Come on? How much harm can religion do? I mean... really?

This is great commentary from the upper northwest...

I love the fact that the Pope quoted a 13th century Byzantine emperor. The Papal See is making headway. Usually, they quote either a 3500 year old text - - the Old Testament - - or a 2000 year old text - - the New Testament. The Pope has dragged the Catholic Church kicking and screaming into the 13th century. What’s the rush? Why did he skip over the wisdom of the 6th century, for example? Why rush willy nilly into the Middle of the Dark Ages?

If the Catholic Church and the Moslem world were to switch the topic to the weather, would it have to be the 13th century understanding of weather? For example, would they talk about how failure to tithe can result in ‘poisonous vapors’, ‘misbegotten miasmas’, or a plague of frogs?

This is the kind of battle between fundamentalists that concerns me. These guys have the power to launch things that can very adversely affect millions of people in the short and long term. Muslim clerics are calling, in some parts of the world, for true believers to indiscriminately kill Christians. How will this do anything to counter the Pope’s ill-chosen words? Of course, certain Christian sects will call for the indiscriminant killing of Moslems - - as if that finally will be the panacea we’ve been seeking.

I don’t have a problem with religion per se. For me it’s all about these fundamentalists - - they are the ones that worry me.