“How long will you go limping between two different
opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal,
follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21)
Although I am a committed Christian, please notice that I
am not imposing Christian values onto Leftists; but employing
the very standards that they both champion themselves, and demand of their
opponents. Even though one of Joe Biden’s
best-known slogans is, “Follow the science, man!” his administration contradicts that aim by
not merely ignoring the intellectually-required investigation, but also censoring
all qualified opponents.[1]
Further, they even demand assent from
the average citizen that every Leftist lie is true (Isaiah ch. 5), often under
threat of severe penalty. For example in
public schools, teachers, staff, and students are all obligated to address
transgender claimants according to the gender reference of the latter’s choice.
One official document indeed states that
“Schools can’t force a transgender student to use facilities that don’t match
their gender identity,”[2] Yet by so saying, they are forcing every
other student to face that very experiences that they decry for themselves. Further, they employ brainwashing by forcing
students to affirm as true what they know to be false. How ironic it is then that secularists are
offended by voluntary religious teaching even if it cannot be proven to be
false while they insist on forcing secularist teaching which can be proven to
violate scientific facts.
The denial of truth is not a “victimless
crime.” Both Christianity and every other
belief system have the very same stake with respect to whether or not truth is
honored. In every case, in the absence
of truth, it is impossible to persuade others
of their credibility of any position.
Indeed there is no other measuring stick of any kind that can effectively
discern what is valid in any possible context.
The whole-sale suppression or distortion of truth can only then benefit the
tyrants who impose their agendas; but never the “masses” who are instead forced
to endure the messes brought about by the former.
What then about the
Judeo-Christian belief system? It is on
the one hand popularly held that religious faith is the antithesis (opposite)
of credible scientific discoveries that can be measured. Yet that prejudicial view is easily rebutted.[3] The reality that the Bible embraces the
concept of truth according to the classical definition can be established by five
prongs. Firstly, Scripture employs the
terms “truth,” “deceit,” “truly,” “truly, truly,” “false” and its cognates,
“testimony,” and “witness” just short of a thousand times (984X), fairly evenly
across both Testaments.[4] Apart from miracle claims and disputes over literal/figurative
interpretations, no defiance of logic is to be found. Secondly, the char-acter of God is univocally
described as both the very embodiment of rational truth, and the instiller of rationality[5]
and consequently, truth.[6] Thirdly, Romans 1:18-21 declares it wickedness to
suppress the witness of nature (in this case, specifically as it indicates the
existence of a Creator—Psalm 19:1). Indeed,
the Bible, as a matter of principle, takes our obedience to factual truth and
rational thinking very seriously.
Fourthly, Jesus equally calls us to draw conclusions from the facts of
both history and nature (Matthew 11:2-6, John 3:12; 14:11; and 18:37). Fifthly, the Bible in actual practice appeals
to the fact of coherence between biblical pronouncements and the phenomena that
they describe.[7]
The Bible discourages irrational
mysticism by warning that it is unbelief that leads to chaos (Rom.
1:18f).
[1] See my blog posting, “Mark Zuckerberg has Neither Competence,
Nor Standing, to Censor Anything,” (01/18/2021) at Op.cit (10).
[2]
https://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/ED-DCL-Fact-Sheet.pdf
[3] Philosopher of Science professor, Dr. John C. Lennox argues that there are aspects of absolutely
vital knowledge that scientists cannot possibly answer concerning existence
itself, mathematical correspondence to physical laws, purpose, morality, etc. He further employs his “Aunt Matilda’s Cake”
analogy which argues that the fact that
she loves baking equally accounts for the presence of a cake on the table as
does a good recipe. See God’s Undertaker. (Lion, 2009), pp.207,8. **
See also my paper, “Scientism is Not
Science,” at Op.cit. (11).
[4] James Strong. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive
Concordance of the Bible. (Thomas
Nelson, 2001). Main concordance, p. 1.
[5] William Shedd writes, “When God creates a rational
being, he makes him after his own image... All finite reason must
resemble the infinite reason in kind. When God creates a rational spirit, he
must, from the nature of the case, make it after his own likeness and after
no other pattern [in nature.]” Alan Gomez, ed. William Shedd. Dogmatic Theology. 3rd
ed. (P&R Publishing, 2003), pp. 61.
[6] Shedd quotes Leibnitz, “The laws of motion…are a
wonderful proof of the existence of an intelligent and free being.” Ibid,
p. 59.
[7] See my paper, “The Pervasive Employment of Apologetics
in the Bible” at Op.cit. (11).
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