Pope Francis isn’t your great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather’s pope. He’s a big advocate for the poor, which must be hard for him now that his house is an entire city made of nothing but gold, priceless artwork and priceless artwork made out of gold –
not pictured: a shit ton more gold
He’s also a big fan of interfaith dialogue. Just yesterday he said that all who do good are redeemed, not just Catholics. Even atheists are cool in his book! Check out this chunk of a huffpo article I copy-pasted!
““They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation.” Pope Francis went further in his sermon to say:
“The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”
This has seriously got atheists confused. just one glance at reddit’s r/atheism feed and you feel like a bomb went off. Everybody’s just dazed
stolen from reddit. Wait. Can you steal a meme?
While some people are applauding the Pope for his progressive-by-Catholic-standards stance, I’m a little wary that this could just be some sinister plot from the Pope to wipe out all the atheists.
…Hear me out.
Atheists have to disagree with religion, that’s how atheism works but what if religion said atheists were good people? Atheists think that atheists are good people but they can’t agree with religion, right? The computer processors that they have where their souls should be can’t handle the logical paradox and before you know it –
The secularist threat has been eliminated! Praise Jesus!
If this isn’t just some clever atheist genocide plot, I say good for Pope Francis for trying to steer the Catholic Church in the right direction. I mean, it’d be even better if he could get priests to stop molesting children and spending millions upon millions of dollars to lobby the persecution of homosexuals but this atheism thing is a good start.
“Atheists have to disagree with religion, that’s how atheism works”
Nope! That’s not how it works at all. Atheists *don’t care* about religion. Atheism isn’t GI Joe on one side with people of faith driving snake-themed vehicles on the other. Atheism is “If you can’t prove what you’re saying, you’re wasting my time. Give the mass of your invisible sky-wizard and we’ll leave on good terms.” Atheism is “My Aunt Dolores thinks that the crow that sits on the corner of the McDonnell’s fence post made the milk go sour. She’s got….character?” Atheism says, “Your God might say your baby isn’t supposed to be vaccinated, but you know what? I’m gonna do it anyway, let you hate me, and sleep soundly knowing that I have about as much to fear from your vengeful god as I do an angry Spider-Man.” Fight ignorance and superstition of it hurts. Ignore it or enjoy the comedy if it doesn’t.
Glad you… cleared that up for everybody.
I’m an atheist who sometimes suspends disbelief…ya know..like when you watch a movie.
I’m a Religious Studies major. I love religion. I care about it a great deal. God being real….not so much.
Oh yeah, and today’s hard truths are tomorrows cocktail party jokes. At the risk of sounding Hegelian, the future will make fools of us.