Hypocrisy, cynicism, and (of course) religion.

Here’s an example of the difference between someone with an optimistic outlook, and a cynic like me.

It’s pretty easy to imagine someone reading this news story:

Vatican recants with a statue of Galileo

Four hundred years after it put Galileo on trial for heresy the Vatican is to complete its rehabilitation of the great scientist by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls.

…

and thinking something along the lines of “well, that’s some progress–they’re officially on board with evolution, and now they’re putting up a statue to Galileo, maybe things are getting better. The Church admitted it had been wrong in 1992, and apologized for it in 2000, and this can be seen at the latest step in a process of attempting to correct past mistakes.”

Me, I just think “Wow, I didn’t think they could get any more hypocritical than claiming the authority to ‘vindicate’ Galilleo in 1992.”