As for the three questions you asked me in the article of August 7th.
It would seem to me that in the first two, what you are most interested
in is understanding the Church's attitude towards those who do not share
faith in Jesus. First of all, you ask if the God of the Christians
forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith. Given that -
and this is fundamental - God's mercy has no limits *****IF***** HE WHO
ASKS FOR MERCY DOES SO IN CONTRITION and with a sincere heart, the issue
for those who do not believe in God is in obeying their own conscience.
In fact, listening and obeying it, means deciding about what is
perceived to be good or to be evil. The goodness or the wickedness of
our behavior depends on this decision.
He's hardly said
anything remotely what the newspapers are claiming. In fact his
qualifier is ignored by pretty much everyone. If anything the pope is
accusing Atheists of NOT obeying their conscience. Some how people get
"atheists go to heaven" from the pope saying atheists need to ask God
for forgiveness and follow their conscience. Saying their is a condition for atheists getting forgiven is completely the opposite of the media spin. How can an atheist receive forgiveness of sins if the do not believe in sin, God's mercy since they do not even believe in God, obviously the Pope is saying the atheists must repent of their unbelief or die unforgiven.
I've created a blog which aims at, among other, interacting with atheists.
ReplyDeleteThere are different reasons a person became an atheist:
1) because she doesn't like the moral exigences of religion on her life.
According to my large experience, such atheists are a very small minority
2) because she became intellectually persuaded there is no God
3) because she is disgusted by the genocides and atrocities attributed to God in some parts of the OT.
I explain my own view of salvation here http://lotharlorraine.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/salvation-by-love-erlosung-durch-die-liebe-unten/
God wants to save everyone and if someone does not usher into heaven it will be because of his or her own free choice.
And I believe that many atheists from 2) 3) would desire God if they saw Him.
Friendly greetings from continental Europe.
Lothars Sohn – Lothar’s son
http://lotharlorraine.wordpress.com