Plenty of folks like to cherry-pick quotes that support their ideals. It’s a common phenomenon that knows no single ideology or sociopolitical slant. I’ve resisted doing this in the past because I’ve engaged instead in decades of independent thinking for myself, instead of regurgitating others’ material. It’s why, except in humor, I don’t drop names and drop quotes at the end of e-mails, BLOG posts, boards, and other fora.
Yes, quotes can be taken out of context; whereas others speak quite loudly for themselves regarding the viewpoints of the speaker or writer. Often, we don’t know which. You decide.
As I’ve matured, however, I’ve come to see that quotations, especially multiple ones across a spectrum of time from one person, or across a spectrum of many people regarding an idea, can be quite revealing of that person or that idea. Get me here?
Good. Because I ask of you, dear reader, two favors.
First: consider the quotes below in a compare/contrast context with regard to modern atheist arguments.
Second: do NOT–I repeat, do NOT–look up, Google, or otherwise, the source of these quotes, until after you have read every last word of this BLOG entry. Then verify them for yourself.
Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.
The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity.
The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity.
We’ll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State.
Originally, religion was merely a prop for human communities. It was a means, not an end in itself.
The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it. The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. All that’s left is to prove that in nature there is no frontier between the organic and the inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light, but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity.
Hmm…does that mentality sound familiar? Think about those quotes first, then scroll down for further instructions.
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Scroll down, please, to see who uttered those quotes.
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This man was responsible for those quotes*. He also was responsible for the murder of millions of innocent people–around 11 million, comprising about six million Jews and 5 million Gentiles either of other faiths, or no faiths at all. He wrought incomprehensible degrees of evil that will haunt mankind for the foreseeable future, yet even he and his diabolical horrors are being forgotten or even denied in many quarters.
This man clearly and obviously was NOT a Christian, based on his worldview as revealed in those private quotes, but instead a poser, pretending to be religious in public for the sake of manipulative populist propaganda. If anyone you know claims he was Christian, send them here…claim resoundingly refuted!
Indeed, he was a false prophet, of the kind long warned.
Hitler wasn’t the only false prophet in history, and will not be the only one to come. Only now, in the illumination of history, do we see this. Millions of gullible Germans (and even a nontrivial number of neo-Nazis today) did/do not see this.
Beware the next, and the next, and the next false prophet (there will be many).
The next false prophet, whether worldwide or only in your personal sphere of influence, may arrive in far more subtle, persuasive and “nice” packaging. He/she likely will not be obvious, at first anyway. He may look and sound really smart, compassionate, understanding, and speak ever so eloquently in your language, perhaps even directly to your heart. “He” may be “she” (~50% chance, biologically speaking). He/she may write or speak of love, kindness, tolerance and peace–playing the Utopian angle oh so well.
He/she might preach not of religion, but of non-religion–of “science, logic and reason” as the ultimate answer to everything, and of the “badness” of religion based on what people have done. [That insidious tactic conveniently projects a supposedly nonexistent “God” onto imperfect people for his/her argumentative benefit, in what amounts to a massive anti-God ad-hominem!]
Your next false prophet might not be even a famous figure, but a neighbor, friend, lover, or instructor, offering a very enticing, alluring, and sensible-sounding worldview for you to buy, whether posing as a “Christian”, or whether otherwise “religious”, New Age, humanist, secular, “tolerant”, or entirely anti-religious.
Be advised, be alert, and be aware. Enticing deceptions and diversions lurk throughout this world.
Oh, and as for my supposedly “independent” thinking? No, not completely. I’ve been wrong and arrogant to claim my thoughts entirely as my own, no credit elsewhere. Thinking–yes, including science, logic and reason–is a gift from God–a powerful tool for our use or abuse. Thought is an imperfectly used gift/tool, for sure (by having free will, I’m a sinner just like everybody else). And every day I try–not always succeed, mind you–to use that gift for, not against, its ultimate origin.