Atheists, Agnostics, and Anti-theists of ModDB
Educational
A group for those without religion, as well as those who oppose it. Atheism and Agnosticism and Anti-theism.
Pope Francis on Atheists
(view original)
Post a comment
Description
Pope Francis has surprisingly stated that God forgives all people, including nonbelievers, whom are saved. Is the statement an attempt to gain new converts, or a sign of a more progressive Catholic Church?
(One way or the other, he's better than Lord Benedict)
He's certainly no Dark Lord of the Sith.
Which is too bad, now there's no fun running joke about him. We just have to label him as the usual bigoted douche.
Well actually at the moment all I've heard is he's a decent fellow. Haven't heard a negative peep from any atheists yet who actually look into this stuff.
Hell, I'd trust him to lead the US over our "socialist" corporate butt-plug in chief.
I've know he's said some bigoted stuff about homosexuals.
"Gay marriage is "an anthropological step backward. If there's a private union, then third parties and society aren't affected. But if they're granted marriage rights and can adopt, there could be children affected. Every person needs a masculine father and a feminine mother to help them settle their identity.""
Which may be excusable for some people, but the fact that he's okay with Atheists doesn't cut it for me.
Meh, the gay rights movement will have won its war and be about as irrelevant as feminism within a few decades. The clergy can't change that, if anything their opposition will help it along.
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
Lets see what hes saying within the next 5 - 10 years, if he remains that long on his seat that is. Anyway, a good attitude to start, I think.
I take this as part of religion's downfall, tbh... They're slowly becoming more rational in their beliefs. Eventually the beliefs will fade away or turn into something more modern.
We've already been witnessing a similar change with Christianity in America. Twenty years ago, there was far more opposition to gay rights. Now the only anti-gay people are the fundamentalist Christians, which are an ever shrinking group.
And racists, especially (neo) nazis such as KKK or White Power or how they all call themselves. But hopefully they will die along with religion.
New Pope, new word of God.
He also said that he want church to live in poverty, so I guess they're going to murder him soon.
(buried)
Pope Francis is from the very sect of Catholicism that was responsible for the Crusades. So I would be very careful about anything he says as they are likely attempts to get people lulled into a sense of comfort and security.
Oh my ******* god, this pope is so far the only pope who's said god forgives everybody and you think he's going to murder thousands of people? I've never seen anything about that pope during the crusades that relates anything to that. What would you know about that pope anyways? Seems like somebody wants to make this new pope look bad for preaching forgiveness. What do you think about Benedict?
And the very same sect colonized america, so it explains alot... Who gives a ****?
Actions > ancestry
The main problem is that most atheists equate religion with legalism and bigotry. When someone new comes along who, lo and behold, is not a total a**hole, atheists can't believe that they're actually religious. They say that they're becoming "progressive" and losing faith in Christianity, when in fact, the only thing people like Pope Francis are doing is laying aside the dogma and man-made traditions many conservatives cling to so tightly.
I agree, many theistic people are perfectly decent moderates and the a**holes are the extremists. However I think that we can both agree that the Catholic church has traditionally been the stronghold of those "dogma and man-made traditions many conservatives cling to so tightly", so seeing a comment such as this from the Pope seems quite progressive. As for losing faith, I doubt it, however renewing/progressing it, I'd say definitely.
Yes, I think we can both agree that the Catholic Church's blind reliance on legality and procedure has caused more harm than good. Even then, the Catholic Church is a massive institution, with all sorts of people. Applying a label to everyone in the Catholic Church (I'm not saying you're doing it, I'm just pointing it out) is quite unfair, as Catholics can range from pedophile priests to selfless humanitarians.
Actually it is quite simple. The catholic church is still causing harm in Arfica, at least for forbiding condomes, and I think every christians knows that. So supporting the catholic church also means to support its actions (there are more as you named so, but I just mentioned one example) and therefor we can and should in fact put a label onto those people as well. If the people would abondon the catholic church, they would send them a clear message, one that the priests and popes are willing to notice or even react to.
No, the Catholic Church does not currently forbid condoms. While a few more conservative popes in the past have done that, it was not so much a ban as a expression of disagreement, and it wasn't even for the reasons you most likely think. Sure, some local bishops went berserk and started preaching "NO CONDOMS OR YOU BURN", but it was not not enforced by the Catholic Church as an institution.