Religious Deception: Exploiting Faith for Personal Gain
Fake preachers and con artists use religious rhetoric and claim to speak on behalf of God precisely because they know that the true essence of God is beyond full human understanding. They deliberately resort to external symbols and words to earn people’s trust while hiding their true purpose—to manipulate believers for personal gain.As stated in one of the sources, “all con artists are professional liars. And successful con artists, moreover, give the impression of very respectable people. By playing at ‘sincerity’ and ‘openness,’ they cleverly break down the natural wariness of their victims...” This excerpt from file link txt clearly demonstrates that con artists deliberately adopt the image of a respectable person and pretend to have profound understanding in order to gain people’s trust.On the other hand, the concept of God’s boundless essence is emphasized in reflections on His nature: “Like infinity, considered as such, God is neither one nor many. From the perspective of negative theology, we find in God nothing other than infinity… Accordingly, He is unknowable in both this life and the age to come…” (source: link txt). This view shows that true understanding of God is impossible for finite human beings. It is precisely because of this inaccessibility that con artists exploit religious symbols and expressions, compensating for their superficial understanding with ignorance regarding the true nature of God.Thus, con artists claim to speak on behalf of God not because they possess deep knowledge of His boundless essence, but because they use the language and symbols of faith to mislead people, exploiting their desire to comprehend the divine and hope for salvation.Supporting citation(s):“All con artists are professional liars. And successful con artists, moreover, give the impression of very respectable people. By playing at ‘sincerity’ and ‘openness,’ they cleverly break down the natural wariness of their victims. Having targeted a victim, they bet on them, ‘inflate’ the situation, take the money, and disappear. Meanwhile, the victims note that ‘they trusted this person because he didn’t at all resemble a criminal.’ Cult recruiters cleverly use similar techniques…” (source: link txt)“Like infinity, considered as such, God is neither one nor many. From the perspective of negative theology, we find in God nothing other than infinity… Accordingly, He is unknowable in this life and in the age to come, for every creature, unable to apprehend the infinite light, pales in comparison to it. God is known only to Himself…” (source: link txt)