Pope Benedict said in his most recent encyclical that the attempt (by atheists) to banish God has "led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice." All I can say it takes a lot of huevos for the head of one of the most blood-soaked organizations in history to lay the blame for the situation the world is in on those who call for the triumph of reason over tribal superstition. But then again, "cruelty and violations of justice" would be something that the head of the Catholic Church would know something about, isn't it? After all, it was the Catholic Church who was responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of women in the Burning Times (along with a few thousand men and children, and a handful of farm animals). And to those who point out that the witch burnings happened a long time ago when the vast majority of people were ignorant and superstitious, I would remind them that the Church stood silent accomplice to the rounding up and slaughter of millions of Jews during WWII. Does that mean that the population of Europe was still ignorant and superstitious well into the 20th century?

Aside from all of that, we have to look at what is going on in this country with the rise of the evangelicals in politics. Supposedly, their Christian faith should make these people more compassionate toward their fellow human beings, particularly those who have "lost their way." Instead, these people are some of the least compassionate--calling for the drastic reduction, if not outright elimination, of most of the social programs put in place to make sure we don't have crowds of people starving in the streets. Instead, they want the churches running those programs, even though a lot of those churches only want to help those who belong to them (I can think of two Baptist churches--one in Washington state and one in Florida--who insist that you join their church before they will give you any assistance.) And our evangelical-in-chief, George Bush, wants his Office of Faith-Based Initiatives elevated to a cabinet position--even while he is endorsing the use of torture on people merely suspected of wanting to harm Americans and denying them the means to defend themselves. How compassionate and godly is that?

The Catholic Church wants to ban abortion because human life is sacred--how sacred can it be if it means condemning those children to a life of suffering and deprivation at the hands of women forced to have children they cannot afford to feed or cannot look at without being reminded that that child was born of an act of violence? And to those who suggest giving those children up for adoption--I would point out that there are already thousands of kids who will never find good homes for without dumping thousands more on an already shaky system. The Church turns a blind eye to the thousands of kids who commit suicide every year because they can't tell anyone--especially their families who are supposed to love and accept them no matter what--that they love or have desires for someone with the same genitalia. The Church condemns untold numbers of women and children to lives of misery and abuse at the hands of husbands and fathers they cannot escape--Church doctrine holds that divorce is a major sin. Families needing counseling are forced to seek it from men who have no practical understanding of the trials and tribulations of marriage and parenting--to me, that's kind of like seeking emergency medical attention from a lawyer, who might have some knowledge of medicine if he handles tort cases, but it's a far cry from any real medical training.

Personally, I find it encouraging that more and more people are choosing to live ethical, rather than moral lives. To choose the path of reason and informed observation, rather than blind faith and ignorant superstition. While I've met few on that path who call themselves atheists, the ones I've met who do are some of the most decent and caring people I've ever known, while some of those in the evangelical church I belonged to in my young-adult years, were some of the hardest-hearted and most condescending people I have known. The pastor of that church used to lecture me from the pulpit about my sporadic attendance, questioning my dedication to "God" rather than finding out about the circumstances in my life that prevented me from attending regularly (namely an abusive and controlling spouse who resented my doing anything that took me outside the house). It was that kind of hypocracy, and that I encountered in the Catholic endoctrination of my childhood that drove me to find another path, and I'm glad to find out that I'm not alone.