Why are atheists so upset at the Pope?

I have seen threads posted by atheists here and articles elsewhere praising the Pope. Now I see threads posted by atheists here and articles elsewhere condemning the Pope.

Why are my fellow atheists wavering on the subject of religious leadership? You can read the Bible and realize that is exactly what the Pope's beliefs are based on. You can read the Bible and make a pretty safe assumption that he is likely to say stupid things that contradict what we believe to be good and dignified. So why be surprised when something silly and stupid is muttered? Consider the source.

 

Why would Atheist even care what the pope says? They do not follow his religious teaching or are even religious. I do not think even Protestants should care one way or the other. Only Catholics. I am not Catholic, so I don't give a hoot what he says. Let Catholics praise or condemn, he is their leader, not mine and certainly not atheists.

 

I think it was his comments about gay marriage and people are like "AHA! He supports gay marriage!".

Then they get sad when he says something stupid.

 

Okay, perhaps I am weird as I do not care what the pope thinks on SSM or anything else for that matter. I will make up my own mind. If I was an atheist, which I am not, I wouldn't be paying the pope much attention if any at all. I guess I am missing the point. I fail to understand or see why anyone outside of Catholics would pay any attention to this guy.

 

Exactly my point.

 

We totally agree. Perhaps I read much more into your post than was there. I do that from time to time.

 

Atheists have generally appreciated the man because he seems to be genuinely committed to bringing christianity into the 21st century. Most of us would like to see religious leaders act and think more humanely than they have done (and sometimes still do), so invest a little affection for men and women who appear brave enough to put humans ahead of outmoded dogma.

Naturally, this then opens the door for potential disappointment when they 'fail'. Silly, but most human

 

The pope's word carries some clout, when he says things, people listen and make real life changes, changes that don't just go away for people who are not Catholics. Should atheists also not care about the 9/11 attacks or am I missing something?

I have a hard time thinking you'll get a fair representation of the popes' beliefs by just reading the Bible. There are many good points to be made by comparing the beliefs of some Christians with that which they claim is the source, the Bible, but to actually believe them when they say their beliefs are a carbon copy of the Bible would be an unfair representation of Christianity in practice.

 

Because he teaches a belief system that takes people away from science, for one thing, and he's possibly the #1 most popular religious figure in the world, so he takes people away from science more than just about anybody alive.....to believe the Pope is a great guy is to, indirectly at least, believe in the non-scientific non-sense that the book he promotes teaches.

 

seems to me many Atheists like this Pope, it's many Christians on the right that seem to have issues with the man

I do not believe in the man's religion, but I think he is doing a good job.....


.

 

So by your logic non-Germans, and non-Nazis, should have just ignored that guy named "Adolf" something or other.

 

If the Pope was anything but an intellectual coward he'd simply change the barbaric texts that he endorses (just remove the parts that say to kill gays and that gays don't get into heaven - Leviticus and Romans, for example. Intellectual. Coward. I for one, am not impressed by this guy. Change the texts, Francis, and I will be very impressed.

 

Yeah, his latest encyclical has just converted climate change into a religious belief, just as it should be.

 

Yes, on that issue he does seem to try to be siding with scientists....too bad he's too stupid to remove the oh so scientifically-correct talking donkey from the book that he pushes.

 

The Church also sided with the 'flat-earth' scientists as well.

 

So obviously we can't trust the clergy to give us the actual truth.

 

Personally, I do not listen to anything the Pope, or any other "religious" leader has to say as I consider them all to be methods of an attempt to control the thoughts of the people and meaningless. Hence, I do not get "upset" or angry, just amused.

 

Who is upset over the pope? The biggest opponents of the pope that I've seen are conservatives, not Atheists.

 

As an atheist myself I cannot say I'm too excited about the popes; previous or current. However, you still would like to see someone decent running the church I used to belong to and most of my family are still members of. Every time a new pope is elected you're hopeful that the Catholic Church will take a step into the right direction without taking two steps back... And he does look more prosperous as a leader than the previous one...

 

Stupid? That would cause a massive schism in catholicism, effectively breaking it apart. I mean, this is more or less exactly what caused the 30 years war. I'm on your side in many questions, but I think the view you present of the religious world is a bit simplistic. Many non-religious people seem to (knowingly or unknowingly) disregard the massive politics that inevitably hangs around religious issues. I think this goes a lot deeper than the pope just being a bit dim.

 

Then obviously what a pathetically weak belief system if being scientifically correct would "break it apart"! IT'S A TALKING DONKEY! Intellectual cowards.

 

What's "simplistic" is a man who has the world-wide influence that he has but is to much of a simpleton to just say "you know, we need to take a real hard look at the unscientific stuff in our 'best book of all time', and let's start with talking animals - snakes and donkeys."
This isn't rocket science.....but apparently to the Pope it is.
He's a simpleton.

Please raise your standards, Swennson.

 

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Exactly. Pope Francis deepens rift with U.S. conservatives I daresay he's the #1 religious enemy of the conservatives/religious right....even before atheists.

 

My favorite part was when Marco Rubio said that Pope Francis should stay out of science, forgetting that the Pope had a degree in chemistry.

 

I guess the Pope skipped school the day that the science teacher taught that talking donkeys, talking snakes, unicorns, and dragons are not scientifically-correct.