CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to more fully discover God.<\/p>\n\tWhile actual atheists often think deeply about God before rejecting belief, practical atheism \u201cis even more destructive \u2026 because it leads to indifference towards faith and the question of God,\u201d the Pope stated.<\/p>\n
\tHis fourth installment in a series of lessons on faith was delivered Nov. 14 to an overflow crowd of nearly 7,000 in the Pope Paul VI Hall, near St. Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n
\tBenedict XVI focused his address on the challenge of witnessing to Christ in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
\tChristian witness is always hard, he said, because people are prone to \u201cbeing dazzled by the glitter of worldliness,\u201d but in the Western world sharing the faith is even harder today.<\/p>\n
\tAs he described it, the Christian faith was the everyday reality for most people in what used to be called Christendom. The burden was on non-believers to justify their disbelief.<\/p>\n
\tBut today the tables have turned following a long slide into atheism, skepticism and a secular worldview that was ushered in by the Enlightenment.<\/p>\n
\tThis, in turn, has paved the way for moral and spiritual disaster in the Western world. People have become confused about ethics once commonly held, making room for relativism and fostering \u201can ambiguous conception of freedom, which instead of being liberating ends up binding man to idols,\u201d the Pope said.<\/p>\n
\tIn response to the ensuing moral and spiritual chaos, Pope Benedict called on all people to discover God by following three paths.<\/p>\n
\tThe first path involves contemplating creation. \u201cThe world is not a shapeless magma, but the more we know, the more we discover the amazing mechanisms, the more we see a pattern, we see that there is a creative intelligence,\u201d the pontiff remarked.<\/p>\n
\tThe second way of finding God is through inner contemplation. The Holy Father quoted St. Augustine\u2019s famous saying, \u201cDo not go outside yourself, come back into yourself: truth dwells in the heart of man.\u201d He also observed that the modern world is full of distractions that make it hard \u201cto stop and take a deep look within ourselves and read that thirst for the infinite that we carry within, pushing us to go further and towards that Someone who can satisfy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe third path, faith, is a dimly lit path for many people who view it as a limited aspect of life, if not a form of \u201cillusion, escapism\u2026or sentimentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut in reality, the Pope stated, faith concerns the truth about mankind and our eternal destinies.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFaith \u2026 is an encounter with God who speaks and acts in history and which converts our daily life, transforming our mentality, system of values, choices and actions,\u201d he said. Faith is \u201cnot illusion, escapism, a comfortable shelter, sentimentality, but involvement in every aspect of life and proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News which can liberate all of man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tYet, many people consider Christianity as a mere system of beliefs and morals instead of God\u2019s self-revelation in history so that he could have a loving relationship with his creatures.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cChristianity, before being a moral or ethical value, is the experience of love, of welcoming the person of Jesus,\u201d Pope Benedict stated, calling on all Christians to learn better the faith they profess and purify their lives in conformity with Christ.<\/p>\n
\tAfter the Pope summarized his message in different languages and prayed the Our Father in Latin, the visiting men and boys of England\u2019s Choir of Westminster Abbey burst into a joyful hymn.<\/p>\n
\tJim and Joyce Vieland, visiting Rome for the first time with other pilgrims from the Diocese of Cleveland, were enthralled by the experience.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt was tranquil, yet joyous,\u201d said Mr. Vieland of Chardon, Ohio. \u201cWhat I took away was the message that if you give joy to Jesus, then others, you yourself will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMrs. Vieland rejoiced in the unity of Catholicism on display in the hall, with so many people from around the world professing their common faith.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI believe that if more people came to Rome to see the unity of the Church, they\u2019d become closer to our Lord,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n
![](\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\")
<\/a>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/Tfk-46uzhCk\")
<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/\",\"name\":\"'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"‘Practical atheism’ more destructive than disbelief, Pope says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says","description":"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says","og_description":"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/","name":"'Practical atheism' more destructive than disbelief, Pope says","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-14T17:45:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Vatican City, Nov 14, 2012 \/ 10:45 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The practical atheism of those who say they are Christian but live as if God does not exist is a greater threat than actual atheism, Pope Benedict XVI said as he presented three ways for people to...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/practical-atheism-more-destructive-than-disbelief-pope-says\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘Practical atheism’ more destructive than disbelief, Pope says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}