Slashdot Mirror
Vatican Warns That Internet Promotes Satanism
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Roman Catholic Church has warned that the internet has fueled a surge in Satanism that has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists. 'The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism. In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism,' says Carlo Climati, a member of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism. Organizers of a six-day conference that has brought together more than 60 Catholic clergy as well as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers and youth workers, co-sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Congregation for Clergy, say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years."
How are they using the Internet as a scapegoat? A scapegoat for what?
The knee-jerk anti-religious sentiment on Slashdot is always amusing. The same people ridiculing religious people for being "ignorant" fail to either a) rtfa that they're commenting on or b) understand basic English.
Why is it that the when the Vatican says "The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism," they are using the Internet as a scapegoat, yet when you state almost the same thing verbatim, "now they can find it (information about Satanism, we presume, given the context) easier on the Internet," you are somehow a beacon of enlightenment?
The Vatican stated fact: you have more "Satanists" because there is more information about it available to everyone. Just like you have more people growing their own marijuana or diagnosing their own medical problems. The Telegraph and Slashdot both hate religion so they've decided to twist and distort in order to ridicule religion.
Meet the new boogeyman, same as the old boogeyman, as you would say.
Social Engineering Expert: Because there is no patch for stupidity.
Your comments make sense if you read the Slashdot headline and then commented. Now, go RTFA and see that you said exactly what the Vatican officials said, only with more smugness.