Pope Cancels Speech After Scientists Protest

Reservoir Hill writes "Pope Benedict XVI canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza university in the face of protests led by scientists opposed to a high-profile visit to a secular setting by the head of the Catholic Church. Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the university's physics department joined in the call for the pope to stay away protesting the planned visit recalled a 1990 speech in which the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, seemed to justify the Inquisition's verdict against Galileo in 1633. In the speech, Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the ruling was 'rational and just' and concluded with the remark: 'The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation, and from being rooted in a still greater form of reason.' The protest against the visit was spearheaded by physicist Marcello Cini who wrote the rector complaining of an 'incredible violation" of the university's autonomy. Cini said of Benedict's cancellation: 'By canceling, he is playing the victim, which is very intelligent. It will be a pretext for accusing us of refusing dialogue.'"

The Pope Speaks

[Anonymous Coward]

The only dialog I see coming from The Church these days is [plugs ears] "I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA LA LA LA LA".

Re:The Pope Speaks

[pilgrim23]

Talking to scientists is can be ever so tiring. Some days you are just too pooped to Pope.....

Re:Dialoge?

[MightyMartian]

He's a German theologian.

I think that says it all.

Re:Once again we see

[spun]

That its only Christians and conservatives who are intolerant... Its not like a rational scientist or tolerant liberal would shout down someone they disagree with... /sarc

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!

Re:So what does he want?

[ShatteredArm]

As someone whose grandfather is Italian, I ask:

You haven't met very many Italians, have you?

Re:Dialoge?

[Scrameustache]

Benndict seems to be on a mission from god

Does he, now? :)

Re:Once again we see (with improved POT format ;)

[ThePlague]

Putting him under house arrest and threatening him with execution if he doesn't recant would be.

Hmmm, that sounds familiar...

Re:Once again we see (with improved POT format ;)

[GaryPatterson]

You're right, of course. Protests and letter writing will silence the Pope, who has no other forum for airing his views.

If only there was some place he could speak from, that others could hear. Some sort of... what's the word... pulpit or even a balcony above a crowd.

I guess that'll always be the dream for the Pope though, since we all know he can only speak at universities.

Re:Once again we see (with improved POT format ;)

[westlake]

So it's perfectly okay for a Creationist to demand that he be allowed to give a speech at a biology department? It's perfectly alright for a Holocaust Denier to give a speech at memorial to Nazi genocide victims?

congrats on the +5 mod up and another proof of Godwin's Law.

Re:Mecca and Medina

[iamacat]

What "spiritual methods" are well-accepted and *reliable*?

Well, you could try to appeal to other spiritual entities for enlightenment and share your experiences with others. They can then try to reproduce your experiment and see if they get similar feelings of presence, advice and insights into nature of being.

Re:censorship disguised as polite disagreement

[hobo sapiens]

he had balls he could drop off a ship's mast

And what, he let the sailors swing from them?

That Galileo was one virile fellow, for sure, but...jeez!

Re:What dialogue?

[phoebusQ]

I'd say you've already shown yourself to be significantly inferior to him, simply by virtue of your attitude.

Re:Dialoge?

[StoatBringer]

Are you sure his employer wasn't a Kansas schoolboard?

Re:Real bias?

[Anonymous Coward]

If atheism is a religion, then abstinence is a sexual position.

I don't care what the pope has to say

[luigi6699]

I'm not interested, as long as he still preaches that Jesus B.S. and refuses to accept the plain facts of His Noodly Magnificence [wikipedia.org]'s Saucy imprint on all of creation. I'm sure the scientists would have been much more interested in a visit from a representative of the REAL Holy Church, whose beliefs speak to a much "higher" (not to mention tastier) rationality than anything the catholics could propose. RAmen.

Lighten up

[Pope Benedict XVI]

You nerds and scientists should lighten up. Here's one to sorta break the ice:

Q: What is an agnostic dislexic insomniac?
A: Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there is a dog.

Haw haw haw ... Ok your turn.

Re:how they act when they gain power

[fair_n_hite_451]

You probably wouldn't know Christianity if it fell in your lap

Must. Resist. Catholic Priest Joke.