Pope off

Firstly, an apology to any of my friends reading this who are religious. You know I respect you and your society, and it is this respect I hope to receive in turn despite my atheism - I believe I do receive this from you. This post refers to a distinct lack of respect not only to my Country (England) but also to my belief (well, the lack of!) from someone with a white hat who should know better.

Those of you who know me will realise I keep opinions to myself, going on with the philosophy of letting others live their lives as they so choose. When I first heard that the Pope was coming to the UK I was not overly fussed. After all, he seems a harmless old bloke in a dress. It's not as if he's coming to incite hatred and violence like some other preachers.

However, once I learnt that his visit was to be paid for by UK tax payers my opinion changed. Why? Mainly because the Catholic Church is extremely wealthy and can easily afford to pay for this, but also because the UK's Head of State (Her Royal Maj, EII) is also Head of the Church of England - Protestant, not Catholic. The number of Catholics in the UK is around/less than 1m, out of a total population of 67m - pretty small (and the majority of them are Scottish, who don't pay much tax anyway!)

But, hey, what you do? I had no intention of voicing my complaints about this extra burden on the economy.

But the Pontiff and his cronies has pushed the button today. In a speech by the Pope he associated Atheism with Nazism, and his aide, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has said that "England today is a secularised, pluralistic country. When you land at Heathrow Airport, you sometimes think you'd landed in a Third World country" and his refers to "aggressive Neo-atheism" in England, claiming that we discriminate against Christians.

Let's look at some facts:-

• The Catholic Churches views are no longer relevant to the modern world. They are almost as medieval as Islam
• The Pope is:-
• Opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of Aids
• Denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women
• Opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people
• Meddling in children's education - education is state responsibility, not the Church
• Failing to address the many cases of abuse of children by paedophile priests globally
• Trying to bribe people into Catholic faith by offering money (according to Reverend Ian Paisley)
• Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth, and has in the past quoted Nazi philosophers to back up his hardline views
• The Catholic church lecture people about the sanctity of vows (whether it's marriage or priests' vow of celibacy) but priests involved in sex scandals are regular tabloid events
• The Vatican has Mafia connections (search for books on the Vatican Mafia)
• The Catholic Church deny the rights of women in society. If they had their way women would still be chained to the kitchen sink - no wonder they won't allow women priests!
• It is a fact that the UK Government discriminate in favour of minority faiths and immigrants. Whilst Christians may feel some of this directed at them (crosses banned at school, whilst burqas, nijabs and ceremonial daggers are okay) Atheists also suffer in this and any other society. As a silent and peaceful majority, we have accepted this because of the non-secular history.
• The "discrimination" that Wally Kasper refers to was established under Tony Blairs' government. Blair is a devoted Christian and a Catholic convert!

Atheists are not uncivilised, we are not lacking in morals and we are certainly not violent. As an Atheist I live my life by high moral standards, letting others get on with their lives, hoping they too will keep to accepted world morals. After all, morals are not the sole preserve of religion, and going on the reputation of the Catholic Church, they don't seem to have any morals at all!

Finally, Remember, the majority of wars have been caused by religion - who's the violent aggressive now, Pope?

So, Benedict, Walter and your cronies - you can take a bloody long walk of a very short pier, for Christ's sake!

 There. I said it. Rant over. I encourage people to join this website. http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/