Posts from — in the wee hours

To the banana man,

Damn you, Ray Comfort.

I was set to head onto campus tomorrow to meet with former students, some friends, and perhaps, if I timed it right, get a chance to catch members of your goon squad passing out a new shiny “On the Origin of the Species,” of Charlie Darwin fame. Of course I didn’t expect the book to be the real ‘Origin’ and I was right. Missing is nearly one fifth of the book, several chapters, where the logical arguments and evidence were greatest, and it is soured with an introduction penned by the you, the banana man himself. The intro claims Darwin hated women (nope) and was a racist (taking one quote out of context and then ignoring the evidence that he was far from it, such as the times he was almost kicked off the H.M.S. Beagle for voicing disgust at slavery and the mistreatment of native populations). Of course, this has nothing to do with the theory of evolution, but these ad hominem attacks seem to go hand in hand with distortion, deletion, and just plain lying. Why be so dishonest and underhanded if you are right? (This reminds me of Ben Stein slicing video, cutting answers, remixing to get false results, and lying about the nature of his ‘documentary’ to those he interviewed (of whom he was too fearful to actually let them go to the screening) in order to peddle his stupidity to the stupid and the ignorant

Well Ray, you tricked us all again. Fearing that actual scientists and intelligent people would be waiting to debate, to engage in thought, to discuss evidence, you pushed up the date one day to avoid such a thing. What a coward. I group you and your ilk in the same category as holocaust deniers and flat-earthers. And it isn’t just some godless amoral baby-eating atheists like me that thinks this. There are plenty of Christians whom you are embarrassing with your supreme stupidity. These people, while they do not share my beliefs, share my disdain. They are able to look at evidence and show disgust at the very idea of having to lie for their faith.

Please cease. You are leading a few good people who lack the evidence and a legion of very bad people astray.

All the worst,
Richard Shea

Those who get this feed through Facebook should click on the title to read the post.

I hate to repost another’s blog, but this was just too good. Here is Myers:

I’d never realized what a useful tool the Bible is in infallibly resolving difficult moral problems until I read this detailed dissection of a difficult situation on Answers in Genesis.

Here’s the hypothetical situation: you know the whereabouts of a family of Jews hiding from the Nazis. A Nazi patrol comes up to you and asks where they are; you, a good God-fearing Christian, can either lie and say you don’t know (which would be bad, because, like, lying is a sin), or you could tell the truth, and the Nazis would zip off and search for and presumably execute the family. What do you do?

As a non-Bible believing amoral godless atheist, my first thought was that this is trivial: you lie your pants off. The ‘crime’ of telling a lie pales into insignificance against the crime of enabling the death of fellow human beings.

According to Bodie Hodge of AiG, though, I’m wrong. The good Christian should reject lies, Satan’s tools, in all circumstances, and should immediately ‘fess up the location of the Jews. He backs it up with Bible quotes, too.

If we love God, we should obey Him (John 14:15). To love God first means to obey Him first–before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the uncertain future?

Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don’t know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life–keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.

As Christians, we need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18), and He sits on the throne of God at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1). Nothing can happen without His say. Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ’s approval (Luke 22:31). Regardless, if one were to lie or not, Jesus Christ is in control of timing every person’s life and able to discern our motives. It is not for us to worry over what might become, but rather to place our faith and obedience in Christ and to let Him do the reigning. For we do not know the future, whereas God has been telling the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Gosh. I never thought of it that way. So…all those Christians who sheltered Jews during WWII are actually burning in hell right now for their sinful wickedness? That is so counterintuitive, it must be true!

Thanks, P.Z.

Answers in Genesis is an embarrassment to other Christians who are trying to do good.

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