Note: This is a slightly expanded version of an earlier blog entry:  Four Ways to Create a Religion of Hypocrites.

1. State that religion no longer needs clergy……and replace them with leaders that are as authoritarian as the clergy ever was.
2. Claim that men and women should be equal……but then deny women membership in the all-powerful leadership council of the religion.
3. Condemn as heretics those who believe in your religion but dare to challenge the claims of your religion’s current leadership, while at the same time claiming to welcome as friends the followers of other religions.
4. Claim there is harmony between science and religion, but also claim that anything your leaders say is absolutely true, even if on topics science is expected to address.
5. Claim to shun partisan politics, but favor a government of their own, which is as partisan as it gets.

Any one of these makes a religion not worth following, but what should you do if you find a religion that has all five of these contradictions?