[quote]countingbeans wrote:
When an atheist goes on rants about hypocrite this, and religious people that, I tune it out. Mainly because they have no code, and no common basis from which to build a code. Therefore, because they are relativists by definition, they can’t be held to the same standards of the people they are deriding. Which in turn makes criticizing religious people not only easy, but sheltered from any sort of having to “walk the walk”.
A person who calls themselves a Jew, a Christian or Muslim, whatever have a rule book. They, at the very least, have a set of certain rules they are supposed to follow. The atheist has… nothing.
The Christian has something to lose based on their actions and words. The atheist has nothing to lose other than public favor.
The Christian is judged by the actions of others. “Oh look at the Duggars, another religious freak diddling kids” The atheist isn’t. I mean the vast majority of child abuse isn’t done by ultra devout “fringe” religious people, and when black people are judged as a whole based on crime stats, the same people calling for the head of religion suddenly get all indignant and want people seen as individuals.
The Christians among us can and will be imperfect. Just like the atheists. But socially they are held to a different standard. And maybe it is backlash for centuries of being the “leadership” of social norms, or maybe it is a general lack of ethics on the part of the detractors, or maybe the devout…
I don’t know the answer, but I do know the rather weakness presented in the absurdity of those that have no rule book outside what they deem at that moment appropriate, judging those that have one, and fail to be perfect. I mean, it’s hard to not be perfect when your entire moral and ethical code is made up within yourself. [/quote]
The difference is I’m not saying you need to live by a certain code. You need to follow a certain rule book. You need to live like this. As an agnostic I’m not telling you how you should act. Many believers are. Maybe not all of them/ Follow this way, act this way, be like this person. They are telling others how to live and then failing to live up to it. So yeah, maybe I don’t have something that was written down 2,000 years ago telling me how to act. I don’t think that is a big deal anyways.
So when the Duggars talk about how great they are and one of them is a child molester yeah that sticks out. When “pro family values” politicians end up having sex with others yeah that sticks out. When priests are having sex with little kids that sticks out. Because this is happening from people who are telling and representing a way of life predicated on saying you must follow what I think. When someone who is constantly banging the good book drum turns out to act like a dickhead yeah that sticks out. It gets called out.
The idea that having a rule book makes someone better is false anyways. Plenty of people who follow that rule book are pricks. Some of history s biggest dickheads had a rule book and followed it. Many people without that rule book are good honest hardworking people. Some aren’t. You’re correct in that generalizing is a mistake and I will be the first to admit it. So sure in that regard I’m a hypocrite as well. Never would claim to be perfect nor claim that I don’t do one thing and say another.
As an agnostic I’m not telling others what to think, feel, and act. I don’t think this makes me better or worse than anyone else. And I certainly don’t think I’m perfect because I don’t have a rule book…but I definitely don’t think I’m any less of a person either.
If people are going to walk around and say you should think this way, feel this way, act this way and then don’t do that themselves it is always going to stick out.
