I've noticed on many occasions where people have this 'good person' facade because they are 'active church' or 'more religious' than the average person. but once you get to know them, their personalities are not that of a 'good' person. they can do selfish things or pass judgment on people they hardly know because they are 'good people that go to church'. have any of you known anyone like this?
You obviously don't go to my church. My god will smite you. Seriously though, I see this a lot. It's one of the reasons I'm not that fond of church and wouldn't go that often if I didn't have kids. I deal with office and real politics a lot at work and having to deal with it at church is a major downer. This is going to seem like a horrible analogy and it most likely is, but I often think the people you just described are akin to the racists I grew up with. They assumed that since I was white I would share their opinions and they would often let the N word and worse rip when it was just us white folks. In church, you not infrequently see folks who think because you go to church you must think just like them. The assumptions both types of people make always fascinates me because it becomes clear that they are incredibly selfish people who don't really care about your thoughts, but just want to express theirs. All that said, there are a bunch of people at my current church who are good folks and it is rewarding to belong to a community. And I should note that my above experiences relate more to my time spent in the South, so perhaps the two types I described are really one and the same. Geez, I'm now inspired to go reread some Faulkner.
i'm talking about people you meet in your every day life. people that you know and given time find out their true personalities.
i'll give a couple examples. a guy's wife who's a 'church person' won't let him hang out with his friends or hang out with ANY females because that would give him temptation of doing bad things... translates to 'i'm insecure that my husband will cheat on me and i don't trust him'. how about two people are good friends , one person becomes more 'religious' and doesn't associate with his old friend because he's not 'pure enough'. translates to 'i was never really his friend'. friends are friends, religion has nothing to do with it. how about a girl who is religious and you are not really as religious. but she assumes that you may not be a good person because you don't share the same religious views. translates - i don't know anything about you and since you don't agree with me on religion you are evil
The not pure enough friend doesn't necessarily mean they were never really friends. I think of it like college buddies that were best friends graduated and went about their separate ways. 10 years later they run into each other and find out they have nothing in common anymore. Still friendly acquaintances but just went different routes in their life that distanced themselves apart. Religion is cultural and does cause a divide sometimes, but really its not about someone being impure. I think a true friend would hope for the best for their friend with different ideological views regardless. Otherwise yes the religious crutch can be thought of similar to "Its not you, its me" only it becomes, "Its not me, its you." I don't consider that to be following true religious practice. As far as the religious girl example, again its cultural. I've been raised by my parents that they would encourage me to marry a Catholic woman over a different religious woman. Reason? It puts a strain on the relationship. Same goes to someone thats not religious. Should a couple have kids, there would be arguments on how they should be raised. Ethical issues that a religion supports that goes against a non religious person can again cause a strain in the relationship. To put it simply, dating someone thats of similar religious upbringing and is likely to have the same moral values is easier on a relationship. That said, I've yet to cast a woman aside that whose views were different than mine. Catholic translates to Universal in English, and I universally accept all women I have a mutual attraction to. I don't necessarily believe that there's a soul mate for me, but if I see a woman I get along with great, and we've worked out the ethical issues than of course I'll keep seeing her. Love comes in all forms, and any obstacles or differences can be tackled if its worth it to stick with the relationship. Its not as black and white as you think it is.
Well yeah, but people hide behind whatever they darn well please. Nationality, race, class, religion, ideology, height, logos, PS3/Xbox360, etc... One can say that religious people are supposed to know better. Really? In a Hangout thread, some crazy woman is sewing up for a new hymen. She doesn't get it. Not many people do. I can't say I get it most of the times either. So there's misguided religious folks, and there's good religious people. Sounds PC, but it's true. It's all whether we want to spend time sorting out the good apples from the bad or just dump out the whole barrel. And I gotta add, the ideals behind political correctness, before it was shortened into a derogatory shorthand, such as tolerance, mutual respect and cooperation, originally hinged upon faith. Faith in other people, and faith in respecting another's opinions. Faith is mostly met unfulfilled on a concrete level, but through its perseverance can it enrich the person and the people around him. So faith should typically be unrewarding in the short term. It's a vulnerable trait to have. It might be considered a weakness. And I think that's why it's one of the most hardest things to accept in our day and age.
Fake Christians. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LCaAx9SRZRU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LCaAx9SRZRU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
The answer to this question is clearly one of the following choices: 1. yes, all people do this; or 2. no, no one ever does this.
Hypocrites are a dime a dozen, religious and otherwise. I am not sure how this is limited to the 'religious' folks.
Kinda like... "if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you are going to hell" Something like that? I guess they forget the ole scripture... Judge not lest ye be judged..... People are fallable.....we shouldn't judge anyone...... DD
People hide behind alot of things Religious people are just a nice target TO ME the big thing about religious people is they have written documentation of how they are suppose to act and what they exspouse to being so it is easy to point out where they fail Non religious folx they code of ethics and morality is not documented so when they fail to stand up to Their certain code unless you know them well and they have exspoused it Others would not see where they failed to live up to it Without such documentation Instead of saying. . I missed they mark . .they can just say HEY that's what I beleive to be right . . . Rocket River
A lot a folks use facades to cover their dysfunctions. A lot of folks project their own dysfunctions into their assumptions of others. Some people, who appear normal are in fact insane. You can't know anything about a person by what they say, you can tell something about a person by what they do, but without a life long surveillance team and a sodium pentothal interrogation you will never really know their functional ethos or what they are capable of under stress. I give you: Dobson, Perkins, Falwell, Robertson, Buchanan, Swaggart, Hagee, Hinn, Haggart, numerous Catholic Priests, more politicians than I can come up with, the guards at Abu Ghraib, all the kids in the The Milgram Experiments etc etc etc.
As far as this quote is concerned... yeah. You know, I'll be the first to admit that if a girl is hot enough, I can overlook a lot, at least for a short period of time. But if the girl is one of those super-duper Bible-thumper my-religion-is-my-whole-identity-and-I-must-tell-everyone-about-it types, I stay the hell away. I don't care if she looks like Angelina Jolie... no chance. In answer to the original question: yes, I've certainly run into people like that. It amazes me all the Christians I know who are shocked that an athiest can act moral. I'm a member of a Christian service group, and I do service on weekends in my free time. However, I'm not Christian. A lot of people didn't know this, and it came as a revelation to them. And several of them asked me, "well if you don't believe in god, why do you do it? What's the point?" And I'm sitting there thinking: "that's an odd question. Here I thought Christians were supposed to want to help others/give of themselves unconditionally and without reward. And yet, here you are asking 'what's the point of doing service if it isn't either to get into heaven or to keep god from smiting you?' I'M doing service because I feel like helping out people in need. There is no other reason. I don't expect to get anything out of it, whereas all the 'true Christians' here seem to be motivated by glorified self-interest."
Every time I see a fanatic walking around talking about their religion, I always wanted to ask them "how can god was infinitely just and infinitely merciful at the same time" I believe religion is a way to divert from uncomfortable situations.I think a major problem in society today is people can't seem to discuss serious matters in a civil manner. When we get into major disagreements, we all seem to say things like "Well thats just what I believe," and the other person seems to back away, perhaps because that statement has to do with morality. One way or another, once someone mentions that it is part of their belief or "what they were taught," it is suppose to make them invulnerable to your criticism. However, when you asked an ultra religious person to explain matters of their own religion that they don't understand, they seem to say things like "God is in favor of it." When you ask how do you know, they say "It's in the Bible." You can never get a straight answer, yet when they speak of things that they know nothing about, we're suppose to be silenced... You can definitely have moral without religion. I think it's a mistake to deal with life matters based on religion, because there are so many religions out there. Which one is right? We really don't know and if Christians and Hindus look at each other and say they're going to hell, then how would they treat each other? And thats why I don't think you should look at a book that could be written by, for what we know, an early king trying to keep his subjects from defying him...
Hmm, what you're saying is a little strange... So religious people know they are doing something wrong but do it anyways (maybe b/c they know they'll be forgiven, regardless)...but 'non-religious people do wrong things because they think they're doing something right? Do you really think that someone needs God to know the difference between right and wrong? In your eyes are all Godless 'folx' social/psychopaths? LOL.
