Do atheists commit mortal sins?

[Nelka]

To commit a mortal sin you must know that it is one.

As they do not believe in God and have not been taught about mortal sins, seeing fornication as something normal, can they commit a mortal sin?

I realise that they understand murder and such but other sins?

 

[lutherlic]

To commit a mortal sin you must know that it is one.

As they do not believe in God and have not been taught about mortal sins, seeing fornication as something normal, can they commit a mortal sin?

I realise that they understand murder and such but other sins?

Yes, but that is a judgement to be made by God. They are like a rudderless ship, sailing for the unknown. You are asking if in doing that they might still land in heaven - their path is precarious but possible.

CCC 1260 says:

Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his Church but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

I think this applies because in the atheist case, the ignorance is invincible. If they are merely professing to be atheist in order to deny God’s will, that would be a different matter.

Additionally, Gaudium et Spes 22 says:

Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.

 

[Daegus]

To commit a mortal sin you must know that it is one.

Well, that’s right but not complete. To commit a mortal sin the following must be present:

1. A grave matter
2. Full knowledge of the sin being a grave matter
3. Full consent to commit the sin

As they do not believe in God and have not been taught about mortal sins, seeing fornication as something normal, can they commit a mortal sin?

I realise that they understand murder and such but other sins?

I wouldn’t say that all atheists haven’t been taught about mortal sins because that obviously isn’t true just by looking around this forum. Just because they don’t believe in the existence of sin doesn’t mean they can’t do it. Many atheists know about what the Catholic Church teaches and simply don’t care. They (for example) would fornicate, knowing what the Church teaches and still do it anyway thus making their actions mortal sins. However, that doesn’t mean that God’s mercy still can’t work on them, as long as they’re willing to repent and accept it.

But you should know that just because you don’t believe in God doesn’t remove your accountability. Most atheists in the west have been taught about God and came to reject Him through their own decisions. We can only hope and pray that they come to the fullness of the truth some day.

 

[thistle]

By definition an atheist denies the existence of God. That is a conscious decision and if such a person dies unrepentent then they will go to Hell.

 

[Monica4316]

yes, they still commit mortal sins because we all have a conscience. In addition, ignorance is only an excuse if it’s not the person’s fault… not listening to the conscience, being willfully ignorant, etc - those are all sins or lead to sin. Even people who are invinsibly ignorant need to follow their conscience, which needs to be as properly formed as possible. So it does depend on how much they had the opportunity to learn, but it’s not that simple.