Honesty the most faithful policy

It does not come as a surprise to me that there are pastors who are not believers. Even a cursory reading of the scripture is so offensive to ones sense of decency and fairness. It does not matter which religious scriptures they are. No wonder the clerics are going to definitely doubt all this fairy tale stories. I personally do not see how anyone can find any semblance of ethics and morality in the scriptures. Take for instance the story of Abraham, he is considered the father of Judaism, Christianity & Islam and revered as a pious prophet by nearly 3 billion people is beyond belief, to me. This is the person, who I consider as a totally fictional, according to the scripture lived for 150 years or so, at age 80+ presents his wife (albeit she was also his niece) as his sister twice when he was sojourning in foreign lands. Not only that he also gives her away to the Pharaoh, to be his wife. All this because, he fears for his life in the barbarian foreign lands, where he was seeking refuge. According to the scripture the Pharaoh himself puts it together apparently due to the pestilence the Abrahamic god spreads in Egypt. Look at the atrocity, Abraham passes of his wife to the king's harem, as he fears his life and the people of Egypt get punished, whereas Abraham gets huge dowry for giving away so called sister to the harem. Does anyone think that there is any justice or fairness in this. Abraham himself goes unscathed, according to the scripture. How does anyone rationalize this. In the end it is the Pharaoh who realizes it and for the sake of his people corrects the error that he was duped into by Abraham and exiles him & his wife. As if once was not enough he repeats this again with Abimelech, with similar results. Then this pious "Pond Scum" goes on to bed his slave girl, gifted to him by the Pharaoh, to have a son. Then proceeds to disown both the mother and the child when his wife gives him a child. Which of the noble pastors would be so kind towards John Edwards, I would like to know. Then this father of the religions goes on and is willing to sacrifice his own child. This is touted as his supreme faith in his god. This same scoundrel could not muster the same faith in his god when he felt his life would be in danger, but when it came to his son he seemed to have gained this extreme faith in his god. In face of such vile stories it is no surprise that folks profess unbelief, albeit in private. I want to hear from the theist who can attempt to rationalize their reverence to Abraham, in light of the above. And to top it all of, this fellow after his wife of how ever many years passes away, he had to have another woman to keep his bed warm in the night - how sick is that.

It does not come as a surprise to me that there are pastors who are not believers. Even a cursory reading of the scripture is so offensive to ones sense of decency and fairness. It does not matter which religious scriptures they are. No wonder the clerics are going to definitely doubt all this fairy tale stories. I personally do not see how anyone can find any semblance of ethics and morality in the scriptures. Take for instance the story of Abraham, he is considered the father of Judaism, Christianity & Islam and revered as a pious prophet by nearly 3 billion people is beyond belief, to me. This is the person, who I consider as a totally fictional, according to the scripture lived for 150 years or so, at age 80+ presents his wife (albeit she was also his niece) as his sister twice when he was sojourning in foreign lands. Not only that he also gives her away to the Pharaoh, to be his wife. All this because, he fears for his life in the barbarian foreign lands, where he was seeking refuge. According to the scripture the Pharaoh himself puts it together apparently due to the pestilence the Abrahamic god spreads in Egypt. Look at the atrocity, Abraham passes of his wife to the king's harem, as he fears his life and the people of Egypt get punished, whereas Abraham gets huge dowry for giving away so called sister to the harem. Does anyone think that there is any justice or fairness in this. Abraham himself goes unscathed, according to the scripture. How does anyone rationalize this. In the end it is the Pharaoh who realizes it and for the sake of his people corrects the error that he was duped into by Abraham and exiles him & his wife. As if once was not enough he repeats this again with Abimelech, with similar results. Then this pious "Pond Scum" goes on to bed his slave girl, gifted to him by the Pharaoh, to have a son. Then proceeds to disown both the mother and the child when his wife gives him a child. Which of the noble pastors would be so kind towards John Edwards, I would like to know. Then this father of the religions goes on and is willing to sacrifice his own child. This is touted as his supreme faith in his god. This same scoundrel could not muster the same faith in his god when he felt his life would be in danger, but when it came to his son he seemed to have gained this extreme faith in his god. In face of such vile stories it is no surprise that folks profess unbelief, albeit in private. I want to hear from the theist who can attempt to rationalize their reverence to Abraham, in light of the above. And to top it all of, this fellow after his wife of how ever many years passes away, he had to have another woman to keep his bed warm in the night - how sick is that.

I rarely agree with Cal Thomas, but I do on this one, though not for the same reasons. "To thine ownself be true" is reason enough to resign from a position you have to fake--maintaining personal integrity requires making hard choices sometimes. Just as significantly, it is reprehensible to mislead people who trust you by teaching them what you secretly believe is false.