I have a question for *some* atheists?

“Some atheists say that religion is designed to get control over people who fear death and God, and to obtain wealth through the devoted giving of tithes and offerings to that religious institution.”

Nailed it !

Well done, you.

“Do you think that they are actually atheists who do not believe a word that they are saying?”

They KNOW ‘god’ is imaginary… http://godisimaginary.com/i3.htm

“Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans.”

~

51

It’s not only possible, it’s a reality. Consider this scenario: Young religious kid decides he wants to be a preacher. He studies the Bible and eventually becomes one. But the more time that goes by, the more he sees the contradictions and the logical fallacies. The more he realizes that what he has been preaching is false. And here he is well into his career as a clergyman. He makes a living doing it… but he now realizes it’s not the truth.

Does he throw away his career and start all over with no other skills or job experience to fall back on? Or… does he just continue along faking it? The choice in many cases is clearly the latter.

I recently listened to an interview with an American financial genius who had spent time in jail for fraud .

It was interesting because he described how he changed by degree from a hard working honest person into a million dollar fraudster womanizer and drug dealer.

Each step was just a small one he changed over years by tiny steps each time he could convince himself that it was OK because it was just a little bit worse than what he was already doing.

He admitted that the whole process was insane but like getting into a hot bath, if you do it suddenly then you notice the heat, if you raise the temperature slowly it remains comfortable.

I feel the same thing happens for these sham preachers, they start out with good intentions but slowly and gradually they corrupt themselves with the love of money and power. All the time they can justify it to themselves that it is just a tiny bit more and that they deserve it as they are doing Gods Will !

Power and wealth tend to corrupt, there is nothing unusual about this.

It is that people continue to be impressed by those who should be seen as corrupt that is the great shame.

Of course there is a chance that some of these people are atheists. Generally however, I believe manipulative and greedy religious leaders (and not all religious leaders are) think they have the answers and the right to dictate their own morality in a different way that they dictate and rule over others. Like the rules don’t apply to them because they can interpret and re-interpret their faith in ways to justify their behaviors. I honestly think the worst kinds of people are the ones who are convinced that God is on their side no matter what they do or who they hurt. So they are for the most part not atheist, just very arrogant and self-righteous holier-than-thou creeps.

The primary reason for the counsel of Nicaea was political. It had little to do with god. So if politicians can use religion why not atheists to make money. And especially the catholic church. They have sold more pieces of the “true cross” to build a fleet of ships. They have sold or given away enough relics of the saints to populate New York. The shroud of Turin has been scientifically dated at no more than 12 years ago, almost exactly the date the Roman Catholic religion got started.

I think it is entirely possible that these “televangelist” types, may not believe a word they preach, and are just in it for the money, however, I think its more likely that they have a god complex, and actually think they have god given powers( ie: healing, prophesy, prosperity) and feel justified in taking advantage of desperate people who come to them for help. As far as athiest religious leaders in biblical times, there is nothing new under the sun, and I’m sure that as long as there has been religion, there have been people who exploit it to make money.

Do I believe it is possible that some religious leaders do not actually believe what they are preaching? Absolutely. Especially the ones who exploit their loyal followers to become obscenely wealthy, or the self-righteous ones who eventually get caught in a cocaine-fueled tryst with a transsexual prostitute. Either they don’t believe anything they are saying when they preach, OR they believe they are so special as to be “above” the laws of their god (such as those who believe themselves to be “prophets” and have sex with children), OR they believe that their god is SO forgiving that they will be forgiven of their own hypocrisy. I believe there is probably a little of all three involved.

We all know that in the main , churches are extremely rich .If religion died , the fatcats who enjoy wealth from those religions, would no longer be kept in the luxury they enjoy.The real truth about why the bible was written is to me clear.But that is not what these people preach to their flock.Their job is to keep them going to church, using fear if needed.It says QUITE clearly in matthew 6 that we should NOT pray in churches.So why do these holy men insist on ignoring that.We know the answer don’t we.

Undoubtedly, I also believe the ‘higher up’ a person is in a religious organisation, the more likely it is that they are an atheist. My thinking is that they are privy to much of the info that dismisses religious phenomena and have a greater knowledge of the ‘tricks of the trade’, falsehoods and untruths that keep people committed to their religion.

I agree with your statement 1%.

Although I think using the term “atheist religious leaders” is misleading (as you can see by some your responses) The term “religious leaders who are closet atheists” would be better.