An old-as-stupid benighted leader of a medieval institution that thinks the last word in social engineering is the mistranslated words of ancient goatherders scrawled on vellum has come out and said that using your computer for social networking is OK, as long as you don’t do it too much and adopt a suitably Christian manner in your writing — which may explain all those gleeful letters I’ve been getting that inform me I’m going to burn in hell for all eternity.

The Pope doesn’t even use a computer, and apparently writes all his missives in longhand, with a quill, unless he’s still using a stylus and wax tablet. Letting this antique make recommendations about your computer use makes as much sense as asking a mob of celibates to dispense sex advice, and no one would be that crazy, would they? I don’t think the Pope has done much research. Someone needs to show him our social networking outlet, the Endless Thread here on Pharyngula, and let’s see how quickly he reverses his opinion.

Oh, well. We’ve got an internet poll to resolve all questions and determine the truth, a far more sensible approach.

Does the Pope’s blessing on social networks change your view of them?

Yes! I feel less guilty for all the time I spend on Facebook now. 3%
Yes. It will make me use the tools with some of his ideas in mind. 14%
No. The Pope doesn’t even know what Facebook is. 3%
No. I don’t care what the Vatican thinks. 59%
I’m not sure. 21%

Bonus! The Pope thinks that if Jesus were on Earth today, he’d be using Twitter. We’re in big trouble now: I think he just implied that Ashton Kucher is Jesus.