There's plenty to suggest that Ted Haggard (rent boys and crystal meth), Peter Popoff (God's voice actually an in-ear reciever from his wife), Oral Roberts (God's 8 million ransom note on his life) and Jim Bakker (embezzlement) no more believe in hell or damnation than Richard Dawkins. If we take it that they don't mean a word they say, that they in fact believe that there is no god to punish lies, cheating and stealing, then why don't athiests accept them as fellow athiests?
2007-05-02 00:21:53 · 16 answers · asked by Trevor E 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Various people have said that the lyin', cheatin' evangelists are not athiests, but as I understand it, it's "Atheisim" isn't a club one actively has to sign up for, promising to abide by certain Rules of Atheisim. It just means you don't believe in God. If you think Yuri Geller is a con man, you can be pretty sure he doesn't believe in magic. And if you think the televangilsts are a bunch of liers, as I do, you can be equally sure they don't believe in god either.
2007-05-02 00:34:10 · update #1
They aren't atheist
They believe in God
They are just letting other "things" rule their lives
2007-05-02 00:27:46 · answer #1 · answered by kenny p 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Because they don't want to claim these men any more than Christians do. These men act in a way that belies their claim of belief in God or that they will ever have to answer for their sins, so Christians can rightly say they are not true Christians. Atheists are happy to take them at their word.
2007-05-02 00:37:46 · answer #2 · answered by babydoll 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to realize what atheist and atheism mean! Your statements are unfounded and uneducated. Study the facts before being a zealot and realize that the televangelists that you are talking about are not Atheists, they are actually semi-religious people who are able to abuse a faith system easily ,and fool so many into donating huge amounts of money to them because of the flawed belief system that allows such men and women to exist! Televangalists actually do more harm to a religion than the actual religion itself.
Atheists are people who do not believe in a god or gods (or other immaterial beings), or who believe that these concepts are not meaningful.
Some atheists put it more firmly and believe that god or gods do not exist.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/
2007-05-02 00:32:22 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
An ATHEIST by definition is someone who does not believe in God.
As long as anyone believes in God, they cannot be called an atheist; whether they are good or bad.
Many atheists also do what you call 'good' and being an atheist does not necessarily mean that you will lie, cheat and steal.
2007-05-02 00:48:06 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't push them off on us. Atheists tend to be more decent than that.
Why do Christians (and other religious people) have trouble accepting that their religion is a poor predictor of morality? When a Christian does something bad, he's still a Christian. You shouldn't be surprised that Christians are bad. Christianity, like other religions, make people morally lazy. As long as they generally follow memorized lists of commandments and apologize for the rest, that's good enough for them. They don't have to think about why something is right or wrong as long as "God said so".
2007-05-02 00:29:07 · answer #5 · answered by nondescript 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Just because atheists don't believe in hell doesn't mean we think lying, cheating, stealing, drug abuse, or hypocrisy is acceptable. We don't--their immoral behavior does not make them atheists. If they believe in a god, they are still theists regardless of their unethical behavior.
Surely you don't think that a person is automatically an atheist if they do something immoral? That smacks of bigotry and a profound misunderstanding of morality and atheism.
2007-05-02 00:26:41 · answer #6 · answered by N 6 · 5⤊ 0⤋
I can't get inside their skin and know what they really believed concerning a supernatural god. I do know they were able to exploit believers in god pretty easily and separate them from their money. Hucksters yes, Athiests probablly not. Blind faith in god = mentally deficient and gullible...
2007-05-02 00:36:56 · answer #7 · answered by Narmak 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Forgive my ignorance, but who the hell is Ted Haggart? And is what you write of him known absolutely as true? I really don't care who he is, but if what you write about him is true, why isn't he in prison? Televangelists are, to me at least, highly paid charlatans, but would you do what they do and not get paid for it? Assuming you were a believer to begin with.
2007-05-02 00:44:13 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think they believe what they say as much as many who claim to be christians. Perhaps their god is actually money, as it seems, but who am I to make such a call about another person's beliefs?
2007-05-02 00:34:02 · answer #9 · answered by Dharma Nature 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why not just call everyone who are not what they say they are - atheist - like the entire government?
So religionists call every one who is not in their organization, atheists, now every lying minister is an atheist?
Why not just blame everything on atheists. You religionists are all the same as Adam who blamed his problems on everyone else.
2007-05-02 00:47:24 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chuckle. Sorry, Trevor, it doesn't work that way. Every one of these conmen loudly proclaims that he BEELEEVES, and that's all it takes to be a Christian.
If you don't want to share your faith with them, then you'll have to be the one to move because they're not gonna -- not while they're making money.
2007-05-02 00:32:24 · answer #11 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋