Commentary

New Age expert explains his journey from new age mysticism to Christianity

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A long journey through the night
A long journey through the night

I’m always cautious about people who convert to Christianity, because I want to make sure that they are going about their investigation the right way. I watched the testimony and when he started to talk about watching tons and tons of William Lane Craig debates, I got very interested.

I’m very skeptical of people claiming to be Christians who are raised in the church and never encounter the evidence for theism and the resurrection, and have to lookup the philosophical debate about problems like evil, suffering, hiddenness. I think the church generally does a poor job of producing converts who understand what they believe and why they believe it. In my thinking, unless you are watching debates and hearing the back and forth, and then reading about these things later on your own, you’re probably not going to grasp the enormity of what Christianity is so that it will affect your priorities and decision-making.

Anyway, here is his testimony: (H/T Blake, JoeCoder, William)

I think that there is a lot of cultural Christianity and people think they can claim the label of “Christian” without re-reprioritizing, and taking some losses. All the Christians I know have things that they have had to give up, wounds that they have had to live with, problems that won’t go away, hurts that are not being cared for. And yet we continue, because God is not seen as our cosmic butler. Most of the atheists I know rejected God because he interfered with their pursuit of pleasure, made them unpopular, or refused to give them what they needed to be happy. This guy is beyond all of that. He is not afraid to re-prioritize his entire life in a way that complies with the truth yet goes against his self-interest. I was not raised in the church, so I don’t normally say “praise God” at every little thing, but when I finished this video, that was my first thought. We sure could use more Christians who have that understanding of Christianity.

If you grew up around Christians, and learned about what Christianity is from your parents, peers and pastors, then may I just recommend to you that you watch one or two William Lane Craig debates, then work your way through a book like “Is God Just a Human Invention?” or “God’s Crime Scene“. If you’re not a Christian now, and all you know about Chrisitanity was what you read in the Bible, and what other Christians told you, then you aren’t in a position to assess the value of what was presented to you. Every day people are giving up their pre-Christian lives because they evaluate and accept the truth of Christianity. If you haven’t looked into it at the level of reason and evidence, then you haven’t looked into it at all. It’s on you to puzzle out these things for yourself, and adjust.

By the way, Steve’s web site is Spirit Science and Metaphysics.

Positive arguments for Christian theism

News

Ted Cruz picks Carly Fiorina for his running mate

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Your 2016 GOP ticket: Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina
Your 2016 GOP ticket: Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina

All my Facebook friends except Doug were thrilled with this pick, especially the Republican women. Let’s look at some articles to see what we are getting with this pick.

Let’s start with the radically leftist Washington Post, and socially liberally columnist Jennifer Rubin.

She gives 10 reasons why the selection of Fiorina will help Cruz:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) announced his VP pick, Carly Fiorina, in Indiana this afternoon, taking his best shot to rouse the GOP and stop Donald Trump. Watching first Cruz and then Fiorina, one could see why this might work:

[…]2. She, in a somewhat convincing fashion, lumped Trump and Hillary Clinton together, saying they are not going to change the system. “They are the system,” she said with great deliberateness. That’s a plausible argument, actually. They are two very privileged, ideologically slippery candidates who’ve worked the system to their advantage. Cruz has tried to convey the same, but her delivery was simply better.

[…]5. She is making a straight play for female voters. She stressed her own experiences in the workplace. Cruz stressed them. Cruz recounted her standing up to Trump’s insult about her face. Many women will perk up and listen to that message.

[…]7. She tried her best to humanize Cruz, mentioning they watched the Final Four together (this isIndiana, folks) and singing (yeah, singing) one of her made-up songs to the Cruz daughters. Women, especially younger moms, are likely to find that endearing. At least it was unexpected. The campaign can use some spontaneity.

[…]9. She and Cruz reinforce one another’s mental agility. These people are smart, whip smart.

I can’t help but think that every woman who has ever struggled in the workplace is going to have some sympathy for a Cruz-Fiorina ticket. Everybody resonates with the story of the woman who starts of as a receptionist and then rises to the level of CEO. It’s important that conservative women be presented to contrast with radical feminist rhetoric.

Remember how Cruz talked about his mother Eleanor and his wife Heidi as “strong women”?

Picking Fiorina reinforces that this is something important to him, and creates a clear contrast with the promiscuous, pro-abortion, twice-divorced, adulterous misogynist scumbag that he is running against.

Jim Geraghty at National Review likes the pick, but for different reasons:

She’s strong and polished on the stump, equally at home giving a big policy speech, answering questions at a town hall, or offering one-liners on a late-night talk show. She’s an outsider, in a year when political neophytes are all the rage. And most important of all, she has the best chance of any potential running mate to negate presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s political strengths.

“She tweets about women’s rights in this country and takes money from governments that deny women the most basic human rights,” Fiorina said at last year’s CPAC, referencing the Clinton Foundation’s unsavory donors. “I come from a world where speeches are not accomplishments. Activity isn’t accomplishment. Title isn’t accomplishment. I come from a world where you have to actually do something; you have to produce results.”

Fiorina can rip into Clinton without fear of being called sexist. She can also coopt Clinton’s message to female voters, letting them know that she’s been through exactly the same aggravations and indignities they’ve experienced in their everyday lives. She made a point of claiming the feminist mantle away from Democrats even as she announced that she was suspending her campaign:

Do not let others define you. Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you’re a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn’t shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology. It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent. A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses and uses all her God-given gifts.

If I had to summarize Fiorina in one sentence, it’s that she is competent. She is the polar opposite of the clown Trump. She answers policy questions with so many details and so much evidence, that even an anti-feminist like me thinks “gee, I’m glad that she is up there to put forward conservative views and not someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about”. I never feel that she is a shrill-shrieking harpy like Hillary Clinton when she talks. In fact, when she talks, I want her to keep talking. She has a way of being strong and earnest that is feminine, if that makes any sense. I enjoy hearing her speak, I enjoy that she is on the conservative team.

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News

Conservative speakers take on political correctness at U Mass

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Ratio Christi event at Ohio State University featuring Frank Turek
Conservative speakers face liberal students on campus

My friend N. sent me this video of a campus event at the EXTREMELY liberal University of Massachusetts. This is the center of the leftist universe, the worst place in the world for conservatives students.

WARNING: this video contains the most horrible swearing and language you can possibly imagine, and it will scar you for life. But it is really interesting to see how non-leftist ideas are received on a liberal university campus. It’s just incredible, the screaming, shouting, insults, threats of violence – all from the secular left. It is so bad that even I cringed at some of the un-PC talk and thought the mean conservatives went too far at times. Even I was offended!

Here’s the video:

Do not watch this with little kids or even teens around, it’s just horrible, like watching a train wreck with everyone on fire and screaming and dying. I really feel bad about posting it, but my friend loved it so much, and I was permanently scarred by it. Holy snark, have the universities ever become radicalized by the secular left.

Speakers:

  • Milo Yiannopoulos
  • Christina Hoff Sommers
  • Steven Crowder

Summary:

Feminism:

  • Milo: feminism is cancer
  • Sommers: feminist theory is put forward with lies, misrepresentations and false statistics
  • Steven: the leftist students are shouting down the speakers because they are spoiled, entitled brats

Political correctness:

  • Milo: etiquette is good for discussions, but political correctness undermines the pursuit of truth, and can even have deadly consequences, e.g. – citizens refusing to report the Muslim rape gangs in the UK because of fear of political correctness
  • Sommers: etiquette is good for discussions, but political correctness is a way of pushing one set of political views and shutting down discussions
  • Steven: political correctness is a tool for shutting down discussions used by people who don’t have reason or evidence on their side

Hate speech:

  • Milo: we should allow people who are extremists on either side to speak, because that allows people to hear them and reject them
  • Sommers: some students are shouting down speakers because they oppose intellectual diversity, and are afraid that conservative views are correct and others will be persuaded if they are allowed to hear them
  • Steven: leftists fear intellectual diversity, they shout down conservative speakers because they live in a bubble where they never hear libertarian or conservative points of view
  • Milo: leftists are guilty of the worst kind of bigotry: they insist that gay people be leftists, that black people be leftists and women be leftists, they treat conservatives in these minority groups horribly

Is there a wage gap between men and women?

  • Sommers: the evidence shows that the differences in pay are explained by what women choose to study, time women take time off for babies, how many hours women work, and other choices
  • Sommers: women should major in things like economics and engineering, not feminist dance therapy

Are 1 in 5 women sexually assaulted on campus?

  • Steven: a lot of these sensationalized rape claims later turn out to be false, e.g. – Columbia mattress girl, Virginia Rolling Stone girl
  • Sommers: this is another example of how feminists advance an agenda by misusing statistics, but the number from real government studies is 1 in 53

This ends the panel discussion. I cannot write what the questions are, because the questioners were almost entirely rude, and just stood up and said lots of swear words, which you can apparently get credit for at the University of Massachusetts.

Several of my friends posted this video clip, taken from a member of the audience, which gives you a close up view of how indoctrinated in leftism the students are:

It seems to me that the barbarians are inside the gates, and the zombie apocalypse is nearly upon us. Can you imagine living next to one of these little psychopaths?