Pope Benedict XVI goes to war with 'atheist extremism'

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Pope uses visit to argue Nazi desire to eradicate God led to the Holocaust and Britain should respect its Christian foundations

- Sam Jones, John Hooper and Tom Kington -

Benedict XVI used the first papal state visit to Britain to launch a blistering attack on "atheist extremism" and "aggressive secularism", and to rue the damage that "the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life" had done in the last century.

The leader of the Roman Catholic church concluded a speech, made before the Queen and assembled dignitaries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, with the argument that the Nazi desire to eradicate God had led to the Holocaust and a plea for 21st-century Britain to respect its Christian foundations.

"Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society," he said. "In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms; and may that patrimony, which has always served the nation well, constantly inform the example your government and people set before the two billion members of the Commonwealth and the great family of English-speaking nations throughout the world."

=snip=

Benedict was more explicit in his condemnation of militant atheism, noting that Britain had fought the atheistic evil embodied by Adolf Hitler. "Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live," he said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/pope-benedict-xvi-atheist-extremism

[ixion]

1. LOL @ the Pope

for having the gaul to call atheists extremists after the EXTREMELY bloody, brutal and torturous history of the Catholic Cult.

[DesertFlower]

2. i agree. nt

[saigon68]

7. launch a blistering attack on "atheist extremism" and "aggressive secularism",

Meanwhile back behind the alter

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/01_02/20071231133934034.pdf

[Kolesar]

8. And to invoke the Holocaust when the Catholic clergy did squat to prevent it

...during the third reich. In twentieth century America, the Catholics promoted hatred of the Jews.

[mitchum]

25. Also the filthy Vatican helped nazis escape after the war

[Kolesar]

30. I had forgotten

http://www.google.com/search?q=Vatican+helped+nazis+escape+after+the+war&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&rlz=

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

52. Prevent? They facilitated it.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Coffers must be running dry, after all of the wonderful publicity Catholicism has had lately.

Hence the attack on the non-believers.

[defendandprotect]

28. RCC has most of the "faith based" religous groups, therefore we taxpayers are

filling the Vatican coffers!

[madrchsod]

4. go away old man....

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[Demeter]

6. Which is More Extreme: To Observe Reality and Deal With It

or to postulate an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Sky Father/God controlling everything for ulterior motives we know not?

[sofa king]

21. It wasn't atheists who were planning to kill him today.

It was the worshipers of a competing Magical Sky Pixie who were planning to kill the Pope. So, you know, there's that.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[SILVER__FOX52]

10. The pope and the catholic church are

irrelevant. They did this to themselves. The pope recently stated that he was shocked at the Church's response to pedophilia in the church when he was part of the inadequate response. What a fucking joke he is.

[myrna minx]

12. And what, pray, did the Vatican do to stave off the holocaust?

What was that? Nothing?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. Pope Emperor From Star Wars needs to mind his own goddamn business. nt

[dkhbrit]

14. Count me in!

How the bollocks do you become an extreme atheist?

Do I need a parachute?

I'm sure at the very least I'll need a BMX and some sunglasses.

[sarcasmo]

34. Extrem Atheists Games. EAG

Thanks for the idea Count me in!

[Kennah]

44. Extreme or Agile?

Wow! Extreme atheism. Sounds like it could be challenging, but fun.

As a gaia worshiper I see myself more as an agile atheism. Quick, cat-like reflexes, and I don't get bloodied as often as the extreme atheists.

However, for a good cause I'm willing sign the waiver and compete. Am I on shirts or skins?

[Javaman]

15. And yet the church gets all bent out of shape when I call them a cult.

as an atheist I find his claims to be amusing.

[Delphinus]

16. Wasn't Hitler a Christian?

Thought in my miscellaneous readings over the years that I'd read Adolph Hitler was a Christian.

This pope knows nothing about atheism.

[mbperrin]

19. Here's a sample of belief statements from Mein Kampf

http://atheism.about.com/od/adolfhitlernazigermany/tp/AdolfHitlerFaithGod.htm

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Practicing Catholic his whole life.

No, the Pope doesn't know anything about atheism. But he knows something about Nazis, he was one.

[Vidar]

23. Of course he was! It's much harder to whip up a messianic cult

like Hitler's without the misuse of religion.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

54. Hence the USSR embarrassingly falling apart on its own volition.

It just doesn't work that well without help from mythology.

Can you imagine Saudi Arabia's or Iran's theocracy, or Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, folding peacefully, in a meeting, like the USSR did, and virtually the entire people accepting it without going batshit crazy? Yeah, me neither.

[Richard Steele]

38. The official motto of the Nazi SS was "God is with us", & they inscribed it on EVERYTHING:

'Pope Ratzinger the Last' is just about the most
bloatedly evil, nakedly dishonest pus-bag to
blackmail his way into the Papancy since the Dark Ages.

Or, as future historians will call them,
"The FIRST Dark Ages".

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

43. hmmm.... In God We Trust....

just saying....

[Joanne98]

17. He should got to war with child molesters instead! Oh I forgot........

[activa8tr]

37. Good one! .... and how many atheists are child molesters? n/t

[Wednesdays]

18. Right. Those darn atheists meet every Sunday morning

They erect gigantic multi-million dollar stone buildings in honor of atheism, build atheist missions in every corner of the globe...

Heck, they hold bingo games at the local K of C, um, I mean K of A hall on Friday nights, so they're not so bad. ;)

[fascisthunter]

22. extremists... look in the mirror

[CatholicEdHead]

24. He confuses athesim with cynicism

Having a spiritual side is good. The Church positions over the past few years and abuse over a long period has brought about a major wave of cynicism in the Church. The double-talk, coverups, shutting down of even a basic discussion of issues from above has turned people off and they are walking away. Clericalism needs to be replaced with genuine reform to bring the powerful spiritual side back in a positive way for those in the pews.

[xxqqqzme]

26. I thought Hitler was all about God &

country. Ratzie should know better!

"atheist extremism"....hmmm, extreme atheists, never heard of it! - are they on the right or the left?

[CJvR]

42. That is a problem.

They are on both sides, which is why the Atheist vote never matters.

[defendandprotect]

27. This guy should resign . . . !! He's on the ropes ... however ....

it's the same old Vatican "pagan" crap --

the same attempt to continue to hold power by creating intolerance for and demonizing one's

enemy --

Extremism somehow isn't preaching about a one-male-god?

No one notices the oppression involved in such a concept -- male-supremacist religion?

[JCMach1]

29. How ARE HIS approval ratings doing lately? I bet they are lower

than Obama's... but I guess no one would dare to report that...

[Democat]

31. Wasn't this the Pope that was a Nazi in his youth?

;(

[Joe Bacon]

32. Well he's still covering up for those child molesters

His stooge Phoney Mahoney here in Los Angeles is dumping church properties by the tons to pay for all those damages assessed against the church for covering up those pedophile priests. Phoney Mahoney even admits that he shuffled the pedophiles from parish to parish. And he gets away with it because he's Republican.

Chalk up another proof of IOKIYAR!

[sarcasmo]

33. Thought this might be from the Onion.

[PurityOfEssence]

35. Whippin' up the hatred: the traditional M.O. of religion

Ya can't have an "us" without a "them"; ask any primitive.

[PassingFair]

36. As Dawkins points out to him, it doesn't MATTER if Hitler was a catholic...

(which he WAS). It matters that the millions of
people who FOLLOWED him and who carried out his
orders and plans were catholics and lutherans,
steeped in bigotry and christian exceptionalism, from thousands
of years of religious prejudice against the jewish
people.

Gott mitt uns!

[TroglodyteScholar]

39. The pope is an asshole. n/t

[Taverner]

40. Then he's at war with me

Bring it

[CJvR]

41. Considering...

Considering what religion is up to around the world today I would say one of the main problems is a lack of atheism rather than an excess of it. It would do wonders for the human species if a bit fewer belivers in the great sky pixie were elevated to positions of power.

There haven't really been any militant atheism since the communist regimes ripped down the local churches, and that was more on the line of destroying a secular threat to their power.

[Dappleganger]

45. What are atheist extremists?

Is he saying that they should just keep it to themselves instead of going to the mission field and sharing the good news of atheism with all the people?

/s

[formercia]

46. History repeats itself

Romans try to impose Christianity on the British Isles.

[The abyss]

47. I love it

Wake up time, smell the coffee. Take a look around…

All of the machines and all of the toys are falling apart at the seams.

[RainDog]

48. Rock me, Galileo. n/t

[boppers]

49. Historical Revisionism fail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany

[sakabatou]

50. Hey, Pope, I heard you called the kettle, "Black."

[lapfog_1]

51. To paraphrase Monty Python...

"No one expects the Atheist Inquisition!!!"

(mostly because this has never happened...)

[and-justice-for-all]

53. The pope is as delusional as ever....and a liar...nt

[SemperEadem]

55. the catholic church is passe and the pope is irrelevant

catholicism is about 550 years past its prime.

It's over. The world will not be ordered about by the fucking bishop of rome.
and I'm a former baptised and confirmed catholic. Left it in 1978 and have never
looked back.

[JerseygirlCT]

56. Subhead: atheists yawn nt