Examining The Reasons Why The Most Devout Christians Are Rather Awful

Today, a Christian wrote

"So many professing to be Christians are some of the most judgemental, unsympathetic, and unkind people I have ever met. I am not sure why, but it is very sad indeed."
---------
~My thoughts about that~

On this, we are
agreed.

Except ...
I do.
I understand why it has a negative effect on most people.

It encourages narcissism, to tell someone they (personally) are why the universe even exists.

It also does damage
to tell them:
the prime virtue is "faith".

Why is that a problem?

First, because:
 Religious faith is not a virtue.
 It's the most dishonest position a person can hold. 

Also:
It would mean
all other virtues are maybe "good" but non-essential, because:
 This life is only a test of faith.

 So then all the actual virtues get demoted;
to nearly trivial concerns. Because they aren't essential to pleasing "God". Because that "God" is only going to judge everyone by how much they "believe" that a strange story actually happened. 
 
They can be shitty people. God might frown on that (Maybe. Maybe not). But he'll still let them into paradise. So who cares?

It also does a lot of harm to a person's character 
to define the virtues in ways that encourage bad character. 

 Within the cultural machinery of Christianity, 

* abuse is "love", 

* narcissism is "humility", 

* radically destructive unfairness is "justice", 

* fallacies are "logic", 

* myths are "factual history", 

* confirmation-bias is "objectively fact-checked",

* obligated limits on what it's ok to think is "free thinking", 

* faith is "knowledge", 

* scapegoating is "accountability", 

* intentionally divisive narratives are a call to "harmony",  

etc.
etc.

 
Consider, also, how it affects the way people reason, 
and how they see others,
 when Christians tell each other:

 Everyone who doesn't embrace a correct-enough version of the Christian narrative before they die ...
will face judgement and should probably expect an eternity in Hell.
That's what those people deserve.
That's what everyone deserves, if they haven't been washed-clean and forgiven.
That's what they are anti-worth.

But I recognize how that way of thinking breeds untrustworthy people. 
Thus, I say: 

To make matters even worse, 
it gives those believers a mental 'badge of authority';
so that they'll go speak down to an unfairly demonized "the world"
from:
an unquestionable soapbox;
a ~position~ of social and moral superiority, as the voice of everyone's "God" [something NO HUMAN has ever been qualified to speak as]. 

Also, 
to consume all the toxic rhetoric in bibles,
where differently-believing people are "swine", "vipers", "dogs".
And non-believers are all "fools", likened to worthless salt, and accused of having literally "no good inside them whatsoever".

Meanwhile, LGBT are denigrated;
 as disgusting and extra-worthy of hell, "lest they repent" and commit to living a lie. 

It's a destructive example to set,
when Jesus (in the stories) vouched for all the anti-virtues and atrocities of the OT as the perfect words of a perfect "God".

-Even the parts where rap victims are forced to marry their rapists.

-Even the part where God drowns a world full of puppies, and kittens, and babies
because of a premeditated 120-year rage @ humans;
for reasons that would have been entirely his own fault. 
[I'm very glad it never happened in real life]

In those toxic pages of that abusive book,
 even Jesus spoke of Hell for everyone who doesn't "repent" of not believing (arbitrarily lucky-guessing) some really strange, unreasonable, and even anti-virtuous stories about "God".

It warps people sense-of-self, and their relationship to reality, and their understanding of what "love" is.

Meanwhile, 
Christianity attracts predatory humans, by offering them easy access to a moral cloak of trusted authority over others.

It also fosters authoritarian/Totalitarian values; like "Might Makes Right" and paranoid, tribal us-VS-them narratives.

-Thereby installing a mental slave-yolk into/onto vulnerable minds;
which any clever future-dictator can easily grab hold of and steer in the direction of his own interests.
[Exactly what Hitler, Stalin, and others took advantage of.
It's the same thing Trump tried (with only limited success) to take advantage of.]

It posits that all life is disposable, except whoever-and-whatever proves adequately flattering to the tragically insecure Alpha-Ego they call "God" [the worst possible character to emulate].

It posits that people are ~not enough~ as they are.
Not good enough to even be worthy of the air they breathe.
And then offers to "forgive" us for being imperfect;
very, very conditionally.

Basically, Christianity functions as a White Knight predator, 
who wears down people's innate sense of value, 
until they're ready to accept, beg for, and be thankful for the thing he calls "love" and "undeserved kindness". 

They're beating people down;
until the beaten will feel like the "offer" is more than they deserve.
So that people will finally accept it. 

That IS a form of violence.
So is the coercive "warning" people are given, if they refuse.

It's called "emotional violence". 
And it does as much damage to a developing brain as would repeated blows to the head from an angry fist; as proven by years of studying brain scans of people who have endured it. 

This is one of the many ways it's true that:

Only then
can anyone become worthy of the air we breathe; after being washed clean and validated. 

But that automatically means everyone who hasn't been "washed clean" and stamped with that validating approval ... is not worthy.

That automatically means the Christian is worth more than the non-Christian.


The Christian won't want to ADMIT that. But if they really think about it, that's what it means.

The Christian now merits eternal life in a paradise.

The non-Christian hasn't converted (at least not yet), and so:

As they are,
in the here and now, ...
the Non-Christian is not worth(y) of that.

No non-Christian is worth(y) of that.
Because if they were,
then:
there would be no need for
"great commission" and no need for an atonement.

So in that morally superior "state of being" and morally superior position,
the Christian is both:
morally superior AND more worthy to even exist
compared to the non-Christian (who just absolutely isn't);
per the Christian narrative.

And THAT is a HUGE problem for our world, because that way of thinking underpins every injustice. 

But then the Christian will say "I'm not judging anyone"; even though they really are.

If they disagree with their "God", 
then they're lying and betraying their own heart to speak as-if they agree.

But if they AGREE with what their "God" thinks about non-Christians, 
then
the Christian is thinking/feeling/uttering those judgements ~as also their own judgements~. 

Either way, they're pouring those toxic sentiments into the societal consciousness.
And the churches are functioning as production facilities, to endlessly supply more of it. 

They are also judging in the sense of "condemning", if the "message" uttered by the Christian morally obligates surrender and compliance. 

 Because, then:
that becomes the mechanism by which the listener is now sentenced to Hell.
The Christian just created the circumstance which obligates the listener. 

 And yet,
if any Christian says "the message doesn't obligate anyone to Hell.
We're all due for it, no matter what he know.
The message only helpfully informs, so that people can "choose to become" worthy of something better; before it's too late",   ...

That would mean everyone who doesn't get the message ends up in "Hell" for reasons which aren't their fault.

Whereas, if those souls are shown proof in an afterlife waiting-room, and then given the chance to "repent",
then that's grossly unfair to the people who got the version of the message people get during THIS life, which doesn't come with any proof. 

No matter how poorly reasoned and dysfunctional it all may be, it's what they believe.
And it "feels" reasonable; even though it's not.
And it "feels" loving; even though it's not.
And it "feels" healthy; even though it's not.
And it "feels" fair; even though it's not.

It tricks countless many people into thinking it's all "good", 
and then:
 
The MINORITY of Christians who managed to be actually-decent-human-beings ~despite their religion~, 
look around confused and sad at the majority of Christians who are impressively shitty. 

They wonder "how did that happen?"

But I know how it happened.
It's just easier to see it from the outside looking in.