You are probably right that the Pope should have realized that quoting this passage would generate a controversy. On the other hand, as a Cardinal, he must have given thousands of speaches like this (he was chief theologian to the Catholic Church), and this was a pretty dry setting. I'm willing to bet that he hadn't yet come to real grips that as Pope, anything and everything he says, even in dry academic circles, is going to be scrutinized and offence will be taken to any preceived slight. On the other hand, the bureaucracy should have caught this one: stuff like this is what they're supposed to be good at. Substantively, I tend to agree with him: Islam has to give up the sword.
Anyway, to your main point, for many religious people, morality/ethics are themselves a manifestation of God's will, and God is the source of all morality and of ethics. Isn't this the lesson of Abraham offering Isaac up for sacrifice? If there's any deviation between one's own perception of morality or ethicallity and the injunction of God, then it is one's perception that must be adjusted. This is, of course, the attitude that allows for suicide bombers and the slaughter of innocents. The milder form of it is what you're preceiving. They simply cannot contemplate any form of morality based on anything other than God's edicts.
As a (I hope) thinking, believing person, I think that they have the cart before the horse. Our sense of morality, ethics and justice is one of the greatest gifts of God, and it is in our understanding of these aspects of ourselves that leads us to God. If God appears to "violate" our innate sense of ethics/morality/justice, then we have to be doubly careful, because someone is probably attempting to manipulate us into using God as an excuse to pursue his own ends. This is where you might have a problem with MY view as opposed to the Pope's. He thinks you can't have a rational sense of ethics without basing it on God's pronouncements. I think that your sense of ethics is an innate gift of God, and of course you develop your own sense of ethics. Of course, you probably don't care what I or the Pope thinks. (grin)
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Date: 2006-09-20 10:14 am (UTC)Anyway, to your main point, for many religious people, morality/ethics are themselves a manifestation of God's will, and God is the source of all morality and of ethics. Isn't this the lesson of Abraham offering Isaac up for sacrifice? If there's any deviation between one's own perception of morality or ethicallity and the injunction of God, then it is one's perception that must be adjusted. This is, of course, the attitude that allows for suicide bombers and the slaughter of innocents. The milder form of it is what you're preceiving. They simply cannot contemplate any form of morality based on anything other than God's edicts.
As a (I hope) thinking, believing person, I think that they have the cart before the horse. Our sense of morality, ethics and justice is one of the greatest gifts of God, and it is in our understanding of these aspects of ourselves that leads us to God. If God appears to "violate" our innate sense of ethics/morality/justice, then we have to be doubly careful, because someone is probably attempting to manipulate us into using God as an excuse to pursue his own ends. This is where you might have a problem with MY view as opposed to the Pope's. He thinks you can't have a rational sense of ethics without basing it on God's pronouncements. I think that your sense of ethics is an innate gift of God, and of course you develop your own sense of ethics. Of course, you probably don't care what I or the Pope thinks. (grin)