Yes they have misinterpreted the Bible, but also they don’t seem to be liars. Their faith appears to be entirely sincere, and there’s no evidence they are lying. From the outside, they look as serious as every other Christian, which is to say it’s all ridiculous.
I don’t want to make assumptions about you, but your point is the sort of “no true Scotsman” argument Christians like to make about the “other” Christians they don’t agree with. Believers can see and point out the flaws in the beliefs of others, but all religions are down in the same irrational hole.
What are you talking about? The modern take on “speaking in tongues” is literally misinterpreting the Bible so that— instead of you speaking one language and it coming out clear in everyone’s language like what was very clearly expoused in the passage— you shout a bunch of gibberish like a moron. You have to make that up and make up that you believe something is happening. It’s like how some Pentacostal pastors get people up in front of everyone and claim to heal them from physical sickness right then and there by putting their hands on them. They’re fucking liars, it’s all for show. It’s the same kind of “faith”-based hucksterism as psychics.
Not all fucking forms of religion or even Christianity lie that obviously and hard. Usually the people mostly believe what they say, even if it’s often via cognitive dissonance.
Just because you find it ridiculous doesn’t mean that they aren’t sincere. You’re assuming that people cannot convince themselves of a delusion so hard that they fully believe it.
Consider Catholics who believe that wine and bread turn to blood and flesh when blessed by a priest, or Young Earth Creationists who reject the whole of modern science because their holy scripture says that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, or faith healers, or people who pray for miracles, or people who believe in ghosts, or a global flood, or the stories of Adam and Eve, or a burning bush passing down commandments, or that Moses brought plagues to free the Jewish slaves in Egypt, or that Christ was born of a virgin and rose from the dead. All of those beliefs are equally irrational.
It doesn’t matter at all if their interpretation of the Bible contradicts with your interpretation of the Bible, because the Bible is not a source of literal truth. It contains many demonstrably false statements, and a myriad of contradictory statements. Even as a source of allegorical morality tales, the Bible is lacking by any modern standard.
Some of these beliefs-- whether true or not-- are not as absurd as you think. A lot of people have magical thinking, it’s just that some magical thinking is far, far stupider in context than others.
You clearly don’t understand the difference between making shit up and believing something to be real in the first place. “Speaking in tongues” (not the Bible version) is the former. A huckster doesn’t believe they’re psychic for example— they’re just bullshitting. To say I have no right to assume that they know they’re not psychic, that is absurd.
Your arguments are stupid and I’m done talking with you.
Yes they have misinterpreted the Bible, but also they don’t seem to be liars. Their faith appears to be entirely sincere, and there’s no evidence they are lying. From the outside, they look as serious as every other Christian, which is to say it’s all ridiculous.
I don’t want to make assumptions about you, but your point is the sort of “no true Scotsman” argument Christians like to make about the “other” Christians they don’t agree with. Believers can see and point out the flaws in the beliefs of others, but all religions are down in the same irrational hole.
What are you talking about? The modern take on “speaking in tongues” is literally misinterpreting the Bible so that— instead of you speaking one language and it coming out clear in everyone’s language like what was very clearly expoused in the passage— you shout a bunch of gibberish like a moron. You have to make that up and make up that you believe something is happening. It’s like how some Pentacostal pastors get people up in front of everyone and claim to heal them from physical sickness right then and there by putting their hands on them. They’re fucking liars, it’s all for show. It’s the same kind of “faith”-based hucksterism as psychics.
Not all fucking forms of religion or even Christianity lie that obviously and hard. Usually the people mostly believe what they say, even if it’s often via cognitive dissonance.
Just because you find it ridiculous doesn’t mean that they aren’t sincere. You’re assuming that people cannot convince themselves of a delusion so hard that they fully believe it.
Consider Catholics who believe that wine and bread turn to blood and flesh when blessed by a priest, or Young Earth Creationists who reject the whole of modern science because their holy scripture says that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, or faith healers, or people who pray for miracles, or people who believe in ghosts, or a global flood, or the stories of Adam and Eve, or a burning bush passing down commandments, or that Moses brought plagues to free the Jewish slaves in Egypt, or that Christ was born of a virgin and rose from the dead. All of those beliefs are equally irrational.
It doesn’t matter at all if their interpretation of the Bible contradicts with your interpretation of the Bible, because the Bible is not a source of literal truth. It contains many demonstrably false statements, and a myriad of contradictory statements. Even as a source of allegorical morality tales, the Bible is lacking by any modern standard.
You think they are ridiculous. Matthew 7:3
Your arguments are stupid and I’m done talking with you.