Are Athiest Necessary In The World?

[Groo the Wanderer]

even satan believes in God...

[fides' Jack]

[quote name='Ice_nine' timestamp='1333563064' post='2412930']
athiests r groce
[/quote]

Does that mean that they purchase a lot of produce?

[Annie12]

[quote name='Mark of the Cross' timestamp='1335042456' post='2421725']
Atheists are in fact necessary. Without atheism there could be no free will.
[/quote]
I don't think this is true. The Virgin Mary had free will but she was also perfect. sin is not a requirement of free will and neither is unbelief. Free will means you can chose to do God's will or your own but if your will is sinful there will be eternal consequences (in the case of unconfessed mortal sin). Even a perfect person like the Virgin Mary had free will but she just freely chose to do God's will. And God gives us free will not atheists

[Mark of the Cross]

[quote name='Annie12' timestamp='1335375601' post='2423253']
I don't think this is true. The Virgin Mary had free will but she was also perfect. sin is not a requirement of free will and neither is unbelief. Free will means you can chose to do God's will or your own but if your will is sinful there will be eternal consequences (in the case of unconfessed mortal sin). Even a perfect person like the Virgin Mary had free will but she just freely chose to do God's will. And God gives us free will not atheists
[/quote]
I suppose that even if everyone were theists we could still make choices about sinning or not. What I meant is that for love to be pure it has to be chosen freely. No coersion such as hell if don't or heaven if you do! Nothing impure can enter heaven! To me this is not about sin, because we are all sinners and you can't unsin, you can only be forgiven sins. What God wants is for us to freely chose to love him completely. Unconditional love! Then it is pure. I have maybe incorrectly equated atheism to rejection of God and theism to this unconditional love. If there are no atheists then we must all be theists or agnostics which doesn't give the full choice of rejection or acceptance of Gods amesome love. Does that make sense?

[Mark of the Cross]

BTW I don't agree that atheists are gross. Many of my friends are atheists and some are more Christian than many Catholics I know. Cardinal Pell said on QandA that atheists have the possibility of salvation. I thought that was awwwwsome or better still awww-a-lot. I believe that by our prayers we can bring good atheists into the kingdom of God. So pray for atheists, don't despise them, they are our neighbours.