Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Top 5 Most Absurd and Persistent Comments in Social Media

Through the years I have read a lot of articles, blogs, Tweets, and comments from Facebook to other sites. I found out the hard way an undeniable and glaring truth: the use of social media does not guarantee intelligence nor common sense. In fact, I think that the internet should be called Idiot Box 2.0. I have gathered some of the most uninformed and uneducated comments and status updates out there, and take note that these comments are pretty common comments made by a lot of people, not just some bloke who happened to think too far outside the box. These absurd comments have a way of spreading around, and people tend to pick them up without even thinking them over, hence you see a lot of people using the same comment. What’s worse is that those making these comments actually think they said something brilliant. Without further ado, here they are, ranked according to absurdity and persistence, and some explanation on how to respond to these comments.  

5. The Church is medieval, backward, and archaic

This comment is used to make the Church look like some collection of old farts and hillbillies who know nothing about science. Fact is that many priests and members of the clergy have degrees in various fields in academics, including the sciences. Even prominent scholars like Thomas Woods say that the backbone of our modern civilized society is the Catholic Church, who was responsible for the spreading and preserving of knowledge after the Roman era (through the monks who collected and reproduced books and taught and tutored so many people during these times.) The Catholic Church was also responsible for the scientific method and the university system. Nicholas Copernicus was a priest. George Lemaitre was a Belgian priest who came up with the Big Bang theory. In fact, many of our famous scientists were Catholic: Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, André-Marie Ampère, Gregor Mendel, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Pierre de Fermat, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Marin Mersenne, Alessandro Volta, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Pierre Duhem, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Roger Boscovich, Pierre Gassendi, and Georgius Agricola, to name a few.

It is also worth noting that many of our modern laws originate from the Ten Commandments. For a good reference on how to debunk the argument and other comments related to this, watch in YouTube “The Catholic Church, Builder of Civilization.”

(Related arguments: The Crusades, The Inquisition)

The Catholic Church is against science, you said? Copernicus is not impressed. 

(Related arguments: The Crusades, The Inquisition)      

4. Pedophile Priests

This is a common retort of those who don’t have anything intelligent or relevant to contribute to the conversation. It is also used by the supposed smart ones to buttress their argument, especially after using #5 – The Church is medieval, backward, and archaic. Of course, the fact that there are priests who abused children and minors is not to be denied, but anyone using some common sense here can sense that the media has blown this out of proportion. Penn State professor Philip Jenkins (who is not a Catholic) has written the most objective book on the subject, and he summarizes his arguments in this excellent article. In light of his work, we should remember some basic facts and principles:

·                   ·         All religious groups have pedophile scandals, and the Catholics (while the largest religious                  group) are at the bottom of the list statistically.

·                 ·         Child abuse is prevalent in all areas of society: schools, youth organizations, sports, etc.

·         Statistically, of all the professions, Christian clergy are least likely to offend. Doctors, Farmers and Teachers are the professions most likely to abuse children–not clergy.

·         Among clergy offenders Catholic priests are least likely to offend.

  • Catholic cases of pedophilia make more headlines because of anti Catholic prejudice and because the Catholic Church is bigger and more lucrative to sue.
  • The number of Catholic priests guilty of pedophilia is very small.
  • What we now call ‘cover up’ was often done in a different cultural context, when the problem was not fully understood and when all establishment organizations hushed scandals. They did so for what seemed good reasons at the time: protection of the victims and their families, opportunity for rehabilitation of the offender, the avoidance of scandal to others. It is unfair to judge events thirty years ago by today’s standards.
Again, while we do not deny the existence of priests who have committed atrocious sexual crimes against minors, we have to put things into context in order to come up with the truth. Professor Jenkin’s book is for sale here.              

3. Jesus taught us to love, not to hate

Used by those who advocate homosexual acts and same-sex marriage. Same-sex union proponents often make the excuse (a heretical excuse if I may add) that nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say that homosexual acts are wrong. Ironically, the ones who make these comments are the ones who have either rejected Christianity or the ones who are totally ignorant of it. The Judeo-Christian tradition has always maintained that homosexual acts are intrinsically wrong. This is the same tradition that was handed to Jesus, and the tradition that Jesus lived in. Sure, Jesus taught love, but Jesus also taught to “sin no more.”

There would always be people and groups who will twist the scriptures and the teachings of the Catholic Church in order to validate homosexual relationships. In my opinion, however, we need to be extra understanding to our brethren with Same Sex Attraction; not to the point of tolerating the sin, of course, but to understand that they must have encountered something very wrong in their childhood, something very painful, for them to have SSA.

Here are the teachings on Homosexuality and the homosexual act based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.




Father, forgive them for they think they're cool by doing this. 



In a nutshell: No, we as Catholics can never approve of homosexual acts and same-sex marriage because it is by itself wrong, and goes against natural law. However, we need to free people with SSA from unjust discrimination, and treat them with the utmost respect. The person with SSA is thereby called to a life of chastity, just like every Catholic. That’s the clear and unmistakable stand of the Church. There should be no hate, nor judgment, nor bigotry involved; just a genuine desire for our brethren with SSA to lead meaningful and holy lives.

(Related arguments: Catholics are homophobic haters and bigots who do not support equality)       

2. You Catholics Worship Images!

This is one of the more common ones, and anti-Catholics do not seem to understand their scripture, or even basic human nature. If I were to look at the portrait of my mother, and say “Mum, I love you”, did I mean that I love the portrait, or my mother?

The website Catholic Answers explains the issue very thoroughly:

"Because Catholics have statues in their churches, goes the accusation, they are violating God’s commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down to them or serve them" (Ex. 20:4–5); "Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold" (Ex. 32:31). 
The Ark of the Covenant. Found by Indiana Jones. Kept at Hangar 51.
It is right to warn people against the sin of idolatry when they are committing it. But calling Catholics idolaters because they have images of Christ and the saints is based on misunderstanding or ignorance of what the Bible says about the purpose and uses (both good and bad) of statues. 
Yet if people were to "search the scriptures" (cf. John 5:39), they would find the opposite is true. God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid the religious use of statues. Instead, he actually commanded their use in religious contexts! 
 God Said To Make Them
People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20). 
David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels. 
Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim."  
The Religious Uses of Images

Moses apparently did not get the memo about
not making images. Hmm. 

During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9). One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations. 

1. The Catholic Church opposes RH so that there are more babies, ergo more collection during baptism and more future mass-goers

This is so absurd that I hesitate to even answer this argument whenever I encounter it. It’s an argument based on ignorance, malice, arrogance, lack of common sense, and hasty judgment. Of course any parish or church would need funds in order to survive. That is the basic reality of this world: you have to pay the bills, pay your workers, repair damaged buildings, and purchase all the necessary things like food. The argument is malicious because it implies that the clergy are making their services as fund-raisers. While it is true that some abuse their authority, again we have to understand that there are temporal matters to consider.

A related argument I see often is: Why doesn’t the Pope sell the Vatican and give the money to the poor? Sarah Silverman made the same argument in a video 4 years ago. Okay, let’s say we do sell the Vatican, collect around 500 billion, and feed the poor of the world. How long can that money last, you think? Not very long, we all know. Meanwhile, we have not addressed the real issues that cause poverty, and the same people we have helped this year with the 500 billion will still be poor the next year – and the Church, the biggest charitable organization in the world, reaching out to more people than any government can, is out of funds.

The same can be said of the RH law. Give them condoms and pills, but not address the real problems exacerbating and causing their poverty, then you have just wasted billions of taxpayers’ money on contraceptives.

So, is your friend still keen on selling the Vatican? If he says yes, then I have good news for him: Judas thought along the same lines.




I fondly remember my English teacher back in 4th year high school who said, “Intelligence is like underwear. If you don’t have it, it shows.” We should be committed to the truth always. Practice humility at all times, especially during heated discussions. If you see more common and absurd comments, please type them at the comment box below, and let us all discover the truth (and laugh uncontrollably) together. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      






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