(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 01/29/10)
Hypocrisy runs rampant in the faithful. Not only do they preach a superior moral dictum, but they declare that any political or religious world view, other than their own, is invalid without proofs of evidence. When presented with mounds of evidence supporting the opposing position, they reject it all and at the same time, and with a straight face, demand so-called “real” proof. Not surprising then that the words “proof” and “evidence” do not possess any “real” meaning in their reality. They are quick dispose of any rebuttal to their dogma as biased, tainted, skewed, left, bogus, lies. They easily discard facts in favor of pre-selected, pre-screened, pre-determined, pre-ordained, carefully crafted “truths”, tailor-made and finely woven by like-minded minions whose sole purpose is to win at all costs and proofs of evidence be damned.
It really is about winning. To the zealots, lies in the name of a skydaddy are merely a means to an end and are absolutely justifiable in their use against an “evil” world. It’s the faithful against the godless. It is the pure against the tainted. It is fighting fire with fire in hopes of driving the unrepentant to hell. There is no real logic to any of it. But, then again it isn’t supposed to make sense. It’s the greatest “baffle them with bullshit” crusade purposely designed to give the believer the advantage. They make the rules as they go along. And, that is how the religious, and religions, survive.
For thousands of years, as long as religion has existed, men have sought to rule other men. In their quest to dominate and subjugate the masses to their whims, these men have mastered the art of myth and human ignorance to their advantage. Whether these self-appointed leaders of men have suffered from delusions of gods and goddesses, and as a result somehow felt compelled to conquer out of these psychotic visions, is reasonably debatable. Chances are that many have, and continue to, travel such a path. But, the primitive idea of a supernatural being, all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, has to be the most self-serving psychosis of all time. What better way for a small group of men, or even a single man, to hold absolute power, to declare total dominance, than through a flood of fear, magic, and trickery that is religion.
Lies, lies, and more lies… layer upon layer of lies, repeated for centuries. The gods and goddesses of the past most likely met their fate in the tangled web of lies the faithful spawned that eventually couldn’t stand up to the forceful winds of knowledge and progress. Lies were exposed, treachery was lost to proofs of evidence, and yet somehow, another human ego would step forward in defiance and weave yet another tangled web of religious lies that would, again, be broken from it moorings on the winds of knowledge and progress. But, as time has gone by, the moorings of each successive religious web have grown stronger, but only by shoring them up with more lies. Layers of lies… layers and layers of bold, defiant, utterly ignorant, sometimes ridiculous, lies. Lies that bind religion to the frame of life and create an alternate reality for the faithful. It’s the only way religion can stand up to the winds of knowledge and progress, proofs of evidence. Religion must create more and more threads of lies.
We all know that when caught in a lie, the worst thing we can do is to cover a lie with another lie. Religion ignores this fact. It just keeps pumping them out, and then forgets what its last lie was. Eventually religion lies itself into a corner, and then concocts another tall tale, another lie worse than the one earlier but nonetheless effective enough to distract attention from the one previous. It’s a game of misdirection, smoke and mirrors, magic and deception. The answers are simple, without proofs or evidence. Yet, the lies always catch up with religion. The lies are revealed in religion’s hypocrisy. And it is hypocrisy that lays final judgment upon religion.
When I demand evidence for a skydaddy, religious hypocrisy always reveals the lies. The religious backtrack, dodge and weave, jump and duck, do the rope-a-dope. They make every effort to distract and divert. And when all else fails, they throw in the towel, head for their corner, wipe their wounds, ice their knots, and call a press conference afterwards to claim they were robbed, cheated… that the ref was bias, bought off, part of a conspiracy. Yep, persecuted. The truth is they have been caught in another lie. The religious do not do what they say, nor do they say what they do. And, their hypocrisy reveals the lies of their dogma.
That’s what religion’s hypocrisy shows us. It exposes the lies. The layers and layers and layers of lies used to weave the web of religion. Even the most devout believer will strangle themselves in the web of deceit that their religion weaves. Any interpretation of any holy book is hypocritical. It requires the believer to interpret, ascribe to, and live by a constantly changing view. One that is re-defined with each moment of worldly interaction. Why must one interpret the words of a being that is supposedly intelligent, created us, and wants us to worship it? Why isn’t this entities’ existence painfully obvious to the entire population of the planet? Why has this entity turned life into a game show? You see, there is no sense, logic or reason here. And, with each interpretation and declaration made by the faithful, the playing card deck of lies grows thicker, deeper, and more complex without any adequate explanation. After 2000 plus years of the big three dogmas, and who knows how many hundreds of re-writes, how many guesses does it take to get to the center of a skydaddy anyway? With each interpretation comes fragmentation, more bias, discourse, and lots and lots more lies. Ultimately leading to the logical, reasoned question, ‘Who is telling the truth?’ Religion isn’t. But, science, reason and logic DO tell the truth. And, it is evidence and proofs that uncover the secrets of life’s questions.
Evidence, proofs… this is for the honorable, the dignified, and the noble. Proofs of evidence speak loudly, with credibility and force. Qualities of honor, dignity, and nobility will never come from the religious. And they know it. It is therefore imperative that all of us who trust in the proven ideals of science, reason and logic, continue to expose the hypocrisies of the religious and of religion, wherever and when they show themselves. Demand proof, demand evidence, demand logic and reason. And when the lies of the religious become too much to bear for them, they will retreat to faith, and faith is yet another hypocrisy, and hypocrisy always exposes the lie.
