Posted on 04/21/2005 7:56:20 AM PDT by NonZeroSum
sounds like a lot of pointless speculation to me. But I do thank you for the post.
Oldest Pope elected since Pope Clement XII in 1730.
Funny tag line, Fudd.
Oh, yeah, about the ridiculous article: Maybe the writer should contact the Catholic church before he writes any more about the Catholic religion.
From my admittedly limited, lay understanding of Church doctrine, I don't think there is any doctrinal objection to long human life per se - as long as other human life is not sacrificed for its extension (embryonic stem cells, etc.).
But "immortality" has been "around the corner" for quite a while; we've yet to make that turn. Though I wish Benedict XVI a long and successful pontificate guided by the Holy Spirit, I'd be pleasantly surprised if it approaches double decades...
"This could be the last time we see a papal enclave."
[tongue-in-cheek]I don't think anyone alive today has seen one.
Of course, the papal enclave would be tiny, assuming they occupy the same neighborhood in Heaven.[/tongue-in-cheek]
"This could be the last time we see a papal enclave."
[tongue-in-cheek]I don't think anyone alive today has seen one.
Of course, the papal enclave would be tiny, assuming they occupy the same neighborhood in Heaven.[/tongue-in-cheek]
Amazing how this slipped in. Where does this B.S. come from. Pope John Paul II actually said this?!?!?
I disagree. Pope John Paul II set an example by his own suffering and death on how to die with dignity and how we are to accept God's plan, not man's.
Heard a quote this morning (likely on Fox) that the new Pope himself has predicted his reign will be a short one.
That's the point of the piece. How to determine what's God's plan and what's man's? Did he refuse antibiotics when he was younger, because perhaps it was God's plan for him to die of an infection? He made a conscious decision at a certain point to no longer artificially keep himself alive. That may have been God's plan, in his mind, but it provides no general guidance to the rest of us (or to his successor) as to which medical treatments to use, and which to abjure.
The issue of God's will vs human free will has always been a sticky one. My extreme, flippant example is of a man who walks blindfolded across a higheway at rush hour, stating that whatever happens to him will be "God's will." I don't have all the answers but I know it's more complicated than that. :)
People who love life don't think that Leon Kass is so great.
He also wants to defend not only the lives of rock stars and millionaires but of the unborn, the infirm and the elderly.
For the length of time that he deems sufficient.
No, for the natural length of their lives.
Define "natural". Why is penicillin ok but rejuvenation therapy to reverse the aging process not?
Staph is a disease. Getting old isn't.
Totally pointless speculation.
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