The Pope blames athiests for cruelty?

Question

"VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, in an encyclical released on Friday, said atheism was responsible for some of the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" in history"

The nerve of that man! He is head of the organization that brought us the crusades, the inquisition, and failed to even censure Hitler (a Catholic).

Dewcoons and Evolver.

Stalin, Mao, etc were as ''Athiest'' as Hitler was Christian. The communist dogma they promoted had little to do with soicial justice, and both used Atheism to install them selves a pseudo-deities.

I was born into, and raised in the Catholic Church. I do not disparage Christianity out of hand. There is some good connected with it. I support the work of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. One of the parish priests in the church I grew up in was interned in a Nazi camp for hiding a family of Jews in his native Poland.

I am not blasting Christianity. I am offended that this most fallible of Popes would dare imply that I am a bad person just because I read too much, and question the dogma I was indoctrinated with in youth.

Answer 1

Wow, that's not even the pot calling the kettle black. It's like the pot calling...the snow black.

I guess he never heard of (Bloody) Mary Tudor either. I wonder how many Protestants she burned alive, anyway. It was certainly a lot.

But what can you expect from the head of a filthy rich church that covers up decades of child abuse and molestation? The guy's a demented fossil and we have one thing for which to thank him: he is making the Catholic church look even more ridiculous than it usually does.

Answer 2

Symbolically speaking, and as the representative of millions if not billions of followers, the Pope made the classic, age-old mistake of neglecting to take a good long look in the mirror before pointing fingers.

I'm born and raised Catholic, and still find a certain degree of comfort in the traditions I grew up with. However, more importantly, I've grown to be a thinking person who observes history and mankind with an open mind.

My conclusion is that, since the creation of mankind, atheists have contributed to only a fraction of the all the suffering, cruelty, and injustice that strict religious doctrine has caused.

Answer 3

confident, distinctly considereing it fairly is been unlawful (and at times interior the worldwide nonetheless is against the regulation) to be an atheist till it sluggish interior the previous 2 hundred years... And through certainty we've never been greater effective than 10% of the inhabitants... international. (Ranto: Technically the church Inquisition basically killed a handful of individuals. The church courts might grant pardons for a confession in maximum situations. the genuine dying toll got here from the government courts, distinctly the close by ones.)

Answer 4

Here are some more from the article:
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"Atheism could be regarded by some as a "type of moralism," particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, to protest against the injustices of the world and world history, he said.

Reciting arguments made by atheists, he said: "A world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God. A God with responsibility for such a world would not be a just God, much less a good God."

History has proven wrong ideologies such as Marxism which say humans had to establish social justice because God did not exist, the Pope wrote.

"It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice," the Pope said. Such a concept was grounded in "intrinsic falsity."

Marxism, the Pope wrote, had left behind "a trail of appalling destruction" because it failed to realize that man could not be "merely the product of economic conditions."
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I'm not sure how it could be denied that Marxism has not led to great cruelties. Look at China today, and Stalin. Maybe the original "protesting moralism" is what can be defended. I'm glad a world leader spoke of this issue. You could be jailed, persecuted or killed especially in the recent past for believing in God or attending Church. A part of history that is difficult to deny.

He is not saying that atheists are bad people. He is saying that atheism can lead to hopelessness and nihilism. The encyclical is on the subject of hope.

Answer 5

I find it interesting when some people say that the proven crimes against humanity of the Atheistic Communist leaders for the past 80 years cannot be blamed on Atheism but the almost mythical crimes of "Catholic" leaders 800 years ago should be blamed on Catholicism today.

Have you actually read Pope Benedict's encyclical Spe Salvi: On Christian Hope? Here it is: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Yes, the non-profit European Pope is blaming all child crimes on Protestant atheists. According to the European Pope, there is not a single case ever recorded of child abuse in the history of the non-profit European Catholic Church (the Church which Adolf Hitler belonged to).

Answer 7

I believe Buddhists are considered Atheists.... I find it strange that they have cleanly pushed all the blame of immorality to Atheism. There has thus far in history never been a massacre commited in the name of Buddha.... but the Crusades, Witch Hunts of Salem, The Inquisition and a truckload of other Masacres have been done in the name of the Lord.... In fact, in our present Era... it is decisions made by certain individuals with the Extreme Belief in some Divine God that is creating the worst of wars and most painful of sufferings in the world of man... now... who is the cruel one then?

Its neither atheism nor theism that is to blame, ALL acts of malevolence is dependent on the individuals themselves and their ability to think benevolently.

Answer 8

Hitler was not a Catholic. He only said he was Catholic for political reasons.

He referred to religion as an "... organized lie [that] must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master. When I was younger, I thought it was necessary to set about [destroying religion] with dynamite. I've since realized there's room for a little subtlety ... The final state must be... in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him a few sinister old women . The young and healthy are on our side . it's impossible to eternally hold humanity in bondage and lies ... [It] was only between the sixth and eighth centuries that Christianity was imposed upon our peoples ... Our peoples had previously succeeded in living all right without this religion. I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their death with serenity in their souls."

Hitler, Stalin, Mao and their mass murder of 10's, if not 100's, of millions of people, make the Catholic Church look like amateurs. The Pope is right (again).

Answer 9

This guy has some brass set.

I regard the "encyclical" for what it is,... the laughable grandiloquence of a Nazi who represents an institution who for millenia has condoned and sanctioned unspeakable acts of violence, bloodshed, and torture, demoralizes women, demonizes natural human behavior, hides Nazis and others who have committed crimes against humanity, and protects child molesters and rapists.

The Catholic Church hasn't represented, let alone FOLLOWED the teachings of Christ for over a thousand years.

Answer 10

And he was a member of Hitler's boys club - - Hitler Jugund ( Hitler Youth ) with the motto Blut und Ehre ( blood and honor ). Having a title , and having a brain are two different things .