While reading an article today about a Preacher jailed in “miracle car scam” down in Atlanta I came across a quote in the article that pretty much summed up one of the problems I think being religious tends to cause for people. As background info I should mention that the preacher involved was claiming that a wealthy man had died and left his estate to help other Christians buy expensive cars on the cheap as a way to offset his estate taxes. The quote comes from when one of the church members questions the preacher about the incredible offer he was making to his congregation:

“And I said to Rev. Alexander, ‘If it sounds too good to be true. It probably is.’ And he said, ‘In my church I have a saying, too: “If it sounds too good to be true, it must be God.”

I know a lot of religious types who buy into that kind of logic. To a believer, it makes perfect sense and it was enough of a reassurance from the preacher to convince the person who opens the quote above to give the clergyman $2000 in exchange for a car he would never receive. People who buy into that kind of logic are just like ripe fruit on the vine just waiting to be picked by the next Dennis Lee that comes along promising something for nothing and wrapping it all up in feel-good Christian-Biblical references and dubious (at best) pseudo-science. The sad part is: A lot of these people will continue to believe in the folks who scammed them even after the truth comes to light.

Christianity teaches its followers that they are like sheep in need of a shepard. Do you know why sheep need a shepard? Because they are some of the dumbest animals on the planet. If they don’t have a shepard to follow or a sheep dog to drive them, a flock of sheep will stand in the middle of a road and blissfully allow cars to run them down because they’re all trying to follow the next sheep in front of them and not one of them has the sense to get the hell out of the way of the car. They’ve been bred to be the ultimate idiots because it makes it easier to tend to them.

That’s the sort of thinking that Christianity encourages in its followers. Don’t question, just accept it on faith. Because if you have people starting to question things that seem too good to be true then they might wonder about God himself. After all, the promise of eternal life after death in paradise for a little grovelling in this life has got to be the mother of all too-good-to-be-true offers.