GIVING WITNESS TO GOD THE FATHER: CHRISTIAN ANSWER TO ATHEISM

VATICAN CITY, APR 14, 1999 (VIS) - In today's Wednesday general audience held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke on "Giving Witness to God the Father: The Christian Answer to Atheism."

"A person's religious orientation," said the Pope, "comes from their condition as a creature, leading them to long for God, who created them in his image and likeness."

Unfortunately, as a consequence of sin, the intimate vital link with God "is lived by the person in a delicate and contradictory way. ... Secularism is seen to be especially destructive, with its indifference to the last things and faith."

The Holy Father said that the Holy Scriptures do not mention "theoretical" atheism, but "are concerned with rejecting 'practical' atheism. ... More than atheism, the Bible speaks of impiety and idolatry. The impious and idolaters are those who, instead of God, prefer things of this world, which are falsely claimed to be divine."

"Atheism," he continued, "can also become a form of intolerant ideology, as history illustrates. The past two centuries have known currents of theoretical atheism which denied God in the name of a claimed absolute autonomy of man, nature or science. ... This systematic atheism has been imposed for decades, offering the illusion that, by eliminating God, the person would be both psychologically and socially freer."

The Pope said that, faced with forms of atheism and its ideological aims, "the Church does not discount the serious study of psychological and sociological factors of the religious phenomenon, but does firmly reject the interpretation of religiosity as a projection of the human psyche or as a result of sociological conditions."

The proclamation of the Gospel and the witness of the true face of God the Father are "the most convincing answer to atheism because it enables one to discover God's goodness and mercy."

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