Comment by krapp

4 hours ago

Both American presidents and Abrahamic faiths have, historically, justified slavery and genocide (and often by the same pretense.)

And the current President's ridiculous beliefs are just as ridiculous as believing in transubstantiation. Believing angels manifest on Earth and intercede in human affairs is no more rational believing that aliens are manifesting on Earth but are really demons, which Catholic VP JD Vance believes. The former is just more culturally accepted, and thus given the weight of dignity, but both are valid as far as a naive and literalist interpretation of the Bible is concerned, because demons exist in the Bible, but not aliens.

Either way, as much as the Pope is a silly man in a silly hat looking like a fucking wizard who is required to believe in supernatural nonsense while leading a corrupt den of pedophiles, he's also absolutely and objectively correct on this specific topic and it's clear he's put far more researched thought into his opinions on AI than 99% of people on HN. Hell, he even apologized for the Church's historical support of slavery, and many people here won't even concede that slavery was ever a problem.

The only significance here with history is we don't repeat it. There is no reason ever concede anything. Its akin to dwelling on indians introducing americans to tobacco. No group of people in the future should be judge on peoples beliefs or indiscretions. There is no connection.