Why do you think Christians lie about people like Darwin & Einstein so their faith/cult beliefs seem better?

Question

I'm honestly curious. I see on here frequently how christians will lie about Einstein's "deathbed conversion" (which we know is false - he did not convert on his deathbed to his nurse, who was the only one with him when he died) -- and we also know very well that Darwin changed his faith several times throughout his life, and it is well known that he had lost all faith in Christianity long before his death (even his own daughter Henrietta confirmed that) -- yet, christians still come on here and lie about his death, and claim that he converted, too, which is patently false. (By the way, you can verify this on any historical site, or a site like Snopes.com that debunks urban legends).

Is it the christian low self-esteem that drives this need to lie in order to make their stuff look better? Is it a seriously low level of confidence in their faith and cult beliefs that cause it? I'm honestly curious -- and if christians can be truthful in this case, please reply.

Wow. Lots of confusion gleaned from my question. For clarification:
1. christianity is a "cult" -- look up the definitionof the word 'cult' at www.m-w.com It is a cult, by definition. If YOU choose to put a negative slant on the word CULT, then that is your own choice, but please don't come back and call me 'negative' for YOUR choices. Choose intelligence rather than knee-jerk idiocy. Go look it up and become educated.
2. Baldy? Yes, I am bald. Grass can't grow on a busy street.
3. I didn't say that Darwin had lost ALL his faith, only his faith in christianity. Yes, you are correct that he was a Deist, just like many of the Founding Fathers of this country were.
4. If you claim that Darwin and Einstien mean so little to you, then why is it so important for so many of you to lie about who they were and what they thought? That is counterintuitive to what many of you say here frequently.
Thanks to several of you for your thoughtful, logical, intelligent replies.

Now, "westfallwatergarden" is trying to perpetuate a misconception about Galileo. i urge you to read history! Read this:
Psalms 93:1 and Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:5 speak of the (in some sense) "firm" and "established" position of the earth. Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage too literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in motion across the sky.

By 1616 the attacks on Galileo had reached a head, and he went to Rome to try to persuade the Church authorities not to ban his ideas. [CONTINUED IN NEXT PARAGRAPH]

In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition [1], delivered him an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the center. The decree did not prevent Galileo from hypothesizing heliocentrism. For the next several years Galileo stayed well away from the controversy.

He revived his project of writing a book on the subject, encouraged by the election of Cardinal Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in 1623. Barberini was a friend and admirer of Galileo, and had opposed the condemnation of Galileo in 1616. The book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was published in 1632, with formal authorization from the Inquisition and papal permission.

Pope Urban VIII personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book. [CONTINUED]

Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly or deliberate, Simplicius, the defender of the Aristotelian Geocentric view in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. This fact made Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an advocacy book; an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defense of the Copernican theory. To add insult to injury, Galileo put the words of Pope Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicius. Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book. However, the Pope did not take the public ridicule lightly, nor the blatant bias. Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to explain himself.
[CONTINUED]

With the loss of many of his defenders in Rome because of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633. The sentence of the Inquisition was in three essential parts:

1. Galileo was required to recant his heliocentric ideas; the idea that the Sun is stationary was condemned as "formally heretical".
2. He was ordered imprisoned; the sentence was later commuted to house arrest.
3. His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial and not enforced, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

THOSE are the true reasons why he was persecuted by the church. Please don't continue to be dishonest and assert otherwise.

Thanks.

Answer 1

They need to believe that smart people believe as they do, because to think otherwise goes against the emotional arguments for believing. They can't stand the idea that most really intelligent people are atheists. They see scientists learning much about the world and ignoring their pitiful claims of deity, and hate the fact that most of them are atheists. They want the smart people to be on their side, so they just rationalize that they are.

Answer 2

It's hard to say exactly why. Fundamentalist literalism runs head-on into scientific evidence on a regular basis. The only two possibilities are that a) they might be wrong (utterly unacceptable), or b) the evidence or its discoverers must be compromised in some way. Take away their certainty that the Bible is "flawless" and their world crumbles underneath them. The result: hysteria.

The logic runs like this: The Bible is the word of God. Therefore it cannot lie. Humans are fallible, so they can make mistakes or lie. The problem with that (among other things) is that their Bible was written by humans, not angels or even a holy ghost writer. Meanwhile, though humans can lie, the evidence cannot do so. 1+1 equals 2 no matter how many times you double-check it. While the scientific process is not "perfect" (and nothing really is), it is the best tool we have for discovering the nature of the universe around us and taking advantage of it.

As opposed to a bunch of wild stories with a lot of blooshed and wishful thinking.

Answer 3

I've heard some of those stories too. It is EXTREMELY difficult to come to terms with the fact that something you have been told and something you have believed your entire life is not true. This is even more the case if everyone around you believes the same thing.
There are many fundamentalist Christians where I live, and many within my own family. And yes, they use that old story of 'Darwin's recant.' However it is of course not true.

The best way to view this is to take the idea of evolution itself, and apply to ourselves today. We are all evolving together, and in different forms. It would be a horrible thing if we all suddenly became cold and scientific, and if would also be horrible if we were all fundamentalists.

Yes, I think there is some fear that the world is different from how we would all like to believe that it is, but having an open mind and an open heart are still the most important things.

Answer 4

I'll do something I rarely do here -- defend the christians on this issue :)

I truly don't think the ones who post this stuff here lie, I think they just repeat what they've been told by somebody else -- a pastor, church school teacher, etc. They don't bother to find out the facts for themselves, that's true. But they remember that sometime someone told them that Einstein and Darwin both had late conversions in life, and so they repeat that. You can blame the people who told them those lies in the first place, but they're not here.

You have to remember, most christians are very conditioned to take for granted anything their leaders or teachers tell them. Earth is 6,400 years old? Sure -- no need to go find out for myself, my teacher and the bible say so. No real proof of evolution? Hey, my pastor said so! And he would *never* lie, and he's very smart, so he must be right!

So I really don't think they're maliciously lying, I think they're just parroting what they've been told as with many other things they post here. That demonstrates ignorance, lack of reason, and, yes, laziness (not finding out for yourself) -- but not premeditated deception. Some of them actually think it's true.

Answer 5

It's a combination of factors.

The "average" christian is probably just repeating the claptrap he heard in church, and lacks the critical faculty and the intelligence to question it.

He hears it from his pastor or priest or whomever he considers a "religious authority." Now this authority figure may or may not take this crap seriously, but I have to believe that the further up the chain you go, the less likely people are to believe their own propaganda, in witness of which we can quote one of the popes who said: "It has served us well, this fable of Christ." People with just slightly more brains than the average credulous peasant tend to realize very quickly what a profitable racket religion can be.

There is an entire infrastructure of lunacy out there for so-called "christians" to turn to whenever they need re-confirmation of some stupid tenet they've been brainwashed into believing. They've thought of a ridiculous, illogical, oftentimes laughable "answer" to every reasonable objection, and it all gets quoted and repeated until it acquires the force of truth.

Answer 6

Because they were told this lie by someone else. I bet it's rare the person who quotes these things knowing it's a lie. It's all well intended on their part. There are many times where the atheistic side lies by your standard, quoting utter non sense about church history, or say an piece of evidence for evolution that latter got disproved, You can't assume that everytime someone has incorrect information that they are trying to intentionally mislead people.

Someones comments from above are a great example Galileo was not persecuted by the church for his scientific advancements. He was "persecuted" for his comments about the pope. He admitted this himself. But centuries later, you still perpetuate that myth to try and make it seem that Christians are scared of science.

Does your arrogance hurt, or is it just something you've grown accustomed to. I will look into this more, but asking me to stop spreading this, and continue to be dishonest implies that I was being dishonest with what I wrote, that I somehow intentionally tried to deceive you. I wrote what I understood, not to deceive. How you could somehow know automatically know that my intentions were unjust perplexes me. Lastly typing out Wikipedia word for word doesn't make you authoritative on history. Wikipedia is not a reliable source for information. It is subjective information portrayed objectively. A lot of the debate was due to the fact that the church had latched onto aristotle's view of science. There was no seperation of church and science at the time, it was a scientific conflict within the church. Not the church against science.

Answer 7

The Saturday Evening Post, in 1929:

"To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?"
"As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."

"Have you read Emil Ludwig's book on Jesus?"

"Emil Ludwig's Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot."

"You accept the historical Jesus?"

"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life." 7

His clone must of been talking...which he did alot, to churches and interviewers.

Darwin was a mislead person, who said that thru species superiority, colored and asian people will die out. White, europeans are superior.

Christianity is not a cult, but split into many sects. Most get along. I am a believer. I am curious. On my last post, someone answered that since we now have proof of transitional lifeforms......Look outside. do you see any? You see a bird, a bug, a lizard, a girl walking by, a dog, a cat, a big wasp...... there are no inbetweener's. We still got the single cell and we still have man, so we should still have all the others too, right?

Answer 8

Just because a black man rapes your sister it doesn't follow all black men will be rapists does it.
Well don't assume being christian means you have some problem with Einstein, Darwin or any other scientist. Very few Christians are so narrow minded in their faith, that they have a problem with evolution or quantum mechanics.
All the great scientific minds of our world only prove the method by which god created the universe. They've never to the best of my knowledge proved there is no god.
I rather think you'll find for instance, Einstein not only believed in a supreme creator. But actually went as far as to suggest physics may well one day actually prove the universe couldn't exist without god being factored in to explain it.

Answer 9

I have read no account that Darwin confessed Jesus Christ to his nurse. There are, however, some accounts that he did confess his belief to an evangelist friend of his, a Ms. Love. This claim was never corroborated. More interesting to me, is the fact that he did make several mentions of this friendship in letters. I think there is some substance to his belief in the fact that he pursued a friendship with Ms. Love and spent a great deal of time with her. Our choice of companion reflects a great deal more than our words can express. It is also possible that Darwin could not confess, openly, to Jesus Christ as this would appear, in that day, to negate his confidence in his own theories. There is also a great deal of evidence that Darwin blamed God for the death of his mother when he was eight years old. This is not an uncommon affect on children when grieving. It is also commonly reversed in adulthood when that same person is faced with their own death. We know that Darwin's family were somewhat liberal, in a religiously conservative Church socioeconomic setting. There is just as much reason to speculate on Darwin's conversion as there is against it. In the end, we cannot know exactly what Darwin's beliefs were on his deathbed.

I do, however, agree that Einstein's religious belief or disbelief is not questionable. Albert Einstein was somewhat irrational in all beliefs and theories, regardless of religion or science.

Answer 10

Be careful in grouping all christians together. Not all christians are alike just as not all religions are alike. A belief in Christ does not make them a christian. A true christian tries to emmulate Christ , in the way they live their life. As for Darwin and Einstein, I could care less. I believe in intelligent design. I know that God created all living things. God created living things adaptable to change and grow with in their element. There is no way that an annimal evolved on its own. Same said for this earth and man kind with out intelligent desigh a big bang could not happen. The only explanation is faith and if you lack faith long enough and deny Christ you are always looking for a way to be guiltless in the care free life you persue. Turn to Christ ask for forgivness and you will feel his love stronger than anything you have ever felt. Have faith in God and you will know true happiness.