Did you know that women tend to be further to the left than men? According to surveys, women are more leftist than men on abortion, same-sex marriage, and a host of other policies. I’ll show you a few surveys below. But even more interesting is that there is a link between support for leftist policies, and higher mental illness. Let’s take a look at it.

First, here is an article from The Hill:

Forty-four percent of young women counted themselves liberal in 2021, compared to 25 percent of young men, according to Gallup Poll data analyzed by the Survey Center on American Life. The gender gap is the largest recorded in 24 years of polling. The finding culminates years of rising liberalism among women ages 18 to 29, without any increase among their male peers.

That article is a bit old, here’s a new one from this week in The Post Millennial:

In annual surveys over the last few years, data pulled from Monitoring the Future has shown that about a quarter of high school seniors identify as conservative or very conservative. Only 13 percent of the 12th grade boys identify as liberal.

[…]The graph excludes moderate students, but of those high school seniors that do identify politically, around 65 percent of boys were conservative while only around 31 percent of girls identified that way.

According to surveys, young women are also more likely to support abortion under any circumstances (40 to 27) and more likely to support same-sex marriage than men.

I don’t support abortion because I favor the rights of unborn babies over the happiness of adults. I don’t support same-sex marriage because studies show children do better when they are raised by a mother and a father. And I think that’s why most of these men are with me, they follow that same reasoning, and side with the children against the adults.

I thought this part of the article was interesting:

As one Politico analyst put it, “Democrats have a masculinity problem.” Citing trends among black and Latino voters, the analyst pointed out that even in minority communities that have voted majority Democrat, men have been turning to the Republican party at higher rates than women.

Some conservative figures such as Jordan Peterson and Dennis Prager (through PragerU) have millions of followers on YouTube, a platform where the users are majority male.

In addition, one of the more popular conservative political podcasts, The Ben Shapiro Show, has an audience that skews overwhelmingly male at 86 percent. The audience also skews younger, 18-44, in comparison to Fox’s former show with Tucker Carlson, 25-54, which skews slightly female at 53 percent.

This is good news. Boys are finding themselves role models who they see as “strong”. And those new role models are conservative. These stronger role models champion truth, and they make moral judgements. Even if it hurts other people’s feelings.

Let’s go on to the second point. These leftist policies are having a bad effect on young women’s mental health.

Feminist web site Evie Magazine reported on the some 2020 findings by Pew Research (left-wing pollster):

A 2020 Pew Research study reveals that over half of white, liberal women have been diagnosed with a mental health condition at some point.

[T]he study, which is titled Pew American Trends Panel: Wave 64, was dated March 2020 — over a year ago.

The study, which examined white liberals, moderates, and conservatives, both male and female, found that conservatives were far less likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues than those who identified as either liberal or even “very liberal.”

[…]White women, ages 18-29, who identified as liberal were given a mental health diagnosis from medical professionals at a rate of 56.3%, as compared to 28.4% in moderates and 27.3% in conservatives.

I found an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that talked about how one leftist policy concern (global warming alarmism) is tied to higher rates of mental illness.

It says:

A study in 2021 of 16- to 25-year-olds in 10 countries including the U.S. reported that 59% were very or extremely worried about climate change, and 84% were at least moderately worried. Forty-five percent claimed they were so worried that they struggled to function on a daily basis, the definition of an anxiety disorder.

The study found that the mental illness was more common in younger people:

Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning.

So now we are looking at a direct link between the policies of the left, and the lower mental health of the left. And we know that more women than men are on the left. And we see more mental illness among women.  Interesting, isn’t it?

And this has consequences. Leftist women are noticing that men are more conservative than they are, and it’s affecting their dating:

The marriage rate is also declining. Could this decline in marriage be related to the increase in leftist women, and all the related mental illnesses that leftist women have? Does it make sense for a conservative man to enter a relationship where he pays all the costs and bears all the risks, but all the decisions are being made by a leftist woman? It’s dangerous for a man to do that.

Consider that the divorce rate is very high right now, and divorce takes away a man’s money, his access to his kids, and his freedom. Women initiate 69% of divorces. College-educated women  – who are especially leftist – initiate 90% of divorces. This high divorce rate cannot be blamed on men, because the divorce rate of lesbians is the highest of all. No man to blame in that situation.

Why would a man sign up to be controlled by feminist institutions, like the divorce courts? Men are not interested in projects where they have to pay for everything, but someone else is making the decisions. Especially if they get blamed when things go wrong.

Facing all of these risks, a man would have to be crazy to even talk to a leftist woman – much less date her. Unfortunately, we aren’t making enough young conservative women for these conservative young men to marry. And so, the marriage rate is declining. Young women today are not as conservative as previous generations.

I know a lot of people today are worried about young men falling under the influence of bad role models. But the surveys show that boys tend to have the right role models, and the right political views. So, we need to work on making young women more conservative.

One reason why Christians are devoted to the moral law is because we think that these boundaries are in place for a reason. We think that if we just do what makes us happy, then we will end up worse off. Sadly, the secular left in America are so addicted to “don’t judge” that they want to smash all those moral boundaries. What happens when harm follows? Do they offer to fix it or pay for it themselves?

Here’s an article from the UK Daily Mail, about the pain you can expect if you let secular leftists cut parts of you off, in exchange for insurance company money and virtue signaling rights.

Keep in mind that the UK Daily Mail is far left, and 100% on board with transgenderism – including sex-change surgery.

It says:

One of the first studies into the side effects of transgender surgeries has revealed alarmingly high rates of post-op pain, aching during intercourse, and bladder problems, raising troubling questions for this new frontier of medicine.

A huge majority – 81 percent – of those who had gender-affirming surgery in the past five years said they endured pain simply from moving around in the weeks and months after going under the knife.

Researchers from the University of Florida and Brooks Rehabilitation, a health non-profit, showed that more than half of trans surgery patients endured pain during sex, and nearly a third could not control their bladders.

Here are some details:

UF researchers studied 21 trans and non-binary people aged between 20 and 70 who had undergone trans surgeries in the past five years — mostly mastectomies and vaginoplasties.

81 percent endured pain in their lower back, groin, pelvis, chest, or shoulders in the weeks, months, and even years after their procedures, researchers found.

Another 57 percent found sexual intercourse painful.

Meanwhile, 29 percent suffered urinary incontinence or a frequent and urgent need to go to the bathroom, researchers found.

Likewise, many male-to-female transitioners who get a neo-vagina created are surprised to discover that they have to insert a ‘dilator’ into their canal for up to an hour each day after surgery.

Without using a dilator, which resembles a sex toy, the neo-vagina can gradually shorten in depth, said Dr Hill. Some trans women must use them for the rest of their lives.

‘That’s something a lot of people don’t realize,’ she added.

Now, you might ask yourself what happens when these surgeries result in a lot of pain and suffering for the victims. Maybe it’s only in heartless, cruel America where the victims have to suffer. Maybe in wonderful, tolerant Canada, the victims get free health care, to alleviate the pain of having their body parts sawed off by greedy ghouls.

Let’s see, using this article from the UK Daily Mail:

An indigenous transgender woman has slammed Canada’s healthcare system for rejecting her euthanasia request despite the pain she endures from a surgically-built vagina.

In social media posts, Lois Cardinal, a self-proclaimed ‘sterilized First Nations post-op transsexual’ said regret over her medical transition led her to apply for a lethal injection in January.

Cardinal, who lives on a native reserve near St. Paul, Alberta, posted her medical records from the request online this week to draw attention to radical gender ideology.

Her case underscores the perils of Canada’s ultra-liberal healthcare system — one of the world’s most permissive for both euthanasia and affirming an individual’s chosen gender.

‘I’m in constant discomfort and pain,’ the 35-year-old told DailyMail.com.

So, in Canada, after the government-run public schools have brainwashed people into wanting to change genders, then they deny you treatment for the mess they caused. But you can apply for a free government-funded murder though. But you might have to wait, and re-apply.

We can do better than letting the “don’t judge” secular leftists run our country. They are not authorities on what is wise. And they shouldn’t be elected to government.

One of the other software engineers at work is always finding interesting sermons and lectures to listen to. On Friday afternoon, things were a bit slow, so she messaged me a lecture featuring Dr. William Lane Craig, talking on “Who Was Jesus?” at Columbia University. I wanted to encourage her, so I put it on to listen as well. I liked it so much, I wrote out a summary below to go with it.

Here is the lecture:

Description:

Dr. William Lane Craig unpacks questions surrounding Jesus’ resurrection and the historical accuracy of the biblical claims.  Columbia University, 2009.

And my outline:

Different views of Jesus:

• Jewish view of Jesus
• Muslim view of Jesus
• skeptical historian view of Jesus
• what did Jesus think about himself?
• Jesus didn’t write anything of his own
• best sources are the records of Jesus followers
• problem: how do we know these records are accurate
• maybe stories of Jesus’ divinity emerged over time

New tools from the Renaissance:

• historiography
• textual criticism
• investigate Jesus as a historical figure
• same tools are used for other historical figures

Sources:

• Christian
• Jewish
• Roman
• Many more sources than other figures of antiquity

External sources:

• confirm what the gospels say, but don’t say anything new

Treating the Bible as a collection of ancient documents

• not using the Bible to prove the Bible is divine
• just treating the books as historical documents

New Testament

• a collection of the earliest documents
• much later documents about Jesus not included
• later documents not written by eyewitnesses

Skeptical scholars:

• ignore the earliest sources
• focus on the later sources
• result is a more radical left-friendly Jesus

Burden of proof

• are the gospels assumed reliable until proven unreliable?
• are the gospels assumed unreliable until proven reliable?

Five reasons to assume the New Testament is reliable

1. Insufficient time for legendary influences to erase the historical core

• the gap between the events and the sources is much shorter than other comparable sources
• Greek and Roman sources are at least 1-2 generations from the events they record
• Gospels written down and circulated within first generation after the events they record
• the eyewitnesses were alive at the time they were written down

2. Gospels are not the same genre as folk tales or urban legends

• Gospels talk about real people who actually lived
• Gospels talk about real places excavated by archaeologists

3. Oral tradition in first century Jewish society

• Jewish culture valued reliable transmission of religious tradition
• Memorization of long passages and entire books

4. Restraints on the embellishment of traditions about Jesus

• The apostles and other eyewitnesses could correct embellishments

5. Gospel writers make testable statements that are found to be true

• Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts
• In Acts, Luke accompanies with the eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus
• Acts contains many historical details accurate to the times and places he writes about
• Luke’s gospel is in accord with archaeological discoveries made since

It’s reasonable to accept the general reliability of the Gospels, unless they are found unreliable

Historical basis for facets of Jesus

1. Unique Son of God

• historical critics claim that the divinity of Jesus developed over time
• why would monotheistic Jews contradict their monotheism by inventing a divine Jesus?
• the only reasonsable answer is that Jesus claimed divinity for himself
• His followers accepted it because Jesus provided reasons to believe
• Mark 12:1-8
  Earliest gospel reveals Jesus’ self-understanding as God’s “only beloved son”
• Matthew 11:27
  “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” This story is also in Luke. Source is “Q”, an early set of traditions common to Matthew and Luke
• Mark 13:32
  Jesus sees himself as above humans and angels, but subordinate to God the Father

Why would anyone take Jesus seriously, unless he was able to provide evidence?

2. Jesus’ miracles

• Jesus’ miracle stories are in all four sources
• The only reason to reject them is because of a philosophical bias against the supernatural

3. Trial and crucifixion

• Crucifixion narrative is in the Gospels, Paul’s letters, Acts
• Also confirmed by Josephus and Roman historians
• Historians across the ideological spectrum affirm the crucifixion

Why was Jesus crucified?

• Doesn’t fit with the skeptical view that Jesus was uncontroversial and had few followers

4. Jesus’ resurrection

• Jesus resurrection is the best explanation for historical facts accepted by diverse majority of historians

1. Burial location known to friends and enemies, and corpse would refute the resurrection
2. Tomb was found empty by a group of Jesus’ women followers
3. Post-mortem appearances to individuals and groups, friends, skeptics and enemies
4. Original disciples became convinced that Jesus rose from dead counter to their own interests

• The facts are accepted by a majority of scholars across the ideological spectrum
• Dr. Craig’s debate with a scholar who invented an unknown, identical twin brother who was separated from Jesus at birth
• Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide affirms the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event

Then there is a period of question and answer, which I did not find useful, because the questions seemed to be more about the needs and feelings of Christians, rather than about the facts presented by Dr. Craig, or about how these facts survive in debates on university campuses. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

It never hurts to listen to William Lane Craig. If you listen enough, you can remember his points when you get the opportunity. In college, all of my friends at Crusade could do his opening speech from his debates on God’s existence from memory.