The Pope is an idiot.

"Is the Pope a pedophile?" is the meaner variation on "Does a bear shit in the woods?", itself a dirty and sarcastic way of saying "yes". I don't know the true answer to that first question, but I do know that the Pope is an idiot.

Never mind that he's the patriarch of a religion which adamantly opposes marriage between two men (or women) who love one another while at the same time protecting pedophile priests with equal resolve. I mean, anyone who says love between consenting adults of the same gender is wrong, but if it's a man forcing himself on a boy, it's alright, must be a rational individual, right? There's the world's self-appointed moral authority - it's no wonder so many people enjoy being bad!

But that's just traditional Vatican hypocrisy. It's not just the atheists who can see it; some of God's followers take the Catholic Church with a grain of salt as well. I wouldn't have anything to say if the Pope were just continuing the Church's storied tradition of hypocrisy and abuse. Downright stupidity shouldn't make a headline, either, but hey, it's a slow news day, you know?

Apparently, as reported by the BBC, the Pope flew down to Africa and told this AIDS-ravaged continent that condoms aren't the answer, and that contraceptives are part of a decline in morality. He stopped short of including homosexuality in his list of immoral contributors to this decline, and also stopped short of saying that people who got AIDS through sex deserve it, but that's what he was getting at. So condoms not only prevent unwanted pregnancies, which the Church has always taken a hard line with, but they prevent disease as well. Seems the prevention of disease is not a good enough benefit to offset the "atrocities" of not wanting to start a family just yet, though AIDS prevention, not family planning, was the focus of the article.

The Pope's solution? Don't have sex. Oh, really? Is he serious? If people want to get down, they're gonna get down. Besides, every time a girl has her period, including when she's 9 or 10 or whenever they start, that means an opportunity to bring a new life into the world was passed by in favor of not wanting to raise a little taxpayer. Ultimately, fundamentalist Christians and hard-right Republicans want to rescind womens' rights and turn women into breeding farms as soon as they're old enough to have children as inferred by their opposition to contraceptives and abortion; take their remarks on those subjects to the farthest logical conclusion, and that's what you wind up with. Pure stupidity and a lot of steps backwards.

And forget about preventing AIDS, it's not that big a deal, is it, Your Holiness? Someone ought to contract the Pope with AIDS and see how important he sees it. Of course, they don't choose Popes that are more than a few years from their deathbed anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter, AIDS might not work fast enough for him.

A signature on the GameFAQs message boards says something like: Religion is to the poor true, to the wise false, and to those in power useful. It's true. I mean, I believe, despite logical arguments telling me the entire Christian mythos is false and explaining where it all comes from. But a part of me still believes. Not enough to go to Church... organized religion is crap, more often than not these days a congregation of idiots, stupid people gathering and preaching hate and intolerance. Fifty years ago it was blacks, now it was gays, the Church always seems to need some group to villify, no matter how good that group's members themselves may be. Some are even Christians themselves! What ever happened to sin and temptation and Satan being the bad guys?