I Knew There Was A Reason

Get far enough from something and you forget why you (fill in the blank) it anyway.  Time and distance have the unique power of making things - anything - grow smaller.  Favorite movies become "why did I like that anyway?"  Old hurts scar over, and sometimes you can't even remember why the hurt happened in the first place.

Recently, someone I know who says they are a Christian (and they go to church, so they must be) did something that I thought was pretty despicable.  They flat out lied to my face, and when confronted about it later, they flat out lied to me and the president of the company. 

It reminded me of why I left the church, why I (for the most part) left the faith...and why I don't particularly trust Christians. 

Christians have a problem with truth.  They have to...being a Christian means that you have accepted something on the basis of how it makes you feel, but is not supported by (and in many ways is contradicted by) truth.  Most Christians base their lives, beliefs, faith, and actions on what they call The Word of God.  Which is, of course, the Bible. 

The Bible is filled with inconsistencies, contradictions, and inaccuracies.  It promotes philosophies that are ignored by people who claim to believe the Bible.  They hire pastors and preachers to tell them what it means, and if they disagree with what those people say, they fire them.  They flat out disobey some of the simplest and most straightforward instructions in the Bible, and then either justify their actions by saying the Bible does not exactly means what it says (the original Greek argument) or that they are only human and God forgives their sin. 

The whole arena of Christian apologetics arose because people early on began to realize that the Bible does not agree with itself, and that the Christian church does not agree with the Bible.  So somebody had to come up with some pretty powerful excuses...thus, apologetics. 

The issue of truth is a big one.  Because the Bible is so filled with nonsense, inaccuracies and contradictions, and because so many so-called bible believers totally disregard much of its teachings and blame it on "apologetics" (different meanings, issues of interpretation, etc) - anyone who says they believe the Bible is saying that they believe something they know is untrue, or inaccurate, or nonsensical, and they can make it say anything they want it to say.

That kind of person has a problem with truth, period.  A religion that maintains itself by untruth and by ignoring truth will attract people who have a problem with truth.  They feel comfortable in denial, ignorance, and avoidance.  They attack people who disagree with them...they don't address the points of disagreement, but they attack the person for daring to disagree with the Word of God. 

But they pretend not to notice that others in their church, all around them, even they themselves, are disobeying the Word of God, or ignoring the fact that this so-called Word of God is filled with distortions, inaccuracies and contradicitions...ie, untruth. 

If you get comfortable with nontruth, with denial, with avoidance...you can do just about anything anywhere and get away with it.  You can claim to be a Christian, and then lie straight-faced to people who know the truth but are letting you hang yourself with your own words. 

I knew there was a reason I left that all behind.

Good riddance.