Not long ago I picked up a copy of the 50th-anniversary issue of American Atheist. I will leave its contents for another time, for, currently, the compelling conversation on atheism is to be found in Europe: specifically, between atheist Eugenio Scalfari and Pope Francis in the pages of the Rome newspaper La Repubblica.
Scalfari, on July 7, published his reactions to the Pope's encyclical letter Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), which had been released on July 5. He posed this question: Is it not true, in light of the enslavement in Egypt, the Babylonian Captivity of the sixth century B.C., the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, and the Holocaust of the twentieth century, that God failed to keep his promise to Abraham that he would be with his chosen people?
On Aug. 7, Scalfari offered other questions: Is there absolute truth? What is God's outlook on atheists? Is forgiveness possible for atheists? And what does the possible extinction of the human species (a theme introduced by Pope Francis in Rio de Janeiro in July) say about the power of God?
When the responses of Pope Francis were published on Sept. 11, the issues of the conscience of the atheist and truth as absolute were widely reported on.
About truth, the Bishop of Rome said something quite striking. Instead of getting himself mired in tortuous speculations about relativity and absoluteness, Francis, with an eye to the practical, declared that truth, for human beings, is something to be found in relationships with others.
Not denying Jesus' affirmation "I am ... the truth" (John 14), Francis pointed out that human beings are invited by the Son of God into a discovery of our full humanity as we contemplate why God would become one of us. God's total concern for human beings, demonstrated in the Son's embrace of our human nature, leads quite naturally to recognition of the fact that God loves and forgives all human beings, including those who do not attain an explicit faith in him.
Pope Francis also commented on the faith of the Jewish people, stating that the endurance of the people's faith through all manner and severity of calamities is an encouragement to all who are struggling with faith.
The matter of the extinction of the human race is the most obscure of the themes treated between Scalfari and Francis. There is confusion which arises from the tendency to look only to the course of humanity in this earthly existence. Francis, of course, alludes to an eternal inheritance for humanity; it is no wonder that this expectation, not held by Scalfari, tends to shut down an element of the dialogue.
These are difficult things to think about. We cannot lose sight of the fact that this exchange is between two people who together seek to articulate truth, and who go about this task with mutual respect and esteem. All of us must seek to do likewise.