Evangelicals....

[albacore]

"Sadly, Evangelicals are ripe for being grifted.
Given the very nature of who they are, and how they are taught makes them targets. Evangelicals receive emotional affirmation for displaying the ability to believe and support those things which are impossible, all in the name of faith. A virgin became pregnant. A man died and after three days rose again. A man created an ark, a flood came and only he and his family survived. In the beginning of time, one man and one woman birth all of civilization as we know it today.
Indeed the entire philosophy rests on blind faith.
Critical thinking does not exist. In fact, it is treated as blasphemous, lies, and anyone entertaining such thoughts is ostracized."
"While all of these factors lead to an uneducated, confidently defying logic population, the risk is even greater.
Imagine, should these militantly blind followers were to become organized, armed and felt to be threatened in some way. Where would they draw the line?
There is no motivation to listen, engage in conversation, or entertain an opposing viewpoint.
Further, anyone not in line with your opinion is evil. This person, group, political party is not doing God’s work so they must be stopped at all costs. the loss of human lives, right or wrong is irrelevant."
https://libbysuethewriter.medium.com/1-threat-to-america-science-denying-evangelicals-3d3391ec35db

[Walleye]

1. They believe in eternal life. The biggest lie of all

Once you have been convinced of you’re not going to die, your humanity is gone. The main thing that makes us human is the awareness of our mortality

[Alexander Of Assyria]

7. Abandoned logic and all pretence of logic, and for what? To b willingly grifted?

And then b grifted over and over cause won’t admit we’re grifted the first time.

It’s perpetual motion grifting machine.

[Walleye]

9. And the less return they get on their beliefs, and more fervently they believe it.

[PortTack]

2. There very existence speaks volumes to the accuracy of Darwinism

[Klaralven]

3. Although most Evangelicals believe in Biblical Inerrancy, not all do

And not all who believe in Biblical Inerrancy are Evangelicals.

What is being described is Biblical Inerrancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inerrancy

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Their adaption to mainline religion's adoption of Biblical Inerrancy is causing mental splitting.

.

You would not believe how strangely wired their thought processes are above traditional religions. Over the course of 4 decades, most Christian churches push concepts that even the most sheepish follower struggles with--but instead of questioning further, they have adopted the position of just accepting whatever bullshit comes their way. This is why, mainly Evangelicals and Charismatics, support Trump as they are the most conditioned to be accepting and unquestioning followers.

Unfortunately, there have been a few dramatic developments in religion that will screw us all.


1) There was a cult group that pushed that there is Biblical Inerrancy, meaning that the Bible is correct. This finally became accepted in the late 70's with the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy. Many of the educated clergy and researchers were told to either accept this position, and ignore the over 300 errors in the Bible or quit or be forced out of their positions. Most left the church and their positions were filled by hacks who invented excuses to justify the Bible is without error, even fabricating backstories. Traditional Christian churches began adopting this position too. This causes people to not to question their religion, and this translates into them not questioning their political leaders they align with--they become sheep who fall in line with power.


2) The adoption of Two-Stage Baptisms, where the Holy Spirit enters a person, mainly demonstrated by Glossolalia (speaking in tongue). Charismatics believe that this is just a temporary visitation to convey a message to the person or church body. Pentecostals believe that once the Holy Spirit chooses you, it remains within you and everything you do is effectively sanctioned by God. As such, there is a big push for parishioners to speak in tongue so they can be accepted--because if the HS doesn't enter you, there must be a reason you are not worthy. This bullshit started in the early 1900s. This is why pious people think they can do whatever or that they will sit by the right side of Jesus when they die.


3) Since traditional religions place God on the outside, there is the attraction for people to feel more connected to God. Many of these traditional churches are now adopting the Pentecostal position that the HS enters a person to attract congregants. There is some resistance with older church members so you will see that many churches are holding two sets of services, a traditional one and a New/Contemporary service that pushes this bullshit.


See, the main problem is that there are a bunch of charlatans starting their own churches as a way to gain respect, have control over others, get free labor, and obtain a source of income. This, along with younger people drifting away from religion, is causing cash constraints on traditional mainly Christian churches--so they are doing everything they can to attract people to build their membership and tithings. Take notice, when you drive by churches, that they are offering multiple services and/or or allowing other churches to use their space.

.

[paleotn]

19. Well stated.

[dchill]

5. Too bad they always miss the important, simple parts...

Do unto others as you would have done to you.
Love one another.
Don't go chasing waterfalls.

[Seinan Sensei]

20. Simple

Act justly
Love mercy
Walk humbly

[Seinan Sensei]

21. "What goes around, comes around." -Jesus

In the same way you judge others,
you will be judged
With the measure you use,
it will be measured to you

I've never, ever heard a sermon based on this verse out of Matthew.
Such are the ways of Fundamentalist pick-and-choose theology.

[hunter]

6. I think a lot of these evangelical preachers believe deep down that Christ Himself was a grifter.

"Turn water into wine? Yeah, I could do that..."

And they probably figure Jesus had to walk because there were no private jets in those days.

[Poiuyt]

8. Anyone who has ever studied religions of the world or the history of religion can

see through a lot of this. It's like reading Bullfinch's Mythology.

[LakeArenal]

10. I tend to believe, they will burn in the hell they believe in.

[Midnight Writer]

11. Lots of financial scams taking place in local churches.

"Christian Financial Advisers" go from church to church and fleece the faithful. Folks think because they spout the religious jargon they must be honest Men Of God.

A fellow in my town got jailed for this, did prison time, and, you guessed it, is now back at the same game, only this time he is throwing in the Holy Revelation he received when Jesus visited him in jail. And people buy it.

[walkingman]

12. It is crazy but not exclusive to just evangelicals. Just started watching

Handmaid's Tale and from what I've seen so far a lot of the dystopia comes from a religious background. I know it is fiction but I would have never thought the US would be so cult-like as it is these days. I did see the roots of a lot of our social problems being justified by the church as far back as I can remember.

Time to move on and leave this kind of stuff in the past if there is any hope for our civilization. It seems like a Deathwish to me.

[twodogsbarking]

13. I'm staying out of this. Some things are just too mush.

[3Hotdogs]

14. I *%%(_(%$* in tongues. Particularly, $$$. I want to spread the Lord's message

but I need $$$$$ $$$$$$$ to do so.

Please send me $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and I will hold you in my prayers.

[TeamProg]

15. Me vs. every Evangelical that I meet.

Me: How old is the earth?

Evangelical: Seven thousand years old.

Me: How old is the universe?

Evangelical: We aren't sure, maybe seven thousand years old, maybe forever.

Me: How long has God been around?

Evangelical: Oh, well, God has been around forever.

Me: So, how can we human earth creatues be THAT important if God has been around for all time and we've only been around for seven thousand years?! How special are we? What was God doing with all of his free time?


* crickets *

[vlyons]

16. The history of Christianity has always been about making everyone toe the line

Either convert or be annihilated. The 1st Council of Nicea in 325AD invented the dogma of the Trinity. The gnostics, who refused to accept that doctrine were labeled as heretics and exiled or murdered. Wherever the armies of Christendom marched they sought to annihilate non-believers.

Our founders were well aware of the religious wars that had raged through Europe for centuries. Many were not Christians, but were Deists and freemasons.

[paleotn]

17. Talking snakes, talking donkeys, talking shrubbery, on fire no less..

virgins giving birth, walking on water, people coming back to life and on and on it goes. But, to be fair, evangelical Christians aren't the only folks who staunchly believe in things that would without evidence be considered ravings of a lunatic. Humans seem to have a penchant for magical thinking of all kinds. A useless spandrel from a long ago time when such things bred social cohesion in a dangerous world. Now, they're not only useless in their original purpose, they're down right dangerous.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. It is not that unusual for small kids

to have an "imaginary companion".......I guess a large number of them don't give it up as they get older, and need to desperately hang on to it the rest of their lives for some warped psychological need to handle their insecurities?????????

I really don't care, until they try and force their misconstrued thoughts of right and wrong, and their "imaginary companion" on all the rest of us.......

They don't question the leader of their groups across the land when he tells them the Lord "contacted him" and told him to get a Mansion, his own Gulf Stream Jet, his own top of the line helicopter, or his own yacht etc "to do the lord's work"

As you said, they were prime pickings and marks for this Political crowd..................

[Jedi Guy]

22. My parents are very, very religious.

I recall having a conversation with my mom and mentioned that not everything in the Bible is meant to be taken literally. As a very gentle example, I pointed out that "forty days and forty nights" is a Hebraic idiom that basically means "no one's sure exactly how long it was, but it was quite a while." Thus, Jesus was not in the wilderness for literally forty days and nights, but it was a while.

I was taken aback by the ferocity with which she pushed back on that idea and insisted that it was literally forty days and forty nights, exactly as stated. I tried again by pointing out that even if divinely inspired, the Bible was written by humans and humans frequently use idioms, allegories, etc. to get a point across, so cultural idioms in the Bible are only to be expected. The people doing the writing will use those cultural touchstones because it gets the message across to the audience.

She was having none of it and refused to even entertain the notion, so I gave up since she was getting a little riled. But I vividly remember the way she immediately went on the attack against the very idea. I thought about talking to our pastor about it, but then decided such a discussion might open cans of worms best left closed.