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."
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
More of a re-invention. Satan as a character is Jewish in origin, but their view of him is different. Satan to them isn't evil, or opposed to God - he is an agent of God who works to prove the faith of believers, as seen in the case of Job. He doesn't commit evil acts for their own sake, but commits evil so that the faithful may overcome it and thus grow stronger and closes to God in the struggle. Christianity started with that character, but reworked it entirely - turning Satan from the good-natured adversary into the antithesis of God, the Evil to God's Good, a character filled with spite and hate who revels in suffering and is driven to oppose all that is Godly. That is the Satan we have come to know today, perhaps because he is just far more interesting. Various sects and writers fine-tuned the details - transposing elements of pagan gods to give the goatlegs-and-wings image we would all recognise today.
Milton did some very nice work on Satan - he turned the rather vague and open-to-interpretation mentions in the bible into a coherent narrative of Satan's origin as the fallen angel who thought himself God's equal and was struck down in his pride, thus becoming dedicated to corrupting God's greatest work: Mankind. Milton actually thought he did a bit too well on that, as he was most displeased when people actually started seeing the prince of darkness as a sympathetic character.
Internet Warns that Vatican Promotes Pedophilia
...is good. Yours is evil.
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
Well, I've heard of a few problems with young Muslim girls being married off to older men. But I think this is tribalism, not a feature of the specific faith (the offshoot Mormon cults tend to behave in a similar manner). Isolate a population from the moderating influences of society, and the village elders are free to look for whatever excuse is available to pounce on young tail (boys, girls, whatever).
Have gnu, will travel.
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
Don't forget to count int the thousands if not more "Saints" and the dozens of Angels they "pray to".
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Except according to Christianity, Satan isn't a god, he's a fallen angel, and doesn't have godly powers (omnipotence and omniscience). He's unable to create something from nothingness, for instance. Thus, according to their beliefs, there is only one god.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
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?