The Pope Strikes Again

Pope Benedict the Evil decided to kick off his first papal tour of Africa by spouting more impractical nonsense and potentially lethal advice appropriately in the name of religion. On a continent under siege of an HIV epidemic, he thought it’d be helpful to discourage condom usage to prevent further outbreak. He even proved his deranged mental state when he detrimentally asserted that the distribution of condoms worsens, not lessens, the AIDS crisis. In this case, I’d give Pope Isadick more credit for worsening the crisis than anyone or anything else. So his godly advice boils down to: ‘Don’t use condoms; just don’t have sex.’ Yeah because that's going to work. Leave it to the church to come up with rules that don't have a snowball's chance in hell of working in the real world in which the rest of us live.  

Ok, even if we're to give him the benefit of the doubt and entertain his hairbrained idea if we're to acknowledge that condoms aren’t 100% effective, there are still gaping holes in his logic or lack thereof - as is typical of the religious establishment. Even IF he miraculously convinces all Africans and for that matter, all humans, to abstain from having sex rather than use a condom, he’s forgotten something that'll blow his whole plan to pieces: humans mess up. Humans tend to give in to their animal instincts despite what their brains may rule as the wiser choice. Human urges often completely bypass any input spewed forth by the brain (think unwanted pregnancies as a prime example). Just because someone promises they won’t do something, it doesn’t mean they won’t do it. It doesn’t even take a deep examination of human behavior to come up with a few examples of humans failing to act as they promised or intended. Reason does not always prevail.

Off the top of my head, just a few examples to prove a point: cheating spouses who'd vowed fidelity to each other for life, people who buy annual gym memberships because they plan to workout at least 3 times weekly yet may have gone 3 times all year, any number of those broken New Years' resolutions. Need I go on? How many of youare still exercising daily and eating better as you promised yourself on 12/31/08 you'd doin 2009? Hmm. A quick look around would tell any rational human being thathumans give in more often than not to the easiest or most pleasurable route available to them therefore, I think it most realistic to account for that prevalent human trait and have a contingency plan or two in place to deal withthe fallout.  No one needs to die if we accept the fact that people act like people and make plans to prevent injury, suffering and death when we can. That is the humane, reasonable course of action unless you're the Catholic Church. 

Getting back to Pope Isadick’s argument, I have to ask: So now what happens when one day, one of the imperfect people of your flock messes up, gives into an animal urge despite vowing abstinence, has some unprotected sex, and contracts HIV or spreads the HIV he/she already has to yet another person? Ok, now what? Can you wave your magic wand and cure them? No, despite your holiness and your big hat, you don’t have that superpower. Again, I can’t help but wonder how anyone can believe in a God that would allow such an epidemic to exist but that’s another story for another day.