A note on religious hypocrisy -- 500th posting!

500th posting!!

Plenty of people in my life remain dumbfounded as to why I'm not religious. Aside from the fact that nothing positive in my life has ever been linked to religion, is the fact that many of those of the Christian stripe provide poor references for their faith because of their utter hypocrisy.

To quote George Orwell on Socialism: "As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents."

George makes a good point. Adding more weight to this general antipathy toward faith of any kind, I give you the story of Tennessee State Senator, Paul Stanley.

Senator Stanley preaches evangelical values and a socially conservative agenda. He's a Republican.

What makes him a poor advertisement for evangelical Christianity is his utter hypocrisy.

Of course, many apologists will give bumper sticker responses to my claim: Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. Hate the sin, love the sinner, etc.

I call bullshit on those sloganistic rationalization for bad behavior.

There's a real simple solution to all this hypocrisy: Don't be a hypocrite. Do what you say. Preach, not with your mouth, but with the example of your life.

I know many atheists and agnostics. Not a one engages in such immoral behavior.

So this begs the question: Maybe its faith that makes people morally weak? You gotta create a problem in order to sell the solution...right?

I don't know. I do know that such hypocrisy is what keeps many people from organized religion.

Faith eludes the faithful when death comes knocking

This study tells me one thing: The religious aren't less afraid of death and neither are hey more certain about an afterlife. It's just a show.

For awhile, I suspected that religion fills a need for certainty in an uncertain world.

Certainty is a pipe dream. Nothing is fixed and no one knows what happens after death, despite what religion tells us.

Too many willingly believe in an afterlife, but studies such as this give credence to the fact that those beliefs provide little guidance when death calls.

It takes great courage to face death with the knowledge that the end is near. Holding onto beliefs in spite of supporting evidence may be fine while death seems distant, yet when those beliefs get tested the truth hits like a slap in the face.

True courage requires no fantasy of an afterlife to soften the possible truth of existence, viz., that this is all there is.

Atheists suffer at the hands of the religious

This article suggests that prejudice against atheism is why many American atheists are less happy than their religious brethren.

Prejudice of any sort makes the victims of it suffer, so this stands to reason.

Interesting.