Yesterday I was listening to the radio and heard some goon of the pope talk about his highness’ philosophical greatness. Apparently the pope is visiting France and that’s worth ignoring all the pledges of laicity written in French law.

So, what’s the summary of his highness [[Palpatine

http://frafilm.blog.kataweb.it/files/2007/10/pope_palpatine.jpg]]? He seems to be trying to reconcile reason and faith. He reasons that Pure Reason, i.e. reason without faith, leads to scientism and corruption of everything, with, like, the atomic bomb and genetic engineering (and abortion, presumably). Holy crap, isn’t that “Science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l’ame” (Rabelais, five centuries ago)? Way to go, thinker!

And at the other end of the spectrum, is Pure Faith, which is also bad because that’s what those evil islamists are doing. Lucky catholics don’t believe too much, eh?

The argument of reason is laughable. Anyone who exercises reason should see that the atomic bomb is not a good thing, and among the reasons to avoid GMO, none are religious and all are related to actual, reasonable reasons (which are not linked to profit: just because it’s outside the scope of capitalist reason, doesn’t means it’s outside of the scope of Reason).

It just blows my mind that this sort of argument is still going around. Faith, by definition, has nothing to do with reason, and vice-versa: the minute I uncritically believe something that is told to me, I stop using reason. I guess that’s just too hard to reconcile in the head of a pope.