Catholic church feels threatened by “Avatar”

Pope Benedict is no doubt a great man on many levels but he does at times put his mouth in gear inaccurately or inappropriately. Some regard him as higher than a prophet. However, if he was "higher than a prophet" he still comes under the Bible's words about false prophets in Jeremiah Chapter 23, specifically verse 31.

Jeremiah 23 vs 31 says => "Here I am against the [false] prophets," is the utterance of the LORD, "the ones who put their mouth in gear so no one can see they have nothing to say, so they periodically open their mouth to say SOMETHING to keep you all from knowing I'm an airhead."

Okay, that's paraphrased into your terminology. The Pope feels an urgent NEED to always be found saying something. He is outted by the true prophet Jeremiah.

I don't think that was necessary from the Catholics, It just shows that religion is about control and not necessarily faith. They deem it necessary to make public of what most people consider to be entertainment and not a source of philosophical nor spiritual ideology.
Well done Catholics, you've made an issue of something stupid again!

I remember when copies of Harry Potter were birned because they were thought to promote witch craft, when will people be able to tell the difference between real and FICTION?

Copies of Harry Potter were burned because they were thought to promote witch craf sometimes it seems like people can't tell the difference between FICTION and REALITY

i think its better to worship nature, than to be catholic. i think. well the pope is mad buz we are not worshiping the devil like he does every day, with his red shoes and his pagan believes. like his fish hat and the bent cross... come on people wake up the internet is not just for checking out facebook and myspace.... wanna see something that will open your eyes go to youtube and check out (((((tides with the CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ISLAM OR MUSLIM)))))......

Why do they feel Avatar is a threat...We know it's just a movie....The Catholic church on the other hand don't quite jive with their own ideals.

there is no correlation between the catholic religion and extraterrestrials. that is just ridiculous

So, if Christianity teaches, judge not, lest ye be judged and also teaches whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, so you do unto me... when we take this to the heart by our actions, not just our scripture and words?

The message in Avatar was so beautifully eloquent.. quantum science shares the indisputable fact that we are all connected. In every atom of every cell, we are all connected to one another through a living matrix...

Read Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix and Bruce Lipton's, Cellular Biologist's, The Biology of Belief. Isn't it time we look to the fact that everything is a part of creation and that would have to include our interconnectedness to everything... for without the trees, there would be no humanity to continue to dispute and create division and war over our theology...

Isn't it time we look for ways to connect, cooperate? Unless we integrate, we will disintegrate... And that's the truth.

Doesn't the truth just resonate? When we believe we know the truth, we close the door on finding truth....

Look for The Truth, The Journey Within... Coming to humanity ~ 2010.

Who needs these new-fangled and trendy religions (like Catholicism). Bah!

Maybe I'm just a hopeless old-school worshiper/devotee, but I prefer the 'classic' religions that pay respect to the original and only 'true' Gods (Zeus, Aphrodite, Venus, Athena, Ares, Mars, Artemis, Hades, Poseidon, Neptune, Hermes, etc, etc).

Sure, it's a much longer list, but just think of all the additional opportunities for holidays!

I didn't realize the vatican had a movie review board...oh wait, it's just a movie hate board and they will do everything in there power to push the human race back into the stoneage, b/c media and opinion's scare the shit out of them and they are ALWAYS on the defensive. Shit, I think they even said passion of the christ was in someway demorilizing with satanic undertones...lol... I will say this once, FUCK RELIGION!!! it truly is opiate for the masses and I have never seen a more hateful group of people than the catholic church, I've seen them run bums off there church steps saying it was bad for business!!! FOR BUSINESS!!!! I thought it was a loving religion, but no it's a business of mind control. Is there a bigger group of judgemental people out there? let me know...But at least I found something out about myself.....I am a neo-paganist....

The Church needs to grow up.

There is nothing better than a guide from the Catholics listing movies that good Catholics should avoid. I have always used Christian banned movie lists as my list of must sees.

Just another example of how out-of-touch the Vatican is with "true" spirituality. They do not want mankind to grow spiritually, they want mankind to regress and obey authority without question. The very existence of a pope is a blasphemy against any true Christian believer. They have no answers, they only confuse one with their corrupt dogma and promises covered in lies. Trust me when I say, God does not need any more of your hard earned money.

im catholic and everything but the church is just being a huge turd i mean really they are just scared that some movie about love and tree hugging is going to make an impact i mean i actually am looking at becoming more green and evrything after seeing this movie but i still believe my catholic beliefs so yeah the church just needs to cool it

What do they (Vatican) care? Does it really matter? Don't they know that they are living in a world of darkness of false prophets and false religions? Obviously there are going to be lies out there and they decided to pick the movie avatar as one of them? Really? Aren't they suppose to set the example and be the light of the world and not be judgmental people towards materialized entertainment of the world? Wasn't the enlightenment what made people decide for themselves what was bad and what was good according to the bible? Of course your going to have people try to excuse, maybe even force a lot of things just as they did with trying to convert Native Americans into Christianity by enslaving them. Maybe it's not as severe as back then but honestly I don't see the Vatican being any different.

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You absolutely right!

Anyway, its a movie! Its entertainment. But I think the reason people are commenting on the "Catholic church" is mainly because the original article was "Catholic church feels threatened by Avatar". It didn't say "Muslim mosque, or Jews feel threatened by Avatar.

I think that's why folks are focusing on the "Catholic church"...

just my opinion....

Why just Catholic, Christians of all kinds killed off the native Americans, enslaved Africa, and killed millions of Jews and Muslim through out history . So if Catholics go down so do every other Christian. hypocrites

Of COURSE they're offended, lol.

Avatar is just a depiction of how ignorant we've become. Its trying to show us something. Remember where the female avatar met the male marine and she told him how he was ignorant and stupid like a baby? The director or directors are telling us a story about ourselves - and has done a great job of making it meaningful and entertaining. I challenge anyone who thinks it was less than great (except for those who just really don't like fiction) to make a better movie themselves.

Of course the catholic church is offended. The movie is favoring nature and humanity. The government goes in and destroys a nation for money and tries to force their beliefs on the natives to get them to adhere to whatever they want. Exactly what we are doing for oil. The catholic church has a vested interest in our military and government because we play a huge part in assuring their livelihood through ignorance and CONTROL!

haha. I think it's so funny how people get mad at the Catholic Church because it puts its "2 cents" in when they are doing exactly that on here. Believe it or not, by commenting on here, you are putting your "2 cents" in. Also, the reason the Catholic Church makes statements on things like this is to help lead its people to heaven. Although you may not know, many people are Catholic and look to the Catholic Church for guidance. It is within the right of the Vatican aka the Catholic Church, to make statements such as this to help guide its people (who freely choose to be Catholic). Also another big laugh on the woman who wrote how we worship "a mystic being" and she worships something she can see. Well umm there is a thing called the New Testament with a man by the name of Jesus. Ever heard of him? Well it doesn't really sound like it but I'll humor you. HE is our God. A "real" historical human being who walked our earth. So maybe you should try to live with the bears and see how nature treats you. By the way, I consider myself an environmentalist in a sense in the way that I want to see nature respected since it is a gift from God. I watched the movie and thought the special effects were plausible but the storyline felt like someone was trying to impose their nature religion on me like I was a bad person for even breathing because "I'm destroying the earth". But whatever, if I was a parent, I wouldn't let my children watch it.

let's all keep in mind that the vatican sided with the nazis in the holocaust. who gives a damn if they're up in arms. their opinion is less than shit.

the Catholic church is afraid because it is failing to be relevant and even morally correct. They have far bigger problems with the church itself than with a movie and its message.

There are so many hateful comments here. The Catholic Church is NOT threatened by this movie. The Church is just warning people about a false religion. It is its responsibility. These hateful comments remind me of a quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
"There are not over a 100 people in the U.S. that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church -- which is, of course, quite a different thing."
As for nature, the Church does teach to protect it ... NOT worship it. On January 11th, 2010 the Pope gave an address titled "Protection of creation an important element of peace and justice "
To answer one of the questions from these comments: I care what the Church says about everything. I worship the Creator, not the created.

Nature is responsible for all life on this planet, religion is responsible for much of the destruction served upon mankind. Perhaps men should stop pretending to be god, that is religion in a nutshell.

"modern doctrines"? "Pseudo-doctrines"? "new-pantheism"?

That Pope knows very well that oneness with nature is the ORIGINAL faith of mankind practiced through mystery schools throughout the ancient lands.

Judeo-Christianity is the invented one, through mind control making people believe they are hopeless sinful evil creatures divorced from nature and spirit, dependent on Popes, Mullahs and Rabbis to follow instructions, and ready and willing to kill apostates and non-believers so they can take their land and stuff!

Of course, he is a joker. Pythagoras, Socrates are but two who followed that faith, and they made the eternal contributions to our culture long before Constantine and Pope Clement started burning books and closing down mystery schools!

pagans rejoice!! youv'e pissed em off again. catholic church could use some nature worship. maybe it will keep the priest out of the closet

"Because we imagine that we are what humanity was divinely destined to become, we assume that our prehistoric ancestors were trying to be us but just lacked the tools and techniques to succeed. We invest our ancestors with our own predilections in what seem to us primitive and unevolved forms. As an example of this, we take it for granted that our religions represent humanity's ultimate and highest spiritual development and expect to find among our ancestors only crude, fumbling harbingers of these religions. We certainly don't expect to find robust, fully developed religions whose expressions are entirely different from ours."

"Our Religions: Are they the Religions of Humanity Itself?" By Author Daniel Quinn
http://civtruth.blogspot.com/2009/11/our-religions-are-they-religions-of.html

http://www.myspace.com/newtribalism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lySmTWZl914&feature=PlayList&p=18777FA782...

I feel a big confession coming on. I haven't watched the movie, nor have I read the full article, and yet miraculously I still seem to have THOUGHTS. Let me know when the stocks are finished.

feels nice to be a hindu

ill even look at it from a twisted catholics point of view. if god created the earth and all the things in it for us then we shoud respect it and cherish it and treat it as if it were holy cuz "GOD" made it for us right?

I'm surprised by how fired up conservatives and christians are getting over this movie. It's science fiction. It takes place on a planet that is a documentable, verifiable living brain, that stores all the memories of all living things that ever were, and can communicate with all living things that are. Sounds like god to me. Of course the natives worship it!

Unfortunately, back in reality, there is no evidence of a higher power (and plenty of evidence against one) so worhsip makes a lot less sense for us.

that happened to be my favorite part!

so what its a sin now to revere and respect nature?

watch out catholics you might get excommunicated if you go see the movie lol

I disagree with unclecharlie and everybody! The Catholic Church is very much distressed and upset because they see the many millions of dollars mis-directed a flowing river headed for Hollywood coffers, which means [duh duh duh alert here] the Sunday tithing monies coming to them has to take a dang dive in the Pacific Ocean somewhere off Malibu. Despite all the Pope's gold-inlaid chairs, gold-sewing thread robes and tall red gold-tasseled hats, the Catholic Church is in dire straits financially due to their losing so many court cases from rampant and ignored priest pedophilia and acts of sodomy against their faithful's young male parishioners.

You better bet your sweet bippy they consider the Avatar movie on the level of a new god on the block, the block they once owned and ran! Avatar is cutting into the Pope's lunch pail... and you better know he understands the threat very well.

"Cleverly winks at pseudo doctrines" Lol.. you mean like the bible?

Does anyone honestly give a shit about how the catholic church feels anymore?

I kinda shocked that you can take ah simple movie which really means no harm & say it threaten the church , please understand the Catholic Church is Real , this movie is not ,
the Catholic Church is a Religon , this is not a Religion , Its just ah Movie thats takes us where we really can't go ( Movies do that ) . One thing has nothing to do with the other ,
What does 3D have to do with it Nothing , what does all the things that you see in this
movie mean ? Its called HAVING AH GOOD TIME WATCHING A 3D MOVIE THAT ALL !
( Why do people try to mix ah Space Movie with real life ? Its just ah Movie it will come & go but Religion will be here long after the Movie is gone so leave it be !

I'm awaiting the demise of the Vatican.

In this day and age, the number of haters you have is a measure of how well you are doing something....there are alot of major haters to Avatar, and it is an amazingly fun and entertaining movie......plus, it's always funny to hear the cry-babies when the truth comes to the surface.....they will say and do anything to once again pollute the picture.....Avatar is awesome....!!!!

Wow. What a crock. The Vatican gave it a lukewarm review. So, because that wasn't "juicy" enough for you, you give it a "screaming" headline. Who do you work for? The National Enquirer? I'm sorry, a Church that was established 2,000 years ago, does not feel threatened by a movie. Of course, because it involves the Vatican, you have to give it an enticing headline. I would say, grow up, or go back to journalism school. The Vatican didn't care for the movie- that's all. Threatened by it? Give me a break!

Ah, once again Currenters use a trick from the mass media they supposedly despise by drumming up drama rather than concentrating on the truth. I'm speaking of course of the title - "Catholic Church feels threatened by Avatar." The actual title is "Vatican Says 'Avatar' Is No Masterpiece."

Quite a bit different tone, wouldn't you say? But it's less dramatic to get the type of reflex-like reactions from posters who probably only read the title before they responded. I mean how many "brilliantly original" variations of "what doesn't the Catholic Church feel threatened by?" came solely from just reading the title and possibly skimming the abridged text here?

I particularly question the new dramatic title when in the linked article for those few who actually bothered to read it, the Vatican Radio called the movie harmless.

----Cameron "tells the story without going deep into it, and ends up falling into sappiness," said L'Osservatore Romano. Vatican Radio called it "rather harmless" but said it was no heir to sci-fi masterpieces of the past.-----

Only part of the story is about the Pope warning of making nature into a divinity itself, the other part is criticism on the unoriginality and over-simplistic nature of the storyline. I think they are making much ado about nothing in the first part but pretty spot on with the second part.

But what is more alarming than the Vatican's scathing but ultimately harmless review is the staggering display of hypocrisy, ignorance, and intolerance coming not from where you'd naturally expect it - the Catholic Church - but from supposedly enlightened educated tolerant types.

The Pope and Osama bin Laden have so much in common. They're religious zealots who release videos discussing their hatred for the Western World. They try to fear people into conforming with their religious beliefs. People like that need to eat a dick and shut the fuck up already.

What ISN'T the Vatican threatened by? Also, when did loving nature make us all pagans??

What doesn't the Catholic church find threatening is a better question.

Funny, I always thought that the Laws of Nature as Set Forth by the Creator to be a viable religion for worship...Whereas, IMO, the Catholic Church merely wants people to worship the Church more than the Natural World as Created. Yet, during the course of human history, wasn't Nature Worship the *first* religion? Most "modern" religions types have unduly downplayed the fact that all *written scripture* have been works by the hands of men, not Nature or God. Perhaps the one exception to that might be the original 10 Commandments, but who really knows what they were?...Moses having smashed them before revealing what they said.

I just saw it, F' ing awsome , IMAX 3D (best movie ever) : ) p.s religion sucks.

I guess I won't go see avatar soon. PSYCHE!

i'm catholic and i absolutely loved avatar!

many comments about this article have been more dogmatic than the initial article itself.

how could a billion dollar business corporation with people in total lock-step feeding it money non-stop possibly feel threatened? by what?

another great comment by the catholic church.
to quote frank zappa: "cath-o-lic girls with their tiny little mustache"

the church is thretond by everything

They should vote it away! They vote against everything that they don't like!

nature as the "new divinity"? Funny, I always thought nature was the old divinity.

"Benedict has often spoken about the need to protect the environment, earning the nickname of "green pope." But he has sometimes balanced that call with a warning against neo-paganism."

I thought Catholicism is a classic example of neo-paganism. At least, that part of its liturgy that isn't flogging the exhausted imperialistic memes of a long-dead Roman empire.

Would it be better if, like Catholics, they worshiped saints as demi-gods who can do favors from heaven, prayed for immortality, created a complex social catechism around the evils of sexuality and practiced cannibalistic rituals?

"The Vatican newspaper and radio station have ... criticized it for flirting with modern doctrines that promote the worship of nature as a substitute for religion"

Funny that a religion like the one they follow is criticizing the promotion of worship towards nature when they themselves promote worship to one mundane man called their Pope...

That's just plain stupid. What's wrong with worshiping nature? If you think about it, though... nature MAY be out "only salvation" in the end. The more we trash our ecosystem, the more disease can be easily spread through waterways. and water borne pathogens are much more dangerous than those spread by human contact if evolution is our guide... because it's beneficial for detrimental organisms that can spread through touch to keep us alive... whereas pathogens born of our machinations, such as pollution, can survive without a host for longer... meaning that... if we DON'T pay more attention to our environment, it will eventually kill us.

As far as I'm concerned, the catholic church has it ass-backward. Continuing to "pray" for our salvation while the world melts around us hasn't worked so far! People can be greedy and evil, and the church makes money too. It's time to get real and start accepting some new ideas, here... spirituality is fine and good... but organized religion is an antiquated mechanism of mind control that we need to start leaving behind us.

What purpose do they serve ? Helping people ? Maintaining their own power structure ? How good are they for the culture , for society ? OF course they feel threatened . By a MOVIE . If they were really clever they would adapt and take on good stewardship of the earth . But they are even threatened by her .

Its really funny that they are so offended over this movie because Christianity is just pagan religion adapted for a modern audience.

Just take Jesus's birth for example. "The entire sequence is completely astrological. The star in the east is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which, on December 24th, aligns with the 3 brightest stars in Orion's Belt. These 3 bright stars are called today what they were called in ancient times: The Three Kings. The Three Kings and the brightest star, Sirius, all point to the place of the sunrise on December 25th. This is why the Three Kings "follow" the star in the east, in order to locate the sunrise -- the birth of the sun.

The Virgin Mary is the constellation Virgo, also known as Virgo the Virgin. Virgo in Latin means virgin. The ancient glyph for Virgo is the altered "m". This is why Mary along with other virgin mothers, such as Adonis's mother Myrrha, or Buddha's mother Maya begin with an M. Virgo is also referred to as the House of Bread , and the representation of Virgo is a virgin holding a sheaf of wheat. This House of Bread and its symbol of wheat represents August and September, the time of harvest. In turn, Bethlehem, in fact, literally translates to "house of bread". Bethlehem is thus a reference to the constellation Virgo , a place in the sky, not on Earth.

There is another very interesting phenomenon that occurs around December 25th, or the winter solstice. From the summer solstice to the winter solstice, the days become shorter and colder. From the perspective of the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move south and get smaller and more scarce. The shortening of the days and the expiration of the crops when approaching the winter solstice symbolized the process of death to the ancients. It was the death of the Sun. By December 22nd, the Sun's demise was fully realized, for the Sun, having moved south continually for 6 months, makes it to it's lowest point in the sky. Here a curious thing occurs: the Sun stops moving south, at least perceivably, for 3 days. During this 3 day pause, the Sun resides in the vicinity of the Southern Cross, or Crux, constellation. And after this time on December 25th, the Sun moves 1 degree, this time north, foreshadowing longer days, warmth, and Spring. And thus it was said: the Sun died on the cross, was dead for 3 days, only to be resurrected or born again. This is why Jesus and numerous other Sun Gods share the crucifixion, 3-day death, and resurrection concept. It is the Sun's transition period before it shifts its direction back into the Northern Hemisphere, bringing Spring, and thus salvation.

However, they did not celebrate the resurrection of the Sun until the spring equinox, or Easter. This is because at the spring equinox, the Sun officially overpowers the evil darkness, as daytime thereafter becomes longer in duration than night, and the revitalizing conditions of spring emerge." (Zeitgeist 2007)