Actions versus Belief Systems:

Alexander:

>In prison, a lot of criminals “come to God.” Nonetheless, most change their behavior very little - even while in the midst of espousing religious doctrine. They say the right things, but their behavior persists on a different track, and ultimately they remain more criminal than “man of God.” Relatedly, Matthew 7:15 and 7:21: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” There is, in every tradition, a folk wisdom of, “Look at what people do, or who they are, and how they act, not what they say.” This is because it is very easy to say the “right things” and behave in an entirely incongruent way. A lot of people want to debate, talk, and they want you to consider their very important ideas! They have such good thoughts. They have all of the solutions and they believe all of the right things! Which, of course, is not a unique feeling - most people believe that about themselves at least to some extent. People overestimate their own uniqueness - they also overestimate their own intelligence by as much as 20 points on average. Everyone is the smartest person in the room. What I would suggest is looking more at the “fruits” individuals produce and less at the ideology that they espouse. Maybe you don’t want to listen to someone lecture you on Islam who eats pork and drinks alcohol. Chronically single people may not be the best to listen to in respect to romantic relationships or marriage. You can trust the fat chef, but you may not want the advice of the fat dietician. If you think that their “arguments” can be evaluated independently of who they are - yes, sure, to some extent. But who they are also shapes their arguments. Here is the “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” For example, “believe in God” might sound good, and by itself mean one thing that seems good, but when you scratch the surface and find out that “believe in God” means “join my doomsday cult we are worshipping Jim Jones” you can see the Trojan horse of the initially innocuous message. Don’t get too carried away with it, but don’t be afraid to assess people’s messages within the context of who they are as a person and their behavior. “Most terrible person in the world who said a thing I agree with” is still the most terrible person in the world and that is enough to have the prior you should treat anything they say differently. “Good person who I disagree with and think is really wrong about something” is still a better person than “terrible person in my in-group with a congruent ideology.”<