True colours

I see that the Pope has finally "come out", no, no, not what you're thinking. Catholics should still think gay people are sub-human, unless they're Cardinals of course, then it's OK so long as they keep their mouths shut and don't get caught, such is the way of the Lord.

No, the pope has revealed what he thinks about free speech and by Jove he's all for it! it's a fundamental human right according to him. The Pope is absolutely for Catholics being able to make up all manner of horse shit to lecture everyone else about; regardless of how offensive it is. Women must abandon their reproductive rights, non-believers are going to burn in hell, gay people must deny their sexual identities and live sterile lives, condoms are worse than AIDS and on and on; the very definition of offensive, sanctimonious clap-trap that the rest of us are subjected to ad-nausea, and guess what.. we don't have to respect these views but we must tolerate them, this is the essence of free-speech. Of course as with everything religious, there's a but, the Pope says free speech is fine unless it involves criticising or mocking someone's faith, that's verboten! Boy, those religious johnnies really stick together don't they. A case of do as I say and not as I do, such a wonderfully simple philosophy for the in-group.

As everyone knows, the most destructive forces in the in the realm of religion (which is somewhere between Mordor and Narnia) are honest enquiry, reason and evidence; the man in the big hat can't be having any religious person exposed to that kind of Kryptonite! The faithful are clearly not faithful enough to deal with it (in his eyes) and after all, the creator of the universe is now so utterly pooped after shitting out all that dark matter that he needs good Muslims, Jews and Catholics everywhere to punch anyone on the nose for daring to suggest (especially if it's presented in cartoon form) that an evolved primate on a small rock in an insignificant galaxy might think Godly beliefs or actions that are inspired by those beliefs are in any way infantile, hypocritical, barbaric, immoral, criminal or plain dumb! Faith must be viewed by everyone for what it truly is, Captain Americas' impenetrable shield or the ultimate invisibility cloak; protecting it's wearer from the laser-beams of critical reason or the ruthless gaze of ridicule.

And so, you can probably tell what I think about this patriarchal hypothesis, fortunately I'm not alone, many other, more talented people than me sum it up much more eloquently and put it to music, so, in the immortal words of Tim Minchin.


Fuck the Pope!

And yes this song is designed to offend and shock; but it's not even on the same scale of offence and shock as covering up the abuse of thousands of small children - that's kinda the point; some people need to calibrate their morals.