Thank you, Brennen, for making my point more eloquently than I could have.
I’ve had two responses to my defense of the Vatican quote so far, and they’ve both attacked its logical fallacy. I’m actually disappointed in one, because it seems to assume I’m an idiot.
I’m not arguing that the Vatican, because of questionable past behavior, has no authority to make any moral statements ever again.
I am saying that reputation counts. If we were Vulcans, anyone could say anything and we could evaluate their statements with pure logic. But if somebody talks about a master race descended from Plutonians who run a shadow government intent on tilting the Earth’s axis, then begins to discuss theories about physics, how much would you trust their statements about physics?
Eh. Vhatever. There are far more important things to argue about. At this point I feel like telling people: Okay, I’m crazy. Ignore this. This isn’t worth arguing about.