The truth IS out there – but not everything that’s “out there” is truth

Once in a while I link to an article which I found to have great insight. While I was doing some reading on the anti-vaxxer movement I came across this one from the close of the 2016 political season. As the article hints, it is shocking to see the number of evangelical preachers who use “postmodernism” is their favorite swear-word in the pulpit, but embrace it in politics, science, history.

“The Problem with ‘Self-Investigation’ in a Post-Truth Era,” by Jonathan Mahler, The New York Times Magazine.

If people go on and on in YouTube videos about their expertise in a field, it’s a sure sign they are anything but experts. A case in point: the resurgence of the Flat Earth theory was not pieced together by scientists but, oddly enough, has serious roots in rap music.

“Just because it’s outlandish doesn’t mean it’s true!”

We Christians are particularly susceptible to “alternative facts”, pseudo-science, conspiracy theory, urban legend, seeing the Ark in pieces of lumber, because our narrative tells us that our truths might look foolish to the world. This insight into the universe is fine – but we might go further than we should and conclude that, “The wilder it looks, the more likely it is to be true.”

“Self-investigacion” can lead to the dangerous admixture of two truths: “Hey, this is America, I’ve got my rights to my opinions!” and “I have the Holy Spirit!”; two excellent truths, that when compounded, can lead to the laboratory blowing up.

That’s how Gail Riplinger – whose field is home economics! – came to write a best-selling book in which she “confounded all those New Age Bible translators” and showed that only the King James is God’s Word. It’s what made Brent Miller think he could translate the one, absolutely correct Pure Word New Testament from the Greek – even though he cannot read that language. It’s what resulted in the Nibiru hoax and these Blood Moon panics that seem to come around every couple of months.

Enjoy!

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Published in: on March 11, 2019 at 4:12 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Why Do People Go to Heaven?

Notice that I didn’t say how they get there, I mean why they have traveled there and then returned to tell us all about it. For the past few decades, people have dived into writing up their experiences of heaven – and a few times, of hell – published bestselling books and hit movies.

For my part I am highly doubtful about books on “afterlife tourism”.

One prominent title features The Boy Who Came Back from
content (1) Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World. It is marketed as “A true story”. Yet last week that bestseller was unceremoniously yanked off the shelves when Alex Malarkey, the “boy” of this title, publicly announced that the story of his journey was untrue. In fact, he had been trying to get a hearing for his confession for two years, but that was hard to do when books kept flying off the shelves – it has sold over a million copies and been made into a TV movie. [1] Thanks Alex, for owning up and bucking the authority of the grownups in your life.

What does the Bible say about these trips? (more…)

Published in: on January 19, 2015 at 5:05 pm  Comments (26)  
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“The Paranoid Style in American Politics” has its 50th Anniversary

[One of my few blog entries on politics, and how it relates to psychology, sociology, and modern apocalyptic eschatology. Here is a full pdf version: Paranoid Style Turns 50_Shogren]

Because of his ability to describe and predict American political behavior, Richard Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” should be required reading for the citizen. And except for Sacred Scriptures and the US Constitution, I never say any text should be mandatory. “Paranoid Style” was a short, dynamite article in the November 1964 issue of Harper’s, and is still available on their website archive. [1] We will look at some of its insights for today, and in particular, its implications for the evangelical church.

His immediate interest was the conservative movement that backed Barry Goldwater for president in the 1964 election. As a confirmed liberal of the old style, that is, to the left of typical Democrats of today, Hofstadter argued that he was not simply being anti-conservative – and that he was! – but rather: “I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing.”

I offer my own summary of the script of the “paranoid style”:

Nothing is what it seems to be: there are evil forces at work, carrying out their treacherous actions and shielding themselves from the attention of the general public;

I and a small group of whistle-blowers are even now revealing this hidden reality;

the proofs are extraordinarily complex and interwoven, but the central truth is simple and can be explained in a few sentences;

we who are “in the know” are continually hampered or even checkmated due to powerful enemies and widespread public apathy and gullibility.

“Nothing is what it seems to be – there are evil forces at work, carrying out their treacherous actions and shielding themselves from the attention of the general public”

conspiracy-theory-top-secretExamples from recent decades would have to include Senator Joe McCarthy, who argued that the loss of Eastern Europe and China to the Reds could not reasonably have happened by accident, or by normal political (more…)

Published in: on December 19, 2014 at 7:29 pm  Comments (17)  
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Did a NASA supercomputer prove the Bible?

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NASA proved the Lost Day of Joshua, using a supercomputer! This story surfaces once in a while, and the internet only serves to give it more “credibility” by making it come at the reader from a hundred directions:

So, what happened is, NASA scientists fed all the data of history into a big computer program, and it turned out that there was a day missing. It turns out that NASA proved that the earth stood still for Joshua, and also that a sundial went backwards during the reign of Hezekiah, as recounted in Isaiah 38.

Although the story was long ago discredited, it has arisen again on Facebook. This blogger states it as a fact (click HERE). He implies that NASA covered it up, but provides no evidence. My friend Robert Newman – who has a PhD in astrophysics from Cornell – has a full, detailed study on this rumor and many other articles on the Bible and science (click HERE). He shows that the tale has been circulating since 1890. To repeat, this is not some random idea that I heard from a friend of a friend, you can contact Dr. Newman and ask him for yourself.

DO YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT OTHER CIRCULATING MYTHS? click HERE.

FOR SOME EXCELLENT, WELL-FOUNDED STUDIES
OF THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE, go to http://www.ibri.org

I love God’s Word (and believe in the book of Joshua!), and therefore react when I read long-discredited stories. In fact Stephen Jay Gould, an atheist opponent of our faith, uses the NASA story as an example of how Christians will believe anything we’re told. Let’s look sharp when we hear rumors, and look them up before passing them along! The easiest way to do so is to google something like “Joshua missing day hoax” – if it’s a hoax, you will soon find out.

“Did a NASA supercomputer prove the Bible?” by Gary Shogren, PhD in New Testament, Professor at Seminario ESEPA, San Jose, Costa Rica

Published in: on April 28, 2014 at 4:14 pm  Comments (5)  

Dear Apple, Inc. – you ruined my life, so I’m suing

A gateway drug?

A gateway drug?

Hey, did you hear about the guy who sued Apple computers, blaming its devices for his lifelong addiction to pornography, a failed marriage, and “emotional distress to the point of hospitalization”?

I pride myself on being able to sniff out fake stories. When I heard the PornApple one I immediately decided, that’s a little too “neat” to be true; I guessed that it’s from The Onion, which currently is running spoofy stories titled “Biden has Guy named Worm sit in for him at Cabinet Meeting” and “Alex Rodriguez Has Asked 4 In 5 Americans For Steroids.”

The good people at Snopes.com are my “go-to-guys” for rumors. They didn’t have the PornApple one. Instead, I found the story all over the net at reputable news sources, for example, HERE. I have before me the authentic 50-page complaint of Chris Sevier v. Apple, Inc., (more…)

Published in: on July 30, 2013 at 12:22 pm  Comments (5)  
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My book on Addiction and God

In 1995 I published “Running in Circles: how to find freedom from addictive behavior” with Baker Book House. It is written with the addict in mind, using straightforward language for the person who isn’t necessarily a Christian. Now you can buy a copy from Amazon.com as a Kindle book.

Published in: on July 15, 2011 at 11:05 am  Comments (9)  
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