Are all Christians blindly hypocritical?

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I was raised in a pretty fundamentalist church. In my time there, I met 1 couple who personified what a christian should be. They were kind and generous. You could almost feel the love that they radiated outward to everyone. They didn't judge.

bob there are a lot of wonderful Christians out there, I don't know why, but Christian bashers seem to look for the worse in all of them.

Yes, for the most part. It is almost impossible for them to follow any existing major Christian denomination and not be. Perhaps some who reject all of the organized churches and truly live according to the teachings of Jesus are not. But they are very rare.

Regardless, my favorite facebook friend is a girl I knew from my youth who was a high school dropout but now is quite sure she has the universe all figured out and that we all better follow her faith or perish. Yes, old friend, I will take your word for it. You may have failed Algebra 1, but you clearly are the smartest person on Earth.

reply to post by Stormdancer777



There are more hypocritical, "other religion hating", "think they are better", "damning the sinners", "on a high horse" Christians than the good humbled ones.

reply to post by luciddream


Don't forget taking responsibility for your actions.

"Yes, I was caught in a hotel room with strippers and _______. I was having a midlife crisis, I'm getting old, my wife doesn't do much for me anymore. Don't worry though, I got it out my system! Still love me?"

vs.

The devil took control of my body, I have no idea where that male prostitute came from, but I swear I just paid him to carry my luggage. What? That? Oh you looked in my sock drawer, yes, uh, well I was helping a young demon possessed man out and he gave me that to hold on to... etc, etc, etc.. Oh and that adulterous hussy down the street, you can't still be mad at that? She lured me with her godless witchcraft."

Originally posted by Dynamike
I dont understand why it is ok for people to post their love of Jesus or God on my facebook without fear of criticism and yet when I try to thumb up a simple logical argument presented by Epicurus (A philosopher born before Jesus) who stated, "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"- Why do I get bashed senselessly by Christians?

How often do Atheists ridicule or bash Christians? They don't because Atheists are those of us who have enough logic and an ability to discover truths that others are not prudent enough to find. With this amount of intelligence comes such qualities and patience, kindness, understanding of others, and respect.

What kind of oppression has Atheism brought upon our society? It has not. Atheism is not about oppression but about release of the mind bound by the constraints set by our forefathers who sought to enslave himself.

I just felt compelled to respond to the 3 paragraphs above... First Epicurus has no concept of "original sin" and the gift of self-determination. If he did, he would understand that his senile rambling of circular logic wouldn't hold even a drop of water.

Next, are you kidding me? Atheists are the most DISRESPECTFUL group of people I have ever encountered! Their liberal hypocrisy knows no limits in ridiculing those with religious beliefs. It may surprise you to know, that the vast majority of us who practice religion have nothing but tolerance and respect for your views - despite the fact that we may disagree with you. In fact, that whole paragraph is a prime example; "Not prudent enough"!? Oh please do enlighten us with your endless wisdom and immediately disprove the existence of God - we're anxiously waiting so that we immediately cease being imprudent, and begin exhibiting "kindness, understand of others and respect" that comes with such "intelligence". Do you even see the hypocrisy and ridicule of that single paragraph????????

Finally, and this is a VERY important concept... The first Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees everyone Freedom OF religion, NOT Freedom FROM religion. How have atheists oppressed? Simple - by preventing my First Amendment Right to freely express my religion! You are also entitled to freely express your ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy - I'm not trying to stop you as it is your right. And you are exercising it feverishly!

Originally posted by boncho
Okay, well just point me to all the mass murdering people who were raised by atheists please. That is how this came about, supposedly atheism killed more people than religious did.

Although we've clearly seen that most of those people in that list were raised under some religion. It should be easy to just point out a few that were raised by atheists or agnostics...

Time will tell, I suppose, though atheists have one of the lowest "retention rates" -- only thirty percent of those raised as atheists remain so into adulthood.



Raised that way or not, the atheistic Cult of Reason during the French Revolution certainly believed in killing Christians simply because they were religious.

Originally posted by Grumble
Yes, for the most part. It is almost impossible for them to follow any existing major Christian denomination and not be. Perhaps some who reject all of the organized churches and truly live according to the teachings of Jesus are not. But they are very rare.

Regardless, my favorite facebook friend is a girl I knew from my youth who was a high school dropout but now is quite sure she has the universe all figured out and that we all better follow her faith or perish. Yes, old friend, I will take your word for it. You may have failed Algebra 1, but you clearly are the smartest person on Earth.

You definitely can be a genius and be bad at math. This should be common knowledge, but for some reason is not.

Multiple intelligences

Also, someone only good at algebra can be a savant.

Savant Syndrome

Originally posted by adjensen

Originally posted by boncho
Okay, well just point me to all the mass murdering people who were raised by atheists please. That is how this came about, supposedly atheism killed more people than religious did.

Although we've clearly seen that most of those people in that list were raised under some religion. It should be easy to just point out a few that were raised by atheists or agnostics...

Time will tell, I suppose, though atheists have one of the lowest "retention rates" -- only thirty percent of those raised as atheists remain so into adulthood.

Raised that way or not, the atheistic Cult of Reason during the French Revolution certainly believed in killing Christians simply because they were religious.

That is because the atheist can become an agnostic, which means they are no longer atheist. By the same token someone strict (inset religion) can drop the formalities and just consider themselves spiritual agnostic. Basically the poll does not tell us much, imo.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


That is true.

My experience was exactly as I said. There are plenty of good Christians out there but only a few that in my opinion exemplify the true spirit of the teachings of Jesus.

This is getting ridiculous. Regardless of whether or not you are religious, everyone has said or done something that is hypocritical. This is not something that is exclusive to Christians. These threads where an atheist bashes a Christian for bashing an atheist for bashing a Christian, and so on, are getting out of control. In my opinion as soon as one of these threads pops up, they should be shut down. They serve no purpose other than enraging the other side.

reply to post by Dynamike

How often do Atheists ridicule or bash Christians? They don't because Atheists are those of us who have enough logic and an ability to discover truths that others are not prudent enough to find. With this amount of intelligence comes such qualities and patience, kindness, understanding of others, and respect.

This quote is laughable at best. I have read hundreds of threads on ATS over the years and Atheists are just as rude, zealous, name calling , and condescending as many Christians. So maybe you need to be a little more truthful and unbiased when you create a thread to only further flame the whole debate. With a thread title like you created it doesn't take much brain power to see what your motives are.
Once again we are all graced with a childish attempt to gain stars and flags by a know it all atheist. Sad...

Originally posted by Malcher
That is because the atheist can become an agnostic, which means they are no longer atheist. By the same token someone strict (inset religion) can drop the formalities and just consider themselves spiritual agnostic. Basically the poll does not tell us much, imo.

What do you mean, it does not tell us much? It says that people of religion tend to stick with it, and those born into an atheist household tend not to stick with atheism. No, it doesn't mean that atheists automatically turn into Bible beaters, but it obviously means that an awful lot of them find something lacking in saying that there is no God after having been raised that way.

That doesn't mean anything?

reply to post by randomname

what kind of oppression has atheism caused humanity?

is that a serious question.

communism for starters. stalin, pol pot, the kim jung's, ho chi minh, mae zedong, benito mussolini all responsible for well over 100 million deaths and almost causing world war 3, nuclear annihilation of the human race.

What we have here is a choice between war on freedom of thought and war on freedom of property. The atheists want to have the monopoly on all physical resources, while the religious zealots want the monopoly on all psychological motivators.

At this point, I'm seriously pondering the plausibility of the "catch-22" theorem: the atheists and theists are just throwing us back and forth as needed to keep a complete monopoly of the earth itself. The atheists trade resources in return for spiritually influenced loyalty, and the theists trade spiritually influenced loyalty for their resources to keep the spirit machine running. And the spirit machine gives the people the psychological motivation to keep churning the resource machine, which trades shares to the people who are running the spiritual machine.

It's a game of catch, and we're the effing ball. Make sense to anyone?

Originally posted by Cabalis
enraging the other side.

Problem right there:

"The other side".

The same BS as in politics. Black/White, Red/Blue. This is how people think. Opinion A against opinion B.

How about if people start to think for themselves? Because, then, at some point, you will find out that this polarized thinking is stupid, only LIMITS yourself! As in terms for religion, there might be good points in Christianity and good points in Atheism, or Buddhism or X or Y or Z. HINT: None of them was given the "real truth" at birth, they are just prisoners in their own belief systems and indoctrinations.

There is no rule forbidding you to start to see beyond those limitations. TRUE spirituality and "knowing the truth" can be anywhere, between, or a knowledge which is entirely new. The fact what religion someone "belongs to" is as meaningful as a sack of rice in China. Stop thinking in two "sides" which contradict each other, or "feeling" you belong to one side which needs to be defended against "the other" opinion.

Originally posted by kozmo

Originally posted by Dynamike
I dont understand why it is ok for people to post their love of Jesus or God on my facebook without fear of criticism and yet when I try to thumb up a simple logical argument presented by Epicurus (A philosopher born before Jesus) who stated, "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"- Why do I get bashed senselessly by Christians?

How often do Atheists ridicule or bash Christians? They don't because Atheists are those of us who have enough logic and an ability to discover truths that others are not prudent enough to find. With this amount of intelligence comes such qualities and patience, kindness, understanding of others, and respect.

What kind of oppression has Atheism brought upon our society? It has not. Atheism is not about oppression but about release of the mind bound by the constraints set by our forefathers who sought to enslave himself.

I just felt compelled to respond to the 3 paragraphs above... First Epicurus has no concept of "original sin" and the gift of self-determination. If he did, he would understand that his senile rambling of circular logic wouldn't hold even a drop of water.

Next, are you kidding me? Atheists are the most DISRESPECTFUL group of people I have ever encountered! Their liberal hypocrisy knows no limits in ridiculing those with religious beliefs. It may surprise you to know, that the vast majority of us who practice religion have nothing but tolerance and respect for your views - despite the fact that we may disagree with you. In fact, that whole paragraph is a prime example; "Not prudent enough"!? Oh please do enlighten us with your endless wisdom and immediately disprove the existence of God - we're anxiously waiting so that we immediately cease being imprudent, and begin exhibiting "kindness, understand of others and respect" that comes with such "intelligence". Do you even see the hypocrisy and ridicule of that single paragraph????????

Finally, and this is a VERY important concept... The first Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees everyone Freedom OF religion, NOT Freedom FROM religion. How have atheists oppressed? Simple - by preventing my First Amendment Right to freely express my religion! You are also entitled to freely express your ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy - I'm not trying to stop you as it is your right. And you are exercising it feverishly!

Exactly , I find it amusing that while this whole thread is about the hypocrisy of Christians and how ugly they are to atheist..........

Its the Atheist on here that are posting the rudest, most disrepsectful, condescending, and self important stuff ive seen all week......

And its the people who have some sort of faith or religion, that are showing the restraint and tolerance........

That to me is more telling........

right from the opening post:

No matter if you are Christian or Atheist we need to show respect for each other. Stop trying to bind each other in your beliefs hoping to change mankind on a whole. It will never happen at once. The information that everyone seeks is out there on the web. Let everyone decide for themselves what they believe. Because who knows, maybe Atheists AND Christians are both wrong. Maybe there is no God, Christians; Maybe there is a God, Atheists. Maybe the answer is us. Maybe we are God. And as such maybe we should act how you would imagine a God should.

PERHAPS we just need mOar of this type thinking in the world TODAY!!

reply to post by adjensen

Raised that way or not, the atheistic Cult of Reason during the French Revolution certainly believed in killing Christians simply because they were religious.

Thank god that one faded out for the atheist's sake. (Irony intended)

I’ve used the Cult of Reason before to demonstrate the difference between what atheism might look like if it were a religion, and what it is now. It actually personified Reason as a goddess, so whether it was strictly atheistic is debatable. It was physically violently anti-religious, something which wasn’t seen again until Communism. And of course Robespierre shut it down within a year, and no one seems to have even tried to revive it. Call it a failed experiment.

What the Cult and Communism had in common was the main problem with both, really: they were pseudo-religious all-encompassing ideologies, which happened to not only be superficially atheistic but see themselves as incompatible with even the existence of nearby religion. Atheism itself isn’t an ideology, a philosophy or even a worldview. It’s a position on one specific issue, which allows for the existence of contrary positions in the same room. It just doesn’t have the same drive behind it.

asktheatheist.com...

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask


I feel compelled to defend one particular argument of Epicurus that has not been answered even once when I brought it to light. And I have posted it several times.

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus

I have looked over his philosophies, and a great many of them leave me scratching my head. But the above is the diamond in the rough, the questions that I have not had answered for the duration of my time spent here. So let's not generalize here. If we are to call his theories hogwash, then let us prove they are hogwash, starting with his words quoted above.

I must say, it is quote relevant to the actual topic of this thread. For if "God" can be proven to be flawed as shown in that theory, then the Christians who emulate him must also follow therein.

Originally posted by adjensen

Originally posted by Malcher
That is because the atheist can become an agnostic, which means they are no longer atheist. By the same token someone strict (inset religion) can drop the formalities and just consider themselves spiritual agnostic. Basically the poll does not tell us much, imo.

What do you mean, it does not tell us much? It says that people of religion tend to stick with it, and those born into an atheist household tend not to stick with atheism. No, it doesn't mean that atheists automatically turn into Bible beaters, but it obviously means that an awful lot of them find something lacking in saying that there is no God after having been raised that way.

That doesn't mean anything?

Many things can make a person fall away form atheism. Could be a life altering event, could be nature etc. So if they ask someone born to an atheist family if they are still an atheist and the response is "no" it does not mean they belong to a religious group either.

My own opinion is that most atheists are actually agnostic to begin with anyway. You know atheism and agnosticism are two different things and agnosticism is not listed so that gives me some reservations as to the validity of the poll, amongst other things.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by ManBehindTheMask

 

I feel compelled to defend one particular argument of Epicurus that has not been answered even once when I brought it to light. And I have posted it several times.

The failure of that dilemma is that it presupposes the true nature of God and reality, neither of which are known. It's akin to a child crying over the pain of an immunization, because they're ignorant of the greater good that is being done in that moment.

The problem of suffering is one that philosophers and theologians have debated for centuries, and the solution isn't going to be bundled up in some loaded paragraph.