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Proof and the Unbeliever

There are times when a mocker will say something like, "Prove to me your God exists". A Christian may ask, "What kind of evidence are you willing to consider?", which is a reasonable question. (One actually told me to provide it, then he would consider if it was acceptable. I knew where that would lead!) Unbelievers already have all the evidence they need, but they suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18-23). Credit: Photos-public-domain.com We can present all the evidence (or proof) we can, and if someone does not repent and make Jesus the Lord of his or her life, we may think that we've failed. But our job is to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts and be ready to make a defense of our hope (1 Peter 3:15), and salvation comes through the working of the Holy Spirit, not because of our skill and eloquence (1 Cor. 2:1-5). Considering how many Christians get uppity because they have the One True Interpretation of Scripture™, perhaps pride is one reason that God has not mad...

Toxic Misotheists, Being Alpha, and the Bible - Part 2

As planned, here is the conclusion from Part 1 . Harmful people in our lives can feel like we are in an emotional and spiritual whirlpool with our vitality draining away. Not Apologizing or Explaining This is a difficult area for me in several areas. Gibbs makes not apologizing his  Rule #9 , and he picked it up from John Wayne in  She Wore a Yellow Ribbon : "Never apologize, mister, it's a sign of weakness". Related to that is explaining yourself. In fact, the two can often be combined in pitiful displays of poltroonery. File under "Never say never". Credit: Flickr /  Dave Stokes  ( CC BY 2.0 ) One problem is when people offer apologies. Those sound like excuses most of the time, especially when they're strung together like in this humorous example: When we "own it", we are less likely to seem weak. It can also take the wind out of the sails of a detractor. F'rinstance, a different supervisor was armed for bear, ready to give me a deserved cha...

Toxic Misotheists, Being Alpha, and the Bible - Part 1

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen This is one of my more unusual articles, and it is difficult to categorize because there are several subjects involved. They may seem contradictory at first, but stay with me. Like my prospector friend Stormie Waters says, "See how it all pans out". Credit: Flickr /  Subharnab Majumdar  ( CC BY 2.0 ) It has a strange beginning that involved riding off on side trails and ending up a long way from where I had intended. It happens to many people on the internet, especially when they are not under an immediate deadline. "You may also like..." can bushwhack productivity. Being the Robust He-Man that I Am When you're done laughing, I want to tell you that I never viewed myself as an "alpha male". In nature, that is the dominant male in a group, and it involves mating, fending off challenges from other males, and being watchful to help protect the group. There are human males who want "alpha male" traits to be the man who stan...

Secularists Using Dinosaurs to Indoctrinate Children

Now there is a provocative title! Believers in an old Earth, evolution, and similar things are probably clutching their pearls while expressing their outrage. Secularists (and many professing Christians, unfortunately) insist that deep time is a scientific fact . We must teach children real science, right? Credit: Flickr / Marco Verch ( CC BY 2.0 ) What is actually happening is that children (as well as the rest of us) are being given stories based on naturalistic interpretations about the past; there is no actual empirical evidence that obliges us to believe that the earth is billions of years old. Children have been enamored with dinosaurs for many years, and this has been increasing in recent years. It is not surprising to find a youngster who can rattle off the names, secular dates, locations, and more of those terrible lizards. Movies and merchandising helped fuel the interest of many people. (I wonder how many were annoyed when the Jurassic Park movies made the Velociraptors...

The Category of Evolved Religion

While categorizing and labeling can be helpful points of reference, it can also be very misleading. Misotheists often say that they hate "religion", but commit the hasty generalization fallacy to justify their own rebellion against God. Categorizing in this manner is disingenuous and harmful. Background image: Pixabay / Ro Ma , modified with Clker Clipart If you slip on your wading boots and trudge through the slough of an atheist social media location, you are likely to find fringe religious people (usually professing to be Christians) singled out to confirm their biases that everything in the "religion" category is bad; the exception is not the rule. Ironically, they have apoplectic fits when it is pointed out that atheism itself is a religion , and evolutionism is like it . Each religion is different. I'll allow that many have some things in common, but categorizing based on superficialities and exceptions is foolish. Also, there are people who claim to be me...

Christmas — Relatively Speaking

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  For a short time, there was a series of captioned pictures often called "Unimpressed Astronaut" where the image was condescending about, for example, sky diving . There are many comparisons that people make, and getting some perspective can be a good thing at times.  Adoration of the Shepherds , Giorgione, ca. 1505 We had the winter's first serious cold spell, reaching low temperatures of two degrees Fahrenheit (almost minus 17 Celsius). It was cold for us , especially since winter did not hit our area all that hard until the week of December 17, 2020. People in Montana and other states would be saying, "That's cute". So would many in Canada, eh? Or Siberia, such as in this two-minute video which, for some reason, suddenly became age restricted but I see no problem whatsoever with showing it to children: So, some things that may seem like a big deal to one person are not all that impressive to another. Indeed, what is considered pover...

Internet Debates with Atheists are Seldom Useful

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Christians are supposed to be ready to give reasons for the hope that is in us, and many feel they are witnessing for the faith in various online forums. However, one has to discern when time is being wasted. Made at Pablo , quote source is here As I have stated several times in the past, the word  debate  is used very loosely. Nowadays it can mean a screaming match, a structured exchange of points and rebuttals, an exchange of comments in various online forums, and all sorts of things. Let's consider internet activity. Minerals-to-mocker evolution is a cornerstone of atheism and for other rejections of the authority of God's Word. Although what is presented as scientific evidence is based on faith, assumptions, redefining words, circular reasoning, and poor research, evolutionists prefer to defend it no matter how foolish it looks. That is because admitting that evidence supports the Bible is infandous. Readers of my other sites may recall that I ...

The Two Basic Worldviews

Not so long ago, we would hear people pontificating about two kinds of people, such as, "There are two kinds of people: those who believe the Bible, and those who do not".* It may come as a surprise to some people to learn that there are only two worldviews. Original image before modification: Freeimages / Kenn Kiser Most people have probably not made a study of their worldviews, but they are the basis of how we live our lives, our presuppositions, our epistemology , and so on. Atheists presuppose there is no God, so their misotheistic spectacles impact how they live their lives and interpret evidence. The same with Christians. There are variations within worldviews of course, such as biblical creationists who are Christians, or professing atheists who are not entirely unreasonable. Essentially, there are only two worldviews. Picture two people in a living room. A man puts on green-colored glasses, and a woman puts on red-colored glasses. Everything the man sees has a green t...

The Happiness of Unbelievers?

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, people are in rebellion against God. Some simply do not care about spiritual matters, other have a nominal religion with religious trappings but no commitment, others mask their hatred of God by claiming they "lack belief". How do they attain happiness? Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos / alexisdc According to surveys, there has been an increase in people who say they are unaffiliated with certain religions. I don't know if that means specific denominations, but this does not necessarily mean an increase in atheism. A person can be a Bible-believing Christian and yet not identify as Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. Atheism is irrational and incoherent, and impossible to live it consistently. When atheists spend their time angrily ridiculing Christians and misrepresenting biblical creationists — indeed, seeking their identities in unbelief — it is exceptionally difficult to believe them when they say they are happy. Sure, people can have some ...

Unbelievers Riding the Bandwagon

As biblical creationists, we want to be able to share the truth of creation, help equip Christians, and to ultimately share the gospel message. There is clearly abundant evidence refuting evolution and affirming special creation. We also provide evidence for the Genesis Flood. Why do unbelievers reject the truth? Credit: Cropped from Pixnio / Adrian Pelletier There are many reasons. I have long maintained that they reject the truth because they do not want it, preferring instead to embrace materialism as well as justify their rebellion against God. Also, they are under the control of their master down below (1 Cor. 2:14, 2 Cor. 4:4, John 8:44), which supports the idea that it is a spiritual matter and not about evidence. Remember, it is not our job to save anyone, and not every discussion will lead to a commitment to Jesus Christ. We do our parts and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. Then there is the matter of pride. Atheists and other evolutionists want the approval of ot...

Christian Atheism and Fools

Many Christians use Psalm 14:1 to indicate what God says about atheists. The word for fool is × ָבָל, nabal , which essentially means a vile person. Although many professing atheists display a profound lack of reasoning ability, nabal  does not indicate lack of intelligence, but moral failing. But you knew that. There is a big problem with Christians who act like God does not exist. We can effectively be atheists by saying in our hearts  that there is no God; Christians can be fools. Phil Johnson has an excellent sermon about this called "Atheism in our Hearts". I hope you will download it (there's an arrow down at the far right of the thing below) or listen online.

Atheists, Psychology, and the Meaning of Life

In an earlier post, we saw that people try to find meaning in life through many ways, but these all fail in the end. Although atheists suppress the truth of God, they know deep down that God does exist. Some reject the bleak arbitrary assertions by people like C. Richard Dawkins. One atheistic psychologist attempts to make sense of life while still denying the truth. Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net / Ambro Secular psychology is essentially based on Darwinism, so it is no surprise that people cannot find true meaning through it. They deny that we were made by and for God. Naturalists are self refuting by attempting to use logic and science, but those are impossible without God; if God did not exist, neither would logic . An atheist (especially a secular psychologist) is left with an incoherent worldview based on speculations, arbitrary assertions, faulty reasoning, and so on. Only the biblical worldview has the necessary preconditions of human experience, and it begins in Genesis....

Questions for Confrontations on the Bible

Some people get on the prod and want to attack God, the Bible, creation, and Christians. It seems they just want to watch the Bible burn — and to shake our faith. Others, however, have serious inquiries and we can help remove stumbling blocks. What follows is helpful for Question Evolution Day . Credit: Freeimages / Marek Vesely It is not uncommon for an unbeliever to come roaring with accusations against God and the Bible, and some say, "Prove to me scientifically that God exists". That one is the logical fallacy known as the category error , and is irrational. In other cases, use your discernment and use the principle of Proverbs 26:4-5. That is, do not allow the unbeliever to put you on the defensive and make the rules, but show how his or her views are erroneous. As we have seen before, we need to ask questions. This can be a mite disconcerting for someone who is looking for a fight, but it also shows that you are listening and can be a possible bridge to a discus...