Knowledge, question on island, Pixabay / Arek Socha
Christians usually know when an inquirer is on a genuine search for knowledge or just a misotheist who is playing games. The latter may think they do not have to play with the hand they have been dealt, so they try to mark the cards, deal from the bottom of the deck, and pull other foolish tricks with their eternal destiny. It is bad enough to demand proof for the existence of God, but worse when they insist that there is no evidence for him.
That is amazingly arrogant. When such a statement is made, this child is reluctant to spend a great deal of time with that person. Sure, I can make some replies and see if I can spot any sign that the Holy Spirit is working in his or her life. Sometimes they start with bluster, then interact more civilly than before.
One jasper was so supercilious when asked what evidence would convince him, he said to present it and he would decide if it was worthwhile. I could tell that the goalposts were already in his pickup truck, ready to be moved. Also, he was judging other Christians and me as stupid because we could not meet his rigged challenge! I didn’t play. After all, there are times to end the discussion and find better things to do. Jesus did that.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all in favor of giving evidence when needed. Apologetics is important to help remove stumbling blocks for people coming to faith in Jesus. Certain kinds of evidence are not needed, as evidence for God is all around and they have no excuses. However, evidence must be presented in a presuppositional framework. That is, we presuppose that God exists and the Bible is his Word, and we will not accede to their naturalistic presuppositions.
Most people are indoctrinated into an evolutionary worldview. It’s not just about science, philosophies of life and morality are taken from it. But not consciously for the most part.
We have two articles to consider that are on a similar theme. The first one is about the “no evidence” claim, and it has a different approach we can use to get the attention of a scoffer. I reckon this is best in person with friends or family.
The ‘no evidence for God’ claim, though, is an interesting one. It often works to frame the discussion in such a way that only we have a burden of proof. It allows the unbeliever the comfortable position of the skeptic: they get to poke holes in our case without ever having to make a case for anything themselves. This however sets up a false dilemma: either we can convince them that God exists, or our faith in God isn’t reasonable. But there’s practically always a way to doubt any argument for God (or practically any argument for any philosophically interesting conclusion, for that matter) that’s not obviously wrong to all rational people. Plus, skeptics regularly demand airtight arguments practically anyone would have to accept before they would believe in God (Agnosticism). As such, we almost certainly won’t convince them. But then that supposedly means that our faith in God isn’t reasonable. The game is rigged from the start. Heads, the skeptic wins; tails, we lose.
You can read the entire article at “No evidence for God?” Don’t forget to come back for the next part.
You came back. Groovy! Unbelievers and even some Christians may wonder if the Bible is useful and can be trusted. I did. I was raised in an Untied Methodist (misspelling intentional) home and was allowed to attend a Babdiss school. Those Fundamentalists (I am not using it as a pejorative) insisted on the Bible being the inerrant word of God, so I did some investigation on it and on beliefs. That is, with an attitude toward doctrine-type statements of, “Where did you get that?”
Any question of origins is historical in nature, not entirely subjected to empirical science. The Bible, through its authors, makes some pretty strong statements about itself. It is self-attesting, and a reliable historical document based on eyewitness accounts. Historical matters have been verified, never disproven. Also, there is prophesy that has been fulfilled, sometimes hundreds of years later. Documented.
People today must judge between two contradictory worldviews: the biblical worldview and the evolutionary worldview.
I’m a lawyer, so I think about this like a legal case. Juries have to judge between opposing litigants, like we have to judge between worldviews. Juries do it by weighing the evidence. Let me give an example from a case I worked on.
This is a simple lesson that people can get from Question Evolution Day: Demand the science. Actually, this is something other biblical creationists and I have been saying for a mighty long time, but this is a time to emphasize it.
It is also very helpful to learn how to spot bad logic. The stuff these owlhoots spread is saturated with faulty reasoning, but since the secular science industry seems to work closely with Rusty Swingset and his crew up yonder near Deception Pass at the Darwin Ranch, their negative influence is seen. All sorts of intellectual and scientific shenanigans happen at the Ranch, but they sure do know their propaganda tactics!
Chimpanzees are portrayed as more intelligent than they really are, and assertions about having a common language between humans and apelike ancestors way back in the mists of time are just that: mere assertions. These things were followed by that confirmation bias stuff again. The bad reasoning and question-begging nature of the research involved should draw howls of outrage from scientists who have knowledge and integrity. I lack belief that it will happen, since the storytelling supports the Bearded Buddha.
There are a host of scientific problems with evolution. One egregious difficulty is an untestable proposition that people (and primates) evolved from an unknown common ancestor from an unknown time ago. As one evolutionist said, “When you look at the narrative for hominin [bipedal apes, including modern humans] origins, it’s just a big mess—there’s no consensus whatsoever.”
In addition, the evolutionary origin of the unique ability of human speech and language remains totally unresolved. . .
Undeterred, evolutionists expect to find part of the answer by observing “gestures that wild chimps and bonobos use to communicate,” since they allegedly share a common ancestor with us. But interpreting ape gestures is necessarily subjective. . .
It did not take long before numerous reports about images from the James Webb Space Telescope became plentiful. I simply posted them on social(ist) media. Biblical creationists were pointing out that evidence for the Big Bang (something sought by the JWST folks, NASA, ESA, and others) was not happening. Things were not looking good for finding the invisible friends of materialists, those rascally extraterrestrials, either.
A bone I keep gnawing on is that there is evidence for recent creation in our own solar system. (Feel free to browse Piltdown Superman for posts with links to relevant articles.) Instead of admitting that their worldview is fundamentally flawed, secular scientists conjure up rescuing devices to preserve deep time. Papa Darwin needs it, you know. Closer to home, or way out yonder in the big universe, the evidence continually refutes the concept of billions of years.
Secular cosmology is in disarray, and instances that cosmic evolution supposedly happened “earlier than thought” by secularists keep cropping up. Creationists don’t need excuses or data-tampering because God is indeed the Creator.
“If the evidence is so clear, why don’t scientists face the facts, Cowboy Bob?”
The answer has nothing to do with science, old son. It is a spiritual problem. Mankind has fallen, which happened back in Eden. The natural person is at enmity with God, and our sinful nature interferes with pretty much every area of our lives — which includes the thinking processes. (This is indirectly supported by “9 Signs That You Might Be An Intellectually Dishonest Atheist.”) Christians are to presuppose the truth of the Word of God. Although misotheists and others say this is irrational, they are presuppositionalists themselves! That’s right, they presuppose atheistic naturalism. The light comes in through the Word of God and the working of the Holy Spirit. The reality of spiritual matters is unthinkable to materialists.
I rounded up a passel of links that support our contention that the JWST is providing support for recent creation and not helping the Big Bang. The most recent article is first, then I drop down to some older ones and work forward. You savvy? Good.
13 January 2023: JWST Upsetting Cosmology — The James Webb Space Telescope continues turning up contradictions to consensus views on cosmic evolution
5 January 2022: JWST Finds Mature Galaxy in Young Universe — “We are dropping everything else” shouts an astrophysicist upon first look at a mature barred spiral in the early universe.
4 August 2022: JWST Surprises and Discoveries — Galaxies evolve quicker than expected, and stunning new images of Hubble classics dazzle the eyes
9 August 2022: What the James Webb Space Telescope Has Revealed About Distant Galaxies So Far — One of the prime objectives of the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is to study very distant galaxies: ones that are too far away to be effectively observed prior to the JWST. How should creationists interpret the images from the farthest galaxies yet?
5 September 2022: James Webb Telescope Data: Challenges for the Big Bang? — Astronomers are thrilled by the extraordinary images provided by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)—but some of the data already contradict Big Bang expectations.
9 September 2022: Creation Cosmology Confirmed! — Dr. Jason Lisle points out how he and others had their creationist predictions confirmed
31 October 2022: James Webb Telescope vs. the Big Bang — Suggesting a scientific test that creationists can perform that could clarify at least one basic issue in cosmology
Although an abolitionist, Darwin was a racist who believed slavery was a good result of his version of natural selection
It turns out I stumbled across another “Note” on Fakebook. This one is from May 2021. Since Notes are no longer easy to locate, I am copying them here and tweaking them a bit. Glad I didn’t do all that many.
Racism is being leveraged for power, but it is being portrayed as strictly the fault of “white people.” Not hardly! It has existed for millennia, but to quote atheist evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould, “Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.” That’s right, evolutionary thinking magnified the problem. It was especially beneficial for white people who were in control.
We hear about Darwin’s 1859 book Origin of Species, but the full title is often omitted (I’ll allow that it’s cumbersome when compared to many books that have short titles these days): On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (emphasis added). It was revised six times, by the way. The Bearded Buddha was a racist, and his ideas were applied not only to African slaves brought to America, but also to Australia, New Zealand, and other places. The idea of “races” not not a biblical concept, but a construct based on evolutionary thinking.
People have tried to defend Charles Darwin because he was a product of his times, but that idea is not consistently applied to other people. Although Darwin was opposed to slavery, he did not do so in his major works and their revisions. (Here are more racist quotes from Darwin.) Also, he saw slavery as a beneficial result of his version of natural selection, and that various “races” of humans were less evolved that white Europeans.
Did you know that the majority of African slaves, after being sold out by other Africans (which should seriously complicate the “reparations” questions) were not shipped to the United States, but to other countries? Also, did you know that there were white slaves in America? There is slavery happening even now, but that is not considered important by leftists and their supporters.
Do I really have to say what so many others are saying? Out of fear of being called “racist”, many facts cannot be presented. We cannot even have serious conversations due to fear of reprisals and censorship. The past cannot be changed. Rioting, looting, murders, people doing secular penance over imagined white guilt by wearing chains or shining shoes… In addition, black people who are Christians and Conservatives are “not really black” because they’re not “down for the struggle”, nor are black people who are educated and have jobs. Those who form companies, recording artists, cereal company mascots, and others change their names for appeasement is galactically stupid. Be honest.
This “protest” stuff is not about George Floyd and injustice, it is a planned movement by leftists who were waiting for an opportunity — it did not happen for other black people on this scale. Know what Lenin supposedly called sympathizers in the West? Useful idiots. The anti-Christian Marxist ideology of Black Lives Matter is using people who are useful idiots to them, and BLM in turn is being used as well. We believe that black lives matter because all lives matter.
Where are the marches and protests for black-on-black violence and racism —
You betcha. In fact, I recently received permission from a black neighbor to ask a blunt question on this subject. She said, “Oh yes! It exists”. Imagine one black calling another “monkey boy” because of his skin color!
Where are the protests about black-on-black violence and racism, murders of black police officers, the bigotry of the left telling people that they are too stupid to survive without putting leftists in political office? There are outcries, but Thomas Sowell, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Darrell B. Harrison,, and many others don’t count in the eyes of radical leftists. Why are people like Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens, Ben Carson, those mentioned above, and others pariahs to the left? Black people should be inspired by them instead of hating them.
For that matter, racism is not unique to white people — not by a long shot. Many of us would like to take people as they are, not as groups, not as members of an ethnic heritage. I resent attempts to place blame and hatred on me for the distant past, and we certainly do not deserve the death penalty for crimes (real or assumed) that happened before we were born.
It is interesting that rioters are being coddled (that’s right, I said it) and their bad behavior is rewarded. It’s not cool to simply walk up and commit battery on someone with a deadly weapon, steal and ruin produce, burn down stores and steal television sets in the name of “justice”. Holding cities hostage with threats of rioting and making leaders clutch their pearls in fear is counterproductive. Blaming racism for your own failures may make you feel better, but it solves nothing. Some even say that blacks have to kill white people. I wouldn’t be surprised if racism increases because of such actions and attitudes. You hate racism? Stop committing crimes.
I am not a “systemic racist” simply because I’m depressingly Caucasian. (My ancestors were not from the Caucasus Mountains, so that outdated evolutionary handle baffles me.) Having voted for Donald Trump does not make me a racist, and people who call him a racist are believing lies because the opposite is true.
Nor am I or any other melanin-deficient person automatically a racist because someone said so. I’ve got some bad news for you sunshine, there is a whole whack of racism against whites. It is not justified, but simply emotive reactions based on hatred. People who have read my work know how I react to arbitrary assertions. This is magnified when such assertions are used for hatred, violence, and political agendas. And how long will people be fooled by fake “hate crimes”?
As indicated before, Darwin can’t be blamed for racism, but he’d have a great time observing and probably telling the world that the actions of leftists prove his theory. Why aren’t this racist abolitionist’s statues being torn down? Why are Lenin’s statues still standing? How about Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood who wanted to cull the black population? They sure are doing a great job, but leftists sure are using those useful idiots to keep themselves in business.
According to the Bible and as affirmed by biblical creationists, there are no races. Ultimately, racism is a problem of denying our Creator, which is the result of sin. Social programs and abolishing the police are not the answer. People need to repent and humble themselves before Jesus.
Here is a message by Dr. James White. Now, I’m not interested in the One True Church™ views and don’t care if you’re a Calvinist or not (I take heat from both Calvinists/Reformed and Arminians), but just pay attention to the video below, willya? (Here is the MP3 download if you prefer, but on my Windows computer, it downloads instantly: https://mp3.sermonaudio.com/filearea/6192021111662/6192021111662.mp3
Strange title, I know. The word evolution is constantly thrown around and assumed to be true. We are bombarded by assertions of particles-to-paranormal researcher evolution at every turn, and numerous things are simply assigned to it. Evidence? Naw, just say “it evolved” and look intellectual.
In an article a spell back, I discussed some of those paranormal videos popular on YouTube and elsewhere. They can be fun, but boring. Many are of unknown origin, the locations are not disclosed, cameras happen to be pointing at the right place at the right time (which strongly suggests they were staged), clips suddenly end, and all that good stuff. This child lacks belief that many are authentic, and that is one reason many are boring to me.
Something else that is troubling is how people do not use critical thinking skills, seeming to prefer confirmations of their biases. A video of lights in the sky is proof that aliens are visiting Earth, sounds and a wispy figure are definitely the lingering spirit of someone who died there, yada yada yada. I think y’all can figure out the questions that need to be asked, beginning with, “How do you know?”
On the Slapped Ham channel, Kallen (who seems like a nice guy and I would like to spend some time talking with him) has a segment involving pareidolia. That is where people see faces, shapes, and other things that do not actually exist. (I can “see” Charles Darwin’s profile in a tree just outside.) Similarly, musical ear syndrome is where someone is “hearing” a musical tune that does not really exist. In both cases, the mind is trying to make sense of what is seen or hears. I am greatly oversimplifying, but you can look these up your ownselves if you’ve a mind to.
He had a clip about a creepy face in a tree, and people were recording how they switched headlights on and off to change the visibility. You can see it here at the 1 min. 49 sec. mark. It’s fun for a while and includes a discussion of pareidolia, then Kallen tainted it with, “This ability to see faces has evolutionary advantages. It helped our ancestors to survive by allowing them to quickly identify friends and foes.” Sorry, Kallen, but how do you know? Were you there? Got evidence? Not possible, because that is a Just-So Story told by fundamentalist evolutionists and you’re probably simply repeating it.
As you see, even in our entertainment we get evolutionary propaganda. I could make a series on this stuff. Purveyors of evoporn may not even realize that they’re spreading misinformation because they’ve been successfully indoctrinated. The rest of us must remain alert, ask questions, and use critical thinking to avoid being humbugged.
This article may appear to be one of those “atheists are nasty to me so I will pay them back” things, but if you’ll stay with me on this trail, you’ll see where it leads. (Edited for wording 1 September 2022.)
After all these years dealing with misotheists, I should no longer be amazed at their vitriol and bigotry. It seems to be increasing. (It may be a sign of the Last Days, but I will not delve into eschatology this time.) Many professing atheists (Romans 1:18-23) claim to believe in freedoms of speech, expression, and thought, but they seek out and ridicule Christians for doing those very things.
They frequently try to put us on the defensive by dodging what we discuss, introducing new subjects, ignoring replies, more dodging, and attempting to intimidate. They get furious — furious, I tell you — when we don’t let them manipulate us and play “Gotcha!” games.
If you study on it, you may also notice that Christians and biblical creationists are not “allowed” to argue from our own worldview. Those atheists insist that we engage on their terms and accept atheistic naturalism, but they call it “neutral ground” or some such. Christian, if you agree to “leave the Bible out of it”, you’ve just agreed with the atheist that God’s Word is incorrect when it discusses them and their rebellious condition! There is no neutral ground. You savvy that, Pilgrim?
There have been times where I have read comments such as this one: “My atheism is a side effect of being intelligent, rational, logical, and basing my conclusions on evidence.” However, they show an extreme lack of knowledge of science, evolution, logic, and Christianity. Then they make statements about God, the Bible, Christianity, Christians, biblical creationists, etc. Such remarks are simply prejudicial conjecture, indicating that those making them are not interested in serious discussions.
The one I quoted above has frequently stated that he already knows that the Bible, creation science, and other things presented by Christians are “wrong” and will not read them or watch the videos. This is being informed? No. I think that kind of arrogance is a cover for cowardice.
Indeed, he even reacted to a post and said that I don’t “understand what a theory is in science.” Boskus, the Page owner, humiliated himself yet again because he not only attributed the article to me, but if he had read it, he would have learned that it was written by a scientist. Scientists know what a theory is in science, if I recollect rightly.
Over and over, we get proven right by the atheistic goat rodeo denizens who do not display original thought, and especially their lack of critical thinking. F’rinstance, see how alleged Bible contradictions are shredded. Objections to Christianity and especially biblical creation are contumeliously thrown about by those with Atheism Spectrum Disorder, but for those of us with experience, we read and hear the same old nonsense. Mr. Bentley has a short, humorous article on the responses of atheists that I suggest you read.
My previous article on this weblog was a retooled post from Fakebook that examined alleged logic and morality from certain misotheists. It prompted reactions. One was built on complete dishonesty, including putting words in my mouth. I saw that he was just another angry bigot who was justifying his rebellion against Almighty God, and not worth my time. (I reckon he sent about ten visits here with his link.) If you go there, note that he doesn’t exactly enforce the comments policy for his sycophants.
A second reaction was written by an acolyte of the first writer. His comments on this weblog were the same old boilerplate rhetoric. When I stopped responding and allowing his disingenuous comments, he wrote his own post. I was a mite irked when I gave one reply:
To show the brilliance of The Mighty Atheist™, you begin with an ad hominem, using cowboy as a pejorative. This is followed by a hasty generalization about my knowledge of atheists based on just one article. I’ve got some bad news for you, Sunshine, I’ve been writing about atheists, theology, and other things for somewhere around fifteen years. That means I won’t fall for tricks. So, have fun with your argument from silence and other logical fallacies in your vindictive, petty post. Mayhaps when your frontal lobes develop and you can have a rational discussion, I’ll let you comment on my posts again, mmmkay?
I didn’t bother to read any responses.
There are a couple of things I’ve said on other occasions: The days of “You believe, I don’t, let’s turn on the game and watch it,” are long gone. Also, since evolution is foundational to the religion of atheism, they really get on the prod when fish-to-fool evolution is doubted. Things can be going well between a misotheist and a Christian, but express evidence against evolution and supporting creation (especially the Genesis Flood), and they’re ready to slap leather.
I know this trail is a mite long, but the end is in sight.
The secular science industry is dominated by atheists. Although the adored peer review process is saturated with difficulties and some even want it scrapped, they stay with it. A spell back, someone used a vile word and secularists rode into town and shot up the saloon. It began with a “c”. Yep, someone said “Creator“, and it wasn’t even meant in reference to the real Creator that we will all stand before in Judgment.
I mentioned earlier about a post that was written by a scientist. That atheist discussed earlier was angry because the title was, “Many Scientists Believe Scientific Theories Religiously.” It’s true. While they claim to believe things because of evidence, there is no empirical support for many of those things. Just-So stories (here’s a passel of them for example), inferences, bad science, fraud — sure. We get a prairie-schooner full of that. But nothing helpful.
Also, atheists and evolutionists hate presuppositional apologetics, but they are hardcore presuppositionalists themselves! Christians are to presuppose the truth of the Bible, but atheists and Darwin’s disciples presuppose evolution, deep time, that everything came from nothing, and materialism. There is precious little empirical evidence, and it is dragged down by the stones of all of those assumptions.
A post I saw this morning brought all these things together for me. There is a firefight among materialists about the Webb telescope and the Big Bang. Essentially, “Liar! I never said what you said I said!” Meanwhile, accusations against Eric Lerner were shallow, since he has rejected the Big Bang for decades. (His own belief has no evidence, however.) This link is to a secular article that affirms the “facts” of the Big Bang, but I present it here with a coarse wording warning.
All of this is to say that misotheists and evolutionists fiercely guard their origins myth, and despise freedoms of speech, expression, and thought. It is not about evidence, because they really don’t have any! It is a spiritual problem. God exists, they know it, but suppress the truth. Many hate his followers, like this sidewinder:
This example of atheist “morality” is posted under Federal Fair Use provisions for educational purposes
Many feral atheists have repented and become Christians. There are several in the biblical creation science organizations. Sin affects all areas of one’s thinking, and with salvation and the entrance of God’s Word comes light.
This article will touch on several areas, some of the things I have thought about for quite a while. So I will present some speculations with what I think is evidential material, run it up the flagpole, and see if anyone salutes it.
I’ll allow that I have some cognitive dissonance happening. I don’t trust humanistic psychology, but getting some kind of treatment for mental illness can be beneficial. However, some problems fade over time. Even medication (although scientists do not know why one works and treatment is often a crapshoot) can be necessary. Talking with a biblical counselor is most likely the best answer.
There are many unhealthy thinking patterns classified as personality disorders, but the groupings and labels are unhelpful since many have traits that overlap. Some of these resemble psychotic symptoms. Also, Autism Spectrum Disorder is a kind of mental illness. Some people have been misdiagnosed as having some other disorder until the patient was reevaluated. These things help indicate that the field is not exactly scientific.
Armchair Psychologists
People tend to throw around words to label others, acting as if they were licensed psychotherapists making diagnoses. “You have cognitive dissonance”, “That’s an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect”, “You’re just paranoid”, and others. They probably don’t even know what the words mean other than spending five minutes looking them up on teh interwebs.
Individuals have personality flaws, and will exhibit “symptoms” found in the lists for psychologists. It’s when some have several indications that a diagnosis could be made correctly. By an expert.
Toxic People
This expression seems to be relatively new. Generally speaking, toxic people bring harm to others, especially their mental well-being. Toxic people feed their own egos by rejoicing in (and causing) distress and harm to others. It is a serious problem in interpersonal relationships, especially when realizing that a family member is toxic. In many cases, they cannot be avoided, so the victim needs to learn skills to minimize the damage.
I was recently told about a woman who eventually left her physically-abusive husband, but he was able to turn the woman’s own sister against her! Fortunately, that was straightened out later.
What is frequently discussed is self-esteem. I’ve heard and read Christians who condemn self-esteem, but I reckon they’re on the prod about sinful pride. There is a reasonable amount of healthy self-esteem in people, including Christians. We don’t want people becoming damaged and feeling worthless!
Narcissism
Among the snap judgements that armchair psychologists make is to call someone a narcissist. A person may appear that way if they spend a bit too much time focusing on their appearance, for instance, or make their personal gratification a priority. Traits here and there do not necessarily make someone a narcissist.
Narcissists can be oh so charming, but will not build you up. They tend to tear you down, and even try to leverage your accomplishments for their benefit. Unfortunately, they seek out certain kinds of people to be their victims. Narcissists are not likely to be planning. Rather, it is a skill that comes naturally.
Sometimes intelligent people can be seen as narcissistic, but that may not be the case. I cannot find a script, but I’ll do this from memory: In an episode of Barney Miller, the genius Arthur Dietrich was making a rather heady remark. Nick Yemana, who had no idea of what Arthur was saying, replied, “I don’t think that’s necessarily true!” Instead of belittling Yemana, Dietrich said, “But it’s possible.” Yemana agreed thoughtfully, “It’s possible.” Great scene! Arthur was very intelligent, but didn’t lord it over others.
Check online and you’ll find many sites and articles dealing with narcissists in your life. People diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder are comparatively rare, but that can be skewed because they may think there’s nothing wrong with them, so why seek treatment?
Consider this: People with inflated pride are more difficult to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ because they see no reason to repent, and humbling themselves is unthinkable.
Whether someone has been diagnosed with NPD or not, if narcissistic traits are observed, the recipient of their manipulations should be on guard. There are various defensive methods to counteract it. Again, being aware of what’s going on is extremely helpful in and of itself. There are videos (a few are linked below) and articles available online. Unfortunately, spouses, children, and other family members may not admit that the other person has a problem.
These emotional abuses can also become physical. Yes, while it may seem like a harmless aberration, a narcissist can be physically as well as mentally dangerous.
This word has an interesting history. It came from a 1938 stage play, Gas Light, then the Gaslight movie in 1940 (at the moment, available for free on YouTube). The 1944 movie featuring Charles Boyer, Igrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotton is the version most people know. The evil husband wanted his wife’s riches, and when he searched in the attic, he turned on the gas light up there and it dimmed elsewhere in the house. He was trying to drive her insane, and one of his tricks was to tell her that no, the light never dimmed. It’s a tense psychological drama and I recommend it (having only seen the 1944 version). Also, it’s distressing to see what he put her through, even to doubt her own sanity.
There are key traits and phrases that gaslighters have, but a couple here and there do not mean someone is a narcissist or gaslighting. You savvy that, pilgrim?
Unlike the story, to gaslight someone does not have an end goal in sight, but is a wicked method of manipulation. It is ongoing. Narcissists seek gratification, and gaslighting is one method. The gaslighter tells the victim what to think, they have no right to their feelings, plays the victim, and may even claim that they know you better than you know yourself.
Take note that the gaslighter will use other people against his or her targets. Victims are often belittled in front of their friends and family, and the accumulation can lead to the recipient having self-doubt, even to the point of questioning their perception of reality.
One note here is that gaslighting is a tactic of narcissists, but there are other toxic people that use it.
Atheism and Mental Illness
Yeah, I know, them’s fightin’ words. Well, deal with it because I’m going to lay out my controversial speculations.
Atheists exhibit many of the characteristics of narcissists and sociopaths. (See “It All Adds Up: Many Atheists are Nuts,” where I discuss an article on narcissistic sociopaths.) You will frequently see, especially on social(ist) media, that atheists pretend to be smarter than “theists.” They also dehumanize Christians and creationists, which makes it easier to negate our views; some cannot say anything good about, or in agreement with, a Christian!
At other times, atheopaths will act like we’re all amigos on a first-name basis. I’ve been called by my first name, the atheist pretends to be patient and friendly — and told what I think and believe! (Take a look at “Further Adventures in Atheo-Fascism” for a more detailed analysis on how they dodge things they don’t like.) Internet atheists can be the most vile and underhanded.
Gaslighting is obviously most effective in personal relationships, but some attempt to do this online. Atheists ridicule, mock, demonize, and recruit others to join in. This can be used to destroy the Christian’s confidence, and even cause him or her to doubt their memory and thinking — perhaps even to doubt their faith.
Used under US Fair Use statutes for educational purposes. The difficult-to-read part in red in that image posted by another Admin, but the image is small here: “Because our uninformed opinions, regurgitations and prejudicial conjectures are universally admissible as evidence and our glib offhand denials are incontestable refutations of anything and everything we personally don’t like or understand.”
When pointing out on Fakebook that an atheopath used a logical fallacy, the response is a laughing emoji.
Catch them in a lie, same response.
Correct a misotheist about their own evolutionary mythology, same response.
Keep one on topic, same response.
Require one to keep to the standards they demand of us and back up their claims…you guessed it.
Do these things sound like characteristics of healthy minds? That’ll be the day! Atheists are exceptionally negative people, and what is deep inside comes out when being keyboard warriors in their safe spaces. Narcissists and sociopaths get furious — furious, I tell you! — when their manipulations fail. If you want to torment online misotheist troll, deny them the attention they crave.
Early on at this WordPress thing (it will never be the home of The Question Evolution Project), I was trolled by a site run by atheopaths. Personal attacks, ridicule, avoiding the content, the usual nonsense. When I blocked that site from commenting here, everything ceased. If they talk about the content here, I’m not aware of it.
I’ll allow it’s mighty difficult to refrain from getting wrapped up into equivalent retaliation, but Christians are not called to slap leather with every internet tinhorn, no matter how wicked and manipulative.
The Spiritual Aspect
When encountering knowledgeable Christians and creationists, Christophobes become even more obstreperous than usual. Why is that?
Non-Christians are the property of Satan. I believe atheists and occultists are closer to him than most people. We do know from Scripture that unbelievers hate Christ in us, and he told us they would hate us. But the one that is in us is greater than the one in the world (1 John 4:4). The spirit controlling them can see the Spirit that is in us.
Atheists are angry, and their fundamentally-flawed worldview is bleak and hopeless. The universe began by chance, life originated by chance from minerals (your mother was a rock and your father was rain), evolution happened through time, chance, random processes, mutations, natural selection — and when you die, you’re worm food. No Judgement, no rewards, no punishment. Yes, very bleak.
Why waste their time tormenting Christians and creationists? I doesn’t make sense to spend so much time seeking their identities and railing against the God they pretend doesn’t exist. But their father Satan requires it. Atheopaths are full of pride as well as wickedness, and it is extremely difficult to get narcissists to realize that they are sinners in need of humility and repentance. We need to pray, share the gospel, be firm but avoid being contentious. Their conversion is not up to us and our golden words (1 Cor. 2:1-2), that is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are to be faithful. And we know what — and who — is real.
Video Links of Interest
These come from secular perspectives, and most have something to sell. A couple are from people who claim to be actual licensed therapists, some are from people who have lived through their experiences. I embedded one below. They provide interesting and probably useful information, but I cannot endorse everything they say.
Announcement on the probable demise of The Question Evolution Project on Facebook in the coming days.
Here is a slightly modified version of the post I made at The Question Evolution Project on Facebook. Or is it Forcebook, since they have forced Why?Outreach out, and we may be next while Fakebook puts on an innocent face and asks, “What? Not our fault.”
Bill Engvall said,
My Uncle Jack. We are at the funeral, and we weren’t even outside. We were in the church! And the reverend had just finished his eulogy, when we heard psshhh! And everyone turned to Uncle Jack, who was holding a beer, going, “What?”
I will be the last Admin for TQEP. Hey, I’m getting up in years and my health is not all that great. When I die, the Page dies with me.
So, here is the post with a few tweaks.
It is 31 March where I am, so it’s not an April Fool prank.
The Question Evolution Project may disappear in the next few weeks. Likely, but not guaranteed. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, we’ll be here to celebrate Resurrection Sunday.
No, we’re not quitting because of lack of evidence (quite the contrary!) or feckless atheopaths. Facebook may have found a way to shut down Pages that do not comply with their agenda but still look innocent.
One Admin is facing losing his account because reasons and stuff. The owner of Why?Outreach lost the battle from the same “security” problem.
“Your account has the potential to reach a lot more people than an average Facebook user. Hackers are often motivated to attack accounts that have a lot of followers, run important Pages, or hold some community significance.”
Sounds legit, but we’re less than 10,000 “likes”, and most of those seldom return. That’s typical for Pages.
Later on in the email,
“Note: Facebook Protect isn’t available to everyone on Facebook. We require stronger security for your account because it has the potential to reach a large audience.”
Aha! I’ll wager lotsa grotzits (well, I would if I wasn’t broke) that it’s a punishment for not being leftist and standing on the authority of the Word of God.
Gary (an Admin) can’t verify his cell phone number with incompetent Facebook because they never send the code, and then he’ll be locked out of his account! Makes perfect sense.
This is just another form of censorship.
After we posted things opposing things that Fakebook supports (including two genders, consider all evidence regarding cl!mage change, and opposing a few other leftist causes including evolutionism), we came under then shadowban very hard. Views plummeted. They’ve done it before, but this is the worst.
Then the hypocrites want us to run our “business” from Facebook, and also want our money. That’ll be the day! We get stats telling us our views are down. Well, they throttled us. Diddly dur hey!
Used under US Federal Fair Use provisions for educational purposes
So, for people who care, pray if you’ve a mind to. Well, it’s been over ten years. If that Admin can’t get things resolved, there will be only me. And you can be sure that won’t last long. Don’t be surprised if Fascistbook rings down the curtain on The Question Evolution Project.
If people come to MeWe, I may set something up there or use a group where I’ve been made an Admin.
For personal stuff, I’m most active on MeWe Twitter (but I suspect shadowbanning there, too): Why?Outreach is on Parler. So am I, but not too pleased with the platform. He can be reached here.
ADDENDUM: Too bad I can’t put color behind just one word. Anyway, the account under discussion was connected moments ago (14:14 Eastern Time). However, knowing Fakebook, that could change. This still got me thinking about what I should be doing, my options, starting over with TQEP 2.0, and so on.
When I read that a vampire squid fossil had been named after the Fossil-in-Chief, I thought I was reading the Babylon Bee. Nope. This is real news from the secular science industry. Since they have been promoting leftist causes and often rejecting real science facts to do so (abortion is not murder, men can become women and give birth, math is racist, etc.), it should not be surprising that someone from the leftist state of New York chose to honor Joe Biden by naming him after a creature with blood-sucking tentacles. Republican, Democrat, or anyone else, this is quite funny.
Do people even think anymore? Democrats named this creature after him because they are happy about his policies for global warming. “Hey, let’s name a vampiric squid fossil in his honor!” They are not too bright. I doubt that Biden would cognate on the associations, since his mental abilities are rapidly failing (perhaps because he began politics in Grover Cleveland‘s first presidential term). The associations are fitting, though.
He has been known for inappropriate touching, and swimming naked in front of female secret service agents, offending them, back when he was the Vice President. What his socialism is doing to the formerly United States and the blood-sucking tentacles analogy is also appropriate. Add to this are how Darwinoids touted this as evidence for evolution, but the opposite occurs. Because they are locked into naturalistic presuppositions, evolutionists won’t get it that the evidence supports recent creation, not their paradigm.
This critter was discovered back in 1988 but not examined until recently. Evolutionists constantly try to rescue their fundamentally-flawed worldview from what has been observed. Once again, loss of features is somehow evidence for evolution. It’s also in the wrong place according to the evolutionary timeline. Want more? Okay. Soft tissue impressions shouldn’t last hundreds of millions of Darwin years. It was presumed to look and act like modern squids. No evolution here, folks.
The fossil challenges the evolutionary narrative about squids, says the press release from AMNH. The title, “New Species of Extinct Vampire-Squid-Like Cephalopod,” may add insult to injury to associate Biden with a blood-sucking monster extending its sucker-laden tentacles to pry the lifeblood out of its victims. They surely did not mean it that way, but it will be hard for Republicans not to snicker.
Vampire squid (vampyropods) had 10 tentacles compared to the usual 8 for octopuses, which are related members of the cephalopod (head-foot) class of mollusks. One reason for the problem with evolution of this fossil is that it represents devolution—the loss of features. In this case, the “understanding” devolved as well. Co-author Christopher Whalen explains:
To read the full article and see how Chris evosplains, see “Fossil Squid Named for Joe Biden.” (Image at the top: Pexels / Mark Newbury)
There are several aspects to Question Evolution Day that many people can support, such as biblical creationists and even professing atheists or agnostics who believe in freedoms of speech, expression, academic, and thought. Fundamentalist evolutionists and atheists find it execrable. They attempt to silence this day as well as creationists themselves through ridicule, misrepresentation, outright lies, and more. I thought an important part of rational and scientific inquiry is to allow the examination of contrary evidence, but I’m just a nobody. It is easy to think that those who claim to believe in freedom of speech only support it if the material supports the consensus.
Here’s an area that I must confess to having inconsistency. There have been several misotheists and anti-creationists who want to slap leather with me over the years, and several times I have pledged to stop featuring their comments and such as examples of bad logic and bigotry. I was giving them the attention they seem to crave. Then they give me something else that needs to be used. C’est la guerre.
Used under Fair Use provisions for educational purposes.
The above image was posted on Fakebook and these misotheists did the usual: share for the purpose of mockery. First, I want to point out that the owner of that Page and his few fans complain when creationists point out that Charles Darwin was a blatant racist, they falsely claim that we are engaging in ad hominem attacks. Then they hypocritically use their own. Frequently.
By the way, notice the “ha ha” emoji. Atheists love those, even when they’ve been caught lying or given irrefutable evidence for something. No intelligent response, just a childish retort.
The two sentences in the comment on the “share” are chock full o’ fallacies, so let’s give them a look-see.
As I said, they usead hominems frequently. This one has “idiots”, “moronic”, and “clowns”. Some people defend the use of insults and say that are not ad hominems when not used in the course of an argument, but I disagree. It is still to the man and is a way to dismiss what another person or group has to say.
For that matter, an insult can also be a form of poisoning the well to discredit what the other says before any statement is made. If someone states, “No, that’s not an ad hominem, I simply insulted you”, it should not be allowed to stand. It does nothing to advance an argument or position, and is harmful.
Note the viperine conflation of evolution with science, which is common among anti-creationists. This is frequently expanded so that, if we reject atoms-to-atheist evolution, we reject science. Not hardly!
If you study on it a mite, you’ll see that their attitude is anti-science. You betcha, since those who
One need not be a creationist or Intelligent Design proponent to have doubts about evolution. It is in no wise “settled science” or “proven”, since science can’t prove anything, and a true spirit of science it so seek knowledge (which includes adjusting or even rejecting bad theories), not protecting the prevailing paradigm.
Dissent from Darwin has been signed by over 1,200 scientists (and MDs who are also professors of medicine). As discussed at Piltdown Superman, this is essentially blaspheming Darwin and, therefore, hazardous to their careers. If there were more professional, academic, and other freedoms, there would undoubtedly be more signers.
I am once again reminding people that there are many credentialed scientists in the creation community that have published in refereed journals in their own fields. Of course, evidence refuting evolution and supporting creation is not allowed in the secular science industry. It makes Darwin frown.
Interestingly, while I was writing this, another Admin at The Question Evolution Project re-posted something I wrote a spell back about how creationists embrace science. That same Page owner under discussion here called me a liar in his comments. Because atheism.
Implicit in the line, “As if a bunch of Creationist clowns are going to cause science to abandon evolutionary theory”, is an appeal to motive fallacy. Since that Admin uses the genetic fallacy as an excuse to avoid reading creationist material, he doesn’t know what Question Evolution Day is about in the first place.
When I started QED, I never said that it would cause the secular science industry to abandon one of their foundations. (Indeed, glance through this collection of Darwin Day images and notice the religious fervor. Somehow, a couple of QED images made it into the mix.) I am a nobody. Fact. I wasn’t being facetious before. And I know I don’t have much influence or power. This is a movement by and for the people who actually care about getting out the truth and prompting people to think for themselves instead of floating down the stream of “consensus science”.
This may put some people off, but mayhaps some of my history will be useful.
Creation Ministries International had a Question Evolution! campaign that included several videos and questions that evolutionists cannot answer. I made a comment that there should be a Question Evolution Day. Didn’t happen, so, being a cowboy at heart, I took the initiative and started the observance. Not much happened.
I asked for other people to participate, and had a boost a few times from Creation Today. Ian Juby promoted QED on Genesis Week a couple of times. Many other people wrote weblog articles (Duane Caldwell has done several at Rational Faith), and people on social(ist) media had their own material as well as sharing hash-tagged #questionevolutionday posts.
In addition, I sought out interviews on radio and podcasts (here is one of my favorites; a skilled interviewer brings out good responses from the subject). A few times I got my name “in print”, such as The Christian Post and The Washington Post (via Religion News Service.) Like I said, I was being a cowboy. Being a nobody, however, hindered getting doors opened.
Writing that stuff makes me uncomfortable because I have long said (and pray to remind myself) to seek glory to God, not glory to Bob.
Even so, one point to QED is that a passel of us common folk can get together and spread the world. We can hope and pray that people will realize that they are not getting all the facts from atheistic materialists. They may question evolution and realize that the God of the Bible is the Creator — that means he makes the rules and we should find out what he has to say.
As for angry atheists…they can’t hurt us. Sure, ridicule and say all sorts of evil things, it’s who they are and what they do. But they can’t stop the truth, and people don’t need to spend much time on hard-hearted trolls, you savvy?
I hope all y’all will get involved in Question Evolution Day, our protest against Darwin-mandated science philosophies can be heard!
The Creation Cowboy 