Why Apologetics is the Most Dishonest Profession
The art of making excuses and selling snake oil
Apologetics is the art of defending a position. It does not mandate that position to be honest, true, or good. Is it no surprise that apologists constantly use dishonest tactics on purpose, such as presuppositional TAG-type arguments to shift the burden of proof, strawman positions of science, and gish-gallops?
Apologetics is the art of making excuses to sell lies and snake oil, no matter the harm or deception involved, in order to sell books and gain tithes and votes for their churches. As I like to point out, LGBT youth account for half of all homeless youth while the churches that vilify them make billions of dollars and pay no taxes.
You and I have to work our butts off our whole lives to make that kind of money by actually doing something for society, and we have to pay taxes on it. These apologists sell lies and are parasites on our economy. And while kinder churches like Unitarians can collect similar money, they are using their money to make a society that is safer an welcoming to all people; whereas bigots wish to destroy our society
They cannot demonstrate that their afterlife is even real or more true than what another person of a different faith believes. They will discard you if you are gay and refused to be ashamed of it. And they don’t care that anti-LGBT beliefs cause LGBT youth to account for half of all homeless youth.
If they are willing to sell you lies, sell you false friendships and fake afterlife promises, and sell you things that can harm you, all for a profit at your expense, are they really your friend? Are they really honest? No, and it is time that people stop making excuses for them.
Some are so blatantly dishonest, they are stupidly dishonest. This one apologist on medium says “yeah, the bible does have a lot of genocide and violence and that causes people to be violent and that is a problem; but the bible is still true and God makes all of that OK”. A typical fraudster will steal your money, but Apologists will take so much more from you. Apologetics is the most dishonest profession that it is possible to have.
Religion and Faith
Faith here is being used in the sense of epistemology, not in the sense of a belief or a religion.
Faith is not a path to truth. Faith is the excuse given when one does not care about actual truth or about other people. If one cares about whether or not their beliefs are actually true, they will critically examine their beliefs and see if there is any evidence of their beliefs actually being true, not just pretend or believe because it feels good. If one cares about another person, they will discard beliefs and practices that cause them to harm that other person.
Faith demands to believe in things and do things without good evidence and inspire of contradicting evidence; and regardless of how said beliefs or actions affect others. Because of this, faith is the most dishonest, selfish, and irresponsible position that it is possible to have.
Note: the above is not the kind of faith that LGBT-affirming believers use. They at the very least keep faith in check with reason and caring about others; whereas fundamentalist don’t care about truth, reason, facts, or the well-being of others. See the final paragraph for my thoughts on these kind believers.
The overall institution and world of religion is rife with abuse. But why? If I am a scientist and I get caught fabricating evidence, my career is over: I can get fired, my credentials can be revoked, peer review will catch and expose my lies and fraud, and the rest of the scientific community won’t take me seriously. In other words, there are consequences in the scientific world.
But if I fabricate evidence for creationism and conversion therapy, my work will be rejected by most scientists, but the world of religion will elevate me on a pedestal of honor; because truth, facts, evidence, and the well-being of other human beings is irrelevant in religion. Only power and money matters in the industry of religion.
And while bigots will vilify LGBT-affirming churches and pastors as “false teachers; those “false teachers” are pretty much the only ones in the industry of religion that is keeping it honest from within. Anti-LGBT preachers don’t like the fact that the queer-affirming priest from that Unitarian church is calling these bigoted preachers and apologists out on their bullsh*t.
