A Parent’s Guide to the 5 Skeptics Who Want to Shame Your Kids for Being Christian

from here: https://www.str.org/w/a-parent-s-guide-to-the-5-skeptics-who-want-to-shame-your-kids-for-being-christian

AUTHORNatasha CrainPUBLISHED ON06/19/2018

Having blogged for over six years now, I’ve received hundreds (and hundreds) of comments and emails from skeptics of Christianity. Once in a while, I receive one from a pleasant non-believer who is truly interested in discussing evidence, asking reasonable questions, and engaging in thoughtful discussion.

But that’s the exception.

Those who contact me typically wield the tool of shaming to make their point - something highly ironic given how much skeptics talk about the importance of evidence.

To be clear, none of the non-believers I personally know would use shaming tactics in person. But when people are behind their screens, it brings down the “barrier” of civility, and faith conversations often look very different. You can see it on social media (even with friends who wouldn’t say such things in person), comments on news articles, blog posts - everywhere.

Kids need to understand these emotion-laden shaming attempts they’ll encounter. Like so much else, this is something parents can and should prepare them for. Here are the five most common skeptics who want to shame your kids for being Christian.

1. The Science Thumper

Shame Tactic: Making the child believe they don’t have enough scientific expertise to understand that belief in God is unnecessary and silly.

The Science Thumper applies some notion of science to each and every conversation about Christianity, making it the final word on any given topic, and implying that science and Christianity are at irreconcilable odds.

For example, in response to one of my blog posts about the meaning of life in a theistic worldview, a skeptic commented:

You need to study the mechanisms of replication, mutation, natural selection if you want to understand why life exists and is the way it is. If life and existence are too amazing, astounding and astonishing to exist naturally...then how much more complex is god [sic] for having created it?...Did you invent superman as a panacea answer for everything you don’t understand?

Questions of faith and science are very important, but framing faith and science as a choice - one option for the unsophisticated and one for those in the know - is a cheap and false dichotomy.

Parent Solution: Thoroughly address faith and science topics so kids understand how shallow and unnuanced the Science Thumper’s claims are. See this post for more on how to do that.

2. The Indoctrination Informer

Shame Tactic: Informing the child that the ONLY reason they believe in Jesus is that they’ve been “indoctrinated” by their parents.

Indoctrination is a word that both Christians and skeptics use wrong. Skeptics often think a kid has been indoctrinated any time they’ve been taught a given religion is true. Christians often think indoctrination means teaching kids Christian doctrine. These misunderstandings lead to conversations that unfortunately sound like this:

Skeptic to Christian parent: “You’re indoctrinating your kids [by raising them in a Christian home]! Let them think for themselves.”

Christian parent to skeptic: “You’re right! I’m teaching my kids Christian doctrine, and I’m proud of it!”

Both skeptics and Christians need to understand that indoctrination means teaching someone to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider other ideas, opinions, and beliefs. In other words, indoctrination is a problem with how you teach someone something. It is not inherently related to any particular belief system, though religion is one type of belief system where indoctrination is possible.

Parent Solution: Intentionally introduce your kids to skeptics’ challenges so they never feel the need to question whether you tried to shelter them from other beliefs. For more on the importance of this, see the post “If Your Kids are Someday Shocked by the Claims of Skeptics, You Didn’t Do Your Job.”

3. The Miracle Mocker

Shame Tactic: Making the child feel gullible for believing something that doesn’t happen according to natural laws.

Here’s a recent comment a skeptic left on my blog:

Just because some so-called holy book says something is true doesn’t make it true. Why do you believe outlandish claims about a god [sic] speaking things into existence, or about a man being swallowed by a fish for a few days and surviving, a worldwide flood [and ark] that fit all of the animals in it and eight people, or a story about a virgin getting pregnant? None of that makes sense, you don’t have any proof that it happened, but you still think it’s true. Why do you prefer to believe outlandish claims because they’re religious?

The logic here is what’s “outlandish” (no one believes all miraculous claims simply because they’re religious), but my point is not to critique the details of this particular comment. My point is to show how skeptics present miracles in a way that parades them as “obviously” absurd because (and by definition!), they don’t follow the course of nature.

Parent Solution: Teach kids the basic logic that if God exists, miracles are possible, and if God doesn’t exist, miracles are not possible (for more on this, see chapter 24 in Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side). This brings the question of miracles back to the underlying question of the evidence for God’s existence so kids understand that the person claiming miracles are silly is simply presupposing God doesn’t exist.

4. The Self-Sufficient Scoffer

Shame Tactic: Boasting that the skeptic doesn’t “need” God - and implying that anyone who does has an inferior need for an emotional crutch to get through life.

Oftentimes, when ex-Christians recount their deconversion story, they conclude with a glib comment of how they moved on because they no longer “needed” God. The subtly condescending implication, of course, is that those who believe in God do so because they don’t have the emotional resources to make it through life admitting that we live in a universe of pitiless indifference.

This is a strange conclusion that betrays a lack of deeper insight.

If God exists, we need Him. All things were created through and for Him; He is the Source and sustainer of everything by definition. Therefore, if God exists, it’s not a choice to need Him...it’s simply a fact that we do.

If God doesn’t exist, we don’t need Him. We cannot need Him. We cannot need something that doesn’t exist.

In other words, saying that you don’t need God anymore is a nonsensical conclusion. Of course you don’t need God if He doesn’t exist. And if He does exist, you can’t choose to not need Him.

What this kind of statement betrays, therefore, is that the skeptic originally believed in God based on felt needs (desires) rather than on the conviction that He truly exists. When they realized they didn’t need to believe in God to satisfy those felt needs, they simply eliminated Him from the picture and met those needs in other ways.

Parent Solution: Be mindful of helping kids build a faith based on the conviction of God’s existence and the truth of Christianity - not on felt needs for things like being happy, being a good person, or finding meaning in life. In other words, if anyone ever asks your child why they’re a Christian, you should want their response to be, “Because Christianity is true!” For more on escaping the felt need pattern, see the post “Do Your Kids Know Why They Need God?”

5. The Tolerance Enforcer

Shame Tactic: Making the child feel like they are unloving and hateful for taking a biblical stance that doesn’t approve of all choices as morally acceptable.

In a spectacular display of irony, the Tolerance Enforcer shames kids into believing that they must be horrible people for disagreeing with non-believers on the morality of various issues. By labeling kids hateful and unloving rather than thoughtfully discussing the evidence for the truth of the underlying worldviews that produce divergent moral conclusions, they rely on purely emotional attacks. Kids without an intellectual foundation for the Christian worldview are left feeling that they must be wrong about the truth of their faith.

Parent Solution: Help kids understand the irony of a person championing tolerance who won’t tolerate Christian beliefs without labeling disagreement hateful. Then demonstrate how Christians and non-Christians will necessarily disagree on moral issues because we have a different source of authority - the Bible. Here’s an example.

In all of these cases, remember that shame, by definition, is “a painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness or disgrace.” In other words, the root of shame is feeling inadequate.

In order for our kids to feel (more than) adequate when they encounter shaming attempts, they need to have the deep conviction that what they believe is really true. Only then will they be able to fully see these shame tactics for what they are - shallow and baseless emotional attacks - and be able to say confidently with the apostle Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

 from here: https://creation.com/gender-climate-change

Climate change and LGBT issues. What’s the Creation connection?

by Gary Bates

Published: 24 September 2020 (GMT+10)

iStockphoto

Originally published in a CMI newsletter, February 2020

While out on ministry CMI’s speakers are regularly approached by parents, teens or young people in the church on gay marriage and climate change. These are massive cultural topics in the media today and there is pressure to conform, lest we be labelled as climate change deniers or ‘homophobes’. There is no question that the pressure is mounting on the church, and especially on our young people at school or university.

If we had forewarned that they will meet such people, then possibly the experience would not have been counter to their expectations.

Our youth today are influenced by public opinion much more than previous generations, and no one wants to be a pariah in a peer group! I’ve often said there is a tendency with youth today, even Christians, to think with their heart, rather than their mind. Feelings are now all-important. And so we see emotional blackmail with such things as ‘flight shaming’ people for daring to fly on a plane due to its alleged contribution to greenhouse gasses, or scaring our young ones by claiming this is an ‘extinction-level event’. The latter is reckless scaremongering. Consider headlines like “New Report Warns ‘High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an End’ Within 30 Years.’”1 And it is especially shameful for adults to exploit a teenage girl to promote their agendas.2 Increasingly, we are confronted with the following types of questions and comments:

‘Is climate change really happening? What do you think?’

‘As Christians, should we be burning fossil fuels? Are we destroying God’s planet?’

‘My son went to college and became friends with some gay people. Now he thinks that possibly one can be homosexual and a practicing Christian.’

‘My daughter went to Bible college and graduated as a professing gay.’

(Yes, this was a comment I received from a mom in a very conservative church!).

The list could go on but hopefully you get the idea that people in churches are confused, and this is a scary proposition for parents.

Do our youth think the way we do?

A few years ago, my youngest daughter was attending university in Atlanta, and over dinner she shared that the subject of gay marriage came up in one of her classes. She was shocked that professing Christians said they were ok with such things, and that they raised the stereotypical arguments such as “Well, it’s ok if people love each other.” Or “Some people are born that way.”

At CMI, for over 40 years we’ve been supplying Christian families with information on how to deal with the huge cultural icon of cosmic evolution. We have been encouraging families to get equipped with answers to what the world is teaching that undermines our Christian faith. But do parents raise the subject of gay marriage with our children, and what they can expect? Or is it ‘taboo’? In my experience, the answer is ‘very rarely’, and it’s the reason that so many confused teens approach us. My daughter’s comments caused a light to go on for me.

As parents we probably see homosexuality as a black and white issue. The Scriptures are very clear, and many of our pastors preach against such practices from the pulpit. After all, there are some very strong condemning passages in Scripture when it talks about “dishonorable passions”, for example. But how do our young ones in the church perceive this? I’m sure that due to their lack of real-world experience, they are hearing that homosexuals are evil and therefore, especially bad people. But when they leave home, they can meet very nice, loving, friendly people who are ‘gay’, and may even profess to be Christian. Their experience contrasts with what they think they heard in the church. If we had forewarned that they will meet such people, then possibly the experience would not have been counter to their expectations.

I saw a need for a family apologetics resource in this area, so my colleague Lita Cosner and I wrote a booklet called Gay Marriage: Right or wrong and who decides? We are aware that some churches have purchased hundreds to equip their families and youth. Penny M.C. wrote:

“I just wanted to say I think the booklet on ‘Gay Marriage’ (I shudder even when I have to write those words down!) it is absolutely first class—outstanding.”

Dr Carl Wieland also wrote:

Creation information not only changes minds, it changes hearts towards Christ.

“It is becoming ever more difficult, even for Christians, to think clearly about this emotion-charged issue. … The authors have in my view set the content, tone and balance ‘just right’. This is one of the very few publications that deals head-on with the iconic statements and sound bites that have come to dominate the debate. Both scientifically and biblically sound, it displays genuine compassion while at the same time not shirking the truth. In short, a really great little booklet that clears up much confusion on a vital topic.”

Dr Wieland (a former medical doctor) noted that our tone was balanced. This was intentional so that emotive perceptions of ‘hateful’ language would not get in the way of logical reasoning.

The creation/evolution connection

While this subject has always been around (just read the book of Genesis!), we are seeing a massive spike of hype in recent years. And is it coincidental that the issues of climate change and human sexuality are spiking at the same time?

Romans 1:20 is a favorite passage of creationists. The Apostle Paul writes:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

But in the following verses he talks about the shocking consequences of failing to acknowledge that it is God’s Creation. In verses 24–27 he writes:

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Worshiping the creation!

The modern and often rabid environmental movement, is, in a sense, worshiping the creation. It believes that mankind is just another animal on an ancient, billions-of-years-old earth. Contrast this with Genesis 1:28 which is God’s command to humans to take charge over His Creation. This is the balanced view. It recognizes that it belongs to God and we should be good stewards of it. But that it was also given to mankind for our benefit, and we are not subservient to it. And the greatest climate change event ever occurred around 4,500 years ago when God destroyed the earth because of sin. It was His right to do so because it belongs to Him. And that’s where most of the fossil fuels we are burning today came from. I think God knew that would be the case … don’t you?

Our FALLOUT campaign a couple of years ago demonstrated first-hand the reasons why large numbers of youth are leaving the church; that evolution and the errant conclusion that ‘science’ does not support the biblical Creation account. If they are being taught the opposite of Romans 1, then Scripture says what will happen next! If there is no God to be accountable to then anyone can follow their own desires because they are not made in God’s image and we are just evolved animals.

The Good News

In Mark 10:6 our Lord Jesus says:

“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.’”

Jesus was referencing Genesis 1. He believed in a literal creation with a real Adam and Eve, made as male and female. There was no gender confusion here. They were not some mythological creatures or evolved from apes—as even some Christian ministries are teaching today. With apologetics teaching and training at home on the foundational issue of biblical creation, we can not only let our young ones know what to expect, but also how to deal with it, and also to be salt and light to the lost. Creation information not only changes minds, it changes hearts towards Christ. Roseanne A. emailed:

“Thank u CMI… U all don’t know how your ministry was the one that kept me from believing in evolution and all its frauds. I had lost hope. I read some Christian websites to keep me from this, but it never answered my questions …I’m a young girl and…the real challenge and frustration of my Christian journey in Christ is evolution which u have answered. I will always support you all and encourage you. And as a youth I will certainly plan to have the privilege of working with u guys. Love you all in Christ.”

Help us do more

If you have followed CMI for a while, I hope you can see that we do produce resources that are needed and are cutting-edge. For instance, we’ve just launched our CREATION.com Talk videos on YouTube and the various podcast (audio) platforms. It’s already evident we are reaching new people. One new podcast will be recorded, produced and posted every 10 days.

CMI has produced and continues to create a vast library of content that is available for free, but it takes the time and talent of dozens of dedicated staff, which would be impossible if not for the generous gifts of supporters who see the value in what we do. If CMI has been a blessing to you, would you consider supporting us as we continue this important work?

SAVING LEONARDO: A CALL TO RESIST THE SECULAR ASSAULT ON MIND, MORALS, AND MEANING

 from here: https://crossexamined.org/a-review-of-nancy-pearceys-saving-leonardo-a-call-to-resist-the-secular-assault-on-mind-morals-and-meaning/

A REVIEW OF NANCY PEARCEY’S SAVING LEONARDO: A CALL TO RESIST THE SECULAR ASSAULT ON MIND, MORALS, AND MEANING

By Terrell Clemmons

Nancy Pearcey knows the captivating power of secular ideas because she used to hold them herself. As a teenager, she rejected the religion of her childhood and embraced a host of “isms,” from moral relativism to scientific determinism to New Age spiritualism.

But she persisted in her quest for truth, only to find that the biblical worldview offers far better and more complete answers to the real-world questions those philosophies attempted to address. For those of us who lack such intellectual stamina, her books serve as a tour of the long and winding journey by which she arrived at that conclusion.

The Soul of Science, which she co-authored with Charles Thaxton in 1994, defied the deeply embedded cultural myth which said that faith and science occupy mutually exclusive intellectual camps, and showed how, quite to the contrary, scientific progress grew specifically out of Christian culture.

How Now Shall We Live? a joint effort with Charles Colson in 2004, fully developed the concept of worldview as an explanatory system that must fit all of reality. A worldview must therefore satisfactorily answer three foundational life questions: (1) Who am I and where did I come from?, i.e., the question of origins; (2) What’s wrong with the world?; and (3) How can it be fixed? Pearcey and Colson argued persuasively that the biblical metanarrative of Creation/Fall/Redemption provides the most excellent answers to all three.

Total Truth, Pearcey’s first solo work, built upon the core insight of Francis Schaeffer, under whom she studied as a young adult. Schaeffer had observed that modernity has erected a “two-story” view of reality, wherein objective “facts” occupy the lower story and subjective “values” occupy the upper. Total Truth showed how secularists use this fact/value split to banish biblical principles from public discourse, not by disproving them but by dismissing them out of hand.

In Saving Leonardo, Pearcey has turned her attention to the arts, and she analyzes how the fact/value split has fragmented modern thought and therefore compromised modern art. Most people view art as simply personal expression, but Pearcey says that it is much more than that: “Artists always select, arrange, and order their materials to offer an interpretation or perspective.” Art conveys ideas.

Saving Leonardo sets out to train us as consumers to thoughtfully “read” the art we take in, to analyze and interpret it. Not to make us art critics, but to make us wise and effective “change agents,” equipped “to engage in discussion with real people seeking livable answers in a world that is falling apart.”

Secular Devolution

Part One of the book examines the emerging global secularism and the toll it is exacting in human lives and dignity. Secularism is generally defined as the view that religious considerations and any beliefs based on the supernatural should be excluded from civil and public affairs. Today, secular ideologies control what our schools teach, how states govern, how economies are managed, and how (and what) news is reported. Secularism is sold on the premise that it provides a more enlightened ordering principle for social arrangements, but in reality, it works to degrade, rather than advance, a society. It leads to:

Dehumanization. The idea that human rights are universal and inherent to individuals is a uniquely Judeo-Christian concept. It rests on the understanding that human beings were created by God and bear his image. Without this foundation, grounded in a transcendent reality, human rights and human dignity are demoted to just another competing interest.

To illustrate how far out on this precipice, we already stand, Pearcey paraphrases pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty: “Because of Darwin, we no longer accept creation. And therefore, we no longer need to maintain that everyone who is biologically human has equal value. We are free to revert to the pre-Christian attitude that only certain groups qualify for human rights.” What this translates into is a social order in which the strong can oppress, enslave, or exterminate the weak at will. This is how we got such twentieth-century horrors as the Nazi Holocaust and the Soviet gulag.

Tyranny. Secularism preaches tolerance but practices tyranny. The biblical worldview unabashedly states that there is such a thing as an objective standard of right and wrong. The secular tenet of moral relativism is the direct converse of that principle. Simple logic says that both principles cannot be true, but secularizers try to have it both ways anyway. “If moral knowledge is impossible,” Pearcey points out, “then we are left with only political and legal measures to coerce people into compliance.” This explains why homosexual activists call their opponents bigots and homophobes (usually in highly moralistic tones), rather than sitting down with them for a good-faith discussion over the risks of ditching policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

In fact, secularism makes its advances, not through good-faith reasoning and persuasion, but by brute hubris. Its relativistic approach to religion derives from a certain set of beliefs that are just as exclusive as the claims of any religion; the secularizers just aren’t “honest” about it. This setup enables them to dismiss opposing views, not by marshaling sound arguments against them, but by baldly excluding them or by categorizing them as private values, which are then declared irrelevant.

Double-mindedness. Secularism not only imposes a certain ideology; it also effectively changes the definition of truth by dictating what kinds of information even qualify as truth. The fact/value split, Pearcey says, is “the key to unlocking the history of the Western mind.” It has fostered a kind of double-mindedness, both for individuals and among societies. It’s reflected in the 2008 comments of a Newsweek editor: “Reason defines one kind of reality (what we know); faith defines another (what we don’t know)”; and in the words of Albert Einstein: “Science yields facts but not ‘value judgments’; religion expresses values but cannot ‘speak facts.'”

It’s alive and well in the churches, too. Tim Sweetman, a teen blogger, noted that many of his peers seem like “double agents.” They “are Christians in church…but have a completely secular mind view. It’s as if they have a split personality.”

Logos: Truth in Toto

In the face of this pervasive yet fragmented view of truth, Pearcey puts forward a game-changing alternative view: The nature of truth is holistic, comprehensive, and coherent. “Because all things were created by a single divine mind, all truth forms a single, coherent, mutually consistent system. Truth is unified and universal.”

This is not new. It was the predominant view in Western culture for over two millennia. The ancient Greeks had a term for the underlying principle that unifies the world into an orderly cosmos, as opposed to randomness and chaos. They called it the Logos. And well into the 1900s, American universities were committed to the unity of truth. Even the word university suggests the pursuit of the whole, integrating truth. But the crack-up has so fractured modern thought that the idea of the “unity of truth” presents a radically reoriented perspective.

This “whole truth” perspective is what Pearcey is urging us to bring to the arts.

Secularism: Truth Fragmented

Part Two of Saving Leonardo begins with a crash course on how to discern worldview themes in a work of art. Using over one hundred reproductions and other images to illustrate, Pearcey traces the intellectual currents that guided modern thought and shows how the two-story recasting of truth has manifested itself in the arts, from visual arts to music to literature to architecture.

In the wake of the scientific revolution, philosophy—and therefore art—split into two opposing streams of thought. Occupying one camp was philosophical naturalism, or the materialist stream, which accepted scientism’s exclusive claim to the realm of knowledge. In the other camp coalesced Romanticism, which rebelled against science and sought to protect everything else—theology, literature, ethics, philosophy, and the arts and humanities.

The materialistic view is reflected in such styles as Picasso’s intersecting lines, arcs, and geometric shapes and Jack London’s “tooth and claw” narratives of Darwinian survival of the fittest. Meanwhile, the Romantics produced such styles as Expressionism, the goal of which was the pure expression of the artist’s “inner self,” indifferent to any outer reality. Consider Van Gogh’s dreamlike paintings, or composer John Cage’s piano piece titled 4’33”, which is “performed” by playing absolutely nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Both streams deny the existence of any transcendent reality or truth beyond the artist or the work itself. If art is whatever you deem it to be, “nothing” qualifies.

But the definition of art as personal expression was a historical novelty. The traditional purpose of art, Pearcey stresses, was to convey “some deeper vision of the human condition.” Modern art has become disconnected from this purpose, and we must fill in the missing elements that can restore the vision of transcendent reality.

Can These Bones Live?

Doing that can take many forms. Here’s an example taken from Fox TV’s crime drama, Bones. Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, is the quintessential scientific rationalist. She’s called “Bones” because she solves murders by examining human remains. Her colleague, FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, possesses all the social finesse she lacks, believes in God, and mistrusts science. As a father, he values relationships, and as a former army sniper, he’s haunted by guilt—two emotions utterly foreign to a materialist.

The relationship between Bones and Booth dances along a perpetual impasse because the two characters operate from completely different—in fact, mutually exclusive—philosophical and intellectual universes. They are an excellent example of the dichotomized understanding of human existence. Their ongoing worldview clashes make for good TV drama, but real humans do not fall into one category or the other. More important, we don’t have to choose one or the other. We are both. “The biblical worldview fulfills both the requirements of human reason and the yearnings of the human spirit,” Pearcey writes, supplying the truth that’s missing from the Bones-style depiction of humanity.

In the modern era, ideological idols have led to dictatorships and death camps. Beliefs shape history, Pearcey says, and worldview questions are a matter of life and death. Saving Leonardo calls us to be prepared with worldview answers that preserve life and human dignity for all and that restore art as a means of conveying truth. Integrated truth that can even make dry bones live.

Creed by Steve Turner - a satirical poem on the modern mind

 “Creed” by Steve Turner is a satirical poem on the modern mind. 

This is taken from Ravi Zacharias’ book ‘Can Man live Without God?’

We believe in Marx, Freud, and Darwin.

We believe everything is OK as long as you don’t hurt anyone to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that sodomy’s OK.

We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything’s getting better despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated. And you can prove anything with evidence.
We believe there’s something in horoscopes, UFO’s and bent spoons.

Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same- at least the one that we read was. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing.
Because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing. If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its compulsory heaven for all excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What’s selected is average.
What’s average is normal.
What’s normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed. Americans should beat their guns into tractors. And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good. It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust. History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought. 

If chance be the Father of all flesh, disaster is his rainbow in the sky and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

10 THINGS TO PRAY EVERY DAY DURING SEPTEMBER 2020

 from here: https://mamabearapologetics.com/10-at-12-september-2020/

Committing the month of September to prayer. 

 

10 things, but for the sake of a communal cry to God, please pray at least for these 10 things.

1. CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE

Pray that the Lord would convict us of our own sin and bring us to a renewed repentance and trust in the Lord’s grace. Pray that the enemy would not confuse our desire for holiness with the lie of legalism. That’s usually his tactic.May we pray conviction over our own sin before we start praying over the sins of others. #prayer

 

2. PROTECTION FROM DECEIVING SPIRITS

The enemy would love to take this outpouring of prayer and hijack it — imitating God and then speaking lies. Pray for protection and discernment for believers, that we might test all things according to scripture and not be fooled by any counterfeit spirits — even if they come from among our ranks.A lot of wacky voices are being touted as biblical wisdom. Lord, give us discernment.

3. UNITY AROUND THE ESSENTIALS

Pray that we would unify around the essentials of the faith, and not confuse them with the negotiables. Denominational splits often involve doctrinal differences, not salvific principles. Times of persecution are not the time to split hairs. We all need each other. However…

4. DIVISION FROM SIN AND GODLESS IDEOLOGIES

Unity around truth means nothing unless we also divide from falsehood. Pray for the courage to divide over non-negotiables and that we would know what these are. We are called to “as far as it depends on us, live at peace with all [people].” (Romans 12:18) But friends, we were never called to unify with all people. We have interpreted acceptance by the world as proof that we have loved them well. But Church, being loved by the world has never been promised. Christ said that the world would hate us because they hated Him first (John 15:8). We can no longer fear being hated for our Christian worldview. Yes, live at peace with all men, but not at the expense of compromising being a holy people unto the Lord, set apart. And yes, this will be a tough pill for our kids to swallow. Let’s walk them through this.Prayers 3 and 4: Lord, may you unify us in your word — being of one mind regarding the major issues, give grace regarding secondary matters. the non-essentials, and the courage to divide over that which compromises the gospel. But…

5. PRAY AGAINST FEAR

In my prayers for our nation, I’ve had a visual of this dark cloud of fear hovering over our cities. Pray that God’s light and His love would pierce this fear for everyone — Christian and non-Christian alike.

6. CORRUPTION TO BE EXPOSED

Nobody has a monopoly on this. Pray for corruption in our government to be exposed. Pray for corruption within our churches to be exposed. (And read 1 Peter 4 to understand why this is important.) Pray for corruption in the media to be exposed. Pray for corruption, wherever it may be found, to be exposed.Lord we pray for corruption to be exposed wherever it is found — in our own hearts, in our own churches, in our own political parties, the media and within our government.

7. PRAY FOR THE CHURCH TO BE PREPARED TO STAND FIRM

I can’t give a lot of specifics on this, but the passage that keeps coming to mind is when Jesus (in the garden of Gethsemane) asks the disciples to pray that they would not fall into temptation. We may think that we are stronger than we are. But like Peter, we may be surprised at how we behave when it becomes unpopular to stand with Jesus. Pray for yourself, your kids, your family, and your church to stand firm no matter what comes. Lord, we don't know what's coming, but something is coming. Like the disciples in the garden, please give us the courage, faithfulness, and strength to stand firm, no matter what.

8. MARRIAGES AND FAMILIES STRENGTHENED

Marriage and family are the first institutions created and blessed by God. The enemy would like nothing more than to see them destroyed. Pray for the marriages in your family, your community, and the world.

9. FOR IDEOLOGICAL LIES TO FALL AND FOR GOD TO DRAW MEN AND WOMEN TO HIMSELF.

There are a lot of ideas “raised against the knowledge of God” parading around like wisdom and truth. Pray specifically for these lies to be exposed. (2 Corinthians 10:5) There are a lot of people in our world who have fallen prey to these lies. Pray that the Lord would remove the scales from their eyes, clear the fog from their heads, and for His light of truth and love to sweep away the cobwebs of confusion — for Christian and non-Christian alike.  Pray that God would be drawing the hearts and minds of people to Himself.Pray that the scales would fall from the eyes of those who are captive to ideological enemies. #prayer

10. YOUR SPECIFIC COMMUNITY

If you are prayer walking, pray over your neighborhood. If you are at work, pray over your workplace and colleagues. If you are in Target, pray over the other shoppers. Wherever we are, we are to seek the good for the city.

Mama Bears, I want us to be a community who prays! And not just general prayers, specific prayers. We are living in turbulent times. Physical battles call for physical warriors. Spiritual battles call for spiritual warriors. It’s time to dust off that armor, Mama Bears. We are all in this together.