TIMESONLINE
RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
Found by Misanthropic Scott on Cage Match.
Its all just a publicity stunt, you know, like ‘free’ elections in the US…
yea…. good luck with that.
Richard Dawkins is God!
On behalf of athiests, Dick, thanks for setting our image back 20 years just as we were slowly becoming a tiny bit more accepted.
Seems like a lot of pedophiles posting here are more angry about offending the offender than those that he offended!
Catholicism has surpassed Scientology in the crappy religion department. Of all the BS that is said about Hubbard’s horde, I haven’t heard of them sexually abusing their children! Yet….
#24 I prefer to not be accepted. If we become accepted than what makes us different than the “accepted” religious folks.
#24, #26,
I just want to live in a rational world. Arresting the Dope for covering up the crimes of pedophiles seems logical, morally correct, and just. Is there something really wrong with that? If the church really wanted to teach morality, they would start from within their own doors … and the top is a great place to set an example.
#27, so your way to get to a rational world is to make a huge public stink over arresting someone who is almost certainly diplomatically immune and definitely politically immune from this kind of grandstanding (which, no doubt UTTERLY COINIDENTALLY, will push Dawkins’ book sales). You’ll create sympathy for the Poop just as his own followers are beginning to doubt him.
The best thing to be done is to let these investigations bleed the church dry of followers and money in their natural course. Catholicism is already in sharp decline and this horrible story is hastening the death spiral. It’s entirely possible that there will be effective charges at some point after the evidence builds, is documented more thoroughly and lawsuits proceed in various countries.
But attempting to arrest him prematurely and ineffectively using dodgy legal tricks will make real charges less likely and less effective.
And before you ask, yes, I’d be ok with letting these people go free in the long run in return for the end of Catholicism.
PR stunt, doomed to suffer the same fate as attempts to arrest Bush Administration staffers abroad – a wall of security and politically compromised courts and police. Not going to happen, people.
#28 – crap,
I’m not really concerned with when to arrest the Dope. I’m just saying that I think the evidence warrants his arrest. If the time is not yet right, that’s fine. But, it won’t happen without anyone suggesting it. No police force is likely to take this up on their own without world opinion pushing for it.
As for trading death of the church for an effective diplomatic pardon, tough call. I want the death of all religion. The catholic church is no longer even the worst of the bunch. But, I think letting religious figures go free because they are religious figures is every bit as bad as letting corporate CEOs (such as the CEO of Union Carbide) go free because he is a CEO.
Both are wrong.
We should not put anyone above the law. These are significant and violent crimes we’re talking about and the Dope is an accessory to them after the fact. I think he should be arrested as soon as a case can be made for a grand jury hearing.
Dawkins should not be involved since he is not a police officer. But, someone has to advocate the proper prosecution of criminal charges. I’ve not heard anyone else doing so yet. We need to make some noise on this to make it happen.
one problem with this article: he never said it.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/04/you_cant_trust_a_murdoch_paper.php
#31. I guess someone here should thank you. Any volunteers?
# 5 spsffan:
“[...] While our local evil doer, Roger Mahony is required to retire at 70, the Pope is stuck in the job for life. [...]”
Actually, the Pope can resign any time he likes. Of course, the last time this happened was 701 years ago…
#32 – sargasso,
#31. I guess someone here should thank you. Any volunteers?
Hell yes!!
#31 – chudez,
As the original poster of this on cagematch, thank you for correcting me. It is always more important to know the truth than to have credit for finding something cool.
Now, let’s move on to actually arresting the Dope for his part in a crime cover up.
chudez,
Please note that I have also acknowledged the updated information on cagematch.
Thanks again,
Scott
dawkins is a publicity hound moron, trying to drum up support for his own religion of atheism
#36 – jman,
Correction:
Dawkins is a publicity hound rational and intelligent evolutionary biologist trying to rid the world of worthless mythologies and bring us into an age of reason.
That said, he will probably fail because humans are not a rational species. Check the mirror for an irrational case in point.
ARREST THE POPE! He is NOT magical! There isn’t invisible people living in the sky giving him magical powers. He’s JUST A MAN with a funny hat and a big palace. Arrest him! ANY other person would go to jail for the stuff he’s covered up. Stop the superstition and magic. There aren’t demons, goddesses, unicorns or leprechauns.
While I have no objections to the idea of arresting the Pope, I would like to note that Dawkins loves to tweak people’s noses on purpose. He’s sort of like James Randi in that he likes to get a rise out of people and loves the attention. In other words, frequently, his motives aren’t entirely pure.
Anyone walking around claiming that an invisible being is talking to them should be put away in Bellevue.