How do catholics really view us Atheists?

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I’m really curious to know without it being sugar coated. I’ve seen alot of what seems to me like hate mongering on various threads and posts and I want to know if that’s the way the average catholic or christian feels. The more I read the more I see things like “the devils children” or some such thing. Really? Just because we don’t believe in a god? Are we that hated? Not that I believe there’s a devil either but I don’t have to believe there’s a devil to get the point in that statement.

I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything, I’d just really like to know how we’re percieved and why.
 
Personally, I think of atheists as people who are wrong about theology, but generally influenced in their behavior by living in a Christian society and under Judeo-Christian legal system, so they behave much in the same ways as lapsed Catholics or secular Protestants.

On the negative side, aggressive atheists that think they will prove to everyone that they are right get on my nerves. I associate this evangelical atheism with teenagers and college students, and sometimes older people who are immature, like celebrities.

These fervent atheists normally insult my intelligence and mock my religion. I really don’t find anything they have to say about morality or philosophy interesting, new, or intelligent. I wish they would put their intellectual energy into producing something useful, rather than trying to eliminate religion.
 
I migth suggest reading what the documents of Vatican II have to say about it: more specifially, I’d recommend the declaration on religious freedom, which (if I recall correctly) have some good things to say about atheists and all other views of God.

Once again, if I am recalling correctly, the documents recognize atheism as valid and even good insofar as it reflects a person’s inner search for God. One who describes him/herself as atheist is someone who, at a given point in their lives, felt that God probably doesn’t exist. An honest athiest is essentially no different from a member of any other non-Catholic religion in that their view of God, while flawed, at least indicates that the person is open to God.

Or something like that. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it. :o
 
ELKnight said:
Personally, I think of atheists as people who are wrong about theology, but generally influenced in their behavior by living in a Christian society and under Judeo-Christian legal system, so they behave much in the same ways as lapsed Catholics or secular Protestants.

On the negative side, aggressive atheists that think they will prove to everyone that they are right get on my nerves. I associate this evangelical atheism with teenagers and college students, and sometimes older people who are immature, like celebrities.

These fervent atheists normally insult my intelligence and mock my religion. I really don’t find anything they have to say about morality or philosophy interesting, new, or intelligent. I wish they would put their intellectual energy into producing something useful, rather than trying to eliminate religion.
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Pretty much how I see it; atheists don’t bother me, but anti-theists are a pain. (For that matter, anyone who’s so addicted to being right that he can’t even be civil is a pain.)
 
j1akey said:
I’m really curious to know without it being sugar coated. I’ve seen alot of what seems to me like hate mongering on various threads and posts and I want to know if that’s the way the average catholic or christian feels. The more I read the more I see things like “the devils children” or some such thing. Really? Just because we don’t believe in a god? Are we that hated? Not that I believe there’s a devil either but I don’t have to believe there’s a devil to get the point in that statement.

I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything, I’d just really like to know how we’re percieved and why.
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“The Catholic finds it easier to understand the atheist than the Protestant, but easier to love the Protestant than the atheist.” Flannery O’Connor.

I think that’s about right. Atheism makes more sense than Protestantism to at least some Catholics, because it’s an easy binary: “is Jesus who He says He is (God, Son of God, Head of the Church, etc.)? If Yes, Catholic; If No, atheist.” It’s an oversimplification, and neither Flannery nor I speak for all Catholics, but that seems to me to be a fair descriptor of one view some Catholics hold.

I’ve literally never heard atheists called the devil’s children. The Internet is a crazy place.
 
StrawberryJam said:
Sin only went to the atheists?
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No. The wages of sin play out differently in each individual. Some are more inclined to unbelief and spiritual sloth. Some fervent believers are inclined to self righteousness. We are all tempted to sin and we all fail sometimes, it just looks different on the surface.
 
j1akey said:
I’m really curious to know without it being sugar coated. I’ve seen alot of what seems to me like hate mongering on various threads and posts and I want to know if that’s the way the average catholic or christian feels. The more I read the more I see things like “the devils children” or some such thing. Really? Just because we don’t believe in a god? Are we that hated? Not that I believe there’s a devil either but I don’t have to believe there’s a devil to get the point in that statement.

I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything, I’d just really like to know how we’re percieved and why.
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How you as an “Atheist” are percieved will be based solely on each individual. There is no consensus among Catholics as a whole on how “Catholics really view Atheists”. 🤷

I believe that all humans whether or not they are aware of it are searching for a connection to their creator.

But this “intimate and vital bond of man to God” (GS 19 § 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.3 Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.4
 
It would depend on the atheist I guess. However, since I do not know any atheists nor have I ever met someone who told me that they were an atheist, I am beginning to believe they do not exist.

God bless you
 
Belloc_Fan said:
“The Catholic finds it easier to understand the atheist than the Protestant, but easier to love the Protestant than the atheist.” Flannery O’Connor.

I think that’s about right. Atheism makes more sense than Protestantism to at least some Catholics, because it’s an easy binary: “is Jesus who He says He is (God, Son of God, Head of the Church, etc.)? If Yes, Catholic; If No, atheist.” It’s an oversimplification, and neither Flannery nor I speak for all Catholics, but that seems to me to be a fair descriptor of one view some Catholics hold.

I’ve literally never heard atheists called the devil’s children. The Internet is a crazy place.
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I’ve heard about Flannery O’Conner before, and I liked very much something it is alleged she said about the eucharist. Something along the lines of, if it is symbolic…

Well, I think it’s best I leave it there. I can’t even recall where I read that. It was years ago.
I think I will check into her books. If you have one to suggest for a first read, let me know.
 
StrawberryJam said:
I’ve heard about Flannery O’Conner before, and I liked very much something it is alleged she said about the eucharist. Something along the lines of, if it is symbolic…

Well, I think it’s best I leave it there. I can’t even recall where I read that. It was years ago.
I think I will check into her books. If you have one to suggest for a first read, let me know.
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Code: 
"Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. [Mary McCarthy] said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the 'most portable' person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, 'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it.' That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."
It’s from *Habit of Being. *I love that quote, too.
 
Roman_Catholic said:
It would depend on the atheist I guess. However, since I do not know any atheists nor have I ever met someone who told me that they were an atheist, I am beginning to believe they do not exist.

God bless you
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Don’t know any athiests at all? I have always wondered about how that can be a factor in all this.
 
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