Why do Christians LIE?

It’s not the little fibs that I’m thinking of, it’s the HUGE whoppers that no one could believe and still retain their sanity. Christians will gladly point out that for lying, bearing false witness, we are condemned to an afterlife in hell, then gleefully tell the most outrageous lies, and still insist they are the ones getting an afterlife reward.

A devout Christian will be standing beside a cliff exposing 3 million layers,  and claim that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

Let a Christian see a full sequence of our transition from a common ancestor with other apes, and they will insist that god created us in his image, despite the fact that they cannot place a consistent division line between the fossils to differentiate man from ape.

The Noah’s ark story is another total whopper that no sane thinking person could believe. First, the animals would not fit on a boat that size. Do the math. Then we have quite different species on each continent.  How did that happen? I particularly liked the guess that god might have flown them over on a magic carpet.

We have web pages by the thousands all spouting nonsense about how the bible contains no errors, while using various self contradictory biblical texts to support a variety of stupidities. The Flintstones have a less inaccurate picture of prehistory, (at least they had stone age people working in a stone quarry).

Yesterday the Pope claimed that Pedophilia was normal behavior back in the 70s . It wasn’t. He simply made that whopper up because he wants to continue letting priests run pedophilia rings. He should be run out of the Catholic Church and jailed, not venerated as God’s voice on earth.

Now we also have Christians who feel the right, and even the responsibility to just make shit up and claim it is right. These fools make up different shit every week, they disagree with themselves (often in the same paragraph) and insist that they are correct while the rest of the world is wrong. Evidence be dammed, their belief counts more. When confronted, they tell even more lies and invent bigger whoppers. They refuse to learn, ignore all facts, and alter their beliefs on a whim, but insist insist insist that they are 100% correct while the rest of the world is wrong.

So why is it that Christianity promotes LYING while also insisting that those lying will go to hell, and the two (lying vs not lying) should be so obviously incompatible, yet are clearly not even the slightest concern?

Could it be Self Delusion taking the place of rational thinking?

Christians lie for the same reasons everyone else lies. Christians are people, with all the attendant flaws and weaknesses. Like House says, everybody lies.

Ecurb Noselrub - 03 December 2011 11:25 AM

Christians lie for the same reasons everyone else lies. Christians are people, with all the attendant flaws and weaknesses. Like House says, everybody lies.

I’m not sure if we can really say that a Christian is lying when they are defending their world view, we can probably say they are mistaken in our opinion, in the light of clear evidence on some subjects, but can we really say they are making a false statement with deliberate intent to deceive. I suppose it is possible in some cases.

I love House too…cool.

Ecurb Noselrub - 03 December 2011 11:25 AM

Christians are people, with all the attendant flaws and weaknesses.

Some more flawed than others. 

I think you conflate several distinct behaviors here. The pope lies, no question about it. But the simple believer with no political motive… probably not lying. Just doing what most of us do when convictions collide with evidence. Make up a story to cope. Religion is especially troubling because of the power it wields but everyone I know well labors with self affirming delusion. We can endeavor toward a scrupulous truth ethic but our hardware isn’t completely up to it. Too much baggage.

Christians aren’t lying, except maybe to themselves.

I watch House, too, even though I think the whole show is ludicrous with House’s team breaking into houses and performing all medical procedures themselves….they operate, they give and interpret CT scans, they work in the lab, administer chemotherapy, puncture lumbars, remove bullets and probably do colonoscopies, as well.  It’s the character of House that sells the show.  I like his pal, too.  The oncologist.

Ecurb Noselrub - 03 December 2011 11:25 AM

Christians lie for the same reasons everyone else lies. Christians are people, with all the attendant flaws and weaknesses. Like House says, everybody lies.

If by flaws you mean tendencies toward conflict avoidance and patterns of learned social programming conflicting with intentions and patterns of social disapproval, then yes - maybe.

Belief in the supernatural is not a lie, it’s a belief. The lies are those things spoken by “false prophets” and wolves in sheeps clothing who use people of faith to lead them into temptation and away from righteousness for purposes of personal gain. They are at the very heart of the problem with religion, IMO, not the workaday theist who cannot fathom a self-sustaining universe or how life could arise from non-living materials.

stardust91977 - 03 December 2011 05:04 PM

Belief in the supernatural is not a lie ...

Did anyone make such an argument?

SkepticX - 03 December 2011 05:20 PM

stardust91977 - 03 December 2011 05:04 PM

Belief in the supernatural is not a lie ...

Did anyone make such an argument?

Of course. See the OP.

stardust91977 - 03 December 2011 05:35 PM

SkepticX - 03 December 2011 05:20 PM

stardust91977 - 03 December 2011 05:04 PM

Belief in the supernatural is not a lie ...

Did anyone make such an argument?

Of course. See the OP.

Nope ... still not there.

I am not at all surprised that you don’t see it.

Of course you’re not. I don’t usually miss straw man arguments, particularly when other plainly obvious arguments are available. And I’m even less likely to miss them when they’ve established a pattern of intellectually undisciplined rhetoric—going for the turn of phrase or the emotional appeal or just inventing an easier angle instead of taking the responsibility to make a sound argument, even when it should be quite easy to do so. That kind of intellectual and rhetorical laziness is what conversational intolerance is all about, after all.

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

Why do Christians LIE?

A devout Christian will be standing beside a cliff exposing 3 million layers,  and claim that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

An undereducated person who was raised to believe otherwise, may simply lack the intellectual skills with which to dissect such information. A superstitious person may be afraid to even approach information that conflicts with their beliefs. There are other reasons people may have a difficult time comperehending or accepting what is being pointed out to the that have nothing at all to do with lying.

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

Let a Christian see a full sequence of our transition from a common ancestor with other apes, and they will insist that god created us in his image, despite the fact that they cannot place a consistent division line between the fossils to differentiate man from ape.

Believing that someone created mankind in “his” own image is not lying. Not accepting evolutionary theory is not lying.

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

The Noah’s ark story is another total whopper that no sane thinking person could believe. First, the animals would not fit on a boat that size. Do the math. Then we have quite different species on each continent.  How did that happen? I particularly liked the guess that god might have flown them over on a magic carpet.

“No sane thinking person”? So undereducated people who can’t “dop the math” or make sense of the allegory and believe in the supernatural aren’t sane and aren’t thoughtful? Now who’s lying? Or are you simply mistaken?

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

We have web pages by the thousands all spouting nonsense about how the bible contains no errors, while using various self contradictory biblical texts to support a variety of stupidities. The Flintstones have a less inaccurate picture of prehistory, (at least they had stone age people working in a stone quarry).

So a person who is superstitious and undereducated is a liar if they don’t see things the way you or I do when they read the Bible?

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

Yesterday the Pope claimed that Pedophilia was normal behavior back in the 70s . It wasn’t. He simply made that whopper up because he wants to continue letting priests run pedophilia rings. He should be run out of the Catholic Church and jailed, not venerated as God’s voice on earth.

I will have to agree with you that the Pope is a liar and a despicable protector of child rapists.  The truth of the matter is, however, that I have no solid evidence that he’s a liar as opposed to just another undereducated magical thinker .

JohnTaylor=PlayTOE - 03 December 2011 10:32 AM

Now we also have Christians who feel the right, and even the responsibility to just make shit up and claim it is right. These fools make up different shit every week, they disagree with themselves (often in the same paragraph) and insist that they are correct while the rest of the world is wrong. Evidence be dammed, their belief counts more. When confronted, they tell even more lies and invent bigger whoppers. They refuse to learn, ignore all facts, and alter their beliefs on a whim, but insist insist insist that they are 100% correct while the rest of the world is wrong.

That’s a whole lot of charges. Can you provide something more to go on.. say, some solid evidence of a Chrsitian who feels the responsibility to make shit up every week, invent lies, or alter their beliefs on a whim?

Well done.

No. My first post in this string was well done. The rest last unnecessary.