Pride is a Virtue, Not a Vice

Christianity has it all wrong, pride in oneself is NOT a vice...it is a virtue.  To use Aristotle's definition: Pride is the mean between two vices. For example: Courage is the mean between cowardice and foolhardy.

Pride is defined as the proper amount of self respect. The christian definition has been added as a definition which makes no sense. You can never have too much pride if pride is the proper amount of self respect--the christians misuse the word.

Pride is between humble and arrogant/boastful, and therefore, pride is a virtue.  I consider pride to be the highest virtue because if you have pride, then you will not disrespect yourself, and you will uphold all of the virtues.  

So why do Christians believe pride is a vice, as Ray Comfort made known in his blog post? It is because it is easier for the powers that be to control and manipulate meek and humble "sheeple" than it is to control and manipulate prideful people who will not belittle themselves or stoop to believing someone else can take responsibility for their actions, because they respect themselves enough to do it themselves.

The confusion comes about because christians have been taught that humble a virtue instead of a vice. Humble is defined as:

1.  having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble.

2.  low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly: of humble origin; a humble home. 

Therefore, Christians believe those who feel inferior, and lowly, and are subservient are more "godly" than those who are prideful and have self-respect.  Again, this is for a reason, which is why Christians "invented" the fallen angel story, who defied god due to his excessive pride.  But note, there is no such story in the Torah/Tanakh, and there is no such thing as excessive pride (the proper amount of self-respect).  The church, governments, and anyone who has control does not want to relinquish that control, so they take measures to maintain control.  The church did this by promoting "meekness and humbleness," so believers would follow like sheep and never question. 

Knowledge encourages self respect as when one becomes aware, they are less likely to believe anything without question.  Knowledge is power.  Question everything.  Have pride.  

Addendum:  Please see photos of the rebuttal to this post made by David Rodriguez of the now defunct "Rational Gang" (as of June 2012)  and my rebuttal here and here.


David Rodriguez can now be found at "walking christian"

Origin of Christian Doomsday Cults, and Why They Are Here to Stay

In the spirit of the "Doomsday Cults" and their adherents, and the infamous Harold Camping and his failed prediction of Judgement Day being May 21, 2011, I find it interesting that people continue to put their faith in such predictions, when over the centuries literally hundreds of such predictions have been made which have all turned out to be bogus. Even the predictions made in the bible about the "Second coming" were unfulfilled. Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels explains the phenomenon in their work "On Religion."

Engels and Marx reveal the "beast" of the book of Revelations as Rome, and the seven heads of the beast are the seven hills which surround Rome. Revelations refers to the war between the Caesar Nero, (represented by the Jewish numerical code 666) and Jesus, where Jesus was to return and overthrow the tyranny of Rome. This was the prophecy of Revelations.

When the "failed prophecy" of Jesus coming back in a "twinkling of an eye" (1 Corinthians 15:52, ) did not happen, people started laughing at believers, so they changed tactics and had him coming back within their generation. This didn't happen either, so then they said "no one knows." (Matt 24:36) This, however, hasn't stopped Christians from making failed prophecy after failed prophecy, because they can always find suckers willing to buy their schtick--and hand over their cash. It's unfortunate that some of these believers (such as the Heaven's Gate cult) have also lost their lives as a result of these unfounded beliefs.

Doomsday predictions are nothing new. People have been making such predictions for literally centuries now--but when they keep failing, why do they continue to do it? Most believers in such nonsense would not put their "faith" in science, and volunteer to be guinea pigs in a science experiment, so why do they, oh so willingly, believe the end is near without any evidence? How can people continue to be so pessimistic about our natural world, and so gullible as to believe the world will end without any evidence?

Cognitive Dissonance. Cognitive dissonance results when a person holds conflicting ideas simultaneously, which they uphold by blaming, justifying and denying whatever they need to in order to maintain their conflicting beliefs. Didn't win the lottery? Just say god has different "plans" for you.

One of the most famous examples of cognitive dissonance was described in the book "When Prophecy Fails." In this example, a religious group that expected the imminent "end of the world" (sound familiar?) grew, instead of faltering when their predictions failed. Because of this, we should not be too surprised to hear that Camping's group is still around in the future making more lame excuses for the no-show of their gods--and continue to come up with even more bizarre predictions.

Cognitive dissonance certainly is a force to be reckoned with, so if you see anyone wearing a sandwich board warning that the "end is near"--smile and walk away knowing you have absolutely nothing to worry about. After 2000 years of failed predictions, I don't expect the prophecies to end anytime soon....:)