook. They use “belief” to lull people into believing they will be treated right and proper but in the end the business screws them over.
   I firmly believe there is a divine being, My Lord God. And I thank you Ajax for your courage to stand up and declare your faith.
8. 

   tom_wright said, 3 months ago

   @Ajax 4Hire – Thanks for eloquently saying what I wanted to say.
   @TheTrustedMechanic – “What’s the harm in believing” is a false way to the Light & the Truth. All you’d be doing is hedging your bets. Believing must be real, genuine to be at all meaningful and to provide a path to Salvation. But I do agree mostly with your post.
   I do find that “Manti Te’o” block to be exceedingly offensive.
9. 

   pschearer said, 3 months ago

   @TheTrustedMechanic

   “Where’s the harm?” Where to begin?
   

   
   Faith is belief without evidence or logic. It puts the source of morality outside reality and reduces your ability to live successfully in this one-and-only world. It induces guilt, self-doubt, and unhappiness. It prevents rational agreement between people which invites irrational conflict. It has been the cause of countless deaths throughout history.
   

   
   “Where’s the harm”? Ha!
10. 

    thehag said, 3 months ago

    @Coyoty

    Love it! It even has a little cross in the middle!
11. 

    peachguy said, 3 months ago

    That last one is hilariously mean! I feel guilty for laughing.
12. 

    prrdh said, 3 months ago

    @pschearer

    There can be no harm in believing as such because there is no way to avoid it. Science and religion are both systems of exploring the implications of different metaphysical assumptions. You assume that we live in a ‘one-and-only’ world; many (but not all) theists and agnostics (such as Buddhists) do not. You assume that inerrancy is attained by subjecting documents to the cleansing ritual of peer review, even under circumstances that any social psychologist or behavioral economist can tell you are conducive to systemic bias; fundamental Christians assume that it was attained by subjecting documents to a synod of religious scholars. Like all such assumptions, they stand outside ‘evidence or logic’; they form the structure within which logic is applied to whatever is deemed admissible as evidence.
13. 

    androgenoide said, 3 months ago

    @pschearer

    As an agnostic I generally do not see a problem with either belief or disbelief but you have touched on one aspect of belief that can have negative implications. Many believers have built their entire moral code of behavior around their faith in a system of eternal reward and punishment and that’s OK as long as that belief remains untouched… they remain capable of behaving like normal humans. The problem is that I know how easy it is to learn to believe six impossible things before breakfast and such moral codes strike me as pretty fragile.
14. 

    pschearer said, 3 months ago

    @prrdh

    Your argument assumes faith (such as religion) is as valid as reason (such as science) as a means of gaining knowledge. You say I “assume” there is only one world; no, I KNOW there IS one world and that in all of history nobody has proved there are more. It is the faithful who assume there is more than one, on no other reason than that it must comfort them, but that does not make their feelings a valid source of knowledge. Note too, reason is broader than what scientists do; it encompasses the very foundation of everything you know. Aristotle knew that the laws of logic were at root laws of existence, so the idea that there is anything outside of what is knowable by “evidence and logic” is pure wishful thinking (as if that word would apply).
15. 

    griffon88 said, 3 months ago

    @prrdh

    Inerrancy is not what science is trying to accomplish. That would require knowing everything, which would be extremely arrogant. Instead, science is a process for getting closer to the truth. Not absolute truth, because that doesn’t exist outside of a rigorous logical system. But science is what we use to get closer to the truth because it has been proven time and again to work.
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