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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."
The Internet Warns That The Vatican Promotes Stupidity.
The internet says that it also promotes christianity, using the same arguments. Within minutes you can research churches, bible groups and also contact them...
Santa is an important part of Christmas, he brings gifts and reminds us to go to church and .... ohh SATANism, not SANTAism
ok, nevermind
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
Just shows how tolerant they are of alternative views.
Sort of reminds me of the radical Muslims today, and how they are killing people over a simple book burning. Tolerant and understanding my ass. Its 'my way or the highway' ( except highway is death ).
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well of course, demons are part of the christian cosmology. I think it would be very strange if Benedict did no believe in exorcism. It's like not believing in Jesus's resurrection.
If anyone is interested in exorcism, I recommend the books of Gabriele Amorth. He's an Italian exorcist, and although his work is not the official doctrine, it's still very interesting to read.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
April Fools is over, guys.
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
If the Catholic church can get away with an apology for the rape of countless young boys and girls on behalf of its members, then please your Holiness, accept this apology on behalf of the internet for our "satanic" practices.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
hehhahehhehaheahehehahahahh hah ahhah ahhahha hahhahahahahhhahahahaha
They can't control the flow of information and keep the people in check through ignorance like they used to. Much harder to cover up church scandals like pedophile priests with the internet available to a wide population.
My rights don't need management.
Oh, you're serious?
Let me laugh even harder.
"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..."
As well as a constantly changing harem of young boys (and a couple of young girls for those who really want to go against the Catholic creed)
ia!
"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."
Am I the only one with such a low opinion of various professions as to think that the Vatican has invited their enemy into their midst?
just look at the satanism going on here:
>=)
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
That is all.
While most of Slashdot it is laughing I think we should be taking this as a serious issue and find ways to confront it. We may think the religion is full of ignorants, but they can still have geek kids who get abused and treated badly because they want to play D&D or play some video games. For those who remember Columbine and how geeks got treated, keep that mentality but instead of it just being a small part of your life it becomes your entire life. Your family, friends and everyone you know is calling you a devil worshipper because you want to tell and story and roll some dice.
Stop laughing and start looking for the tears. These people are ruining children's lives and we should be supporting them not laughing at their abusers from a high horse.
I like muppets.
I wish SlashTeaks had lived long enough for me to edit the title into:
"Vatican Warns That Internets Promotes Satanism"
If the Catholic church can get away with an apology for the rape of countless young boys and girls on behalf of its members, then please your Holiness, accept this apology on behalf of the internet for our "satanic" practices.
This is exactly what the article claims is the proof of their assertation.
The Vatican's chief exorcist claimed last year that the Devil lurked in the Vatican...
...He claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church... ...were proof that the anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See.
It's too bad they didn't or else they wouldn't have a mixed-up impression of what Satanism is. It's basically hedonistic humanism with a license to destroy those who get in the way of your fun. This is doesn't necessarily make it BETTER, but it's important to realize that most (many? some?) Satanists don't really believe in Satan as a real being, although they may believe in Satan as an archetype or metaphor. (BTW, Shatan was a god in the ancient Hebrew pantheon (perhaps equivalent to Loki). You knew that ancient Hebrew religion was really polytheistic and it was later pasted over and reinterpreted as montheistic, didn't you?)
My point is that it pays to understand what you're up against, and I often think that Christians use "Satanism" incorrectly. They're battling a strawman.
surely satanism is as valid a religion as any other, and a downright peaceloving one if you compare bodycount with some of the mainstream ones.
Not hard to believe, this explains the Internet Explorer market share.
Achille Talon
Hop!
Hrm, where have we heard this one before?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The internet facilitates people of like minds finding each other. This could be people working for good causes and people working for evil causes. People have found each other through networks for long periods of time. The internet just makes it easier. This can be scary. It helps domestic terrorists find each other and it helps Christians find each other. And whether something is bad or good can be debated. I work with a long existent LGBT rights organization in developing their internet strategy. Our blog isn't one of the real popular ones that has thousands of readers a day (such as Joe My God) but the people who do read us are important people. Who then cite our views on the situation in various news articles in dead tree publishing. But our opponents, who I refer to collectively as Anti-Gay, Inc., are equally as engaged with promoting their views on the internet. But our supporters are younger while the opponents supporters are older and less savvy with technology. This issue of enabling bad people to find each other is one of the unintended consequences of technology. Sort of like how the automobile was originally a technology to promote a cleaner enviroment.
"Our priests didn't really rape children! It was Satan that made them do it! He put his sin-tentacles into the priests' brains and manipulated them, so you can't hold the priests responsible for their actions."
The internet makes it much easier to find (mis)information about "demonic possession" and therefore increase the demand for exorcists.
I think it goes something like this:
1. Fundamentalist parent is concerned that teenage daughter's behaviour indicates she's dabbling in the occult, or demonic possession,
2. Parent looks up symptoms of demonic possession on the internet, finds other fundamentalist parents who describe similar symptoms ("Once I smelled alcohol on my daughter's breath!"), thus confirming parent's fears,
3. Parent calls for an exorcist,
4. Profit (for some).
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
And I reckon' that the behaviour of the Roman Catholic Church has led to a sharp rise in the demand for psychologists, psychiatrists, children's welfare workers, and other people caring for the abused and downtrodden.
...Internet Warns That Vatican Promotes Cultism
portfolio
One, it wasn't the fact that priests abused children that was the work of the anti-Christ, it was the scandals generated. It was much better for them when they would just shuffle known child rapists from one place to another and lie to everyone in the community about it. But for some reason, that evil anti-Christ turned that into a scandal.
And two, in Japan, Satan wouldn't have used his tentacles on the priests brains, but on the children directly. Uh oh, am I going to hell for that one?
Learn to love Alaska
The Catholic Church has had some bad experiences with this in the past. Think 1450 AD was bad? The internet is like Gutenberg on speed. Satan actually maintains one of the tamer websites, I've discovered things way more evil than Satan on the internet, and things more godly than church. Next thing you know, people won't have to attend choir to enjoy music.
Gently reply
The free market can save them. Whenever there is a sharp rise in demand - raise prices. Charge more for exorcism and make some serious cash. Oh, wait, catholics think that profit is a sin...
I'd always thought that the one advantage they'd have to the existence of demonic possession and proof of Satan would be that they could at least say "See? That part of the story's right. So you have to believe that there's a God, too!" But, as many have pointed out, one doesn't always follow the other. A pagan could point to the tree shattered by the thunderbolt and say that this is proof of Zeus for where else could such a bolt have come from? Before science explained such things, the skeptic's arguments were as baseless as the pagan's claims. If there are demons, does this imply there must be a Satan? And even if all of Catholic demonology were proven to be accurate in the enumeration and ranking of such things, could we trust church dogma on their origin story?
I always liked the idea of a story where the demonic possessions are happening and are supernatural, not just misdiagnosed epilepsy, and yet a very effective exorcist is himself an unbeliever in the faith.
It also makes me think of a possibly apocryphal story....
LEGEND HAS IT that in the early 1920s one of Vladimir Lenin's fellow Bolsheviks asked him to justify the growing number of atrocities they were committing in the name of a socialist future. "If you want to make an omelet," Lenin insisted, "you have to be willing to break a few eggs." To which the Bolshevik replied, "Comrade, I see the broken eggs everywhere. But where, oh where, is the omelet?"
I see your demons but where is your God?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
...who cover up the crimes of baby-raping priests in order to protect their own interests.
Not that I believe any of this God/Satan claptrap, but if you're gonna accuse others of Satanism, it's incumbent upon you to have a long, hard, honest look at yourself before doing so.
BTW, the Catholic church isn't primarily a religious institution, any more than the Mafia is primarily a waste disposal business. It's a huge financial and political entity - soul-saving and Satan-stomping are just tools to help maintain and consolidate the power base.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I'm certain that the Elders of the Internet would never allow Satanism to flourish. Unless it hadn't been properly demagnetized...
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
Sounds like a good way to make some money!
Internet Warns that Vatican Promotes Pedophilia
Satanism is really everything that opposes their god, and his will.
Having Internet spreading the truth about everything, it certainly undermines all the work the Catholic church has put into hiding it from its followers.
This is blinging
the vatican words this like the internet is some conscious body making decisions and choices of what people are or not doing. in reality, people are doing no less than exercising their free will. truth is, vatican, some people choose to do things the catholic church deems inappropriate. the internet is just a medium which peopleuse to represent whatever religeous viewpoints or perspectives they want to, without people getting burned or strung up for not complying with the dogmatic consensus. at least for now.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Satan?
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
IANARC (I am not a Roman Catholic) but I did RTFA. Am I still allowed to comment? :)
/. could disagree with that. The original article barely mentions the Internet at all.
I really hate to spoil the party that seems to happen every time the Roman Catholic church is mentioned on Slashdot but nowhere in the article does anyone say that the Internet promotes *anything* or say that the Internet is to blame for anything.
They're simply saying that the Internet has fuelled an exchange of information that is a game-changer in the arena these particular clergy are interested in. I don't think anyone on
There are plenty of articles about the RC Church far more deserving of comment. This one's a non-starter.
I am a techie but a deeply religious person as well, i cannot help but believe that the vatican is true , have you guys not seen the increase in natural calamities in the recent decades with internet becoming more popular , i believe internet has destroyed the moral character of young generation and provided satan with a breeding ground. We must think about it and not make fun of this thought from vatican.
Great April Fools joke Independent.
Oh wait -- it was written on the 30th of March.
They should be happy. They fabricated the concept of Satan so if the internet helps people spread the idea, it's helping spread their fabrication.
If they don't want it spread, don't make up the concept.
FTFS:
"The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism," said Carlo Climati, a member of the university who specialises in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism.
- trolling for the church's brownie points?
You can't handle the truth.
...is good. Yours is evil.
So this where modern governments take their talking points for attacks on education! They quote the damn thing almost verbatim!
Just to make it clear -- "religious freedom" means a duty to pander to ignorance and superstition. No government can possibly remove people's capability to think something stupid, so being able to praise "The Lord" (dark or otherwise) or "seek the truth" (in one's own navel or in ancient folklore) should be completely irrelevant there. Declaring superstition and fraud a "right" protects its perpetuation in society and cripples public education.
This shit must be abolished.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Reading the story... the evidence provided is that demand for exorcists has increased. This, according to the Church, suggests that Satanism is on the increase - the same as an increase in sales of flu medicine may indicate increase in illness. To explain the rise in demand for treatment of Satanic possession, they formulate the theory that the internet could have promoted Satanism, increasing demand for exorcists. An alternative explanation would be that exorcists formerly could only advertise in very large markets - not in the yellow pages of rural areas. With the increase in internet, victims of Satan have wider access to exorcists, who defeat Lucifer in areas where he formerly established safe harbors. Therefore the Internet promotes Exorcism, not Satanism. And flu medicine sales may indicate meth labs are also on the increase in rural areas, which could also increase demand for exorcists. Personally, I find crackheads scarier than Satan.
Gently reply
Religion does far more good than harm
Say what? Look at almost EVERY world conflict, every instance of brutality, oppression, or abuse of one group of humans against/by another, and there will likely be some religious underpinning.
Catholics promote Satanism, else what would there to be to
hate?
Want to worship Satan? There's an app for that.
Just the kind of gibberish I expect from a Creationist, especially one crying out the name of the biblical story the church gets most completely wrong. The story of a guy who'd have been tempted most by the Internet if the story happened today, but in which story the Internet would be the tool of god, not "satan".
--
make install -not war
It isn't doing it very well
If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
C'mon, get your head out of the medieval ass. Just when I thought the RCC finally managed to arrive at least in the 20th century, they do something like this.
How does more accessible information automatically make someone a worse person? If "satanism" is gaining speed with the advent of the internet and access to it, the reason could simply be that it's more appealing than what you got to offer? Improve your product! I mean, I could see why people would choose hedonism over kneeling and praying, it sure has a better ring to it.
Again a case of shooting the messenger instead of trying to address the message. Sure, ignorant people are easier to control and easier to convince that your idea is the good one, after all they don't get to hear the other side and only get to hear your propaganda. But if you have a problem with people getting information about your adversary, you have a problem with your message, it's not that the people are to blame because they want to know both sides of the tale.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
... the Satanists pay out over one billion dollars in settlements (fo far) worldwide for playing SYSTEMATIC "hide the pedo predator".
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Funny. I converted from catholic to human-being-thinking-for-myself.
Yes, I know that LaVeyans consider that the same. I just don't think I need a label for it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Religion does far more good then harm" Providing false hope and straight up LYING to people is not a 'good' No human is any closer to knowing god then any other human. No human can say he knows more about God then any other human, period. So for one human to tell you he KNOWS the 'truth' about god is a liar. That is a not a good.
Good-bye
Any student of general Christian theology would concur that many Protestant sects are actually anti-Christian (they promote the idea that it is OK to worship both God and money, completely contrary to the NT).
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
He appeared as a snake in the beginning and fooled Eve and Adam into rebellion against God. The consequences of the rebellion are 1) shame from nudity, 2) hard work for sustenance, and 3) painful childbirth. See Genesis 3.
Those who support Satanism implicitly support these consequences. Only nihilists won't care about the spread of Satanism, but then do nihilists care about anything?
Think 1450 AD was bad? The internet is like Gutenberg on speed.
Agreed 100 percent so far. But:
Satan actually maintains one of the tamer websites, I've discovered things way more evil than Satan on the internet
That's what Satan wants you to think. Of course Satan makes his web site look mild so that his minions' sites look stronger by comparison. Satan wants you to think he's the lesser of evils so that you'll follow him.
and things more godly than church
Yes, some churches are misled, and they are not as strong in the forc^W faith as they wish.
(facepalm) (headdesk) What fucking year is it? How does any adult take these miseryshit religions seriously?
Been a great week for religion. Between this and grown adults murdering people in a UN embassy because some ass in Florida burned a book, we're really set for the rest of the 21st century.
Surely, O Satan, thou art but a dunce
And cannot tell the garment from the man
Every harlot was a virgin once
Nor canst thou ever turn Kate into Nan
Thought thou art worshipped by the names divine
Of Jesus and Jehovah, thou art still
The son of morn in weary night's decline
The lost traveler's dream under the hill.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It'd be interesting to see a break-down by religion of pedophilia incidents by their clergy in the past, say, 80 years. I'm pretty sure Christianity would be the front-runner by thousands of incidents. The only other time I seem to hear about it in the news is when some wacko off-shoot of the Mormon religion gets convicted of something. To be fair to the Mormons, the main branch of the church seems to have renounced the non-mainstream views of marriage the church was established on. You never hear about Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus or Satan Worshippers touching the children. Maybe they just have a better PR department to keep it under wraps when their priests touch the children...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
As a child, I Googled 'Santa' once. Google replied with "Did you mean 'Satan'?"
Have gnu, will travel.
The rise in Satanism seems to match the rise of Catholic pedophiles, considering just how many priest are pedophiles, sexual deviance must be listed in the Catholic recruiting pamphlet as a bonus.
IMO the Vatican should be torn down, all their "treasures" sold to benefit Man and of course their library (which points out in their off limits books just how much of a sham/scam Christianity is) will be open to the public so we can discuss why in this day and age the ignorance of religion still exist.
Truly I am baffled by religion, that anyone who goes into *any* church can take what happens there as truth, or that it has any more meaning than a well run scam.
No one but humans are keeping score, grow up.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
The Roman Catholic Church doesn't want to lose its monopoly!
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
Unfortunately they didn't use cvs or git, unless they did and the version history is on a stack of stone tablets somewhere.
The actual first line of the Bible is, transliterated roughly, Bereshit ba'ra elohim... In the beginning, the Gods created... Further on this is confirmed when the Gods announce "...will become like us..."
It's something known to theological students, and it's a kind of "we'll just observe that and pass on". The book of Beginnings is a collection of creation myths from around the Middle East, in no particular order, and there are several different gods referenced: the plural gods of the first chapter, the god referred to as yod-he-vav-he, Adonai, and the Watchers. There isn't much connection between these old semitic legends and the Prophets demanding justice for the widowed and the orphaned; what Jeremiah would make of the Tea Party and the neocons I dread to think, except that he wouldn't get reported on Fox News. Perhaps in the New Yorker.
It's a tribute, by the way, to the passion for accuracy of the compilers of the Bible that they left Bereshit alone. It would have been so easy to substitute Adonai for Elohim - but they were too honest. The only thing they did was to change the "created" verb to singular, presumably because they felt they had to do something, but a minor change to a verb ending wasn't nearly as bad as changing a holy name to something else.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Christianity is the belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.
Most constitutions grant religious freedom. And freedom of speech.
So more information about satanism is a good thing, or not?
As long as the followers of religions follow the local laws, who cares what they believe in?
angel'o'sphere
P.S. looking at the Jedi religion e.g.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
We always order all of our exorcisms online.
The Vatican's Catholic Church tells everyone (and I mean everyone) that the entire reason for life is to be tempted to sin, but instead to have faith in Jesus and avoid sin. ...
Even if this self-pitying myth about "Satan's war on the church" were actual truth, the Church should embrace it. Because it's "god's plan" to offer us temptation for us to refuse. The Internet is doing god's work.
Basically, what you are saying is that if I were to obey the Church's teachings, then we shouldn't go to church!
Interestingly, if you replace 'Satanism' with 'terrorism', and replace 'Jesus' with 'X political party', you have just perfectly described many national governments. I guess separation of "church and state" really means "divide and conquer".
The Internet also makes it easier for people to research Christianity. In just a few minutes you can look up the Pope's latest writings, check on the status of John Paul II's move towards sainthood, Christianity's historic mistakes and atrocities, or gather stats on the various coverups related to pedophile priests.
It goes both ways Vatican....
Huh?
A very simplistic, but nevertheless, hard data set does not support their claim:
satanism: 2,680,000 results
christianity: 59,800,000 results
Also - it might be an expression of their current unease about the EU-wide census, and the results of its question about religion. About how Internet is the tool to promote "satanisms" of various kind in answering to that question (one of more charming ones, at my place
Though in fairness, I prefer Vatican to many others... for example, their position in regards to evolution (or consider Mendel, a Catholic monk; generally, their contribution to progress is immense... even if with some temporary hiccups now and then; emphasis in the quote mine):
How do the conclusions reached by the various scientific disciplines coincide with those contained in the message of revelation? And if, at first sight, there are apparent contradictions, in what direction do we look for their solution? We know, in fact, that truth cannot contradict truth
...
the need of a rigorous hermeneutic for the correct interpretation of the inspired word. It is necessary to determine the proper sense of Scripture, while avoiding any unwarranted interpretations that make it say what it does not intend to say. In order to delineate the field of their own study, the exegete and the theologian must keep informed about the results achieved by the natural sciences
...
new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Good post. I wish I had points today.
Huh?
Actually no. Goatse is a photo of a man stretching his own ass. Satan is a mythological character that supposedly oversees torture of dead people.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
The Telegraph as an accurate news source? I would expect better from the /. crowd. But hey, since Catholicism is such an easy target, why not throw away sense and reason and engage in a little hypocrisy?
I don't get it... if Satan were all powerful (or almost all powerful) why would the internet - a human creation - be the differentiating factor in how many people he could reach? Wouldn't he be able to touch any person, from the full scope of humanity, at will?
How is it that a device, who's operation is limited basically to electrons flying around a bunch of wires and circuits, is able to increase the span of control of a magical being?
How did things work for him, pre-internet?
(I did post this as a reply above - but after writing, I think it needs it's own post)
Huh?
Seriously, this is the first time I saw Vatican in the news that wasnt about some priest, bishop, or cardinal involved in buggery. Clean your own house first before casting stones...
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
"Nazi Germany was not religious."
Er,,,, no. Nazi Germany was actually intensely religious. The state still holds the record for the highest-attendance Passion play, courted religious endorsement, proclaimed Christianity as the state religion... even the founding charter of what would be the Nazi party explicitly says as much: "The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession."
You can have the USSR though.
Hey, Pope Barnhard...Bernard...Fernan...whatever. Dude, come over here for a minute .
Okay, yeah, that's better.
Alright...so I have some helpful advice for you here, when it comes to how to get people's attention and how to get them to get behind you on a cause like this.
You listening?
STOP PROTECTING THE PRIESTS THAT FUCK LITTLE BOYS, YOU DUMB FUCK!!!! NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOUR BELIEFS THAT THE INTERNET IS BOOSTING SALES AT HOT TOPIC UNTIL YOU GUYS STOP RAPING LITTLE BOYS!
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
The Catholic Church, with one foot proudly marching into the Twentieth Century, scientifically and socially, and one foot firmly planted in the Dark Ages, scientifically and socially.
The exorcism should, if possible, be carried out with the consent of the possessed person
Anyone who ties up, restrains, or otherwise threatens an unwilling person for an exorcism ritual is a criminal and should damn well be arrested and imprisoned for it. Just as we'd imprison someone for murder if they tied someone to a stake and burned them as a witch.
With assistance from four nuns, priest Daniel Corogeanu bound Cornici to a cross, gagged her mouth with a towel, and left her for three days without food or water. The ritual, the priest explained, was an effort to drive devils out of the woman. Cornici was found dead on June 15; an autopsy found she had died of suffocation and dehydration... Maricica Cornici is not the first innocent victim of an exorcism. On August 22, 2003, an autistic eight-year-old boy in Milwaukee was bound in sheets and held down by church members during a prayer service held to exorcise the evil spirits they blamed for his condition. An autopsy found extensive bruising on the back of the child's neck and concluded that he died of asphyxiation. In the past ten years, there have been at least four other exorcism-related deaths in the United States alone
When an exorcism results in death, the people responsible damn well should be arrested and imprisoned for murder, or manslaughter at minimum.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
..aaaaaand organized religion, like any other authoritarian form of governance would do, is (still) seeking to control people via controlling knowledge.
NEWSFLASH TO VATICAN: The Genie has already left the bottle. Give up already.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Remember the big Satanism scare in the 80s? Sounds like the same thing except now backed by the Vatican. Has anyone ever met or heard of a real, true Satanist? Not goth kids or other silly people, but truly sick individuals?
By the way, how is this news for nerds?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The United Nations has warned that the internet has fueled a surge in Naziism that has led to a sharp rise in the demand for psychotherapists. 'The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Naziism. In just a few minutes you can contact Nazi groups and research racism,' says Sarah Silverman, a member of the Anne Frank Descendants of Holocaust Survivors Manifesto University in Brooklyn who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Naziism. Organizers of a six-day conference that has brought together more than 60 psychotherapists as well as NGOs, screen-writers, journalists, teachers and youth workers,co-sponsored by the United Nations Congress for Holocaust Remembrance and the Reparations and the Congress for Psychotherapists say the rise of Naziism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years."
Seastead this.
The Vatican's Catholic Church tells everyone (and I mean everyone) that the entire reason for life is to be tempted to sin, but instead to have faith in Jesus and avoid sin. Life is a test, they say, where god tests our faith in Jesus. Pass and go to heaven; fail and go to hell.
Actually, the Catholic Church teaches that reason points us towards faith (para. 36). The Church doesn't teach us to have "blind faith" in Jesus, but to use reason towards establishing faith. This is the reason why carrying a geek card and being a Catholic are not mutually exclusive, contrary to the drivel that you might see here.
The Church doesn't teach that "life is a test." Instead, the Church teaches that God gave man free will, and that you are free to allow him in your life or not, as the case may be (para. 1). It's all about choice. There is no pass/fail test. If you choose to follow God, and to live a life that fulfills the greatest of the commandments (love God and your neighbor), then the kingdom of God is yours.
It's not a cult of baby rapers, headed by an evil pope who protected (and protects) them worldwide.
I realize this is sarcasm on your part, but you might be interest in knowing that the US Dept. of Education estimates between 6% and 10% of school-aged children have been molested by teachers and other school employees. Considering there are about 74 million school-aged children in the US, I'd say the child molestation epidemic in the US public school system is a vastly larger problem than that of the Catholic Church. Maybe you should devote your energy towards that cover-up.
God gets them till they are 12. Satan gets them until they are 20.
You forget, the same religion becomes Christianity if you focus on Jesus, Islam if you focus on Mohammed, Judaism if you're still waiting for your prophet. Satanism if you believe the exact same thing but think of Lucifer as your prophet.
So yeah, you can be a satanist if you are not a Christian, same as you can be Jewish but not Muslim. Not arguing with the rest.
or just very catholic.
Christianity and it's beliefs are the only thing which promotes(acknowledges) "Satanism". "Satanism" is directly derivative of that specific Religious Dogma. The free and unrestricted sharing of information has ever been an anathema to certain religious organizations, especially those which place more value in the rules of that specific "Church" more than it does in the teaching of the religious teachings(Holy Book/Scriptures) they claim to hold holy. The more information available to the layperson, the more apt they are to be able to recognize that "The Emperor Wears No Clothes".
It is called freedom of cult and freedom of speech. None of them being things the Catholic Church ever managed to adapt to.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
The power of the internet compels you!
Being a geek means you know how things really work, facts and logic in thorough detail. Your fallacies and word games are contrary to being a geek. If you were a geek about religion, you'd understand that it's superstition and power games.
Reason tells me that there's nothing lost in believing in God. It always amuses me that this freedom of choice (to believe or not to believe) seems to stick in the craw of many non-believers, as if it's a personal insult to them.
But your suggestion is that I ignore the Church's baby rape and coverup simply because the Church isn't the only one doing it. You are part of the coverup.
I didn't suggest that you ignore anything. I just suggested that you apply facts and logic to the situation, and realize that the Catholic Church is only a small part of a much larger child abuse problem. To focus on one small aspect of a larger problem is rather narrow-minded. You chip away at a granite block with a dental pick, but at the end of the day, it's still a granite block. I'm just suggestion you use something large, maybe a sledgehammer and chisel.
You are going to hell.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Yet another article that blows what the Church says WAY out of proportion. It's like the only purpose of these articles it to laugh at them. It's true that there's an increased demand for exorcists and that the Internet is the cause, is it not? Why is this Slashdot worthy? It's not. It only is because some immature brats on here that hate on the Church love to laugh at it and take their statements way out of proportion. I feel sorry for all of you, really.
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Darwin + BSD Daemon mascot proves that Apple is the true source of the devil. The Vatican got it all wrong!
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The negative focus of the Vatican to highlight 'the competition' is short-sighted as only the lack of honesty on the part of the 'possessed' or those that are part of that persons family/friend dynamic, which I would speculate would include some rather dysfunctional and codependent 'relationships'.
Pope Benedict should be taking this time to highlight that the internet has also made available such a large collection of subjective history, including scripture that exists between that Nag Hamaddi Texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which the church had previously been responsible for the collection and burning of such scripture. Nevermind all things science from medicine, psychology (and I mean the true aspects of it and not so much some of the coddling and over-medicating but the understanding that comes from psychological studies that enables one to make behavioral changes).
This is disappointing that this is his focus, which though I'm not suggesting this is the pope's implication, in the extreme would be advocating an attempt to control knowledge, which history shows the church has falied at numerous times.
Only Satanists will have internet.
Wow, that really doesn't work does it?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Reality Warns That Vatican Promotes Child Sexual Abuse By Clergy
Even if this self-pitying myth about "Satan's war on the church" were actual truth, the Church should embrace it. Because it's "god's plan" to offer us temptation for us to refuse. The Internet is doing god's work.
You just said that God's plan was for them to "refuse". So here they are "refusing"... they are doing precisely what you said the plan was.
So why are you saying they should "embrace" it? Or are you saying they should embrace it because its an opportunity to refuse? In which case, that's idiotic.
Just as its idiotic to suggest that the police should be embracing criminals, and should probably celebrate when a new organized crime syndicate moves into town, because then they have more criminals to track down.
...is good. Yours is evil.
I like that.
Id like it even better if it could changed a bit:
"My invisible friend is good. ... with the optional addition of:
If yours is different he/she has to be evil."
[murmuring] "Just where did I put these matches?"
So what they do believe in does not have a name of its own? Or is this "bunch" just a few teenagers going through their angst phase?
While they CAN take the name of a heresy of a religion they don't believe in ... WHY would they do that?
And that has nothing to do with your other statement. It is POSSIBLE to follow the tenets of some religion that you were previously unaware ... it's just extremely unlikely unless that religion is VERY relaxed about their tenets.
I would argue the "logical" part of that. What's the current status of "Limbo" in Catholic doctrine?
The system is not even internally logical. Which is why so many concepts such as "Limbo" have to be invented and then discarded.
So the "religion" is named as it is to troll members of a different religion that they don't believe in any way.
I don't think trolling counts as a "religion".
Quite correct. And to be more correct, she probably got into that "religion" because it offended Mom and Dad who didn't understand her any way. She was raised kind-of-Christian and when she went through her rebel phase she started hanging out with the group who claimed to be following the most famous rebel bad-boy that she had heard of. Even though their "religion" is whatever they saw in the movies or on this really cool TV show where the cute witch-girl was wearing this really awesome black lace outfit and ...
Yeah, you get the idea.
The internet warns that the Vatican is head of a global brainwashing organization that has committed millions of heinous acts of genocide, torture, and murder over its history, to say nothing of theft, extortion and corruption.
Go to http://cultnews.net/. Reporting on cults you've never even heard of, all over the world. As a plus, they also follow cult films and actors, so you can hear about William Shatner as well. Enjoy!
Why is Snark Required?
"So if you call God your Father, live your time as temporary residents on earth in fear. He is the God who judges all people by what they have done, and he doesn't play favorites."
- 1 Peter 1:17
"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"
- Matthew 7:16
Why should we see Satanism as a problem? What are these Satanists doing that is so dangerous?
I dig that they are violating cmds 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 4 (depending on your set), but are those really fruit-bearing or acts-related stuff? Now, if they're sacrificing people or something, yeah, that's a problem. But just being Satanists isn't that big an issue. In a court of law based strictly on the new testament, without further evidence, I think I could get them off.
I'm obviously being a little facetious. The point, though, is that saying "Satanism! Boogah BOogah Boogha!" is not a very compelling call to arms. Show me what they have done, show me the fruits they have borne, if you want to get me concerned. I suspect modern Satanism is a lot like most other modern religions -- periodic cosplay with no significant impact on most practitioners daily behavior.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
If one changes all the occurrences of "Satanism" and "Occultism" to "pedophilia" and "child abuse" the article makes more sense.
Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth leaves us all blind and eating our food through a straw!
I thought Satan came from the Roman mythology -- Christianity has always adapted to the locals
Read Job to learn about Satan's role in Judaism. He's kind of like a heavenly prosecutor who decided that he'll exact punishment while searching for evidence. "I bet you hid drugs in your Ming vase" *smash* "I bet you hid drugs in your couch cushions!" *slash* "I bet you hid drugs in your dog" *slash*
It must be the silly season for the Telegraph newspaper: the Vatican didn't say anything about satanism.
The statement didn't come from any Church office, or any cardinal, bishop, or spokesman for the Church. The speaker, Carlo Climati, is a journalist who spoke at a conference at the Catholic university where he works in Rome.
Some reporters can't tell the difference between an official church spokesman and Some Guy in Rome, or even Some Priest in Rome, but what do you expect from the press: distinctions? We don't need no stinking distinctions!
Besides, the guy's probably right! If the net has made communication and collaboration easier for jihadist bombers, white supremacists, Democrats, and other horrible people, who's to say it didn't help satanists too?
I could find not official link to the FBI report though I recall reading it at that time.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/satanism/satanism1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic
Know evil by what it produces.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
LeVey created the "Church of Satan" as an easy way to attract women so he could get laid more.
"Satan" in that context is 100% marketing.
And the product being sold is rebellion and hedonism.
Yet, from the very Wikipedia page you linked to ...
Come on. It was the VERY FIRST LINE in that paragraph.
In surveys of religious affiliation, Satanists simply don't appear. I have never met anyone who declared themselves a Satanist, or whom I would remotely suspect of being one. Among those of us who declare ourselves "non-religious", I have never met anyone who didn't consider Satanism even more ridiculous than Christianity; so I'm fairly sure they don't come from my 16% of the U.S. population. Likewise for the Christians, Jews, Hindus, and down the line. I know that the Vatican is not big on the concept of "evidence", but I'd really like to see some, here.
The Holy See can go fuck himself as a young boy.
What does that have to do with LeVey? LeVey did it for marketing. What "evil" has LeVey's "church" done?
No, I understand that completely.
My point is that Catholicism is SO INTERNALLY INCONSISTENT that such ideas as "Limbo" have to be continually created and discarded BY THE CATHOLICS THEMSELVES in attempts to resolve the logical flaws.
Whether those concepts are ever formally institutionalized by the Pope is immaterial.
You are wrong. It is valid because it illustrates the flaws in the internal logic of Catholicism. Even the Catholics cannot resolve the logical flaws in their BELIEF SYSTEM. Which is particularly telling because belief systems require a degree of illogic to participate in.
...You rape the church...
OK i know... old joke... sorry for that...
On the more serious side - i think that the church is complaining about the fact that the Bible is not the only book available to read for people anymore and for the first time in Christian history people do have a choice to choose which philosophy/spirituality/religion they want to follow. Free will must be the work of Satan.
Also the priests have easier access to internet porn and since they can not be bad the Satan seduces them. Maybe Pope is possessed also since he promotes sex without condoms which should be considered a crime against humanity for various reasons.
OTOH exorcism is Christian church's domain so maybe they are just promoting their business.
Out of all the most insanely ridiculous things I've ever heard of, this has got to be the best. I always thought it was a medieval poet's invention. What does an exorcist actually do? Do they have songs and dances and stuff that go with it? How do you know when it's done? Like, how would you measure how successful an exorcism was? Would the victim no longer be homosexual?
:)
Can we get a list of people who have sent letters to the church asking for the services of exorcists? It would be a great mailing list for people selling beach front swamp land and such.
Saddam: Did you miss me, buttercup?
Satan: No, it can't be! You're dead! I killed you!
Not true; Satan cannot control people as we all have free will. He tempts; you choose to do as he suggests. The Church cannot (and does not) use that excuse as it directly contradicts its own teachings.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a Christian, but that's what I understand from what little I do know about it)
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Its very FIRST strip in 1997 tells it like it is: http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=970825
If I recall (it has been a while) that in the Bible that "God" killed 2,476,633 as opposed to the devil's 10. So in theory who should be the one that's being worshiped here?
But it's widely known that every fucking thing that CAN be promoted on the Internet, well, IS.
Now go back to smacking choir boys.
To me its just another religion like scientology that takes itself seriously and all that....
I say if they pay their taxes, then let them do what they want, unless they try to do harm to to others but themselves....
if they stick the the laws we are all bound by, then who cares?
still .. waiting for 666 comments :-)
probably included as a /. article because we all know Jobs is the antichrist ...
hey he did sell the first mac for.. wait for it now.. $666
This is one of the first things I came across while surfing the web back in high school.
Of course it doesn't really promote Satanism, but whatever, close enough :)