Ian Paisley heckles the Pope

[VALIS]

What are your opinions on this?
I find it hilarious. Ol Paisley should do this again.

[Каие]

One thing that always amuses me is when a militant atheist and religion hater comes across a catch 22 situation of having to choose between his hate of extremist religion and his hate of prominent religious leaders. In this case you're cheering on one of the most radical Protestant leaders this country has ever had simply because he heckled the Pope a far more prestigious leader. So, errr, good game on failing to have any principles at all, but you're still young, maybe in future you can develop that consistency of thought and some actual concrete principles.

[VALIS]

One thing that always amuses me is when a militant atheist and religion hater comes across a catch 22 situation of having to choose between his hate of extremist religion and his hate of prominent religious leaders. In this case you're cheering on one of the most radical Protestant leaders this country has ever had simply because he heckled the Pope a far more prestigious leader. So, errr, good game on failing to have any principles at all, but you're still young, maybe in future you can develop that consistency of thought and some actual concrete principles.

Doh...I don't have to choose either side, I can hate them equally if I like, I just found it amusing. That equates to supporting does it? Whats that? It doesn't? Huh, I guess that shuts your position up then.

[Djûn]

Doh...I don't have to choose either side, I can hate them equally if I like, I just found it amusing. That equates to supporting does it? Whats that? It doesn't? Huh, I guess that shuts your position up then.

I think he was referring to:

Ol Paisley should do this again.

[Cluny the Scourge]

One thing that always amuses me is when a militant atheist and religion hater comes across a catch 22 situation of having to choose between his hate of extremist religion and his hate of prominent religious leaders. In this case you're cheering on one of the most radical Protestant leaders this country has ever had simply because he heckled the Pope a far more prestigious leader. So, errr, good game on failing to have any principles at all, but you're still young, maybe in future you can develop that consistency of thought and some actual concrete principles.

We atheists take a special delight in seeing the different religious factions attacking each other - it exposes the absurdity of both sides. My favourite threads in the Ethos sub-forum are the ones where Muslims and Christians argue about whose holy book is the more authentic. They make me gleeful.

[MaximiIian]

We atheists take a special delight in seeing the different religious factions attacking each other - it exposes the absurdity of both sides.

Ah, but in this case they weren't attack each other. One was attacking, the other was shaking his head saying "lolwut".

[Ummon]

We atheists take a special delight in seeing the different religious factions attacking each other - it exposes the absurdity of both sides. My favourite threads in the Ethos sub-forum are the ones where Muslims and Christians argue about whose holy book is the more authentic. They make me gleeful.

To simple people, simple pleasures.

[Augment]

Just two religious half wits having a fued.

[Djûn]

Totally out of order, I don't think anything else need be said.

[VALIS]

Yes because it was amusing the first time and would amuse me the second.

[Каие]

Nice try Duke. Almost.

[Yorkshireman]

Barmy old Paisley! He's retired now anyway.

[Ciabhán]

What are your opinions on this?
I find it hilarious. Ol Paisley should do this again.

Ol Paisley will God willing die soon and find the judgement he has so fervently expressed upon others. I am an atheist but once in a while a man can pray for something can't he? I don't care for the Pope anymore than I do for him but the Pope hasn't spent his life preaching hate. Unless of course he was the Nazi some folks wish him to have been.

[basics]

" I don't care for the Pope anymore than I do for him but the Pope hasn't spent his life preaching hate. Unless of course he was the Nazi some folks wish him to have been. "

Ciabhan,

So when the Pope, any Pope, declares that Protestants are not Christians that is OK, but when Ian Paisley says the same of Roman Catholics it is hatred is it? He hasn't spent his life doing what you say at all. If you only knew the man rather than what the media want you to think....

[Ciabhán]

" I don't care for the Pope anymore than I do for him but the Pope hasn't spent his life preaching hate. Unless of course he was the Nazi some folks wish him to have been. "

Ciabhan,

So when the Pope, any Pope, declares that Protestants are not Christians that is OK, but when Ian Paisley says the same of Roman Catholics it is hatred is it? He hasn't spent his life doing what you say at all. If you only knew the man rather than what the media want you to think....

I am from Belfast I know all about Paisley and his hatemongering. I don't give a flying about Catholics and Protestants not liking the way the other kneels during church services. I do however care about Paisley and his incitation of hate against Irish Catholics.

"Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners."
Ian Paisley
After a loyalist rally in 1968, he justified the burning of Catholic homes.

He explained the housing and employment issues that confronted Catholics by saying the massive discrimination in employment and shortage of houses for Catholics were simply because they breed like "rabbits" and multiply like "vermin".

He also helped form vigilante patrols and helped to perpetuate the conflict. Don't try to scold me for not liking this worthless .

[basics]

" He also helped form vigilante patrols and helped to perpetuate the conflict. Don't try to scold me for not liking this worthless."

Ciabhan,

And the man who gave my wife away at our wedding was part of a family burnt out of their farm by Roman Catholics. His wife was a direct descendent of Hugenots who fled the continent after their massacre by Roman Catholics. And people are still being killed and mutilated by Roman Catholics in Ulster and beyond. Does making Paisley the scapegoat help? Not if you happen to be Protestant and living in that part of the world.

What is not generally known however is the wonderful evangelical preaching that Ian Paisley does, me having one of his tapes on the book of Romans. And, that in his parish he not only visits Protestants but also Roman Catholics, yes invited into their homes, to give comfort and help if needed. And yes, he is seen by others as a militant, but only because he tells it as it is and not how the opposition want it to be.

You don't have to like him, but you cannot say that the peace that is Ulster at the moment has nothing to do with his own input into that process.

[Ciabhán]

" He also helped form vigilante patrols and helped to perpetuate the conflict. Don't try to scold me for not liking this worthless."

Ciabhan,

And the man who gave my wife away at our wedding was part of a family burnt out of their farm by Roman Catholics. His wife was a direct descendent of Hugenots who fled the continent after their massacre by Roman Catholics. And people are still being killed and mutilated by Roman Catholics in Ulster and beyond. Does making Paisley the scapegoat help? Not if you happen to be Protestant and living in that part of the world.

What is not generally known however is the wonderful evangelical preaching that Ian Paisley does, me having one of his tapes on the book of Romans. And, that in his parish he not only visits Protestants but also Roman Catholics, yes invited into their homes, to give comfort and help if needed. And yes, he is seen by others as a militant, but only because he tells it as it is and not how the opposition want it to be.

You don't have to like him, but you cannot say that the peace that is Ulster at the moment has nothing to do with his own input into that process.

How bloody wonderful for him. I have family and friends in quantity who died in the various conflicts with King and Parliament. I don't care even a wee bit about the religious side of our conflict or any other. However if I believed in a god I would pray every day that Paisley burned in the hottest fires of eternity for his hatred. Being a hypocrit and talking out both sides of one's mouth, preaching hatred one day and then pretending to care the next makes him worse in my eyes. I don't care a wee bit about his preaching or his evangelical side. An intolerant hate filled like Paisley can speak all he wants of being Christian but he surely did not attempt to live that way. Me though I never claimed to be Christian so I can hate the son of a as much as I please and not be a hypocrit. The fact that as he has gotten up in years he has compromised more does not excuse the fact that he was the very thing he pretended to preach against.

If he and the Pope want to condemn one another and one another's followers to the fires of a fairy tale then it matters not to me. I hate Paisley because of his divisive and extremist politics and the fact that he helped fan the flames of ongoing conflict.

[Muagan_ra]

You don't have to like him, but you cannot say that the peace that is Ulster at the moment has nothing to do with his own input into that process.

Oh, but we can. The facts speak for themselves I'm afraid; anecdotal references are no substitute for the substance of his involvement in politics, which has been (for the vast majority of his years): divisive, violent and retroactive. By your fruits, you are known - Paisley should be familiar with that phrase, unless it's one of the parts of the bible he and others like him choose to skip over.

Ian Paisley just happened to be in charge of political Unionism at a time when an accord was the only option. I don't buy that it was a venture into a brave-new-world for him.

I suppose it's good that he's experienced a senile mellowing, and whether it's genuine I'll never know, but he set his legacy in stone a long time ago.

[Muagan_ra]

So when the Pope, any Pope, declares that Protestants are not Christians that is OK, but when Ian Paisley says the same of Roman Catholics it is hatred is it? He hasn't spent his life doing what you say at all. If you only knew the man rather than what the media want you to think....

You don't understand - Ian Paisley isn't a bastard because of his theology. I don't give a crap about what he thinks of Catholicism as a religion.

Ian Paisley is the godfather of mob-violence in Northern Ireland, in his time he not only helped to polarize Irish society into the destructive pattern it fell into, but he actively involved himself in hate-fuelled old-style Unionist politics; he is as much associated with Loyalist paramilitaries as any Sinn Fein politician has IRA ties, but he's enough of a hypocrite to go after them on that basis anyway. He even instigated powercuts of Catholic slums through his influence in the the trade unions. Not to mention his non-sectarian interests; the "Save Ulster from Sodomy" campaign is just one of his other sins, one that is still having an impact today (ref. Iris Robinson.)

He is an absolute bastard, and no amount of well-intended philisophical neutrality on Irish politics can change that. There where voices of reason among the old Unionist establishment, but he was not one of them.

[Ciabhán]

You don't understand - Ian Paisley isn't a bastard because of his theology. I don't give a crap about what he thinks of Catholicism as a religion.

Ian Paisley is the godfather of mob-violence in Northern Ireland, in his time he not only helped to polarize Irish society into the destructive pattern it fell into, but he actively involved himself in hate-fuelled old-style Unionist politics; he is as much associated with Loyalist paramilitaries as any Sinn Fein politician has IRA ties, but he's enough of a hypocrite to go after them on that basis anyway. He even instigated powercuts of Catholic slums through his influence in the the trade unions. Not to mention his non-sectarian interests; the "Save Ulster from Sodomy" campaign is just one of his other sins, one that is still having an impact today (ref. Iris Robinson.)

He is an absolute bastard, and no amount of well-intended philisophical neutrality on Irish politics can change that. There where voices of reason among the old Unionist establishment, but he was not one of them.

Precisely and much better said than mine. I don't care even a wee bit about Catholicism or Protestantism as religious sects. I think both sides are ing nuts. I do not like Paisley because of his hate-mongering and his politics.