What to Do About a Culture of Unbelief

[WanderAimlessly]

Figured this was the best place for this one:

What to Do About a Culture of Unbelief
Vatican Study Emphasizes Need to Witness to God’s Love

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 3, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Disaffection is growing, both in regard to militant atheism as well as the traditional faith in the cultures of the secularized West, states a Vatican document.

What should be the Church’s response to this challenge? asks the study published by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Full Story

PF

 

[Hitetlen]

Two quotes from the article:

“The importance of witnessing the beauty of being a person loved by God.”

Is it not true then that ALL people are equally loved by God? I suspected that, but it is nice to see it affirmed straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Show to the nonbelievers, indifferent to the question of God but open to human values, that to be truly human, is to be religious, that man finds the fullness of his humanity in Christ, true God and true man, and that Christianity is a good news for all men and women in all cultures.”

Now if this is not arrogant and condescending, I don’t know what is? So only the believers are “truly human”? Unbelivers are sub-humans? No wonder we are not loved by God. The authors will not gain respect for such blantantly arrogant utterences.

 

[Jeanette_L]

Hitetlen:

Two quotes from the article:

Is it not true then that ALL people are equally loved by God? I suspected that, but it is nice to see it affirmed straight from the horse’s mouth.
Now if this is not arrogant and condescending, I don’t know what is? So only the believers are “truly human”? Unbelivers are sub-humans? No wonder we are not loved by God. The authors will not gain respect for such blantantly arrogant utterences.

Why would you consider one man’s opinion arrogant and not your own also? Without absolutes, it’s a free-for-all and no one’s opinion is any more arrogant than another’s.

 

[Maranatha]

Hitetlen:

Two quotes from the article:

Is it not true then that ALL people are equally loved by God? I suspected that, but it is nice to see it affirmed straight from the horse’s mouth.
Now if this is not arrogant and condescending, I don’t know what is? So only the believers are “truly human”? Unbelivers are sub-humans? No wonder we are not loved by God. The authors will not gain respect for such blantantly arrogant utterences.

I’m not sure how good the translation or how thoughtful the initial words were but I would suggest that the phrase “truly human” be changed to “fully human.” Non-religious are not sub-human but they also do not reach their full potential.

 

[mosher]

I think in many ways our time is no different than that of the early Church. If you look at the historical milue that it was in - particularly in Rome - one can easily see that the ferment of secularism and religious indifferentism was just as much a part of their lives as ours. However, it seems that the Church did a much better job of witnessing in those days. We need to return to being dynamically faithful. All the pagans writting about the Christians even those who despised Christians were amazed at the measure of true love that was freely dispensed by the Christians. I think that is why it is timely that the Holy Father wrote an encyclical on Divine Love. We must once again take up the banner of Christ and be not afraid in proclaiming him in our daily lives from our homes to our friends to the workplace. As many early saints expressed; it is better to loose all the world for the sake of Christ then to lose Christ for the sake of the world.

 

[Hitetlen]

Maranatha:

I’m not sure how good the translation or how thoughtful the initial words were but I would suggest that the phrase “truly human” be changed to “fully human.” Non-religious are not sub-human but they also do not reach their full potential.

Not to be considered “fully human” is also condescending. And the idea that “full potential” can only be reached via subscribing to an unsubstantiated belief system is nothing but an opinion, and questionable at that. There is no need to try and whitewash the article, it speaks for itself.

 

[mosher]

Hitetlen:

Not to be considered “fully human” is also condescending. And the idea that “full potential” can only be reached via subscribing to an unsubstantiated belief system is nothing but an opinion, and questionable at that. There is no need to try and whitewash the article, it speaks for itself.

However, it is true to say that a person apart from the Divine Life is not expressing the fullness of their humanity.

 

[Hitetlen]

Jeanette L:

Why would you consider one man’s opinion arrogant and not your own also? Without absolutes, it’s a free-for-all and no one’s opinion is any more arrogant than another’s.

Not true at all. I don’t look down on believers and don’t consider them not “truly human”, even though our opinions differ diametrically.

 

[Hitetlen]

mosher:

However, it is true to say that a person apart from the Divine Life is not expressing the fullness of their humanity.

Only in your opinion.