The blind spot of religion.

Religion has a huge blind spot when it comes to believing things on faith.

Ask someone of any religion if it's ok to take things on faith and they will say "yes" because its one of the pillars of their thought process.

They believe something with no solid evidence (the creationists try to say they have evidence but it's just thinly veiled justifications) and it allows them to make all kinds of absolutist moral judgements without recourse to any argument beyond the authority of their faith.

Recently the Family Research Council which is one of those "lets start a christian faith based organisation with a christian faith based agenda but give it a name that doesn't sound christian so people wont see our inherent bias " organisations posted an anti gun control message, from which I quote:

If Congress wants to stop these tragedies, then it has to address the government's own hostility to the institution of the family and organizations that can address the real problem: the human heart. As I've said before, America doesn't need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively discourages it--through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility--is only compounding the problem.

This was written before the Boston bombing and in specific reference to tragedies like the recent Newtown shootings. While I agree that self control is the most important thing when it comes to guns, I'm not sure that they can justify legalising abortion and allowing divorces and same sex marriages as causing their society to rot away.

What stuns me is that apart from a major mental malfunction or radical political indoctrination, the only force we know of that can cause someone to justify and rationalise the horror of mass, unprovoked murder is religion.

And ONLY religion gets upset enough about growing "liberalism" to think that violent actions needs to be taken - everyone else just gets on with living their lives now with additional liberty. Remember that just because you have the right to have an abortion that people will stop having children or using birth control. Just because people can get divorced does not mean that they will and just because same sex couples can marry does not mean that any other marriage commitment by a heterosexual couple is in any way diminished.

The "hostility" they see towards religion is nothing more than the observation increasing acceptance that religious values and the values of religious institutions should not get disproportionate representation in the making and application of laws and public governance.

The reason for this recent move is that religion is not an inherently good guide to deeds, each religion contains dogma that does not reflect public values and often contradicts the values of other faiths. Government, laws and policy must be cognisant of the true shared values and welfare of the people. If this does not reflect religious doctrine then it shows religion is failing the people not the other way around.

Acts of violence are routinely carried out by people of faith, suicide bombings are an obvious example, as is israels displacement of an entire people to gain land they felt was given them by god, or the practice of female circumcision -generally accepted outside practicing faiths as a brutal form of mutilation.

Of course in todays world it easier to find islamic examples (such as stoning for infidelity etc) than christian ones without using the over cited example of bombing abortion clinics. However this is because christianity benefits from generations of forced liberalisation - left to it's devices do you honestly think it would not still be burning people for heresy?

It reminded me of an appearance on Bill O'Reilly by Sam Harris some time back where he pointed out the believe in getting 72 virgins as a reward for martyrdom was no more crazy than the belief that a sip of wine and a mouthful of wafer actually became human flesh and blood in your mouth. Of course, as Sam points out these have massively different outcomes and moral impacts but they are both absolute beliefs that are (to a non believer) manifestly crazy.

Faith cant prove a negative either.

One argument you'll see often is that you cant prove a negative. I've already pointed out in a previous post that this fundamentally wrong and at best you can only assert that you cannot disprove a claim that has no testable qualities.

This means that you cannot prove there was no creator standing behind the big bang because we have no way to test that claim.

I cannot disprove that some god created the universe.

I also cannot prove that some god created the universe.

And of perhaps greater concern for people of faith the inability to disprove one creator (especially when evidence that contradicts the creation myth is dismissed as intentional by the creator) equates to the inability to disprove ANY creation myth from the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime to the Mesopotamian myth of creation.

Why god? Why a single god? There are many discussions on this topic, but deeper morality issues like freewill and the problem of good and evil actually get easier to counter if you have more than one god. Mesopotamian creation gives as much scientifically accurate information as genesis and neatly explains how not everything in the universe seems to go to the plan of a single good loving god.

Why not spirits that become alive, waking into physical forms, becoming the material from which the universe was created? The Dreaming offers more coherent answers to questions like good and evil by explaining that the creators did think or live in such simple bipolar terms.

The christian creation myth is not even consistent, with two conflicting descriptions of genesis. For a widely accepted religion it falls far short of meeting any burden of proof.

At least the Dreamtime doesn't attempt to include a timeline for the creation of the universe... especially one that that fails as badly as genesis to meet the facts. Ask a young earth creationist how we can see light from stars so distant that it must have taken more than 6000 to reach us when the universe is only 6000 years old?

Actually dont do that - especially not from answersingenesis.org whose ramblings will rapidly muddy the water with ideas like:

• "observational science" vs "historical/origins science" (Which is nonsense, science is a method pure and simple - there are different areas of study but there are not different ways to do science other than good science and bad science. You would not trust a doctor who said he would cure you with "elf science" that he got from a book on elves, or "better luck next time science" where his cures have always killed the patient but "he's got to get lucky sooner or later right?").
• The idea that the universe was created "fully mature" like Adam was! (This would only make sense if the universe was like adam and one of many we could compare to determine what a "maturity" universe is)
• That the speed of light is widely variable (While it does actually change depending on the medium, its not by much and if it did change that much we would see evidence in comparing closer stars with ones further away)
• That time is not rigid (Sorry... this one is totally laughable given that the whole premis of young earth creation is based on a day in the bible being a single normal 24 hour day as we know it.)
• Finally they will probably wrap up with some poorly and incorrectly explained physics - If you want to know what a big bang physicist says then ask one directly the web is full of really good explanations - try starting here). 

None of these arguments actually work, AIG just includes as many as possible to make it look like there is a lot of doubt on the issue - which there isn't.

Every time a testable quality of a god claim is removed or watered down or described as a special case (special pleading) they weaken their own argument and god moves further from an actual claim to a vague idea.

But best of all every time a religionist dodges the question and refuse to make testable claims about his god and his creation myth he strengthens the claims of every other creation myth and any creation myth you care to make up on the spot. They are all as testable and verifiable as each other.

Religionists weaken their own ability to tell fact from fiction when they use these arguments or claim that even a tiny chance that something might be true in some form means that it is totally true.

You'll find evidence for this in the number of people who believe in ghosts, spirits, white witches, and other forms of mysticism in addition to a claim to follow christianity or other faith that do not actually support those beliefs.

Religionists need to stop hiding in doubt and bring their arguments and claims into the light. I dont agree with the AIG guys but at least they clearly communicate their claims and dont shy away from them just because they are manifestly wrong.

It's foolish but it has a certain integrity.

Now if only they could stop misrepresenting science, quoting out of date research and reciting logical fallacies then there might be hope for them.

Ever been told you're not an Atheist?

The whole "you're not an atheist, you're just an agnostic" keeps turning up in christian apologetics.

I'm going to explain why the argument is a fallacy to begin with and from there I'm going to point out why most atheists far from being agnostics are in fact gnostic atheists because they know that god claims are false.

I'm also going to prove that all but the most rabid fundamentalists are agnostic.

Lets start with an example of the "you're not really an atheist" argument:

Theist: Have you heard the word of [insert deity]?
Atheist: I'm an atheist.
Theist: But you can't prove a negative can you? you cant be totally certain there is no god?
Atheist: Well no, not totally certain, but I think its a pretty safe bet.
Theist: Ok, but that's not the same as absolute knowledge is it?
Atheist: No it's not absolute knowledge I never claimed that.
Theist: So if you cant say for certain that you know wether god exists or not then you're just an agnostic and not an atheist!
Atheist: Well... err...

And so on.

There are several problems with this argument, firstly while gnosticism is concerned with knowledge, atheism is concerned with belief, they are not mutually contradictory. Thus it is possible to be both.
Remember that atheism is the rejection of a theistic claim but does not necessarily extend to the anti-theist position of accepting the claim that god does not exist.

The second problem is the assumption that because you cannot be certain one way or the other of the existence of god that you must be agnostic. This is true only when "god" is left totally undefined, if you include a clear definition of god, such as "god as literally defined by the king james bible" then you now have sufficient inconsistencies and contradictions to say that you have knowledge that that specific god does not exist... and in fact you'll find that many (non-fundamentalist) christians would be forced to agree.

The biggest error here is the old "you cant prove a negative" chestnut which often gets bandied around.

BOLLOCKS!

Of course you can prove a negative! someone claims they have a real, live, ordinary 5 tonne, actual solid african elephant in their pocket, and you reach in - BOOM - Negative proved!!!

I can prove the nonexistence of a huge number of things, indeed anything with testable qualities. If your child is scared to go to bed because there is a werewolf in the closet... you open the closet to prove the negative, full stop, end of argument. In fact the only way to continue the argument (and children do this all the time) is to change what they mean by werewolf - "this one is special and can turn invisible!".

What is frightening is to see how fast people of faith revert to the tactics of a little child afraid of the dark.

The bible says the universe is six to ten thousand years old? how come we see stars that are so far away their light would not have reached us yet? - Just proved a negative, thanks for playing... but then we get "No no no no... god put the light in the sky already on it's path to make it look like the universe was older!" - Excuse me? where in that funny book of yours does it say the universe was made to old?

Its such an old trick, you prove the negative by using a testable quality and they change the claim. It's called "special pleading" and it's the main tool in the religionists arsenal against rationality.

You will often hear atheists debating religionists cede the point that god cannot be disproved - This is because the most abstract concepts of god are indeed untestable. and therefore cannot be disproved. So debaters skip quickly over the argument without having to deal claims that the monster in the closet has harry potters invisible cloak.

So remember when you speak to theists:

1. You can be an atheist and an agnostic
2. You dont need to be agnostic about specific claims. You can test and achieve knowledge
3. You can prove a negative where testable qualities exists and if they change the definition of god then they are the ones who cannot claim absolute knowledge. They are agnostic on their own claims.   

Best of all, when someone tries the "you're agnostic, not atheist" argument you can just tell them they dont understand enough about either of those terms to use them in a discussion

Dear Christians, from Ben Evans

In November last year an open letter was posted on answersingenesis.org directed as Atheists (or more correctly addressed to atheists but directed and other religionists seeking to feel superior).

I wrote a response letter almost immediately and apologise that it sat in my draft tray for so long before being posted

Dear Christians (C/o Bodie Hodge)

[An open letter in response to Dear Atheists]

Tired? Not at all...

I am happy to say the only people who associate evil with atheism are those who thoughtlessly misinterpret history and who conveniently disown christianity's own violent, bigoted history, claiming all the negative actions are taken by not "true" christians. Thankfully modern atheist societies deriving their morality from humanism, have far fewer murderers, tyrants, rapists and crime in general than christian societies, and we manage it on our own recognisance. It looks like "true Christ followers" lack the self control expected in polite society... or perhaps you are just taking advantage of all that forgiveness you've been promised?

Do you feel conflicted that your morality is defined by religious edict? That human values of compassion and tolerance can only be expressed if they comply with religious dogma? Of course it could be your worldview getting in the way of your own moral judgment. Being given a set of badly written laws set down over three thousand years ago doesn't give you much scope for developing a truly moral set of human values based on mutual respect. If someone stabs you in the back, treats you like nothing, steals from you, or lies to you, it doesn’t ultimately matter in an christian worldview as long as they pray for forgiveness, right? If they are truly repentent they can be forgiven by Jesus even if you are still suffering from their acts. After all - if you accept the infinite suffering of hell as the same punishment for all crimes then all crimes are the same regardless of how many people got hurt, right? That must be disheartening...

I don't get tired of atheism providing no basis for logic or reason because logic and reason are basis for atheism... you're putting the cart before the horse if you accept a moral and ethical framework before you have the tools to determine if it's claims are true... although, that would explain a lot. Luckily I do believe in facts that can be seen in nature, that rationality can help me understand them and that claims of truth must prove their veracity. This cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis and verification is called "science", you should give it a go sometime as it's far better at finding laws like E=MC² and F=MA than a book that gives a manifestly wrong figure for a basic geometric value like Pi.

I do like to take a weekend off once in a while, after dealing with the insane people of the world, and I try to spare a thought for the people first broke the calendar down into weeks... the babylonian civilisation from which we also get the 24 hour day and 60 minute hour that predate both christianity and judaism. I am, however, very worried that without the word of god and the urging of the bible that you think you would never take a respite... are you sure you are looking after yourself properly?

For professing christians these issues must be overwhelming. Forcing yourself to believe a collection of mis-translated creation myths and parables, living under the threat of eternal punishment and having to assume the position that there is a single, all powerful god and that you personally know what he wants... Being an atheist I can only make up my own mind, I cannot claim to know the mind of god. I am forced to look at the unsupported claims, the contradictions, the blatant horrors committed in the name of your "loving" god and the total lack of evidence for his existence. Being an atheist I am forced to deal with truth and reality and must see jesus and the christian god in the same light as unicorns, hobbits, leprechauns, the Loch Ness moster, and other fanciful creatures, although I cannot prove absolutely that they do not exist, I can assume so beyond reasonable doubt and relegate them all to the realm of fiction until some actual evidence or even consistent rationality can be presented on their behalf.

Do you feel conflicted having to work so hard to explain and defend a story that is so obviously wrong? If god exists and wrote his laws in the hearts of all men why would anyone need to be told about it? Why would there need to be a book? Lets face it, life seems tough enough as a christian if, as you claim, you need the bible to tell you dress when it is cold. If you cant see good and practical reasons to keep yourself clean than I am glad you have that book to make up for your lack of basic common sense. However if you do not love someone enough to want to commit to them, to want to spend your life with them, if you think that the commitment of marriage flows from a book, then I would suggest that you avoid it altogether. People marrying for biblical reasons instead of considered personal emotional commitment (like you get from any normal heterosexual or homosexual couple) would simply be watering down the institution, so perhaps christians should not be allowed to marry if they do so only breed for jesus.

Are you weary of grasping at straws to defend the biblical creation story? Tired of closing your eyes to avoid seeing the mountain of evidence contradicting the literal claims of the bible? Tired of repeating the same flawed arguments in support of the unsupportable? Or perhaps the constant fear has finally gotten to you... the knowledge that you only cling to a literal interpretation of the bible because you lack the strength to be moral on your own, to make a good decision without threat or reward.

In fact, why would a christian care to live one moment longer in a fallen universe where even your very existence is considered an expression of sin and all you have to look forward to is another day trying to avoid any minor transgression that could get you cast into hell for a punishment so cruel and long that 467 trillion years would feel like just the beginning... A universe where your entire life is nothing but a test and you are nothing but a sinner born of a sinful act and cursed for the crimes of your ancestors in the christian worldview. Of course as an atheist I disagree, while atheists share not a single worldview, I see you as a valuable person able to make their own moral decisions and able to live a good life without threats or rewards. A life that can have its own meaning, made all the more precious because it is transient.

Invitation

I invite you to reconsider that the fictitious god of your holy book is simply that. I'm here to tell you that christianity is a lie. As an Atheist, I understand that truth exists because things can be proven to be true, not because we would like them be. Unlike a christian whose worldview is given to him in a form that denies any critical evaluation and demands belief without reason, the atheist starts with logic, with rational thought and uses these tools to see lies from truth, fact from fiction, and reality from dogma. This is because believers in god and his word have no authority on the subject, they simply make claims to justify false beliefs.

There is no god and our image has been shaped by our environment. This means you have value. Whereas consistent christians teach that you are fallen, I see you differently. I see you as kin, as a relative no matter how distant. I see you as one who (like all life on this planet) stands at the front line of the long march of evolution, and stands now able to see the wonder of their own existence and to strive to live, to love, to learn, to build and to be something even better. Without the constant claim of sin, the assumption that you are imperfect that the creator blames the creation for it's faults like a painter blaming the paint for his inability to make a straight line. Our society sees you differently too, it will not punish you for the crimes of your parents, it will not punish anyone for the crimes of another and it gives you the freedom and opportunity to make amends and reconcile with anyone you may wrong without denying them the chance to forgive.

Christians are commanded to proselytise their faith to spread a story that people would never believe without arguments, threats, and as little as two hundred years ago physical violence and murder. Atheists do not have a worldview, we do not hate christianity or any other faith, we simply see it as wrong. We do not claim devine knowledge or holy guidance, we use the same tools of science and rationality that creates cures for the sick, makes it possible to build houses and improve crops to feed the poor. We only give you the tools and point out the chains we cannot break the shackles of someone who does not want to be free.

Where christians reject logic and reason in favor of shallow dogma (for anything in the world that contradicts the teaching of the bible must be wrong for the bible to be true), Atheists can understand that mankind is a thinking being having achieved a higher level of cognitive ability than any other creature on this world. Hense atheists seek to make sense of things instead of assuming that knowledge is "hidden" in a work of fiction. Atheists also have a basis to understand why people sometimes dont think logically due to their fears and emotion weaknesses. The most logical response is to give up christianity and accept responsibility for your own actions, to be moral by choice not edict. Instead of a life of servitude Atheism offers you the choice to give your life meaning, to choose how to spend your precious time in this life, to be human and to be proud that you chose your ethics and morality and contributed to the ethics and morality of others through thought and example.

Atheists wear clothes because we need to, we express our social modesty but understand that simply having a body under our clothes does not make us sinners. Atheists uphold marriage because it is a valuable and good social commitment, an expression of the love two people share for one another, and not the expression of an order to breed. Atheists keep clean because we understand the benefits for our health and happiness and are able to do so without unnecessary practices like forced genital mutilation. As Atheists we have a strong foundation in humanistic morals for saying that back-stabbing, theft, lies, and the enforced adoption of dogma are all wrong and we can do so without flawed systems like the ten commandments.

I invite you to leave the false beliefs of christianity and it's various forms and return to humanity with logic and reason. To know that all the people who have died across the centuries fighting over whose god was strongest, or whose belief was purest, or even who was reading the bible correctly, to know that all of them died because they sentenced themselves, finding it easier to accept a morally flawed absolute belief than to take responsibility for seeking to correct it.

The day is coming when people will have the moral strength to see the crimes committed in the name of christian dogma, the hatred it spreads under the banner of love and the suffering it gives under the claim of salvation. When humans understand their dignity, that slavery was never acceptable, that sacrificing another for your sins is never acceptable and that wanting something to be true does not make it so. I invite you personally to become an ex-christian, to join the growing ranks of people who accept their own moral responsibility, who see the beauty and awe of our transient life, who seize the opportunity to make life better now with the limited time they have advancing humanity in the truth and peace that only rationality can provide.


Yours factually,

Meditation hijacked

When exactly did meditation get hijacked and become a "spiritual" phenomena?

When I was young I was given a book of Sherlock Holmes stories. I loved them and became a life long fan of the them, it was the first place I had ever heard of meditation.

Sherlock meditated, it was the first thing he ever did when people came to him with a case.

This did not involve him sitting cross legged or repeating a mantra/sutra under his breath until he absorbed his mind into the present moment...

It did involve him focussing his mind bringing all his faculties to bear on the problem as presented and contemplating the information he had just received.

Interestingly this defintion of meditation is much older than any spiritual definition you'll find today - in older dictionaries "focussing and contemplating" are likely the be the first definitions presented, in some modern dictionaries that definition is almost completely omitted.

To meditate on something is to reflect, or contemplate, to think. This can mean focussing but can also mean just letting your mind wander over a problem/topic without any guidance or distractions.

Meditation can perhaps be best described at pointing your mind (sometime away from the target).

The modern religious/spiritual/supernatural implications of meditation are not even very accurate. When people wished to commune with the supernatural it is very like meditation but was specifically called prayer. Meditation in eastern terms is most often to seek to achieve a particular state of mind rather than for any supernatural purpose.

In Bhuddism for example, the practice of meditation is more about emotional self knowledge and management.

People think of eastern meditation when they use the word, the images that come to mind tend to override the simpler forms of meditation.

We have effectively lost a word for thinking.

This might not be George Orwells 1984 but popular religion/spiritualism is responsible for a horrible bit of "new speak". One less word that means "Stop and think" and one more word that means "treating the metaphysical as if it's real".

Personally I think the world needs more thinking.

Creationist Crazy

Some of the most agressive proponents of young earth creationism can be found in Ken Ham and the "Answer In Genesis" (AIG) crowd. A quick view of that website however raises some spectacular bits of crazy.

Here are some of my favourites:

1. It's only incest when theres a health risk

AIG are happy to claim that the sons of adam must have taken their own sisters as wives. I'm not exaggerating this, they make this claim plainly and dont see any reason to justify it or hide it. Their argument is that there was no law against incest until the Mosaic covenant, after god supposedly saved the slaves.

So apparently up till that time it was fine to marry close family members. AIG goes on to say that the only reason the rule against incest was introduced was to "protect offspring from mutations shared by both parents".

The article in question even lists all the other times in the bible people married sisters, half brothers, nieces, and cousins.

2. Lies, truth and the literal bible

AIG will argue to the cows come home that when the bible says day it means day, 24hours, no negotiation. They are also pretty dead set on the fact that god and Jesus do not lie... at all... ever. In fact they claim that god cannot lie.

This is interesting because the Genesis 2:17 says

"and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it -- dying thou dost die."

This is according to the most literal translation possible. God told Adam he would die the same day he ate the forbidden fruit... What went wrong?

Remember: the bible is literal truth, day means day, and god is not capable of being wrong or lying.

3. Its our fault people die

When the question of evil gets raised AIG makes it clear that god made the universe perfect, not just god, not just really really good, but perfect.

Adam stuffed it up, he went against god and ruined it for all of us, but we cant blame Adam because we are all just as flawed (people in glass universes huh?)

But they skip over a really obvious contradiction here. God can make things perfect, Jesus was perfect so according to their own doctrine god can make a perfect man... So what happened with Adam? First draft? Couldn't get the right parts?

At this point in the argument you will hear "free will" thrown in, but this again fails by their own evidence, the whole thing with Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane shows that he had free will to make choices and made the right one (because he was perfect remember?)

The next come back here is the serpent.. the serpent made it happen! But that just leads us back to the same question: How did a perfect universe get such a creature in it?

Of course god doesn't make mistakes thats why when he flooded the world to destroy all evil it worked perfectly and we live total peace and harmony... right?

4. Born of sin

One of the big things in christianity is that we are all born of sin, but a literal interpretation of the bible proves that god had no problem with Adam and Eve making the pitter patter of little feet.

Specifically Genesis 1:28 says

"And God blesseth them, and God saith to them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping upon the earth."

(Notice this happens before god mentions anything about the fruit... Also try to ignore the word "replenish" indicating that the earth had already had life on it.)

So god was down with the whole procreation thing, and the assumption of incest it carries when two people are ordered to fill the earth by themselves.

What then was original sin? Disobedience. It was not that we had sex, god had been expecting that, after all he made the equipment, no it was the crime of making a mistake.

5. God gave up so much for us

The cost of love is a pivotal point for christians... Jesus gave up so much.. which is why he is now sitting by the side of god destined to live for eternity in heaven.

Hold the phone...

Thats meant to be the greatest reward imaginable right? What did he lose again?

Oh thats right he suffered more than any man has ever suffered by getting beaten and dying on the cross. Of course he just died on the cross pretty much right after they put him up, the other guys they put up get the same kind of treatment but had a nice relaxing three or four days to die of thirst and exposure... obviously they took the easy way out.

AIG refers to the sacrifice of Jesus as a "no strings attached" kind of love. Thats why we're all saved without having to do anything like worship Jesus right? Rats... there goes that pesky bible getting in the way again.

Next time god wants a bible written he should check with Ken Ham first to make sure they get the details right.



Theres more:

Correcting the AIG website would be more than a full time job because it takes much less time to come up with badly reasoned arguments that it does to come up with well reasoned ones. Plus of course we all need to look at the evidence and figure out the truth, whereas AIG start off thinking they already know the answers...

Blind faith is soooo much easier than thinking.

Fish in a barrel

Long time no post... Sorry.

I've come back from spending time with my work and family at a time when taking shots at religion is a little like shooting fish in a barrel.

The recent scandals (I say recent but this spans several years now) facing the vatican, now topped with the abdication of the pope on health grounds has basically opened up the flood gates for cheap shots.

However...

While the vatican needs to be taken down a peg (or even better totally disbanded), none of the current scandals reflect on the christian faith only on the individuals involved and on the institution that protected them.

This is a slightly unpopular position with some atheists but I think it's important not to make the kind of non-transitive, unsupported, ad-homonym attacks that we dismiss so quickly when they are used against the atheist position.

Just to be clear: The scandals facing the vatican are real and reflect badly on the vatican and its members and institutions - but while this undermines some of the claims of of piety that would otherwise support a position of faith, it does not undermine the position of faith directly - we have other arguments for that.

Where faith is failing is that people are placing trust in individuals within the church and giving them the kind of reverence they have for their faith. Priests and bishops are only human, subject to all the same flaws as the rest of us, assuming that they are incapable of moral failings just because they are trained in a religious morality is like assuming that a doctor cannot be an overweight, unfit, alcoholic or a drug user just because they are trained in medicine and understand these things to be unhealthy.

That is not to say that the vatican does not deserve to be opened up and have some of its larger festering  wounds given a little air. If you cant stand the smell of corruption there is a great deal to see under the hood of the vatican, beyond pedophilia and the coverups there are mob ties, corruption, bribery, and political manipulation to be seen.

Two great articles to start with can be found here:

Why the Pope Hates Nuns

The 10 Most Corrupt and Compromised Cardinals Voting For the New Pope