The fundamental principle of a religion should be that one has the Right to practice what he believes in.Just as any other stream of thought, Atheism is a thought.They have a Right to their opinions.
None can deny them that.
Let us look at History.
Christianity since the day of its birth went after people to convert,calling those who do not believe in Christ to be heathens.
We know of Crusades, also of the treatment of Protestants in the hands of Catholics ( and vice versa),also of Bloody Mary and the ways of the Popes.Not only that- Christians went about proselytization on a grand scale ,by Britain through out the world.
Freedom of Thought is something of an anathema to Christianity,be it religion,or science(Galileo was forced to recant while being kept in custody).
Now Christians moan the assault of Atheism
Truth does not need the cruthces of propaganda.
Extend the courtesy of Freedom of Thought to others.
Story:
For a country that prides itself on religious tolerance, this has been a shaming week.
Thanks to the BBC and a noisy cabal of self-important atheists and Catholic-haters, we have been subjected to wall-to-wall attacks on the Pope and his Church.
Leading this vicious anti-Christian charge were Stephen Fry – who seems to get smugger by the day – and Richard Dawkins, who described Pope Benedict XVI as a ‘leering old villain in a frock . . . whose preaching is responsible for the deaths of countless Aids victims in Africa.’
Related article.
“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. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny” (Caritas in Veritate, 29).”
Even if Hitler had been an atheist, his political philosophy was not based upon atheism and had no connection with atheism. Hitler was arguably (and by his own account) a Roman Catholic. In any case he enjoyed the open support of many of the most senior catholic clergy in Germany and the less demonstrative support of Pope Pius XII. Even if Hitler had been an atheist (he certainly was not), the rank and file Germans who carried out the attempted extermination of the Jews were Christians, almost to a man: either Catholic or Lutheran, primed to their anti-Semitism by centuries of Catholic propaganda about ‘Christ-killers’ and by Martin Luther’s own seething hatred of the Jews. To mention Ratzinger’s membership of the Hitler Youth might be thought to be fighting dirty, but my feeling is that the gloves are off after this disgraceful paragraph by the pope.
http://www.alan.com/2010/09/17/richard-dawkins-furious-at-pope-for-tying-godless-to-nazis/
Catholic League president Bill Donohue reacts to the way British atheists are handling Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to their homeland:
The pope cited Hitler today, asking everyone to “reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century.” Immediately, the British Humanist Association got its back up, accusing the pope of “a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.”
The pope did not go far enough. Radical atheists like the British Humanist Association should apologize for Hitler. But they should not stop there. They also need to issue an apology for the 67 million innocent men, women and children murdered under Stalin, and the 77 million innocent Chinese killed by Mao. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all driven by a radical atheism, a militant and fundamentally dogmatic brand of secular extremism. It was this anti-religious impulse that allowed them to become mass murderers. By contrast, a grand total of 1,394 were killed during the 250 years of the Inquisition, most all of whom were murdered by secular authorities.
Why should atheists today apologize for the crimes of others? At one level, it makes no sense: apologies should only be given by the guilty. But on the other hand, since the fanatically anti-Catholic secularists in Britain, and elsewhere, demand that the pope—who is entirely innocent of any misconduct—apologize for the sins of others, let the atheists take some of their own medicine and start apologizing for all the crimes committed in their name. It might prove alembic.
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2010/09/atheists-must-apologize-for-hitler.html
By the way.did not the Catholic Church( read Pope) keep quiet during Holocaust, on the mistaken notion that it was alright that Jews were gotten rid by Hitler?
What was the relationship of the Papacy with Mussolini?
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