+64 A parent would call their child "naive" or even "ignorant" whenever their kid made a statement about something assuming they had it all figured out and knew all the answers --- and yet at the same time would happily and with ill-deserved confidence tell someone of a different religion that their answers to the universe were "ridiculous" when compared to their own. It's amazing how hypocritcal humans can really be. amirite?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Parents do that because often times kids are naive and they're trying to prevent them from adopting a stupid philosophy/approach. An example would be a parent telling a 15 year old daughter that, no, contrary to what her hormonally saturated feelings are telling her about this 18 year old guy, she is not "in love with him" and he is not "her soul mate". Now, I understand your position because adults, much like teenagers, suffer from "IknowwhatI'mdoing-itis", aka, "I'moldenoughtomakemyownchoices-steria". So, yes, they are hypocritical, but in this regard, that is an entirely natural approach. That being said, I think it's a little unfair to attach a bad connotation to hypocrisy. At least in this regard.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I disagree entirely. I'm not trying to say that the naive mistakes of the young are correct, or should be viewed with any less skepticism - but it is a grand hypocrisy to shoot down that as rubbish, and hold equally as fanciful, subjective and limited views as "the answers" to the universe. Wouldn't you say?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The parents you describe, to me, sound devout enough to their religion, where making claims about the answers to the universe isn't unexpected from them. Any religion, philosophy, ideology, etc... that makes claims about the universe will have a group of people who will believe its word without question. This is not the nature of most people (from what I've gathered). This hypocrisy is a rather extreme/special case. It is also one which I most fervently despise but I believe that most people are not subject to its grasp. That being said, I must know if you were referring to humans in general or to a highly devout, religious humans.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Doesn't have to be a religous view - could also just be a general philosophical one. This hypocrisy is also a bit similar to calling children's make-believe stories as made-up rubbish just to interest children, but then go ahead and say the garden of eden story ACTUALLY happened word for word. Yeah....right. See what I mean? It's hypocritical for ANYONE to be turning one way telling people not to be so sure of oneself in their views, and then turn the other way talking about how their religious/philosophical views are definitely true and others are just plain false.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

lolwut

by Anonymous 11 years ago