Is the pope finally coming out? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ The destroyers of the old are the creators of the new.
As time sweeps on the old passes away and the new in its turn becomes old. There is in the intellectual world, as in the physical, decay and growth, and ever by the grave of buried age stand youth and joy. The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels, political rights have been preserved by traitors, the liberty of mind by heretics. To attack the king was treason; to dispute the priest was blasphemy. For many centuries the sword and cross were allies. Together they attacked the rights of man. They defended each other. The throne and altar were twins -- two vultures from the same egg. James I. said: "No bishop, no king." He might have added: "No cross, no crown." The king owned the bodies of men; the priest, the souls. One lived on taxes collected by force, the other on alms collected by fear -- both robbers, both beggars. These robbers and these beggars controlled two worlds. The king made laws, the priest made creeds. Both obtained their authority from God, both were the agents of the Infinite. With bowed backs the people carried the burdens of one, and with wonder's open mouth received the dogmas of the other. If the people aspired to be free, they were crushed by the king, and every priest was a Herod who slaughtered the children of the brain. The king ruled by force, the priest by fear, and both by both. The king said to the people. "God made you peasants, and He made me king; He made you to labor, and me to enjoy; He made rags and hovels for you, robes and palaces for me. He made you to obey, and me to command. Such is the justice of God." And the priest said; "God made you ignorant and vile; He made me holy and wise; you are the sheep, I am the shepherd; your fleeces belong to me. If you do not obey me here, God will punish you now and torment you forever in another world. Such is the mercy of God." "You must not reason. Reason is a rebel. You must not contradict -- contradiction is born of egotism; you must believe. He that hath ears to hear let him hear." Heaven was a question of ears. Fortunately for us, there have been traitors and there have been heretics, blasphemers, thinkers, investigators, lovers of liberty, men of genius who have given their lives to better the condition of their fellow-men. It may be well enough here to ask the question: What is greatness? A great man adds to the sum of knowledge, extends the horizon of thought, releases souls from the Bastille of fear, crosses unknown and mysterious seas, gives new islands and new continents to the domain of thought, new constellations to the firmament of mind. A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains he gives to others. A great man throws pearls before swine, and the swine are sometimes changed to men. If the great had always kept their pearls, vast multitudes would be barbarians now. A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon: in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy. Greatness is not the gift of majorities; it cannot be thrust upon any man; men cannot give it to another; they can give place and power, but not greatness. The place does not make the man, nor the scepter the king. Greatness is from within. The great men are the heroes who have freed the bodies of men; they are the philosophers and thinkers who have given liberty to the soul; they are the poets who have transfigured the common and filled the lives of many millions with love and song. They are the artists who have covered the bare walls of weary life with the triumphs of genius. They are the heroes who have slain the monsters of ignorance and fear, who have out-gazed the Gorgon and driven the cruel gods from their thrones. They are the inventors, the discoverers, the great Mechanics, the kings of the useful who have civilized this world. At the head of this heroic army, foremost of all, stands Voltaire, whose memory we are honoring tonight. Peace, Doc On Feb 23, 1:21 am, RW <rogerwbo...@yahoo.com> wrote: > A lot of Catholic prophecies indicated the last pope would be evil and > aligned with the Antichrist. We know that Pope Benedict, as a young > man, deserted his post as a soldier in the German Army. We also know > that he lead the coverup of Catholic priests sexually abusing young > children. He has also been a staunch supporter of the Republican Party > in the United States, which is hard to understand if he was a real > Christian. But now he has been photographed flashing the "Hail Satan" > sign popularized by Satanist Anton LaVey to secretly show one's > allegiance to Satan to fellow Satan worshippers. > Seehttp://www.prophecycorner.theforeverfamily.com/Pope_Ratzinger_handsig... > andhttp://www.squidoo.com/tithes-and-offerings --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
