The Appalling Awfulness of Religious Hypocrisy

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“Land of the free, Home of the the brave” and “where anyone can, if they obey the rules and work hard can be anything they want to be.”  How many times have we heard those cliches quoted in our homes, schools, political campaigns, and in various forms of media? I guess those are admirable goals for a utopia that will never exist and in reality cannot exist. America was, is, and may always be a grand experiment with various degrees of success and failure. The major reason for this lack of absolute success is that the experiment here and elsewhere is populated by humans who have evolved to the point of self destruction. It is only a question of how much longer it will be before they actually reach that point.

Humans are simply one species of many in the grouping of mammals of the animal kingdom which, unfortunately evolved to a higher level than they were capable of controlling their behavior. They evolved both an intellect capable of creating a world with everything humans needed for the ultimate in survival in terms of living good healthy, long lives and the ability to reason how to accomplish that end. However, this same intellect created everything they needed to destroy everything that was good about the world itself. Like other animals humans had an instinct to survive and to have fears. When combined with the fears and survival instinct humans let the intellect override reason.

There has long been something in the field of political science called the Rational Man Theory which held that man, speaking generically, was capable of thinking out situations in a rational manner before acting, thus bringing about the best outcome.  In reality, humans continuously prove just how flawed that theory is, whether it is about climate change, animal conservation, or dealing with other humans. So that leaves religion.

Religions, I believe, came about out of ignorance and superstition. In the early evolution of humans things occurred that they could not explain so they were attributed to the gods. Things that were simply natural occurrences like lightning, thunder, earthquakes, volcanoes, and even death, especially death, were all the work of some god or another. In order to lessen the fear of dying they created places where people would go when they died that were pleasant so they did not offend the gods. Then they made up the rules that supposedly came from the gods and had special people give the rules. Religion was supposed to make people feel calmer and better about life. Instead religion is leading to the destruction of humans.

religious-wars-religion-war-god-atheism-demotivational-poster-1277921724I personally have no problem with what anyone else believes as long as they leave me out of it. At some point, however, some religions  ceased to be content with simply their own beliefs, they began to insist that everyone else believed as they did or the world would cease to exist. This was primarily the Christians and the Muslims. It became their mission to convert all the world’s people to their way of thinking. Untold millions of people have died during the history of humans in the name of these two religions and which of their leaders is the greatest. The sheer stupidity of these two religions which both acknowledge worshipping the same god, but fight over whether Mohammed or Jesus is the greatest, is both bizarre and appalling.

The only thing that is more appalling in this fight is the ignorance of the people who follow the alleged teaching of these two leaders in terms of what they meant in their prophecies. Both allegedly preached love and peace yet their followers are, for the most part, full of hate, greed, bigotry, and violence. Both have their similarities in the sense that they demean women, consider themselves superior to others in society, and hate others who believe differently than they do. It is almost funny to watch politicians in this country claim to be Constitutionals and Christians at the same time. Methinks that is an Oxymoron. Either that or a Moronic OX one. Bah humbug to the hypocrisy of it all!

About Post Author

Bill Formby

Bill Formby, aka William A. Formby, PhD, aka Lazersedge is a former Marine and a former police officer. He is a retired University Educator who considers himself a moderate pragmatic progressive liberal, meaning that he thinks practically liberal, acts practically liberal, and he is not going to change in the near future. But, if he does he will be sure to let you know.
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Bill Formby
7 years ago

I remember when it was invented and the case. It now has a number of converts. See, you just can’t keep people from wanting to believe in something other than themselves.

Richard Raymond
8 years ago

RAMEN, to all the above comments! The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was invented to be a parody on all religions. Mockery and ridicule will always be thrown in the face of ridiculous, religious beliefs. Now, where’s my cauldron so I can wear it to go out in the freezing rain?

Neil Bamforth
8 years ago

How can anyone believe in any kind of God when I’m here??? 😉

Bill Formby
Reply to  Neil Bamforth
7 years ago

I don’t know Neil, how is that possible? 🙂

Peter Everts
Reply to  Neil Bamforth
7 years ago

Valid question.

P. Everts
8 years ago

Religions, all of them, are control memes based on magical thinking and unproven poppycock.

Marsha Woerner
Reply to  P. Everts
8 years ago

Yup

Bill Formby
Reply to  P. Everts
7 years ago

Well, yes they are P.Everts, but in earlier days , I mean way, way back it was likely a way of establishing social norms and encouraging normative behavior. “Do not do this or that or you will make the god(s) angry.” This found to be true in a isolated, primitive tribe found by Malinowski in the the 1920’s in New Guinea. While they had never been exposed to the outside, “civilized” world their rules of behavior were remarkably similar to ours but the people self penalized themselves, up to and including suicide, if they were proven to be wrong doers because of fear the gods would punish the entire tribe.

Peter Everts
Reply to  Bill Formby
7 years ago

How about if you go too far “off the reservation” your peers will kick your ass???

Marsha Woerner
8 years ago

“Religious Hypocrisy”
Isn’t this a given? It’s part of their “sacred books”. Have you actually read any of them? It’s clear that those who profess believing in them literally, word for word, have not!

Reply to  Marsha Woerner
8 years ago

I must confess, having been raised Catholic, that I have read one or two of them. Fortunately I have no memory of their content only that it was all about Jeepus and his gang of 12.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Professor Mike
7 years ago

Actually Mike, we doubters tend to have more knowledge about those books than do the believers which is why we doubt. By the way where is James Smith anyway?

Bill Formby
Reply to  Marsha Woerner
7 years ago

lol Marsha. Yep, just like the Baptist who meet run into each other Saturday night in the liquor don’t remember it the next day at church. It never happened.

Glenn R. Geist
8 years ago

Our brains evolved the way they are for reasons other than reason and rational analysis and somehow, perhaps in a way related to our need for social hierarchy we have a need to worship, to grovel and bow down and submit and to protect the object of our submission. We pretend we get something out of it like protection or salvation but most of the time we look to the gods we create for protection from the gods we create- That our experience is not discernible from randomness proves our lack of rational ability.

I think oxymorons are supposed to be funny, but this one isn’t. I read that 80% of American believe in “miracles.” What more can I say?

Bill Formby
Reply to  Glenn R. Geist
8 years ago

Glenn, I agree that their is nothing funny about this oxymoron. As I said, I really don’t care what others believe as long as they leave me alone and out of it. That is their right.If they want to believe that there is an entity that keeps up with everything that is going on in the lives of 7 billion people all at the same time, and it makes them feel good and safe, well good for them. Just don’t bother me with it. If they want to believe that those folks in that Charleston, SC church died to show the world their are bad people still in the world, I could have told them that. But if it helps them get through what ever goes bump in the night, so be it.

Reply to  Glenn R. Geist
8 years ago

It is that desire to worship something, or someone greater than ourselves. I never got that. I always thought I was pretty great.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Professor Mike
7 years ago

Mike, I realize that after thousands of years of people not understanding things like the the earth not being the center of the universe and things that we have only discovered in the last couple of hundred years that humans have trouble giving up ways they have been taught since in the beginning. Trust me old friend, you are a pretty good guy and I love you like a brother, but compared to the forces of nature, in terms of power, you are not on the stage of greatness. Also, for the most part, probably 90% of the of the people in world (actually probably more) do not have the education or intellect you have and there need something or someone to believe can save them. Otherwise there would not be any Republicans.

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