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Found this to be interesting, especially coming from the Man in the Tall Hat himself. Kind of interesting in my household as well, being that my wife is a non practicing Catholic and I consider myself to be Agnostic.

http://news.msn.com/world/atheists-are-good-if-they-do-good-pope-francis-says

If there is a thread on this I apologize, I checked first page and didn't see anything and its relatively new story.

Anyway, thoughts? Agreement? Disagreement? It was a great first dinner at my then fiancés Grandfathers house, who happens to be Italian, who also happens to run a business that transports cars from NY to Florida, who also happens to wear a pinky ring, and is a devout Catholic. He asked a couple uncomfortable questions, but I am still here 9 years later so I apparently answered correctly

It is pretty cool, I remember though when I told my family i might no even go to church anymore, they tottally freaked, thinking that i was going to burn in hell, I hope they listen to the pope.

TLDR - Frankie says relax.

I'm glad I have the Pope's approval on my atheism.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I'm glad I have the Pope's approval on my atheism.

I think the point is that he's encouraging people to worry less about what others believe in, and more in working towards a common good.

I have to admit I like this Pope, I've liked him since the start, he's always seemed like a nice guy...

It doesn't negate all the problems the church has (and it certainly has many), but that is an interesting (and unexpected) step forward. That is, if it represents a genuine willingness to agree to disagree rather than a very selective approval-with-the-intent-to-convert of "atheists" who don't ever oppose religion and really just don't go to church for a while. It could be sincere, but I've seen enough similar statements of cooperation that are little more than "you can be an atheist as long as you shut up and don't ever do anything to oppose us".

Now all he needs to do is turn all of those sex offenders over to the police rather than shuffling them off to some other church and then maybe we can all start building a better world together...

I appreciate his effort to make some kind of peace with the secular world, but if he claims to be a Catholic he cannot make such a statement while adhering to the Bible. The Bible states that all men are inherently evil. Unless you do something for the glory of God, it is meaningless. Any actions that might seem good done by non-Christians are considered meaningless. One might offer money to charitiy, and a Christians should say that it is not a good action. Your motive for giving to charity is probably the sense of peace/happiness it gives you or because you are furthering the common good by helping the needy -- no because you want to glorify some God.

Christianity is not a peaceful religion. Although Christians should strive to build a peaceful community, it will tear brothers and friends apart because it is so radical. Anyone who tries to deny this will be denying basic truth.

At times I like this new pope, and at other times he seems hopeless.

 The Bringer wrote:
The Bible states that all men are inherently evil. Unless you do something for the glory of God, it is meaningless. Any actions that might seem good done by non-Christians are considered meaningless. One might offer money to charitiy, and a Christians should say that it is not a good action.

Perhaps one needn't perform an action in God's name for it to be so aligned with God's interests that it be considered a glorification?

 daedalus wrote:
Perhaps one needn't perform an action in God's name for it to be so aligned with God's interests that it be considered a glorification?

God ain't having none of my good works

Well, mine either.

Doesn't change the fact though that if ANY gods were to exist, I wouldn't mind them smiling down upon me for doing good things.

 daedalus wrote:
Well, mine either.

Doesn't change the fact though that if ANY gods were to exist, I wouldn't mind them smiling down upon me for doing good things.

That is slightly different from your good acts "glorifying" said mythical creatures.

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
Well, mine either.

Doesn't change the fact though that if ANY gods were to exist, I wouldn't mind them smiling down upon me for doing good things.

That is slightly different from your good acts "glorifying" said mythical creatures.

I should have specified. I was trying to reason from the Pope's point of view, not mine.

 daedalus wrote:
I should have specified. I was trying to reason from the Pope's point of view, not mine.

Ah, fair enough

It is nice to see tolerance for others being both preached, and practiced.

 daedalus wrote:

 The Bringer wrote:
The Bible states that all men are inherently evil. Unless you do something for the glory of God, it is meaningless. Any actions that might seem good done by non-Christians are considered meaningless. One might offer money to charitiy, and a Christians should say that it is not a good action.

Perhaps one needn't perform an action in God's name for it to be so aligned with God's interests that it be considered a glorification?

The Bible calls God a jealous God. From a Biblical perspective, mankind was designed to glorify God. Suppose a man does some act of charity. He does these actions for a cause other than God, such as the good of humanity. By rendering his actions to another object/idea than God, he is elevating the importance of the object/idea above God in a sense.

It can be likened to this: You are applying to a community service position. Your brother or someone knows that you would really like to help the community, so they decide to spite you by taking this job. Yes, they might be taking a job that could be rendering the community a service, but they are doing so that they can hurt you. This situation is kind of blown out of proportion, but you get the idea.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
It is nice to see tolerance for others being both preached, and practiced.

Christianity teaches tolerance (love your neighbor as yourself).

It does not, however, tell you teach something that is not in accordance with your beliefs so that others might feel good about themselves.

It's been the normal relation between atheists and christians anyway...most atheists and most christians, hell, most religious people get along together just fine without problems. The image that can be seen in mass media etc. is different, mostly because they only focus on rare, but extreme conflicts of any sort. In reality, people get along fine. ACTUAL reality. Not the internet.

I do appreciate the pope's attitude though.