Is having a burning bosom a good test for truth in religion?

Here’s a good post from Christian apologist Clay Jones. He’s talking about how Mormons embrace Mormonism because of a burning in their bosom. (A subjective feeling) In the quote below, I reproduce the main thrust of the post – which he makes as part of his conversation with some Mormon missionaries. If you ever run into Mormons, this might help you.

Excerpt:

I pointed out that the Mormons base the truth of their religion on a subjective personal experience—namely, they base the truth of Mormonism on praying a prayer to ask God whether the Book of Mormon is trustworthy and if they get a warm feeling, which is described in some of their works a “a burning in the bosom,” then they conclude that Mormonism is true. They agreed.

I said that we evangelicals base our faith in historic Christianity on the evidence of Jesus being raised from the dead.

[…]But then I pointed out that the Mormons base their beliefs on a subjective personal experience that has led them to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that historic Christianity is mistaken, that there was a great falling away, that there are many gods, that Mormons one day believe that they are going to become gods (just the males, actually), and that the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods still function today (they didn’t disagree with even one word of this). I explained that you couldn’t get any of these ideas from the New Testament.

He goes to explain why subjective experiences are unreliable for determining truth.

When facing Mormons, and other cults, I also argue against subjectivism. But I supplement that with evidence. For Mormons, I use scientific evidence for the creation of the universe out of nothing. Mormons think that the matter in the universe existed eternally. They don’t accept the Big Bang theory! So you just roll through the scientific advances, show that the cause of the universe was non-physical, eternal, powerful and endowed with free will (to create an effect in time without antecedent conditions), and that’s the end of that.

I think that people in cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Science have similar ways of forming their beliefs. They just filter out evidence falsifying their religion. JWs made all kinds of silly predictions about the end of the world that are not true – they’re false prophets, in other words. And Christian Science thinks that Jesus didn’t actually die, which no credentialed historian believes. (Just like Islam)

New study: homeschooled adults are more religious and less anxious

I’ve been preparing an outline for a podcast about “Where Are All the Good Men?” and I only get to have like 7 questions. But one of the issues that gets a question is my obsession with homeschooling. I didn’t always like homeschooling, but the more I studied it, the more important it became. In my opinion, good men will insist on homeschooling out of a candidate wife, because it’s critical.

Here’s a story about a new study that I found in The Federalist:

A recent report from the Cardus Education Survey analyzed educational, economic, mental health, civic, family, and faith status for American adults who were homeschooled and found a range of outcomes within a diverse population.

[…]The most notable differences between homeschoolers and the survey respondents who were never homeschooled are seen in the mental health outcomes. The report states, “Compared to the other respondent groups, long-term homeschoolers exhibited the highest levels of optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction. Long-term homeschoolers were also the least likely to ‘feel helpless dealing with life’s problems’ and to report symptoms associated with depression and anxiety.”

In the area of spirituality and faith, the report found: “Homeschooled adults were much more likely to report that they believed in God and life after death and regularly engaged in religious practices. The prevalence of religious belief and practice increased with the number of years spent in the homeschool sector.”

This is pretty good, but even better if you pair it with another recent study on homeschooling that was written up in the Wall Street Journal.

With that said, here is a report from the Wall Street Journal about a new study that you might be able to use to be bold with people who oppose homeschooling. (Full text of the article here)

Parents want their kids to be well-educated and professionally successful, but they also want them to be healthy, happy and virtuous. By this broader measure of success, home schooling has advantages.

Among the students we examined, home-schoolers were 33% more likely to volunteer, 31% more forgiving and 51% more likely to attend religious services in young adulthood than those who attended public school. (“Levels of forgiveness” were measured on a self-reported four-point scale, which other research has shown predicts some subsequent health and well-being outcomes.)

The difference in religious participation has public-health implications, since those who attend services regularly have substantially lower risks of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide. They also have a lower risk of premature death for any reason than those who never attend.

So, again, for a good man who is data-driven in his search for a wife, homeschooling emerges as the best option for educating the children. It’s just not a good idea to give your children to unionized, government-run schools for 6 hours a day. Those schools are not neutral. And as we’re seeing in the news, the people who work at those schools don’t view the parents who pay their salaries as customers. They’re more likely to see you as “domestic terrorists” just because you don’t agree with them on politics.

Found: $2 Billion in taxpayer money earmarked for Stacey Abrams-linked Group

I don’t have TV and I have not been listening to news podcasts for a week, but I have the impression that the secular left is upset at the idea that our $37 trillion debt, and $2 trillion deficits will be cut. Somehow, they don’t really think that this is a problem. They want the spending (which is being paid for by future generations) to continue. Even if the spending is just wasteful.

Here’s a bombshell story from the Washington Free Beacon:

DOGE discovered $2 billion in taxpayer funds set aside for a fledgling nonprofit linked to perennial Georgia Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.

The Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration awarded Power Forward Communities the grant in April 2024 as part of the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program. Power Forward Communities received the green energy grant despite the fact that it was founded months earlier in late 2023 and never managed anywhere near the grant’s dollar figure—it reported just $100 in total revenue during its first three months in operation, according to its latest tax filings.

Two billion dollars for greenhouse gas reduction program? And they only reported $100 in revenue? That seems like a pretty poorly-run group. Let’s see who is running it.

More:

Power Forward Communities was established in October 2023 as a coalition of groups led by Rewiring America, a left-wing group that advocates for electrification policies and a transition away from fossil fuel dependence. Abrams, who serves as Rewiring America’s senior counsel, said at the time that she was “thrilled” to be part of the Power Forward Communities coalition. “This is how we expand access to clean energy—by prioritizing housing, equity and resilience,” she wrote in an X post.

Oh yes, Stacey Abrams! That well known nuclear physicist with the strong record of running companies that developed loads of clean nuclear energy, so that prices were lowered for consumers. Oh wait, no, that’s not the one. This Stacey Abrams is the romance novel author, who has earned no STEM degrees, and no STEM work experience. A single mother of 3 children. She has no achievements in the field of science at all.

More:

“For an organization that has no experience in this, that was literally just established, and had $100 in the bank to receive a $2 billion grant—it doesn’t just fly in the face of common sense, it’s out and out fraud,” Daniel Turner, the executive director of energy advocacy group Power the Future, alleged in an interview with the Free Beacon.

This is not the only instance of waste from the Biden administration. Here’s another from yesterday from Daily Caller:

Nikola, an electric vehicle start-up that received federal funding during the Biden administration, said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday and will pursue a sale of most or all of its assets.

The company, once a Wall Street darling valued at $30 billion, announced the bankruptcy after several quarters of rapid cash burn and waning investor interest. Nikola also suffered from chronic leadership changes after its founder and original CEO, Trevor Milton, was convicted of fraud in 2022. The long-haul electric truck manufacturer produced only 600 vehicles since its founding in 2014, according to CNBC News, despite receiving subsidies from the Biden administration’s Department of Energy (DOE).

So, should you listen to the corporate news media’s cries about DOGE cutting government waste and rooting out corruption? Of course not. This is the kind of thing they are finding, and stopping.