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As a non-believer, I have to say all of them. Even if you do believe, how do you reconcile the concept of buying your way to eternal salvation with an omnipotent being? What does god/allah/etc need of money?
Sigh.
We contribute so good works can be done.
Good works are done to glorify God and are done in honor of Him.
A lot of people believe that giving to religion is going to buy them a ticket to heaven. When in fact their contributions go to the minister and his family. It's almost like a family business. In the case of a large church It's like giving to a big corporation. I'm sure there's a few good churches out there but not many, so my prediction is about 80% scam.
If your standard is whether or not belief is grounded in fact-based reality, then yes, all of them are scams.
I don't use that standard, because it ignores the social good that many churches do, and it delegitimates genuine believers. It would also delegitimate many non-religious organizations as well. I don't care *why* a particular individual or church "comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable" - I care about their actions.
My standard when determining whether a church is a scam is how upscale the pastor's church or residence is, compared to that of his/her average congregant. I think broadcast evangelists are much more likely to be scammers than pastors of actual churches - I'd put the scam percentage of broadcasters at 80%, pastors of actual churches 10%. This is based on no actual data whatever!
As a non-believer, I have to say all of them. Even if you do believe, how do you reconcile the concept of buying your way to eternal salvation with an omnipotent being? What does god/allah/etc need of money?
Why do you think those who tithe are buying their way to eternal salvation?
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