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Thursday, May 26, 2011

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"

3 comments:

ex-minister1 said...

They are egomaniacs with an inferiority complex. Not a good combo.

Nothing is more disgusting than seeing the Pope in all his expensive clothing bowing down and kissing the ground or washing some beggars feet. The irony is hard to miss.

A is for Atheist said...

@ ex minister

Oh, the irony! Like when they travel to Africa in all their opulence, and the poor and starving people cheer at them like they were "gods."--It's disgusting.

Their so-called "altruism" is merely tokenism as the church remains the richest institution in the world. They could do a great deal more to alleviate the suffering of their followers--but they don't, which is a good indication as to what their true motives are.

If more people had pride in themselves, they would not have to "look up" to men like the pope, and it would be easier to see through their veils of deceit.

Anonymous said...

"So why do Christians believe pride is a vice, as Ray Comfort made known in his blog post?"

Two reasons I rekin:

1.) In the OT probably mistranslation. All those verses that say like "Pride goeth before a fall and such" could really mean "Arrogance goeth before a fall".

2.) In the NT, Paul was a jackass who wanted to rob everyone one self-esteem so he could trample over them.

--rey

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