Instead of breaking or cherry-picking the rules, many just follow the inner rules, which have been instilled during their lifetime and have subtly permeated their thinking. They value rules, as it offers the ravishment of a securing, ceremonial rhythm in life and it prevents them from breaking free from their cocoon, all the more because freedom can be so scaring and exhausting. (When forgetting the rules of the game )

~ Erik Pevernagie

Erik Pevernagie Break Free Breaking Ceremonial Cherry Picking Cocoon Exhausing Follow Forgetting Freedom Game Inner Rules Instill Life Lifetime Offer Permeate Prevent Ravishment Rhythm Rules Scaring Securing Subtly Thinking Value

...There are also those who inadvertently grant power to another man's words by continuously trying to spite him. If a man gets to the point where he can simply say, 'The sky is blue,' and people indignantly rush up trying to refute him saying, 'No, the sky is light blue,' then, whether they realize it or not, he has become an authority figure even to such adversaries.

~ Criss Jami

Criss Jami Adversaries Arguing Authority Blue Cherry Picking Continuous Debate Envy Fallacy Haters Indignant Leadership Opinions Power Refute Sky Spite Words

Pride has quite a bit to do with hatred. In many a case in which one hates another, one subconsciously begins patterns of cherry-picking and selective hearing: he continues to look only for things about the other person which he can use to justify his hatred, things which will then make him feel less guilty about hating someone. In this regard, hatred is not so much an emotion as it is a decision.

~ Criss Jami

Criss Jami Anger Anger Management Cherry Picking Decision Ego Emotions Grudge Guilt Habit Hate Hatred Humility Justification Love Pride Psychology Selective Hearing Stubborn Subconscious

It is neither just the religious, the spiritual, the power-hungry, the evil, the ignorant, the corrupt, the Christian, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Jew, nor the atheist that makes a hypocrite, but being a human being. Any man who thinks himself to be free of hypocrisy while committed to cherry-picking others for such, I am confident, the Almighty can prove to him a great deal of his own hypocrisy even beyond his earthly comprehension.

~ Criss Jami

Criss Jami Apologetics Atheist Buddhist Cherry Picking Christian Corrupt Discernment Evil Fallacies God Grace Hindu Human Humility Hypocrisy Ignorance Immorality Jew Judgment Law Mercy Morality Muslim Perfect Powerful Religion Self Righteousness Sin Sinful Sinners Spiritual

I have argued elsewhere (Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence [2005]) that we need to treat ethics in biblical texts just as we treat ethics in any other works of ancient literature. It is a vacuous exercise to pick and choose which atrocities were really ordained by any gods and which were not. We should have a zero-tolerance view of any text or collection of texts that at any time endorses genocide, misogyny, and other atrocities. We always judge ancient texts by modern ethical standards, and the Bible should not be treated differently.

~ Hector Avalos

Hector Avalos Ancient Literature Atheism Atrocities In The Bible Biblical Ethics Biblical Morality Cherry Picking Cherry Picking Scripture Ethics Genocide Genocide In The Bible Misogyny Misogyny In The Bible Morality Myths Special Pleading Special Treatment

Not taking the Bible (or other texts based on 'revealed truths') literally leaves it up to the reader to cherry-pick elements for belief. There exists no guide for such cherry-picking, and zero religious sanction for it.

~ Jeffrey Tayler

Jeffrey Tayler Allegory Bible Cherry Picking Guide Interpretation Literal Metaphor Sanction The Bible