Similarly, British tax payers were forced to contribute around $24 million NZD for the Pope's 3 day visit. The hypocrisy within even the highest-ranked Religious elites is outstanding. Churches still pass around collection plates stating that it's all for God blah blah. Umm... last I checked the Church is rather sorted on the financial side of things with an estimated wealth of well over $60 billion NZD. Or better yet, they say it's a donation to the poor. HA! What a fucking joke, if the Catholic church wanted to feed, clothe, and educate the poor with not one person being excluded, it could. It shocks me the more I think about it that more people don't seem to realise this. Have you seen how much gold is around/on the Pope at any given time within the Vatican? It's just a bad look for a man with such religious convictions, it makes him and the rest of the Church look like greedy pigs.
The fact that they aren't giving all their money to the poor is certainly not the issue here, the issue is this:
If it is part of your mission statement and basic ideals to help those less fortunate than you then
A) lead by example - you can't expect others to if you don't
and
B) How dare you have the audacity to ask people for more. How much is enough? Enough to give any away yet? Or should we wait till we've got a few more billion stacked up?
If religious institutions were doing what they set out to do, which is make the world better essentially, then it would have achieved. Only around 16% of the world are non-religious which makes me wonder every day, if there are so many people subscribing to these ideals then why does it seems as if no one is following through? The fact that around 84% of the entire world believe in doing right by various, loving Gods and there are still Wars going on (religious wars even, what?! complete oxymoron), and billions, yes billions, of hungry people just does not make sense. The numbers do not add up. People are clearly no longer using religion for the benefit of their fellow man, what they are using it for I do now know. BUT, if religion were doing us any good and what it set out to do in the first place it would be very, very clear.
I must say your viewpoint is very persuasive.
ReplyDeleteYou apply the facts of religious conductors who are corrupt in their actions in which I can honestly say I whole-hardheartedly agree with. The God portrayed in the bible cannot be heard in the words of these men, especially when asking for materialistic goods such as money or as an excuse to put forth their own agenda.
However this is not religion itself, it is in the name of religion. In a similar way a knight would fight for a mute king, everything is left in guesswork and we have trusted these people to interpret his will. I’ll admit some (if not the majority) have got it wrong so far.
I do agree with your point of God counting the money supposedly in his name is undoubtedly senseless, nonetheless, the script itself does try inspire people to try and help mankind but as a possible guide not as a rulebook. Please note I use the term ‘inspire’ loosely in this case as the above examples do show it can inspire people in the negative as well. As they say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” right?
I do have one question though; in the last few statements you give statistics for belief religion. Where did they come from? Not that I totally discredit them I do find it hard to believe 84% is religious, perhaps only religious in name?
I digress, this was a convincing read and I do agree with your points. Nicely done!
Hey thanks heaps for your comments. I found the statistics online, (if i can find the website again ill just chuck it here) and yes it does seem a little hard to believe also I'm assuming it's pretty hard to get an exact number on that sort of thing. What I got from the article that I read with that info in it was that the number (84%) was a 'semi-official' estimate based on various kinds of poll/census-type information that a lot of sources seem to go by. And I think you're probably right in wondering if those numbers include people that identify with religions and might call themselves a catholic, for example, but barely ever go to Church.
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