If religious people we not hypocrites, we would all be burned at the stake.
This depends how the counterfactual is constructed—ie. when they stopped being hypocrites and whether the non-hypocrisy is prevented from causing the no-longer-hypocritical people to lose their religion. I mean—we might win and kill all the religious people!
The assumption is that people start doing things that match with their stated beliefs- so, for instance, people who claim to oppose genocide would actually oppose genocide in all cases, which is the whole point of thinking hypocrisy is bad. Causing people to no longer be hypocrites by making them instead give up their stated beliefs would just make for a world which was more honest but otherwise not dramatically improved.
Incidentally, on the joking side: If atheists did win the religious war, they could then use this statement in a completely serious and logical context:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmmQxXPOMMY
Granted. We might hope that they would stop being hypocrites not by abandoning their behavior-motivating beliefs (e.g. “it is wrong to murder someone for being an atheist”) but instead by abandoning their professed “beliefs” (e.g. “nonbelievers will suffer in Hell for eternity”); but it’s hard for me to say which would actually happen. We do know that under certain circumstances, human beings definitely will burn other humans to death in the name of religious belief.
Well, professed beliefs and behavior-motivating beliefs are often integral. However, usually conversion rather than immolation is the goal of a believer who believes that atheists will burn in hell for eternity. Generally, the goal is to get everyone to heaven, and most people realize that by burning an atheist, they are not being rational about their faith, and secondly not making it look good. In fact, rarely in any religious text (perhaps excluding the Koran—correct me if I’m wrong) does one find an instruction to kill atheists.
This depends how the counterfactual is constructed—ie. when they stopped being hypocrites and whether the non-hypocrisy is prevented from causing the no-longer-hypocritical people to lose their religion. I mean—we might win and kill all the religious people!
The assumption is that people start doing things that match with their stated beliefs- so, for instance, people who claim to oppose genocide would actually oppose genocide in all cases, which is the whole point of thinking hypocrisy is bad. Causing people to no longer be hypocrites by making them instead give up their stated beliefs would just make for a world which was more honest but otherwise not dramatically improved.
Incidentally, on the joking side: If atheists did win the religious war, they could then use this statement in a completely serious and logical context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmmQxXPOMMY
Granted. We might hope that they would stop being hypocrites not by abandoning their behavior-motivating beliefs (e.g. “it is wrong to murder someone for being an atheist”) but instead by abandoning their professed “beliefs” (e.g. “nonbelievers will suffer in Hell for eternity”); but it’s hard for me to say which would actually happen. We do know that under certain circumstances, human beings definitely will burn other humans to death in the name of religious belief.
Well, professed beliefs and behavior-motivating beliefs are often integral. However, usually conversion rather than immolation is the goal of a believer who believes that atheists will burn in hell for eternity. Generally, the goal is to get everyone to heaven, and most people realize that by burning an atheist, they are not being rational about their faith, and secondly not making it look good. In fact, rarely in any religious text (perhaps excluding the Koran—correct me if I’m wrong) does one find an instruction to kill atheists.