The Shield of Skepticism

It has been said as a rule that those selling the advice often profit more than those buying the advice. This can be applied to financial advisors but all you have to do is go to the televangelist church parking lots and see the preachers expensive cars versus the flocks vehicles. The poor giving to the rich for misleading advice is part of society. When it comes to prosperity tv preachers, get rich schemes and books, or those in positions of self proclaimed authority this is often the case and it is why the shield of skepticism and doubt combined with the sword of reason and free inquiry are the weapons to fight off this lazy numb servitude to the superfluous and sophomoric pushers of false status. Who benefits? The saying goes, “it all depends on whose ox is being gored.”

The advice of authority or those who claim authority usually benefits those in authority. Obey my law, pay me, give me, trust me, and somehow all this servitude will benefit you. The divine right of kings, the pope is always right, the teacher never makes mistakes and other platitudes based on titles are empty without the respect of reason and common sense. The shield of skepticism is of more value than the shield of faith because one gives you the protection against charlatans, con artists, demagogues and authoritarians of all stripes and the other makes you more likely to become a victim of the former and succumb to these vultures who feast on the naive and the gullible. In a world such as ours skepticism is a virtue and faith is a vice.



Christianity seems to have lost its claim to universal truth when it has limited itself to only a specific time and a specific place in America. Can you imagine any of these American preachers being transported to Auschwitz in 1942?? Or how about the killing fields of Rwanda in 1994? One realizes how irrevelant and limited the christian american message really is. Charlatans and political power lead the way to the frugal and passive Jesus of Nazareth? If Christianity is credible it should be above time and culture not dependent on it.

God wants you rich. Your best life now. Steps to success. These platitudes are limited to geography, time and culture and are not grand or true enough to survive the reality of the whole human experience. This american christianity is not universal in time or place. It does not deserve the respect of reason nor does it pass the test of justice.

A message for Just Us is not justice. It is solipsism.