The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has just announced this evening that the Catholic Archbishop of Canberra, Mark Coleridge, has been appointed to the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Archbishop Coleridge came to Canberra from Melbourne, a few years ago, where he had been an auxiliary bishop. It has long been rumoured that he wasn’t going to be staying in Canberra for very long, and that he would probably end up with an appointment to an archdiocese with a larger population. (Bishop Coleridge had replaced the much-loved, and long-serving Archbishop of Canberra, Francis Carroll, who retired to Wagga Wagga.)
Archbishop Coleridge was heavily involved in the new translation of the Roman Missal, which has been rolled out, with some controversy, across Australia (and other English-speaking countries) over the last year.
HenryBG said :
I agree with you 100 per cent. What people do for entertainment is never going to contribute to GDP (unless they start mining for fun?).
I see some parallels between your argument of the financial benefit of organised religion to the community and the argument of the pokie industry in NSW.
p1 said :
I find it very hard to believe that you would think that.
There must be social benefits to organised religion, or it wouldn’t be something that exists in every human culture in every place and time in history.
At an individual level, a lot of people obviously need an imaginary friend to help them get through the day. If it helps them, then it’s got to be good for society.
I can’t think of any comparable benefit involving the pokies. They are truly disgusting things.
bigfeet said :
No married men will be eligible either.
Are you suggesting the catholic education system teaches “… hatred, discrimination and bigotry ..” against married men?
Looks like your facile denigrations were not founded on solid ground, eh?
HenryBG said :
Fernwood doesn’t allow male participation. I guess it promotes hatred, discrimination and bigotry.
HenryBG said :
My thought was along the lines of “look at all the good things the clubs do in the community” is similar to “look at all the good religions do in the community”.
I am not saying that the catholic church is anywhere near as evil as the gaming industry.
HenryBG said :
Eppo said :
+ infinity and beyond
To me a rampant athiest who shoves their non belief down someone’s throat or belittles their belief is the same as a rampant religious person shoving their belief down someone’s throat who doesn’t or believes differently, or belittles them in the same way.
Sorry to me it is the same thing.
Eirlys said :
Athiests have done some terrible things over the years – they can shut up and take what’s coming to them.
HenryBG said :
Yes. If it prevents someone from getting a job within its organisation, particularly when that job involves great influence and power, simply because they are married it is discriminatory and should be illegal. In every other circumstance (except for religion) it is illegal. Why should religion be any different?
Perhaps I should have used the phrase” hatred, discrimination OR bigotry” as I am only giving this as an example of discrimination, not the other two. I was trying to link it back to the original post.
VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :
Getting way of topic but – Yes. It is discrimination. It is not, however putting someone into a position of power which is a difference. But I do not think sex discriminatory clubs should be permitted.
milkman said :
It is however extremely rare that it is done in the name of athiesm, or in the cause of advancing athiesm. It is quite common for “some terrible things” to be done in the name of religion.
bigfeet said :
This is entirely reasonable, but I think we need to remember that the majority of religious people (and there are a lot of them) have no interest in doing terrible things to anyone. Many of the charities and community organisations people go to for help are religious in nature. I don’t think it’s acceptable to tar the whole group because of the actions of a few, and I think it’s even less acceptable to publicly hassle them because of their beliefs.
It’s a popular thing to bag the Catholics/Christians, but that doesn’t make it right.