Yeah, I hate that argument too. It really says more about the commenter than they realize: They're in denial, they've been hurt and now they're bitter, they're ignorant or prejudiced. There might be other reasons that I can't think of right now, but your post is true. It's an easy, borrowed and very stale excuse.

Are you feeling better?

Well Dustin I'm gonna tell ya what they mean.

It is not possible to believe in any particular religion and not be a hypocrite, and it doesn't matter how well you adhere to the values of whatever religion you are speaking about.

There are 2 elements to this argument, the first goes for the jugular and the second basically just dices up the rest.

The first problem is that anyone that believes in a religion is simultaneously an athiest. There are literally hundreds of different deities that have existed throughout history, and for any particular one you believe in and follow, you reject thousands of others. The only reason you believe in a particular one is because of your upbringing. If you were born in India you would believe in Vishnu or Shiva. If you were born in Iraq you would be a muslim. If you were born in Africa you'd believe in some other crazy nonsense (maybe a coke bottle from the sky?). It's by the sheerest of accidents that you believe what you believe! It has nothing to do with the veracity of its claims, or burdens of proof, it's just the hand you were dealt. There's no particular reason to believe in any of them at all let alone one in particular, since it's just a collection of words with little basis in observable reality. There is just as much reason to believe a particular religion as there is to believe that there are unicorns orbitting mars.

The second part has more to do with the hypocrisy of specific teachings in a particular religion. For example, religions that prohibit violence and killing yet their stories are just overflowing with bloodshed. Yes often times it is a vehicle to tell some other teaching, but just as often the killing is meant to be righteous. There is also the hypocrisy of the followers of a religion picking and choosing which teachings they are going to follow. Women not allowed to speak in church? Uhh forget that one. Don't touch a woman for up to a week after her menstrual cycle? Hmm that's not gonna work. If your child is being defiant have him stoned to death in front of the entire village? A Christian teaching that would only seem appropriate in a Muslim neighborhood! Not to mention the bible literalists that believe every word in the bible to be the literal truth. It stands in utter defiance to all known scientific facts.

On a related note, one argument I've seen quite often is that without religion there are no morals. But I reject that. The bible in particular (as I showed earlier) is full of contradictory and abandoned morals. When presented with this, a bishop said that there are some things which just don't belong in modern society. The athiest in the discussion (Dawkins in this case I think) pointed out that the very mental devices which allow you to make the judgement of which morals from the bible to adopt and which ones to reject is the same one which allows you to make moral choices in the first place!.

Anyway, that is why atheists say that religious people are hypocrites. Personally I don't care what people believe as long as they don't shove it in my face and/or try to impose their view of what is right or wrong on me. Then again I think I'm probably the least abrasive and self-important atheist I've found. I mean no offense by my post here and you know you are my bud! If you have any more questions about atheism or anything I'd love to try to answer them, just drop me a line.

(When I say "they're in denial" I mean we are all hypocrites regardless of our beliefs.)

John, no offense taken. I appreciate your comment here.

I'll probably be addressing the points you make in upcoming posts. I'm currently working my way through arguments against the Christian religion. My main source for these arguments is the series "Believe the Bible?" at The BEattitude blog.

For this, my first related post, I thought I would take on one of the easier arguments: hypocrisy. It's not part of the "Believe the Bible?" series, but it is one I've heard from athiests in the past.

I am still pretty certain that there are those who use the hypocrisy argument as I've laid out above, but you bring to light some other aspects of it. I'll try to keep them in mind as I go forward with this. Thanks.