Colbert's religion
-
neerood — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 01:56 AM)
Umm, did you read the section you quoted?
Especially the part which reads "the church has not infallibly defined whether the world was created only a few thousand years ago or whether it was created several billion years ago."
So they are saying "the Catholic church still hasn't decided if the earth is 6000 years old".
Talk about damning with faint confidence. They are basically saying, it could be, or it couldn't be, there's no way to tell! They're saying "we're not saying the fossil records are fake, but yeah, they are probably fakes planted by Beelzebub."
Elsewhere on that page are humorous anecdotes like "It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the fall (Gen. 23) as a fiction."
Yep, all the people in the world came from two fully evolved characters Adam and Eve, whose children used incest to populate the earth. I'd say "nice story bro" except the Catholic church says treating it as a good learning story is "impermissible". Like really impermissible? Or just kind of lightly impermissible, like how child abuse isn't permissible, but it actually is, you just have to keep it quiet?
They also state "the Church has infallibly defined that the universe was specially created out of nothing". Ooooooookay. It's one thing to make a bold statement that defies known science. But then tacking on that ominous "infallibly determined" is just going a bit far don't you think? Is it the same way they infallibly determine which people need to have exorcisms, or which kings get to kill their inconvenient wives? -
pilarinhavana — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 11:17 AM)
Even so the above is not a literal translation for a 6000 year old universe, i. e., Young Earth Creationism. I'm an atheist and don't subscribe to any religious teaching, however I don't like disinformation no matter what its purpose and the RC church is not a fundamentalist teaching body. It teaches authority to protect the faith was instilled in the church at Pentecost that has been handed down by apostolic tradition. That's why only Rome and Bishops hand out edicts rather than some random preacher flapping a Bible at a congregation telling parishioners what to believe.
-
neerood — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 04:50 PM)
The Catholic church is saying "We still haven't decided if the earth is 6000 years old." Not being sure is essentially saying it's possible, which is just dumb and misinformational. Would you say "I'm still trying to decide if the earth is flat, jury is still out on that!" That's exactly what they are saying.
And I disagree with you that having only Rome and Bishops hand out edicts is good.
Who cares who sends the message encouraging Africans to circumvent anti-HIV education, or that women are a sub-species to men? A harmful edict is a harmful edict. Declaring it "infallible" just makes it more of a joke, and is only done to scare people who believe in a vengeful god that will punish anyone who doesn't believe the edicts. -
pilarinhavana — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 06:13 PM)
And I disagree with you that having only Rome and Bishops hand out edicts is good.
Point out whe1354re I said it was "good."
The Church does not teach Young Earth Creationismfact. The priest in the pulpit cannot teach Church doctrine that is not in the catechismfact. That you don't like those facts isn't my problemfact. -
Elmatador — 11 years ago(February 12, 2015 07:52 PM)
In fact Colbert has defended the doctrines of Christianity in few occasions on his show when his guests have challenged them, you can read more here:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/6-times-stephen-colbert-got-serious-about-faith
Especially in Philip Zimbardo's case he got out of character and defended the Christian teaching. Zimbardo just repled to Colbert "people learn all kind of stuff at Sunday School" (or something like that) and Colbert replied "I teach at Sunday school, mo******cker!"
I think Colbert has a clear line, he jokes about his religion but never lowers himself to the level of Bill Maher who does outright, childish, blasphemy only in order to insult people of faith a2000nd please his atheist fans. I think its completely possible to joke about own beliefs and still hold them true and important. Also, if Colbert were secretly an agnostic, there would not be any point in talking publicly about his faith. He could keep his agnostic beliefs personal and let her mom have the impression he has faith in their private talks. Now he is doing a good PR for Christianity by being an example of a smart Christian who also has a sense of humour.
The reason why he has people like Harris and Dawkins on his show is that he knows his audience is overwhelimgly liberal and that audience likes those authors. Besides, you dont have to agree with your guests. In fact Jon Stewart suggested to Richard Dawkins that he believes "there is something in between" the claims "God created world 6000 years ago" and "everything is pure chance, universe and all". Contrary to the common belief, I think Stewart is not an agnostic but Jewish by faith. If im not mistaken, he mentioned on Letterman that he is teaches that stuff to her daugher.
It's rather stupid to assume that there can not be intelligent Christians or other people of faith. It tells a lot about the person who assumes that. -
Kubi_B — 13 years ago(October 23, 2012 07:29 PM)
I don't find the two facts hard to reconcile at all. Colbert won't let the ridiculous side of religion ruin what he sees as the good in it, because he realizes that they are two different things. The faith itself inspires many people to be selfless, hard working, and humble, and there are very many Catholics who follow those teachings well; we just don't hear about them in the news. And because that good side of the Church isn't as well known as the dark, scandalous, hypocritical side, it can be hard for many non-Catholics to realize that it's the more common side. But I think that Colbert, having grown up in the religion, does see the good from the inside and gets inspiration from it, especially from (many of) the saints. Some ex-Catholics have responded to the evil in the Church by walking away from it, but maybe Colbert is among those who have chosen to respond to it by staying in the Church and standing up for the good in it. That's probably why he teaches Sunday school.
In that sense, Colbert is similar to Plato and Rousseau. Plato criticized poetry not because he hated it but because he loved it. He was worried that it was being corrupted and therefore hated the corrupt side of it, but that doesn't mean he hated poetry in itself. In fact, he criticized the bad side of it precisely because he loved the good side, and he didn't want the good to give way to the bad. It was the same with Rousseau and the theatre, and I think it's the same with Colbert and Catholicism. -
Elemenoh — 10 years ago(May 20, 2015 12:19 PM)
I don't think that people really get to choose their beliefs. Colbert happens to be one of the people who does believe in a God. That doesn't make him stupid, unless we're trying to dismiss literally 85% of the world right off the bat?
I'm an Atheist, he isn't. So what? His religion and his politics do not mix with his job. To me, the way he goes after religious entities and conventions just speaks to his professionalism as a comedian.
I don't understand this confusion or anger over somebody else being a Theist. As long as they're not pushing their religion on me, I give a net negative sh_ts about their faith. There are enough douchebags in the world without arbitrarily limiting yourself down to only 15% of the world.