[ExI] Medical journal says Pope full of shit

[Damien Broderick]

At 08:02 PM 3/27/2009 +0100, Dagon wrote:

>it remains eminently intolerable if
>this gentleman uses his considerable sway over hundreds of millions of very
>impressionable souls to lead these people to follow potentially 
>arbitrary and moral
>rules over propriety in terms of health care.
>
>I would say that any other person who would do so, in the face of a 
>global epidemic
>(and other grave concerns) would be held accountable of inciting 
>people into high-risk
>"typhoid mary" behavior. When will democratic elected governments accuse this
>man of criminal acts?

I'm outraged too, but Mr. Ratzinger's actual argument isn't (as far 
as I can tell) as stupid and untruthful as it seems. He's not denying 
that condoms mitigate the exchange of fluids, but rather that using 
condoms for sexual contact other than totally faithful penis-vaginal 
intromission with one's spouse *encourages* risky sexual behavior, 
including kinds that make one vulnerable to AIDS. The logic is sort 
of plausible; after all, it's exactly what happened when 
contraceptive pills allowed women to fuck with abandon, and led to a 
rash (as it were) of venereal disease epidemics in communities where 
they had been somewhat unknown.

Damien Broderick