As humans, we’ve generally been taught that lying isn’t good. Now, sometimes it is used to spare feelings, or soften a blow, but in generally, to lie is to willfully ignore the truth for some reason, generally to the liar’s advantage. I personally don’t like lying because it tries to refuse reality which is pointless. Tim Mazur has a similar idea, though based on the Kantian idea that humans have intrinsic worth, something that I don’t particularly agree with wholeheartedly. “Lies are morally wrong, then, for two reasons. First, lying corrupts the most important quality of my being human: my ability to make free, rational choices. Each lie I tell contradicts the part of me that gives me moral worth. Second, my lies rob others of their freedom to choose rationally. When my lie leads people to decide other than they would had they known the truth, I have harmed their human dignity and autonomy.”1 I don’t think morals have anything to do with it, but I do agree that lies are harmful. Now, I do agree that there are times when lies are necessary, e.g. to save one’s life if one has to promise something to a killer, to keep a confidence, etc. I still do not like them, but human nature, being what it is, does seem to require them.
Now, in my opinion, religion is a great lie. And I do appreciate the irony of finding Mr. Mazur’s quote on a Jesuit university’s website. None of them can demonstrate that they have any type of great ‘Truth’. The few similarities that exist between religions, oft pointed to by theists who want to think that their particular deity is the one behind all religions or all ‘good’, are simply from the fact that we are humans and humans function in similar ways and have similar societies. Religion promises proof but never provides it. I have found it amazing that people can pass around a story that no one knows the true provenance of, which promises much but provides nothing, and how they can keep believing in it. I believed Christianity for a while because I was taught to trust my elders. However, trust can be destroyed when reality raises its head.
Lies have become endemic in religion. Since they cannot rely on any truths, they must make up reasons for why something is or isn’t so. These ‘reasons’ change with society, not the other way around. These are no better than Rudyard Kipling’s Just-so stories and considerably less well-thought out. Since each religion depends on being the only ‘correct’ one, they all do what they can to keep their flocks in line.
This culture of lies also seems to influence the actions of their believers. I had the opportunity to see this first hand recently. I was responsible for the attendance at an invitation-only conference held by my employer. We had a limited budget for food and a limited space to fit people into. The rsvps went out to our invitees approximately 3 months in advance of the conference. Three days before the conference, I received an RSVP from an invited member of a Christian organization that had a note on it saying that they intended to also bring along 6 other people and that I was to call if this would be a problem. Being that we had long run out of space, I called and said that we would be unable to accommodate those invited and definitely no room for anyone else extra. I could tell by the woman’s voice that she was taken aback by my answer, especially when she asked me several times if what I said meant that no one of their group could come. Several days later, I was then contacted by another organization that these people, including a pastor, said that they had been invited by my organization’s president and that we had subsequently dis-invited them. This was a lie. The only people invited were three from their organization, contingent if they got their rsvps back in time just like everyone else, and that we had not told these people they could bring whomever they wanted. I was quite indignant about this. However, from my prior experience with Christians, I accepted it as business as usual. In my experience, Christianity does nothing to make a person any better than they would be without religion. It only seems to give excuses to those who are unpleasant people to begin with.
The day of the event rolled around and I was working registration with our hired event planner. Things were busy but I noticed a group of people well decorated with crosses approaching the registration table. By either chance or intent (I had a name tag on) none of them came to me to get their badges. However, I was familiar with enough names to know who they were. The ‘good Christians’ decided to come anyway. I reported this to my bosses but to no avail. No one had the nerve to tell them that they were unwelcome. I would have dearly liked to but I also wished to keep my job. By luck, it wasn’t the problem it could have been since a winter storm had been forecast and that few people came than we had thought. While not privy to their thoughts, I am reasonable sure, from prior experience, that these Christians were praising their God for allowing them to get in and that other people hadn’t come because of the storm. I’m reasonably sure that they also forgot that at least 7 people died because of this storm before it got to us and weakened. I had told other people that we had no more room and those people respected our decision. These people did not. They lied about the circumstances of their rsvps, they ignored my politely given denial of their request, and they could have caused a very unpleasant situation with their arrogance. They forced an occasion where they did not want to follow the rules. They wanted special rights, not equal rights.
I see on various forums that Christians are often aghast that anyone could possibly think bad of them. It is for reasons like my situation above, the circling of the wagons when televangelists are ignorant and intolerant, the simple words of the Bible, etc, that people often regard Christians as arrogant, willfully ignorant hypocrites who want nothing more than to force their will on others. Being a theist, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroasterian, Wiccan, Hindu, etc., doesn’t automatically mean you are a good person.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christianity, deity, demon, Elders, ethics, evangelist, freedom, god, Hindu, human, Jesuit, Jewish, Kant, moral, Muslim, president, proof, rational, Religion, rights, Rudyard, rules, televangelist, theist, truth, Zoroasterian