Any other atheists out there siding with the Pope over the President, VP, and House Speaker?

[Collimator]

58. Yes. Ultimately, it is about the values and not about any supernatural claims.

I strive towards a rational materialist view of the universe. That being said, there are a great many values/tenets/beliefs that are preached by any number of religions that I embrace as worthy and moral.

I don't have to believe that a divine being sent his son to earth to live as a human in order to accept some of the teachings attributed to Christ. I no longer believe in the notion of American Exceptionalism, but I still embrace the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence that all people are created equal and have the intrinsic right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

This current Pope espouses ideas that I agree with; Popes of the past have been horrible people. Many of the Founding Fathers were hypocrites who held their fellow human beings in bondage while waxing poetic about freedom. (And aren't we all still paying for that Original Sin.)

We are constantly failing and falling short of our lofty principles. And we are continually refining those principles and expanding upon them. I believe that redemption is a possibility; but I define it differently than many religions do.