Dgp, you are saying that the Church is to blame for colonialism? And more so, XVI century colonialism? And based on that the current Vatican has to go?
you are saying that the Church is to blame for colonialism? And more so, XVI century colonialism?
HELL, YEAH! Ever heard about the Treaty of Tordesillas? You see, neither Spain nor Portugal had any right to take the lands they would discover. So the Pope, who was Spanish, decided that the world would be split among those two Catholic, God-Fearing Nations. Brazil would have been a lot smaller than it is today, but then Spain would have never set foot in the Phillippines. So, the two countries had "a divine right", and they used it. By the way, the Church never condemned slavery. The Portuguese were the largest slaveholders in the world, and the real guys behind the slave trade (besides the Muslim), but the Pope didn't say a word about that. What's more, slavery was never abolished in Brazil (where it was abolished only in 1888) for humanitarian reasons, but simply because slaves were expensive to maintain and coffee was booming. Coffee only needs lots of labor during the harvest; the rest of the time, it's just a few people. And Italians were starving, and were even cheaper than blacks. They could be hired only during the harvest and then left to starve the rest of the time. That would teach those unruly blacks a lesson. And there were more Italians in Italy.
The Catholic church justified virtual slavery saying the Indians were like children, that the Spanish and the Portuguese would convert to the True Religion. It was one of the largest landowners in the Continent (and guess who were the original owners?). If I remember well, something like 30% of the entire country of Mexico (which, by then was twice as large as it is today) was in the hands of the Church. So, are they to blame? Yeah. And for a lot more, like spreading idiotic ideas these days.
And based on that the current Vatican has to go?
I never said that.
About the birth rates, the countries with higher birth rates in the world are not the Catholic ones. Your point being?
My point being that, despite what the Pope says, Catholics use contraception even more than some non-Catholics. Is the church to blame for people having many children? These days, the answer in the overwhelming majority of the cases has to be a resounding no. And that simply because that is the truth.
By the way, I just learned about one case - my first- where a Catholic family wanted to have "all twelve apostles". Curiously enough, they are still of childbearing age, and the Lord hasn't sent any more disciples in later years. The youngest apostle is now old enough to be in high school. No Paul in that family. Are they using contraception? Would anyone assume that, if they were really obeying the Pope, the Lord would still be sending workers to the vineyard?
By the way, what is the fertility rate in the United States? According to the CIA Factbook,
2.06 children born/woman (2012 est.)
And only 23.9% of the people are Catholics. How come Catholic Puerto Rico has a lower fertility rate? Is the Pope to blame for the rate of Puerto Rico, or is he to blame for the rate in the United States?