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Papal Infallibility, a frankly bizarre tenet of Catholicism states that the Pope is never wrong, at least when it comes to matters of faith and the church. Supposedly handed down by Jesus to Saint Peter, the first Pope, it has persevered into modern day.

Now, anyone with sufficient reason could tell you that nobody is always right, not even and especially a man with no background or higher education in science and a vested interest in perpetuating the interests of the Church.

But many old school Catholics if you will, still believe that the Pope can never be wrong. Fortunately, most Catholics nowadays are reasonable enough to know that no man, even one supposedly chosen by God is always right.

It seems bizarre and almost laughable in today's world for anyone to be seen as infallible. What are your opinions on the matter?

ErichZannIII 7 Aug 23
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7 comments

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1

Ask the LDS folks in Utah about their "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator," and you'll find out that he's the one with the true gift of complete and utter infallibility. If he says anything at all, it's as if God himself is speaking. That fails to explain why an omniscient and omnipotent being would require the use of intermediaries, agents, mouthpieces, third parties, go-betweens, modalities, escrows, or partially senile old white guys to speak divine truths, but it is hilarious to hear Mormons and Catholics arguing about whose top man acts as the conduit between the almighty and we unworthy earth dwellers. 😛

0

The basis of the religion itself, as most of us here believe, is not rooted in fact or reason. You expect its tenets however to be reasonable? Jesus died for our sins is perfectly reasonable 🙂

lerlo Level 8 Aug 24, 2018
3

As an ex-Catholic, I can tell you that Catholics don't actually believe that any man, including the Pope, is infallible. (At least, if they understand their own religion.) That is a Protestant myth. Catholics believe that God the Holy Spirit is infallible. Infallibility only applies when the Pope is speaking Ex Cathedra under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. Of course, if you don't believe in the Ex Cathedra dogma, it all falls apart.

2

That's not quite accurate regarding the Catholic Church's dogma on papal infallibility. It isn't that everything he says is deemed infallible, but rather that he can invoke infallibility under certain circumstances. To date, papal infallibility has been invoked only twice: 1) the Immaculate Conception of Mary and 2) the bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven. It's still ridiculous, and the Catholic Church should be criticized for this belief, but we should be careful to criticize actual teachings and avoid inadvertently attacking straw men. To be fair, though, I think even most Catholics don't understand what papal infallibility is or that it's been used only twice.

0

My only opinion is that they are all wing nuts, and I don't care at all what they believe or don't believe.

1

Laughable indeed. Even more laughable is the blind acceptance by more than a billion people of the infallibility of the Qur'an and "the prophet".

2

I know very little about the catholic religion, but it is my understanding that the pope receives his infallibility directly from communicating with god, therefore the infallibility part is god and not the pope.

@ErichZannIII "The bible says" is the absolute worst reason anyone can give for anything.

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