Catholics and birth control

[Mich the Tester]

So come on, believers, why aren’t there more catholics than muslims? Have you all been ignoring the Papal Bull?

[sasguru]

Have you all been ignoring the Papal Bull?

Yes. Next.

[Pogle]

So come on, believers, why aren’t there more catholics than muslims? Have you all been ignoring the Papal Bull?

I certainly have

[Mich the Tester]

I certainly have

Is that why it's called a Bull? Sort of 'here are your commandments my children, but they're mostly a load of Bull anyway'?

[Pogle]

Is that why it's called a Bull? Sort of 'here are your commandments my children, but they're mostly a load of Bull anyway'?

You do seem in a very testy mood today Mitch - are you having a bad day?

[BrowneIssue]

Is that why it's called a Bull? Sort of 'here are your commandments my children, but they're mostly a load of Bull anyway'?

To save you, and everyone else, Wikipediaing it (spot the new verb):

A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it.

Bulla (plural, Bullae), is a type of seal.

[sasguru]

Is that why it's called a Bull? Sort of 'here are your commandments my children, but they're mostly a load of Bull anyway'?

You're not meant to point out your own jokes. Nil points for subtlety.

[Mich the Tester]

You do seem in a very testy mood today Mitch - are you having a bad day?

I'm in a mood for testing and the bloody test environment's offline. Had got through retesting about 30 findings this morning, thereby discovering some juicy new bugs, and then the whole thing went splat at about 1 o'clock. Some bloke in Belgium's pulling his hair out trying to get it up and running again. I'l buy him a beer on friday when I go to Gent.

[Mich the Tester]

You do seem in a very testy mood today Mitch - are you having a bad day?

I’m just curious about these things. Obviously any religion requires its adherents to use their brains and apply principles to their day to day lives, so it doesn’t surprise me that many Catholics choose to use birth control. They have brains and can think for themselves. I’m just interested as to whether it’s an issue that involved very difficult moral consideration for you, or something that you’re actually very matter of fact about. It’s not really religion that interests me but how people apply their moral beliefs in a practical way, which is something both religious and non-religious people need to do (and some people should perhaps think about a little more).

[cailin maith]

I’m just curious about these things. Obviously any religion requires its adherents to use their brains and apply principles to their day to day lives, so it doesn’t surprise me that many Catholics choose to use birth control. They have brains and can think for themselves. I’m just interested as to whether it’s an issue that involved very difficult moral consideration for you, or something that you’re actually very matter of fact about. It’s not really religion that interests me but how people apply their moral beliefs in a practical way, which is something both religious and non-religious people need to do (and some people should perhaps think about a little more).

Nope - no difficult moral decisions for me. I'm not yet at a point in my life where I could give a child a stable home so why would I bring a child into the world if I could not offer it even that.

It's a bit like the abortion issue. I could never comment on any womans decision to have an abortion as it has to be a personal and private decision.

No out of touch old giffer in a museum in Rome can tell me that I shouldn't do something because God wouldn't like it.

Hmmmm - not sure if that rant will make sense to anyone other than me

Edit - Ok - thinking about this now - I realise that I do know a woman who uses abortion more like contraception - which I think is wrong. One "mistake" I can believe/understand - anymore than that is stupidity.