"He who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the devil."

[dimbear]

A quotation from Leon Bloy, as used by Pope Francis in his first homily.
If you are having a little trouble integrating that with his most recent homily where Francis claims 'good' atheists are also redeemed, you are not alone.

[Shrike47]

1. I don't much pray in any direction.

[EvilAL]

2. Either you're with us, or with the terrorists.

[Dawson Leery]

3. What does that commandment say about worshiping idols (statues/rosary)?

[DesertFlower]

4. i don't pray and i'm a good atheist.

[Leontius]

5. I've never liked those kind of black or white statements when dealing with

faith and belief or the lack of it, especially as the starting point.

[Warpy]

6. I never pray at all

and haven't done since I was about 10 and admitted there had never been anyone on the other end of that prayer line.

It seems like a pretty silly statement to me.

However, it's nice of him to notice that atheists can be good people.

[rug]

7. Try the converse.

Léon Bloy was an interesting man. Thanks for the reminder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Bloy

[Warren Stupidity]

9. Neither the pope nor Bloy intended that the converse is true.

[rug]

10. Try it anyway.

[Lordquinton]

11. Conversely not praying to the devil is praying to god?

so not praying at all means praying to both god and the devil?

[Phillip McCleod]

8. oh yes.. i understand some lib believers are making hay out of that tidbit..

..in their rush to gullibly gulp down every morsel of spin he silver-spoon-feeds them.

but imo without thinking about the context of the statement both within his homily and within the religion. it's not a positive statement about the future of church-atheist relations.. it's yet one more stretched out effort to redefine the terms of the debate to favor the church.

in the context of the homily.. he was telling a story that revolved around whether or not 'atheists had been redeemed by Jesus' and answered in the affirmative.

now i get that in their infinite privilege, christians will tend to be blind to why that's no different that a child asking a parent if kids in india are visited by santa.. the only honest and true answers are either that there is no such thing as santa, and/or anyway indian kids don't believe in him so his lack of visitations don't matter.. every other response involves, minimally, much dissembling.

..which brings up the religious context of redemption. from what? from original sin?

that's like saying we should all worship some long-dead guy named 'Phil'.. no relation of course.. because he saved us all from having beaks and three arms. see we never had beaks or a third arm, so it's silly to worship Phil for saving us from that tragic fate.

no original sin, no need for redemption.

so.. no compliment from pope fanny. just more of the same in another tired guise.