SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+643|3978
So I am arguing with other atheist on Reddit regarding Christian charity efforts. Specifically Catholic.

Am I wrong for saying that the amount of charity the Catholic church does by building schools, building hospitals, feeding the poor, providing disaster relief and other things in developing countries vastly outweigh the effects of their reproductive health advocacy? I am being told that by convincing poor women in the third world to not have abortions, they are causing the issues they claim to be trying to fix.

Am I wrong for thinking that argument is ridiculous?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Pocshy2.0
Member
+23|3629
Sounds like you've arrived at one of those arguments where neither of your claims are empirically testable (despite being questions of empirics), and you've devolved into a hypothetical pissing match.

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.
coke
Aye up duck!
+440|6967|England. Stoke
The bigger issue is probably the Catholic churches stance on use of condoms in regions where HIV/AIDS is rife, on top of the population and poverty issues.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+643|3978

Pocshy2.0 wrote:

Sounds like you've arrived at one of those arguments where neither of your claims are empirically testable (despite being questions of empirics), and you've devolved into a hypothetical pissing match.

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.
Well, I did a little googling. The Catholic church's official U.S. domestic charity does $4 billion worth of work. No stats on their hospitals or schools. The U.S. based group for international aid does $1 billion worth of work. The European numbers are probably much higher. I doubt that the U.S. based Catholic churches do $5 billion worth of damages to the world in the form of convincing women in small African villages to have a kid instead of abortion.

As if the kid has zero potential to learn and produce a living for itself. It's literally an economic burden on the atheist community.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Pocshy2.0
Member
+23|3629
Ok, but that didn't seem to be your original argument. It's not a question of 'do they do more harm than good?', but instead 'do they work against themselves?'

Maybe that's exactly the problem. You're not arguing about the same question.
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

SuperJail Warden wrote:

The Catholic church's official U.S. domestic charity does $4 billion worth of work. No stats on their hospitals or schools. The U.S. based group for international aid does $1 billion worth of work. The European numbers are probably much higher. I doubt that the U.S. based Catholic churches do $5 billion worth of damages to the world in the form of convincing women in small African villages to have a kid instead of abortion.
the catholic church is one of major land and real estate owners in the world - and they don't pay a cent in taxes on that, or anything else for that matter. how much do you think would that be?

charity my ass.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,979|6890|949

I think it's more of a lack of access/options for contraceptives and abortion than a strong opinion on them that leads to high birth rates.  The redditors in r/atheism aren't atheists, they are fervent anti-christians.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+643|3978
Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.

Maybe the people in the Vatican are living the high life but I have never seen a local priest drive a BMW to the nightclub. It doesn't seem like a group that needs to be taxed like General Electric.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,741|6995|Cinncinatti
my priest drives a pre2000 corolla.
nfl could stand to pay some taxes too
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+643|3978

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

I think it's more of a lack of access/options for contraceptives and abortion than a strong opinion on them that leads to high birth rates.  The redditors in r/atheism aren't atheists, they are fervent anti-christians.
I wasn't in /r/atheism, I was in /r/worldnews. I don't go to atheism. Reddit is much worse to Muslims and Hindus than they are to Christians. Usually people like me pop up to defend Christians outside of /r/atheism but I don't even bother trying to defend Muslims when they come up. That battle is never worth fighting.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,741|6995|Cinncinatti
thats why you stay off big subs
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.
orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
uziq
Member
+497|3710
my local parish priest looks like a hipster Jesus and his son has that genetic mutation where he's covered in thick russet hair.

go figure
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5616|London, England

Shahter wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.
orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
This ain't the middle ages
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5616|London, England
Oh right, sorry, Russia is still a feudal society, I forgot.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
uziq
Member
+497|3710

Shahter wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.
orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
the Orthodox Church in Russia is one of the greatest sources of perpetuating petty-authoritarian attitudes in the laity. it's the state's little bitch. Putin can always count on the dumbshit orthodox and people bussed in from the provinces to keep up his circus.
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

Jay wrote:

Shahter wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.
orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
This ain't the middle ages
no, but some things seem like they never changed since it was. like catholic church, for example.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

uziq wrote:

Shahter wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Much of that land is donated and they keep the places clean and presentable looking. A church adds property value wherever they put one so harping about property taxes is silly.
orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
the Orthodox Church in Russia is one of the greatest sources of perpetuating petty-authoritarian attitudes in the laity. it's the state's little bitch. Putin can always count on the dumbshit orthodox and people bussed in from the provinces to keep up his circus.
right. your point?
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
uziq
Member
+497|3710

Shahter wrote:

uziq wrote:

Shahter wrote:


orly? so all one has to do to apply for tax return on ones land is have a house on it and keep it tidy? right, you try that and tell me how it went, k?
the Orthodox Church in Russia is one of the greatest sources of perpetuating petty-authoritarian attitudes in the laity. it's the state's little bitch. Putin can always count on the dumbshit orthodox and people bussed in from the provinces to keep up his circus.
right. your point?
you're hammering on how the Catholic Church are basically keeping third world countries supplicant and yet you're sat in an imitation democracy where the church has been subtended to the state as an ideological tool for pacifying the masses.

GG
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

uziq wrote:

Shahter wrote:

uziq wrote:


the Orthodox Church in Russia is one of the greatest sources of perpetuating petty-authoritarian attitudes in the laity. it's the state's little bitch. Putin can always count on the dumbshit orthodox and people bussed in from the provinces to keep up his circus.
right. your point?
you're hammering on how the Catholic Church are basically keeping third world countries supplicant and yet you're sat in an imitation democracy where the church has been subtended to the state as an ideological tool for pacifying the masses.
right. your point?
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
Pocshy2.0
Member
+23|3629

Shahter wrote:

uziq wrote:

Shahter wrote:


right. your point?
you're hammering on how the Catholic Church are basically keeping third world countries supplicant and yet you're sat in an imitation democracy where the church has been subtended to the state as an ideological tool for pacifying the masses.
right. your point?
...I mean, I don't want to speak for Uzique but it seems like a stones and glass houses situation, no?
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia
okay, let me make it easier for you:

we were discussing catholic church, the "charity work" it does, and how that, supposedly, makes up for the harm is does.

now, tell me, how would anything of the following be of relevance:

russian orthodox church
putin
democracy
the rest of what uzique posted here

???
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
uziq
Member
+497|3710
the topic is supposedly benevolent institutions and their 'civilising' role and putative benefits. you are being extremely cynical about the Catholic Church when you live in a society which it is not unfair to say is held in a retrogressive stance by your own ecclesiastical institution. your critique about the Catholic Church is reasonable but I only hope you're as irascible about things in your backyard as you are about Nairobi.
Shahter
Zee Ruskie
+295|7033|Moscow, Russia

uziq wrote:

I only hope you're as irascible about things in your backyard as you are about Nairobi.
oh, you don't know the half of it, kid. if anything, i hate russian orthodox version of christian crap, and its influence on the society here where i live, a lot more than any other...

... but, the latest posts - those i replied to - don't touch on that.
if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.
uziq
Member
+497|3710
well it's called the religions of the world thread so I thought I'd make the point, in the spirit of comparative religion, that the pros and cons of church interfering in the worldly affairs of unregenerate man affects all churches ecumenically.

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