The Pope has given his blessing to social networking today, allowing the guilt-ridden Twits among us to relax a little now that our previously unholy posting of status updates has been finally given a papal nod of approval.
To celebrate World Communications Day, the Pope delivered an encyclical entitled “Truth, proclamation and authenticity of life in the digital age,” which said that there was a “extraordinary potential” offered in social networking, but showing that he hasn't lost his knack for criticising the actions of the average person while being unable to control many of the priests under his authority, he also warned of the “risks” that the likes of Facebook and Twitter have to offer.
Social networkers must be wary of a number of new Deadly Digital Sins™, such as one-sidedness, false representation of oneself, excessive digital exposure, and self-indulgence. While not explicitly stating it, we imagine the penalty for such sinful tweeting is eternal damnation in an undisclosed fiery location that prevents communication in less than 141 characters.
He also warned of the danger of having more internet friends than real friends, which, if you look at the average Facebook profile, accounts for the majority of users. Benedict does not have a Facebook page himself, but if he did it's likely he wouldn't have to worry about having too many virtual friends.
“It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives,” Benedict said. After all, if you spend too much time online you won't be going to Church.
The Pope, who starred in a number of Star Wars movies before his papacy (not really), said that we must all be “authentic and faithful” in the presentation of ourselves online and “not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself.” The Real Steve Jobs probably doesn't approve of this message.
Benedict previously approved of blogging by Catholics and admitted that there were many benefits to social networking, such as opening up “new horizons” of communication, but the numerous warnings suggest that the Catholic Church remains on guard against the constant criticism levelled at it over recent years for its numerous failings, many of which have been significantly highlighted through the use of social networking itself.
The full papal message can be read here.
Divinity, should He-She exits, is seemingly never there and somehow require some ariy-fairy, mumbo-jumbo, good-2-shoes to bring forth and giveth. Believe it or not, Divinity exists and His-Her job is to elevate the non-divine to becoming part of Divinity - unlike the religiosities of Popes, Imams, Brahmins, monks and similar tag-alongs, whose job is to keep others from being as elevated as them. A good thing because their idea of evolution is their own ego and conditionings. They can keep it, thank goodness.
Evolution is Benevolence, oka true progress, and evolution for humanity is firstly to become a fuller human. The vast majority of humans are partial humans oka a thinking animal, due to our past animal legacies. To appreciate what this means, imagine a lion could think as any human does - that is how dangerous partial humans/animals are. As such, it is a good thing that animals are full animals or else humanity would not have reached our present state, another simplicity which eludes, especially for those airy-fairies called “Animal Rightists”.
Should the above fairytale be true, what then is this game called evolution/Evolution? To become a fuller human thereby able to arrive at the shores of Divinity. It is all about senses and their sensibilities. Sense is merely width whereas its empowerment, sensibility, is the depth. Give a fragrant flower to a whore and he won’t know what to do with it. The same goes for all sorts of nonsense like “cars”, “yachts”, “nuclear fusion/fission”, “the presidency”, “premiership”, “saviourship”, “worship” … you know the rest. And that is only the 5 fundamental senses. Fortunately, the 6th and higher senses have no such illusions-cum-delusions. They are absolutes which is why to become absolute/be empowered with the senses of absoluteness, they are not for any TD&H. Of course, it would be wise not to give a crate of incendiaries to some hip-hopping, been there, done that, juvenile.
Absolutes are for those who are pure in their desire and not willy-nilly for those desiring purity. Afterall, purity to a partial animal could be a top Brazilian job [with respect to real Brazilians]. “Eet must be 101% bare” or purity could be some semi-primate in some “Senate” demanding “rights” such that he could exercise those rights within his weirdom. Purity, oka Morality, is innately built for one’s benevolence, like the antibodies. Purity is not some abortion of academia nor of “theology”. Purity is why Divinity created the physical cosmos to enable evolution such that Dust is then resurrected back towards The Source in a very beautiful and pure manner. Through the pinnacle of creation, the full/fuller human being and some some going nowhere real circulating tango between , say, a pope and his “flock”. “Twitter on, my children … and look how beautiful you’d become when you twit.”