Re:Examination

Acts 26:18 - Christian in the C.H. Spurgeon / Matthew Henry vein. Conservative. Guitarist. Tennis player. Views are my own . Re:Posts are not endorsements.

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https://t.co/fvg3zQKPgL

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@EaracheRecords Oasis.

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@LifeNewsHQ Time to read Romans 9, 10, and 11.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

Might be among my finest works.

[Hilaire Nereus @HilaireNereus]

Joel Webbon comparing Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes to

1. Gandalf and Frodo
2. Biblical Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah

Right before handling the text of Scripture like a framer doing finish carpentry.

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@darwintojesus "Insanity" implies that there is an objective metric for correct and right thinking, and order, and design. This meme is an own-goal for atheists.

[Mike Winger @MikeWingerii]

Jesus is coming. Repent and be saved.

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@renabaddie_ Ordo salutis.

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@Oliviaiie Mainframe.

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@20th_Centurygal Johnny Rotten.

[Hitler Hated Christ @not_our_guy]

the stupid rocket has blasted off and is now orbiting stupid moon, refueling and preparing to burn to reach stupid mars

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@darwintojesus Don't forget that science is not a moral imperative, but kindness is. That comes from God, Who is not the opposite of science.

[Darwin to Jesus @darwintojesus]

🤝

[Darwin to Jesus @darwintojesus]

A Christian friend of mine called me last night to talk about the problem of animal suffering because of @CosmicSkeptic’s debate with @DrWilliamLCraig. He was concerned because he thinks that Alex made a good argument.

Before I give my thoughts let’s get one thing straight: This is not a logical argument, it’s an emotional argument. The atheist always taps into our emotions to when they talk about this. We’re asked to think of things like a Zebra getting his windpipe crushed by a lion so that as we deal with the argument we’re feeling, rather than thinking. So before I give a few brief remarks, let’s all turn our brains back on and the feelings off (if you can) and actually consider this rationally.

1. Alex and many other atheists bring up suffering as if it adds onto itself, so here’s one instance of suffering and that’s one, and here’s another instance in another animal so that’s two, three, etc… but why? Why are we adding up individual creature suffering and putting it all into the same bin of “suffering?” Every individual experiences its own local suffering, that’s it. There’s no aggregate. There’s no “pool of suffering.” The move to stack one animal’s suffering on top of another animal is silly. I don’t see any justification for it.

2. Suffering just means not getting what you want, that’s it, and it’s temporary. Yesterday at the pool my daughter stubbed her toe. She said “ow!” She hopped around, and then she forgot all about it and went back to playing. It wasn’t a big deal. Atheists act like suffering is just the end of the world and frankly it’s childish. We all suffer, we all don’t get what we want, so what? Why is God obligated to give us what we want all the time? He isn’t. Not only that but suffering can make people better, it helps you appreciate things, learn lessons, etc. There’s nothing about suffering that indicates it’s some kind of evil thing that God must stop and shouldn’t be allowing. To really make my point imagine a world without suffering and then someone gets a tummy ache. He’s now suffering. Should we now think God doesn’t exist because one man got an ache in his tum tum? I think not. What about two aches, in two tum tums? See where I’m going? There’s nothing incompatible with God and suffering. This is just emotional manipulation.

3. Suffering has a lot to do with frame of reference. If you turned a human into an ant, they’d probably suffer a lot, but that’s because they know what it is to not be an ant. Compared to a human, ants live very difficult lives. But does the ant know that? No, an ant is just an ant. That’s all it knows. It has no frame of reference and what we might find horrible, an ant finds mundane and normal. In other words, it’s entirely possible that animals don’t suffer nearly as much as we think they do, and the only reason we think they suffer is because we’re projecting ourselves onto them. If WE were them, we wouldn’t like it. But that doesn’t necessarily follow, I would hate to be a fly eating poop all day, but does a fly suffer when they eat poop? No, they love it. The other day I saw a video of a woman with no arms, just legs. She could do everything—drive, get dressed, etc. When we see a woman without arms we imagine they’re suffering because we love our arms, but she’s never had them. So is she suffering? Or is this just all she knows? So it’s not obvious that animals suffer anywhere near as much as we imagine they do.

4. Lastly, according to what worldview is suffering “bad?” When the atheist points at suffering as an evil/bad thing, are they doing that from their atheism, or from our worldview as Christians? Does the atheist need to borrow from our worldview to even make sense of the idea that there’s something wrong with suffering? Or are they able to conjure this metaphysical idea of “badness” up on atheism as well? This really needs to be pushed on. I don’t think for one second that atheism can account for something like “badness,” so the very thing they want to complain about is totally fine according to their own worldview. If that’s the case, which worldview is less likely to be true… the Christian worldview where we have sin and badness, or the atheist worldview where things just happen, events… and the moral dimension is nothing but a programmed illusion?

I think it goes without saying that the atheist worldview is far less likely to be true if that’s the case, and if it isn’t, the atheist has a lot of work to do in explaining how their absurd worldview can make sense of why wrongness exists.

We need to stop granting atheists access to metaphysics that make absolutely no sense on their own worldview.

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@20th_Centurygal Phil Keaggy: Master and the Musician Tour in 2008 (I believe) and many other solo acoustic shows.

[Fr. John (Azar) Claypool☦️ @Abunajohn]

Another attack on the Orthodox Church by Evangelicals brought on by a new Orthodox convert.
Protestants believe Andrew Wilson is a legitimate representation of the Greek Orthodox Church.

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@BelleMusic5511 Sting.

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@vxylily Tennis.

[Mike Winger @MikeWingerii]

No

[𝔚𝔥𝔦𝔱𝔢𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔡 @HwsEleutheroi]

@MrCasey62 So, when Francis contradicted centuries of Popes on the death penalty…?