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Knights Templar Sue the Pope
pdragon04 writes "According to The Register, "the Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France..."." I wonder what a holy grail goes for with 700 years of compound interest.
The Vatican may only have billions in cash, but they have trillions in real estate. Not just what they seized from the Knights Templar, but also all the Inquisition seizures, and many similar land grabs down through the ages. I think they should be forced, in the international courts, to give up all their lands for which they cannot show provenance. Like most old churches, monasteries, abbies, etc in Great Britain, for example, were built on the razed remains of pre-Christian temples, etc. I do not care that they got much of their lands with the connivance of the government. According to Church law, they stole the land, and so should have to give it back. Their own laws convict them.
And all they seized during the Crusades.
Any properties they have that are not Christian should be released, and any Christian objects (books, scrolls, artifacts, etc) should be on display, with open, free electronic access.
wake up and hold your nose
As long as we're applying reason to the Bible, why not acknowledge it as nothing more than a book of bronze age mythology and treat it as such?
Because a bronze age book of mythology can be happily ignored (unless you're a history buff), whereas this book is more than just a collection of crusty stories. It's the seed of a global manipulation which has resulted in more dead/dying/suffering people than any other con I can think of off the top of my head. As much as I frown at myself for doing so, I tend to conclude, "If you decide to stop thinking, then you get to live and die miserably." It's painful to watch, but people get what they deserve. You just need to give them lots of self-destruct room so they don't drag you down with them.
I live in a city with more churches per capita than anywhere else I've seen. You literally cannot walk a hundred meters without passing a cult-house. The creepy singing can be heard on Sundays rising all across the city, and when I acknowledge it, it scares me to the core because you just know how little it would take for these so-called peace-loving people to turn on a dime and become torch-wielding killers at the whim of their controllers. I love Slashdot for keeping me sane on days like that, when I am struck cold by the realization that most of the people around me I consider friendly neighbors might as well be from that Body Snatchers movie.
-FL
Talk about stretching it..
The concept of an individual lighting to the world and sharing time of worship with those of the same faith are not in anyway mutually exclusive ideas. Both can be true, this verse is an admonishing against Sunday Christians. Christ himself teaching in front of vast crowds and his apostles forming churches in the ancient world are both pretty strong evidence that churches are, in fact, biblical.
"Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
No offense, but having just died and being an idiot are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
(If he was teaching English I sure, hope, his, comma, usage was better than your commarhea.)
everything in moderation
And yet having said that Jesus himself then goes on to pray in front of others to make a point of the fact he was praying ( on numerous occasions ) and to back up his claims that, being the son of god, he was the most devout person who had ever lived !
More crazy religious contradictions ! It amazes me anyone takes this rubbish seriously.
"simply that Jesus didn't particularly want them"
For which you have provided no scriptural evidence, Jesus never admonished group worship. Public, self congratulatory worship sure, but not group worship.
"I'm also tired of old people telling me that I'm going to Hell because I don't go to church. I'm going to Hell because I eat meat on Fridays, damnit!"
You going to hell has nothing to do with Church it has to do with unrepentant sin, and the meat on Friday thing is a sham, Ill join you for wings ;)
"Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari