Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven
where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal

Friday, May 24, 2013

What's the Deal With The Pope?


On google blogs, under "atheist," only eight of the first forty posts were NOT dealing with the Pope saying something about atheists.
Eight out of forty!
All the other bloggers seemed to be salivating over whatever it was that Pope Frank said. And what he seemed to say (the Roman Catholic Church preaching works righteousness and all) is that if atheists are good, they can go to heaven. 
Heaven! Something atheists say they don't believe in but seem thrilled to be granted entrance.
What's up with that? 
Are atheists as obsessed with being "saved" as they are with Creator God? 
Seems so. 

Wow! Four days later and still the belief that Pope Frank said atheists just need to be good people in order to go to heaven is by far and away the main topic on atheist blogs. What does this mean? 

5 comments:

  1. That's an easy one, Rod.
    The pope emphasizes that, in his and his god's view, good works are good works, regardless who performs them. That's not a very new teaching, but the emphasis is. Evangelicals do not like that idea, it's accept Jeebus as your personal savior or nothing - an exclusive tactics.

    The theological intricacies of that position (authenticity of the Titus letter) are of no interest for me. If the pope hopes to meet me in heaven, OK, fine for him. I'm pretty sure I'll be gone when I'm dead.
    For those of us Atheists who engage in charity and community projects, it's now a little easier to get the cooperation of Catholics.

    It means a certain change for the effectiveness of charity work in South America, where Francis stems from. That's it.

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  2. an exclusive tactics."

    Any offer made to seven billion people is hardly exclusive!

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  3. And I thought we were trying to have an intelligent conversation: "submit" is not an offer, it's a command.

    Excluding every non-member of the congregation from even the distant possibility to not burn in hell - well, that makes it a pretty exclusive club.

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  4. But Tobi, you're viewing this from the perspective of the ignorant - and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense. You simply don't understand what you're talking about.

    Rather than complain that there is One Offer made to Everyone, we should be surprised that there is ANY offer of reconciliation. God gave us paradise and we willingly and with malice aforethought destroyed it. We, you and I and everyone else have broken a potentially healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator. We have chosen evil over good. We, on our own cannot fix that.

    Most people want justice. God is going to deliver justice.

    Most people hate evil, at least when it's done to them. God is going to banish evil.

    Most people think forgiveness is a good idea. God is offering forgiveness.

    If God exists, and I believe that He does, it's going to go His way Tobi, whether you like it or not. He says that every person on the planet stands guilty before Him. Rather than asking, "How could a God who is Love banish billions of sinful people to hell?" We should be asking, "How could a God who is Just save for eternity in Paradise billions of people who deserve eternity in hell?"

    God is willing to offer you forgiveness at His own expense.
    What kind of a person would reject that offer?

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  5. "You simply don't understand what you're talking about."
    Well, Rod-
    I'm pretty sure there is no vindictive god who killed most of his creation in a flood, and condemned every human on earth.
    So I don't complain about him. Nor do others of my kind.
    But I find it astounding that there are people - Christians in your case - who willfully entertain the idea that such a being exists, and is "Good" despite its obvious character flaws.
    It's all about what you guys believe, not about reality.
    In reality, even my people got rid of crazy kings and their apologists over a century ago.

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