Thursday 4 December 2014

Bah humbug priest tells pupils God exists (but don't worry, their head teacher has put them right)

From the Telegraph

A head teacher has reassured puzzled pupils by asking God whether it was true that Santa did not exist and being able to report that he did not get an answer.

Angry parents said Father Dennis Higgins was "plain mean" after he upset the youngsters by telling them the man with the white beard and red hat was fake but the other man with the crown and the grey beard was real.

The stark sermon was handed out during mass at a nearby secondary school where pupils from the primary school were invited to celebrate the forthcoming religious season.

Instead of presents and Santa they got a revisionist message about the meaning of Christmas during which it was claimed that the festive season had nothing to do with sleighs full of toys and everything to do with the birth of a baby, which even theocracy scholars dispute.

12 comments:

Robin Smith said...

Yeah well. LVT is a God too, worshipped by many of the faux religious.

The LVT fan experiences LVT daily as an objective fact of their psyche.

Funny to watch especially if they are proud atheists... they still have strong beliefs.

Ian Hills said...

It's supposed to be a church school, for God's sake. There wouldn't be this fuss if it was an imam preaching against Santa.

In a church school.

Robin Smith said...

I'm OK if that's what you want to believe.

Mark Wadsworth said...

It's not religion if you can observe it in real life. We can see "Business Rates and Council Tax" and we can see "chocolate and presents and fairy lights". These things exist.

Anybody who says otherwise is a Faux Lib fucknut.

Robin Smith said...

You can also 'see' things that cannot be measured scientifically... yet.

We all can.

Does that mean those things do not exist?

If we deny these important things what will be the result - a world of rent seekers maybe?

Think the Quantum. We have no idea what on earth that thing is or what it looks like or where it came from. Yet we know it exists by its effects. Its cause we are oblivious to, even on the tiniest level of detail. Nothing!

To say "the quantum appeared out of nothing" as faux science does is like saying God created the universe out of nothing as faux religion does.

All we KNOW, is that we do NOT know... yet.

Better to say "we have no freakin' idea, but hell we want to find out more than any other activity".

LVT is perfect in theory. As an ideological belief, granted. But in reality? It seems to me LVT is the most failing economic idea in all of history.

This is not to discredit you personally for supporting it. Its to point out that to deny this observation with the eyes, is a deeply faux religious activity we should get rid of quickly because obviously that will harm us.

Sure, by saying this, I'm questioning your God. And that is very rude. I'm a heretic and by rights should be crucified for it. And ask Job about it too. His God was hardly a pleasant one.

I'm standing on a box on speakers corner Sunday.

Mark Wadsworth said...

One last try...

"LVT is perfect in theory. As an ideological belief, granted. But in reality?"

Ideology has nothing to do with it. LVT has been tried in many variants in many countries (including in the UK at this present time) and the outcome has always been positive, on a normal, measurable human level.

Like "getting home safely" is normally seen as better than "getting hit by a drunk driver".

Or perhaps that is just my deluded belief and a True Believer And Visionary such as you knows that actually being killed or crippled is infinitely better than "getting home safely".

And any more twattish comments from you and I shall "spam" your comments. Final warning.

Anonymous said...

"To say "the quantum appeared out of nothing" as faux science does is like saying God created the universe out of nothing as faux religion does."

Virtual particles, that is quanta, are created out of nothing all the time. The effects have been measured and quantified to a very high degree of accuracy, and it's not 'faux' science to claim that this happens. Just plain vanilla quantum mechanics taught to all physicist undergrads.

Bayard said...

The whole concept of Santa Claus baffles me. Why adults should think it is OK to lie to children about some improbable paranormal being is something I cannot understand. It's totally not the same as telling them about religion. Religion passes the "lie detector" test. What adults tell children about religion might not be true and might be extremely improbable fiction, but the teller believes the fiction themselves and believes they are passing on the truth, i.e. if connected to a lie detector, the needle wouldn't flicker. No sane adult, however, believes in Santa Claus, he doesn't even count as high as a superstition. Christmas would be better off without him.

Tim Almond said...

Bayard,

Santa Claus falls into the categories of "stimulating imagination" and "bit of fun". Kids love it, aren't harmed by it and you grow up and do the same.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Santa does exist! Admittedly, it is a character assumed by parents or out of work actors, not a real being, but he exists.

Bayard said...

S, I'd disagree. Reading fiction is "stimulating imagination". The difference between Santa and, say, Tinkerbelle, Robinson Crusoe, Bambi or Asterix is that very few people are trying to pretend that the latter are anything but fictional characters (although I have seen Robinson Crusoe's grave, it's in a church in King's Lynn).

M, yes, but the out of work actors aren't ever going to be able to visit every Christian household in the course of one evening are they. You get out of work actors dressed as Superman, Batman or Barney the Dinosaur, but that doesn't mean they exist as anything more than fictional characters.

Anonymous said...

"Virtual particles, that is quanta, are created out of nothing all the time."

The quantum vacuum, while highly mysterious and essentially inscrutable is NOT nothing.