Let's talk about the truth. It's out there, I promise you. The bad news is that it tends to be hidden behind a phalanx of lies. The good news is the truth tends to break free. All the lies, all the revisionist history, and all the smear campaigns cannot withstand the breakout power of the truth. When someone comes upon the truth it's as addicting and exciting as a viral video and just as prone to explode across the world in mere moments.
Let's cut to it shall we? We've held hands long enough. Let's wade right into it, and I'll spare you the usual pleasantries and the teeth grinding academic idioms like "let me wet your appetite" or "I have just one caveat." Nails on a chalkboard, truly. Spare me!
As I came into the worldview that I've believed and accepted now, I've gone back in my mind over things I've learned during the short years of my life. And I've come to realize more and more that I've believed lies, and I've believed things that were told to me that were not true.
And I've gone on a mission to discover what the truth really is. This has been an exhaustive process of reading dozens of books on history, science, Christianity. government, wars, and dozens of other subjects. It's far from over. But I've come to learn time and again that I'd been taught and built up into a world where certain key facts have been kept from me, and certain facts have been smeared and changed and rewritten, and certain events and ideologies have been magnified while still others were ignored or minimized.
So I'd like to share with you a few of the key discoveries I've made. Many of them are quite astonishing, yet never-the-less happen to be true.
1.The theory that religion causes all the worst wars is false. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks the so called new atheists had quite a field day taking a rope, and wrapping Islam and Christianity together, and attempting to throw them jointly into the sea. Of course they failed, but in this they attempted to tie the evils of radical Islam with the failings of Christianity and somehow show that Christianity, or "religion" in general had been the most terrible force for evil in the world.
It became an increasingly common social idiom that religion had led to more wars in human history than any other single issue. But is that true? Let us examine the most horrifying wars. Hitler was not a Christian, though he claimed to be one at one point to win over the protestants of Germany. But it was clear from what Hitler did, the fruit he as a tree produced, that he was an atheist, socialist (national socialist) putting into practice the ideas of the will to power put forth by the famous atheist Frederick Nietzsche. Joseph Stalin who committed genocide against his own people; also an atheistic communist. Mao Zedong in China, 78 million dead, also an atheistic regime. Today, North Korea is an atheistic regime, South Korea, a majority Christian nation, and highly prosperous.
In comparison, as far as Christianity goes, if you look to the very worst crimes of supposed Christians over the ages you could go to the Spanish inquisition. How many people were killed? About 2,000. What about the Salem witch trials? Hundreds of thousands? No, the total was 19 people. What about the crusades? Well, it's important to remember that the crusades were a defensive war, a fight against Muslim conquerors who were invading Europe. A pope called for a "holy war" to fight off the invaders. Was that a mistake? Maybe, maybe not. I suppose it depends on your view of the idea of a just war. Do Christians have the right to defend themselves against invaders? I believe they do. Obviously it didn't go very well. No one really knows how many died, but an estimate could be about 1 million people. Still nowhere near the genocides by atheistic dictators.
As far as wars, according to a history of wars, only about 9% of wars throughout human history were motivated by a connection to a world religion. And if you substitute Islam from the bunch, the number goes down to 3.2%. In conclusion, the suggestion that religion is the root cause of most wars is utterly bankrupt and false. It's a total lie.
2. "Science is paving the way to the future and religion is declining as science discovers why everything actually works." That's the suggestion anyway. The general idea is that science is disproving everything religious people believe in, and showing that religion is dumb, and solving all of humanity's problems and everything is just great because the great atheists of history developed the scientific method and fought back the evils of religion. Sound familiar? Oh yes it does. Too bad it's not true.
Here's something our science and history textbooks in public school never mentioned: The scientific method was created by Christians. I kid you not. True story. All, I mean all, of the great scientists of history, Newton, Bacon, Galileo, Pascal, and Copernicus were all Christians. Francis Bacon created the scientific method, and Francis Bacon was a Christian. Mic drop, your welcome. Take that new failatheists. Check out this presentation that Prof. Tim Keller gave to Google employees, he goes into some of these facts.
3. The Bible and other myths? If you were to ask most young people why they don't believe in God, many would say something to the effect of: "Why should I believe in ancient myths that are no different than Greek gods?" Sounds like a public school education to me. In fact I remember being in 5th grade and the teachers pushed a TV in front of us and played Carl Sagan's little video in which he famously said, "The cosmos is all there is, ever was, or ever will be." A scientific statement? Not at all. That is in fact a statement of belief, unprovable by science. In fact, atheism being pushed on children with your tax dollars. It's a stronghold we need to deal with, but I digress.
Is it true that Christianity and the Bible are no different than Greek myths? The answer to that question is no. First, very quickly, we could simply say look at the most well-respected encyclopedia (Britannica) which devotes over 20,000 words to the person and historical works of Jesus Christ and never once suggests he didn't exist. Mic drop #2. The encyclopedia says Jesus really existed, therefore the Bible is at least somewhat accurate. But I'd go much further. The fact is, the Bible is historically accurate. It's archaeologically accurate. It doesn't read like legendary myths it reads like recorded history. True it does contain miracles, but if God exists, then miracles aren't a problem for an omnipotent God. The idea of just tossing out the Bible as a book of myths is utterly bankrupt, and false. That's the short answer, but there are so many myriad facts that go to this argument for the authority of the Biblical manuscripts. Read "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek to learn more about that. Or if your more of an audio/visual learner like me, click here for a video.
4. "The civilized world is leaving behind religion." Yeah, not even close to true. Though there is a slight decline in religious faith in the western world of the United States and Europe, Christianity is taking off in countries like China, India, and the continent of Africa. As of 2010 it was estimated that 84% of the people the planet Earth identify with a world religion, with about 2.2 billion associating with Christianity in it's various denominational forms. Is the world rushing toward atheism? Not at all.
5. "There must be a wall of separation between Christianity and government." Oh boy, here we go. Christianity should never be enforced, obviously, but everyone already knows that. It's a scare tactic used by groups like the ACLU. No one is suggesting Christianity should be forced on anyone, ever. A theocracy is obviously a nightmare. It failed in the past. And it will never happen today. Yet there is no mandate in government to build a wall of separation between education and faith or government and faith or business and faith. That is a total lie, propagated by atheists and academics.
The Constitution protects the right to believe and the right to practice those beliefs in public, while at work, while at home, and while holding government office. Christians are allowed to be in government, of course they are, every president has claimed to be a Christian! But Christians are under attack in our country. And religious freedom is under assault, mainly by the courts. The first amendment of the United States Constitution says that the right to free speech will not be infringed and the right to practice religious faith will not be violated by government. This concept is under attack today by courts and secular lawyer groups. Unfortunately LGBT groups are also attacking religious freedom, they even go as far as to say that "religious freedom" is code for hate and discrimination. The freedom to practice faith in America is not hatred. To suggest such a thing is madness. The phrase "separation of church and state" never occurs in the Constitution. It's from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. The only issue is that government may not establish a state religion. That's all! Yet judges use this amendment to tell school children they can't pray in school, and so many other violations of liberty. Read more about that on websites like Liberty Institute.
The founders of the United States were for the most part deeply religious people. A short list includes: George Washington, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Benjamin Rush. The truth is we've been lied to about this too. Many have written and debunked at great length attempting to rewrite history so that the founders were secular or just deists. It's a big lie. Watch a video on that here.
6. "Christianity is anti-science." Absolutely false. Better watch out, because there is a lot of fake science out there. And they shut down debate by declaring that "evolution is fact" and "global warming is fact." And if you dare attempt to engage in debate about it, your branded as a "climate denier" or a "science denier." Scary stuff. What comes to mind is priests being forced to "recant" if they wouldn't get behind the orthodoxies of the day. The truth is over 31,000 scientists are skeptical about climate change. And the Discovery Institute has documented a growing dissent again Darwinian evolution, including the names of over 1,000 scientists who are skeptical about Darwinism.
In fact a lot of "fake science" exists in school textbooks to this day. An incredible book on this topic is called 'Icons of Evolution' by Jonathan Wells. Also check out the follow up called 'Zombie Science.' Absolutely fascinating to see how these pillars of evolution have been disproved and debunked over the years.
A fascinating documentary to check out is called 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.' It shows how in the scientific community and the secular media a myth is propagated of "science vs. religion" when really the Darwinian community is attempting to lock out any possibility of intelligence as a cause of the universe. I think you can watch it free on YouTube if you just do a search for it.
The truth is that belief in God is reasonable. Intelligent design as a theory for the origin of the universe is reasonable. But people are defending a worldview called naturalism. This view excludes the possibility of God before even beginning inquiry. Naturalism's doctrine is that everything can be explained by material natural means. That doesn't sound scientific, it sounds philosophical. And it's not provable. Because there are many things that aren't material, like consciousness and ethics. We've been brainwashed to exclude God a priori. Learn more about that from Stephen Meyer who has written extensively on this topic. Here is a video presentation by Dr. Meyer.
In conclusion, if there is one thing I can encourage you to do, it's to study and learn and grow. Wisdom and knowledge are great things to have in a world full of lies, distortions, half-truths, advertisements, and get-rich quick schemes. I'm just at the very beginning of my journey into truth. But I've found early on that God is the mastermind behind this elegant, yet troubled universe we find ourselves in. Study, learn, and grow. I encourage you to seek after wisdom and truth with all your mind and desire. It will find you, if you seek after it. Or as the Proverb says:
Get wisdom, get understanding;
do not forget my words or turn away from them.
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding. -Proverbs 4:5-7 NIV
