Let’s face it, nobody in their right mind believes the Pope is totally infallible in all things. I’m pretty sure if we put him on Jeopardy, he’s not going to be the grand prize winner! Although, I’m sad to say, there are many out there that would strongly disagree! To be fair, the fact is, the Catholic Church doesn't claim that the Pope is infallible in all things, only when speaking ex cathedra. He can't make a mistake when it comes to doctrine and matters of faith and morals. It is said and truly believed by millions this is because he is clarifying God's teachings. To me, this is incredibly arrogant and offensive! Let’s say for a moment, the God of the bible really does exist! The Pope doesn't know what God wants any more than you and I do! It’s impossible to know what ultimately is unknowable! The sad fact is, if one is faith based and a weak minded follower of Catholic School of Dogma, then one is forced to believe in the total infallibility of The Holy Father!
The latest statements coming out of The Vatican in last few months are indeed frightening! I refer to ‘POPE SCIENCE’, a consolidation of disturbing statements recently made by The Vatican. The danger is that the weak minded & delusional do in fact interpret these statements to be true! The Pope makes statements twisting personal ethics, subjective morals and a total ignorance of science into something that resembles a new set of Commandments For The 21st Century! Could it just be, that the Pope in all his ignorant glory is confusing the arguments of Ethics vs Morals and Science Facts vs Moral Judgments?
You can make a distinction between ‘Ethics’ which is a system of behavior. It’s deciding what’s right and wrong based upon reason, knowledge and facts. An internally consistent logical system that can be applied broadly and universally. We can make an argument for why people should not kill other people. One does not have to have faith or a belief system to illustrate this argument. Based upon first principles, we can arrive upon ethics that we can all agree upon that are reasonable and base our laws in our society on that!
On the other hand, ‘Morals’ are things that people choose for themselves and they sometimes involve, ‘Naked Value Judgments’. Value judgments are just that! They might be informed by facts, logic or reason. However, they don’t have to be because they are in fact, personal choices!
Human dignity demands that people have the right to their own sexual preference and to not be interfered with! The facts don’t have to support ethical decisions that we think are correct, the facts are what they are! We shouldn’t mix the two or demand that the facts support our ethics or say that they derive entirely from scientific facts free of value judgments, because they don’t!
We still have to be allowed to make those value judgments and I think that’s a very critical distinction to make!
