Atheism, Dystheism, and the news today

Which is why I came back to this in the first place.

First off, a few definitions.

Atheism:

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.

And Dystheism:

Dystheism (from Greek δυσ- dys-, "bad" and θεός theos, "god"), is the belief that a god, goddess, or singular God is not wholly good as is commonly believed (such as the monotheistic religions of Christianity and Judaism), and is possibly evil.

So how does that work? You don't believe in God and yet you think God is evil?

I don't believe there is a great, intelligent, SkyDaddy up there running things and making good and bad things happen. I do believe in the concept of the Meme:

A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem) is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.

(See also the evolutionary psychology of religion)

Memes tend to pass along like a virus. Not conscious, not sentient, not even truly alive, but very much there.  And the "virus" we call American Christianity is entirely evil.

I'll set aside the discussion of how I got there as it gets a little strange, and get into today's topic.

I'm sure everyone has heard of Kim Davis, a county clerk from Kentucky who is a believer in American Christianity and who is refusing to do her job and issue marriage licences to same sex couples.  Or to any couples.  Or to any couples if she has to sign it.  It's a little confusing at times but the big takeaway is that she's rabidly homophobic.  

She's also the darling of the followers of American Christianity,  She was invited to speak at their big political summit recently, along with many other examples of people poisoned by these evil memes.  They adore her for being their champion, and so on.  If you want to curry favor with the rest of the infected at this particular moment in time cozying up to her is a good way to do it.

In the other corner of today's triangle is Pope Francis.  While he is the leader of the largest Christian denomination on the planet he doesn't seem to be infected by the evil memes I call American Christianity.  He seems like a modest sort who genuinely loves everyone as Jesus loved everyone.  While he is still against gay marriage as far as Wikipedia can tell he's not rabidly homophobic. And he is not the sort to support a rabid homophobe.

So why on earth did he have a private meeting with Kim Davis on his trip to the US?

Apparently someone set him up:

On Friday, the Vatican’s press office reiterated that the meeting with Davis was not meant to be interpreted as an endorsement of her views, but rather a simple exchange of pleasantries between the Pope and a group of admirers, one of whom happened to be Davis. The Vatican also emphasized that the only one-on-one meeting that Pope Francis had during his time in Washington, D.C. was with Yayo Grassi, a gay man and former student of the Pope’s. But the Vatican appears to go one step further to make it clear that the Holy See in no way endorses Kim Davis’ bigotry. 

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who arranged the Pope’s meetings in Washington (including the one with Kim Davis), is expected to be held responsible for blowback resulting from the meeting with Davis. According to the New York Times, Viganò is “likely to be removed at the first respectable opportunity” if blowback from the meeting with Davis continues to build 

“The pope has to be able to rely on his own system, and in this case the system failed him,” theology professor Dr. Massimo Faggioli told the Times. “The question is, was it a mistake, or was it done with full knowledge of how toxic she was?”

I cannot imagine anyone living in the US and not knowing how toxic her belief system is. 

So who is this Archbishop?  Good question.  There's not a lot out there about him that predates this incident.  But according to the Times he's a cultural conservative and is a associated with National Organization for Marriage which is a major disseminator of the American Christianity meme.  He's also the one at the top of the org chart for dealing with all the multi-million dollar sex-scandal lawsuits.  Offending the American Christianity people is a good way to turn off the donation money tap.  

But an Archbishop trying to pull one over on the Pope to cozy up to the American Christianity leaders?  That's kind of a big deal, no?  I think that's a prime example of how infectious these toxic memes can be.  They can turn an Archbishop against the Pope.

Here's to hoping this shocks Pope Francis into realizing that not all of his advisers, especially those from the US, are reliable.  Maybe it will make him look at the topic of gay marriage with fresh eyes.  And here's to hoping he can keep these toxic memes from spreading beyond our borders.