This is a couple months old so someone may have posted it before but it's the first I saw it. I thought it was pretty crazy he would get out in front of the story like this.
#sexslavenuns
[bbc.com]
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.This is disgusting yet not surprising.
Pope Francis (the atheist) is the most ethical and progressive of all the popes in history.
I'm convinced, based on his proclamations to believers around the world (that the big bang theory and evolution are true) that he lost his faith somewhere along the way. An inevitable occurrence, for any decent human, after years of church crimes and improprieties, as well as seeing the devastation around the globe (that a powerful God does nothing about?).
Mother Teresa wrote about this very thing in her diaries. She'd questioned how a God could allow such suffering in the world and questioned her belief. Some speculate she died a non believer but continued on her path having set her purpose in life, at one point, with no turning back.
If the Pope admitted to his non belief, or diminished belief, it would devastate many millions of people. Instead, he is using what power he has to help resolve the systematic problems in the Catholic church and possibly restore people's faith in their religion.
Of course this is just my opinion. The Pope is not sending me personal text messages.
Athena
Level 8
May 3, 2019
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I won't argue against any of that. There are some studies going on which are trying to get an idea of just how many priest and preachers are really atheists. Some estimate as high as 50% but it's something that's very hard to get good numbers on. Last I heard they had identified over 600 of them. These high estimations are actually coming from priests that have come out and left the church. It never really occurred to anyone that there might be a large number of both the clergy and lay people that are actually atheists. It could be as much as half of all the people in church every Sunday are atheists. This may seem very weird at first but it really does make sense. There is no benefit to coming out as an atheist, in fact, you will likely be punished. There are real benefits to going along and pretending to believe on the other hand. Many of these priests that have admitted it and continue to stay in the church explain they have little choice since it's their career. They will lose everything and be left with no way to support themselves while others just think they are still doing good and can best serve their fellow humans by pretending God is real. There is also a real science branch of the Catholic church that has very smart, well-educated people. They are certainly atheists from the interviews I have seen of them even though they don't directly admit it.
Interesting - thank you.
Sam Harris has spoken before about how he receives email from clergy who have lost their faith. They say there is no way to leave their church, for the reasons you cited.
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