This charge of hypocrisy is probably the atheist objection that irritates me more than anything else. It is certainly one of the most common, if not the most common, *justification* given for unbelief. (The true most common might be the so-called Problem of Evil.)
It irritates me to no end because it's so simple to understand! The entire POINT of this religion is that everybody is a moral failure - of COURSE we should expect everybody, including Christians, to fail!
But failure is not hypocrisy. It should be so easy to grasp this.
20 February 2014 at 17:06
The Continental Op said...
That false definition of hypocrisy enables the brazenly sinful to claim superior virtue: "We're not hypocrites!"
I like it. I seem to stand constant watch against hypocrisy in myself. This is not a bad thing, but it helps to actually know what hypocrisy is. Yours is the best view of it I've seen.
21 February 2014 at 02:12
SFG said...
Most people are at least mildly hypocritical--nobody ever lives up completely to their standards. We are, after all, human (or, in the Christian conception, fallen).
Samson: This does nothing to prove God exists, of course, but most atheist moralists have fallen down on the job as well (Dawkins? Hitchens?), and two out of three eight-digit mass murderers were atheists. So there's little evidence, IMHO, religion makes people *worse*.
21 February 2014 at 18:50
Samson J. said...
Most people are at least mildly hypocritical--nobody ever lives up completely to their standards.
But SFG, that is what we are saying - "not living up to one's standards" is not hypocrisy! It's just failure.
21 February 2014 at 21:02
*
Hypocrisy is NOT failing to practice what you preach.
(Otherwise we could preach only sin - which is, in fact, pretty much, the currently-permitted situation.)
Hypocrisy is falsely claiming to practice what you preach.
"What is hypocrisy? What hypocrisy is not"
5 Comments -
I'm surprised no one else has commented yet.
This charge of hypocrisy is probably the atheist objection that irritates me more than anything else. It is certainly one of the most common, if not the most common, *justification* given for unbelief. (The true most common might be the so-called Problem of Evil.)
It irritates me to no end because it's so simple to understand! The entire POINT of this religion is that everybody is a moral failure - of COURSE we should expect everybody, including Christians, to fail!
But failure is not hypocrisy. It should be so easy to grasp this.
20 February 2014 at 17:06
That false definition of hypocrisy enables the brazenly sinful to claim superior virtue: "We're not hypocrites!"
Lies upon lies...
21 February 2014 at 01:20
I like it.
I seem to stand constant watch against hypocrisy in myself. This is not a bad thing, but it helps to actually know what hypocrisy is.
Yours is the best view of it I've seen.
21 February 2014 at 02:12
Most people are at least mildly hypocritical--nobody ever lives up completely to their standards. We are, after all, human (or, in the Christian conception, fallen).
Samson: This does nothing to prove God exists, of course, but most atheist moralists have fallen down on the job as well (Dawkins? Hitchens?), and two out of three eight-digit mass murderers were atheists. So there's little evidence, IMHO, religion makes people *worse*.
21 February 2014 at 18:50
Most people are at least mildly hypocritical--nobody ever lives up completely to their standards.
But SFG, that is what we are saying - "not living up to one's standards" is not hypocrisy! It's just failure.
21 February 2014 at 21:02