benedict will go down in history as the pope who put his red shoes in his mouth. then again, we have two powerful leaders, bush and the pope, who have really riled up the troops in the ME. first, bush calls the invasion of iraq a "crusade", now the pope opens his mouth.

and the outcome of both remarks?

Islamic militants vow war after pope comments

Middle East Christians express fears in face of continued Muslim fury

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 5:07 p.m. ET Sept 18, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran’s supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff’s remarks on Islam.

Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict’s statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.

Islamic leaders around the world issued more condemnations of the pope’s comments, but some moderates in the Middle East appeared to be trying to put a damper on the outrage, fearing it could spiral into attacks on Christians in the region.

Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies issued a statement addressing the pope as “a cross-worshipper” and warning, “You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.

“You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God’s rule is established governing all people and nations,” said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged “sleeping Muslims” to prove their manhood by doing something other than “issuing statements or holding demonstrations.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14888444/

Isn't it just a little strange that an omniscient creator would have to incarnate himself as his own son, to be brutally murdered, to atone for the sins he knew we would commit when he created us, so he wouldn't have to punish us for eternity?

Think about it.

AND this quote from Mark Twain in The Lowliest Animal:

Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven....The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.

- Mark Twain
- "The Lowest Animal"

LINK