Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Humanist Association of Germany, has criticized statements by Benedict XVI. on religiously motivated violence at the peace meeting in Assisi. In a speech on Thursday in the presence of representatives of various religions, the Pope stated that religious ideas can provide motives and justification for violence. This should be deeply disturbing for believers, said the Pope. He called on the faithful to become “pilgrims of truth and peace”. “Pope Benedict XVI has taken a necessary step here, but it should not be the last. Recognizing the potential for violence and conflict of a belief in the supernatural or scriptures that are not openly reflected upon remains indispensable if the causes of conflict and violence in the world are to be seriously discussed,” said Frieder Otto Wolf. The frequent attempts by believers to remove the effect of religious ideas and convictions on the emergence of violence from discussion are now apparently not approved by the Pope either. Benedict XVI’s appeal to the faithful to work for peace is to be welcomed. At the same time, however, the head of the Church renewed his polemic against the views of non-religious and secular communities. In his speech in Assisi, Benedict XVI claimed that the widespread rejection of belief in the supernatural in these communities would lead to the degradation of human nature. Benedict XVI also said that the existence of the German concentration camps was a consequence of such distance from God. The rejection of gods corrupts people, robs them of their standards and leads to the legitimization of limitless violence, he continued. “This defamation of secular societies and non-religious people is an absurd polemic: it insults millions of non-denominational people, not only in Germany, who lead their lives on the basis of positive ethical principles and are committed to our society without resorting to religion,” Wolf said in response to the Pope’s words. Presenting the Shoah as an atheistic phenomenon is “a perfidious act on the part of the Church leader and devalues the rest of his speech”, and ultimately lacks any scientific basis in view of the anti-Semitism anchored in Europe for many centuries by Christianity. The Pope’s renewed attempt to demonize atheists and non-religious societies in this way could only be understood as an expression of his fear of a progressive secularization throughout the world, a result of science and the increasing spread of knowledge, Wolf continued. “A possible fear of this, however, does not release Mr. Ratzinger from his personal duty of honesty, both intellectually and practically.” In this context, Frieder Otto Wolf once again pointed out that the most secular democratic societies on earth are also the most peaceful and non-violent, according to all scientific findings. He also recalled that atheists and free-thinking organizations had been banned and persecuted since the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship. In this respect, the theses propagated by Benedict XVI once again proved to be unfounded.
Wolf also criticized the Pope’s attempt in Assisi to create a bloc that sets up a contrast between atheists, agnostics and people with religious convictions. In this context, Benedict XVI said that believers should clarify their faith in order to protect those “seeking the true God” from the “false security” of “militant atheists”. Frieder Otto Wolf criticized this attempt to drive a wedge between convinced atheists and people who have left open the answer to “the practical question of life” regarding the existence of one or more gods. Instrumentalizing the human search for knowledge and the pursuit of peace among believers and agnostics in order to strengthen the weakened position of official Catholic theology and the Church in the light of current research is not a legitimate undertaking from a humanist perspective. Wolf therefore pleaded for atheists, agnostics and believers to seek more direct dialog with each other, unaffected by Benedict XVI’s defamatory and inaccurate theses, in order to get to know the actual views, experiences and perspectives in personal encounters and thus overcome unjustifiably widespread prejudices on all sides. “Anyone who seriously aspires to become a pilgrim of truth and peace could certainly gain from a direct exchange of ideas, even with seriously questioning atheist and secular-minded people,” said Wolf.
