"Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate."

Pope Benedict XVI issued the above warning upon his arrival in Scotland today. A typical statement one may expect, but reading between the lines of his words, what does the Pope really mean?

The Pope advised followers:

"As we reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus a reductive vision of a person and his destiny."

And told Catholics:

"Do not be afraid to take up this service [Catholicsim] to your brothers and sisters, and to the future of your beloved nation."

The above quotes lead to me consider a few points. Estimates are the 70,000 people attended mass at Bellahouston today. The Pope asked the crowd to 'fight' for their beliefs. But my question is how many of that crowd share the beliefs the Pope wishes them to fight for.

This is a man who has stated that same sex marriages and abortion are the 'most insidious and dangerous challenges that today confront the common good.' The Catholic Church itselfs condemns homosexual acts as 'sinful', one leading Cardinal went as far to say homosexuals will never get into heaven.

On abortion he advises that it is necessary for the Church to make people aware of the 'intrinsic evil' of abortion and that it is 'an aggression against society itself' even for victims of rape.

Support for these two views has dwindled in society, even amongst many more 'liberal' Catholics. Yet the Pope and the Church he leads, hold their position, maintaining the 'truth' of a nearly 2000 year old book.

On contraception, namely condoms, again Benedict and his Church maintain a hardline stance. When questioned on the best way to tackle the AIDS/HIV epidemic griping Africa, the Pontiff esposes that ,"The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids."

Add to his holiness' list of 'thou shall nots' masterbation, sex outside of marriage, and indeed sex for a purpose other than procreation, I wonder just how many of the 70,000 fold are ready to 'fight' for their Catholic beliefs?

Now my views on religion aside, I find the blatant ignorance of Catholic teachings astondings. It is my belief that one should be free to belief what they like, so long as that belief does not harm others. So for all those Catholics who do believe to the letter of Catholic doctrine then, despite questioning their mentality, I can at least pay testament to their honesty.

But it is those Catholics, who are willing to take what the Holy See himself calls a 'pick and mix' attitude to their faith, that I cannot extend that same respect to. Clearly the liberal views of 21st century society are at an odds with the almost unchanged doctrines of the Catholic Church. Yet for a large majority of the folk, rather than challenge their faith or their desire to exist in the modern world, the easier route is to bury their heads and ignore the clash.

I've heard today's visit being described as an inspiration, bringing hope to the people, and renewing the people's faith. Yet it appears to me, that 21st century Catholics need not to 'fight' for their faith, but to firstly define what their 'faith' is.

One may respond that those who do masterbate, or have sex outwith marriage, or have had an abortion or are gay, are like all other sinners, and simply are trying to use the Church to guide them to a better life. To quote the Church, 'hate the sin, not the sinner'. But this is to grossly overlook the situation. The Catholic teaching on these matters, and many more which this blog has not touched upon are wildly out of date. Whilst I find other religions just as false or harmful as Catholicism, at least members of other faiths can self evalutate their beliefs, and split from the teaching of the Church should they need to.

Perhaps it grows from the indoctrination from an early age, statistics show the majority of adult Catholics were baptised and raise Catholic in Catholic schooling, or perhaps the policy of Papal Infabillity is to blame, but as a faith, Catholicism and the hypocrits that label themselves Catholic, need to have a purge of their beliefs to arrive at a less contradicting position.

I finish on a point suggested by the opening quotations of this blog. Pope Benedict XVI guards against secularism and atheism, arguing that only objective truths can provide stability and safety for human kind. It is worthwhile asking his holiness where exactly he obtains these truths from? A 2000 year old book, written by man? Is this not equally subjective? Has God himself spoken to Benedict and informed him of the 'truth'? If so are we to simply take the Pope at his world? And what of other religions and their objective truths? What provides Catholicism with any more justification than Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism, that it's 'truth' is the true 'truth'. The fact is that all truth in this world is completely subjective. Humanity decides what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. And that I fear is the one thing the Church cannot endorse, the people deciding for themselves.

As Friedrich Nietzche once said, "In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." The Church bases it truths on how it would like the world to be, not infact how the world actually is.