Saw this today on Facebook and my blood started to boil. First of all, it was “liked” by one of my family members — a person who won’t discuss our differences. It really ticks me off to see her “like” a statement about truth, when she won’t defend that same statement.
Secondly, the quote says that a preacher would rather offend thousands than to fail to preach the truth to even one individual. Sadly, preachers don’t realize that they’re doing both the entire time.
Finally, if you bother to check out Answering Religious Error, it’s like shifting into another dimension. Each post is wrangling over some trivial detail, seemingly oblivious to the deluge of information that makes their entire stance irrelevant. I say “seemingly” rather than “completely,” because apologists of this stripe often do know some of the information that contradicts their stance, but they try very hard to keep their followers from discovering it.
I’ve gotten some flak over the years for the name of my blog, but I view “finding truth” as something aspirational — I’m not claiming to have found it. But “Answering Religious Error” definitely comes across as arrogant, especially when they’re so demonstrably wrong.
Finding Truth 
I saw a movie once about kids that get sent to such camps, and the treatment they get when they refuse to break. I wish I could recall the name of it. How old is the boy?
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Here it is, Pauli – it’s not a religious boot camp, but I would imagine that would be even worse:
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Pope Francis may talk like a liberal, but his actions show he is a bigot: the pope secretly met with the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The pope praised her for her (illegal and bigoted) actions.
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Gary, exactly right, the pope and that blubberous cow kim davis are nothing but lying bigots attempting to deny me my right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
last night I watched a show called “pray in jesus name” and the chaplain was complaining about Obama inviting some gays and transgenders to the white house meeting of the pope, and this asshole said that gays and transgenders are demon possessed and he hoped that the pope prayed the demons out of them.
and arch, there was an actual documentary on HBO regarding a Christian boot camp and the woman that was making the documentary was a Christian. it was supposed to be a positive look at the school, but when the director saw how the students were being treated, particularly one gay youth, she was so appalled by what she saw, she helped the young gay boy to escape and was instrumental in shutting this school down. I forgot the name of this show. it was heartbreaking to watch.
my nephew just turned 14.
just now I went to the tax collectors office to get my car tag renewed and I was told I had to get a new plate. the lady said, “you can get one that says IN God We Trust” and I said, why the hell would I want a tag that says in god we trust? god does not exist. boy I could tell that really pissed her off. HAHA
fuck em.
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That’s pretty hilarious 🙂
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it was hilarious, the lady was pretty nice until I said that, then I could see she was fuming and became very short with me,.
ah, christian love, it’s as bitter as god’s tears.
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Frankly, I applaud her courage, though I disagree with her convictions – some of the most significant movements in human history were initiated by someone violating the law on the basis of principle – Dr. King, Mohandas Ghandi, Nelson Mandela. I don’t feel that she belongs in that company, but her act was courageous.
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There’s a suburb somewhere near here that has police cars with “In God We Trust” on them, and some atheist group is trying to get the phrase removed, but the police chief is refusing – the group is calling for his dismissal, we’ll see how it plays out.
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I saw that, too, on fox news of course, in on of their “attacks on faith” segments. they were really bashing atheists. we’re all such horrible people out to destroy the basis on what our country was founded on. lol. hope they have to remove the slogans. if the Christians want to show there belief they should be forced to have a cross tattooed on their foreheads.
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arch, well, mlk and ghandi were violating laws to enhance peoples freedoms, not to take them away.
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Has any one else noticed how the secular media fawned all over Francis during his trip here, including referring to him as “the Holy Father”, over and over again?
David Muir, the anchor of ABC, was one of those in the secular news media guilty of the “Holy Father” faux pas, repeatedly, until last night when it was revealed that Francis had met secretly with the Kentucky county clerk. Muir then never used the term, “Holy Father”, but only “the pope”.
Franni’s little secret meeting with the Kentucky clerk is going to seriously tarnish his reputation and adoration among American liberals, I’m so very sad to say.
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“In God We Trust” is a tight one to fight while it’s a national motto. I think their efforts would be better spent in trying to overturn its official status.
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I noticed, how could anyone not notice. you would have thought it was jeezzzuuusss himself.
I thought I was going to puke when Obama called him the holy father.
also I have been reading a lot of comments online regarding the meeting of these two devils and many people are saying what you are, that they felt that his secret meeting with davis was not a good move for the pope to make.
and, apparently, from what i’ve read, kim davis particular brand of christianity believes that catholicism is a heretical religion. funny stuff.
I watch a lot of televangelist’s and many of them discussing the pope’s visit were bashing catholics as not true christianity.
SO STUPID!!!!!
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Hey, Pauli – do us a favor, since you seem to have some spare time – research Saint Olga of Kiev, and tell us what you find —
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I’m not upholding her decision, only appreciating her courage.
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Did I mention that she was considered, “Equal to the Apostles“?
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(I meant Olga of Kiev, not the fat cow of Kentucky)
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As an unbeliever and skeptic turned a believer in Jesus with full assurance, and a contributor to AnswerReligiousError, I know we are not “stupid.” The quote from John T. Lewis was good. He said it should be the case that people who hear us preach should not be able to say to us on the judgment day that “you did not tell me the truth.” If there is such thing as truth, and there is, we should tell it and make it as clear as possible. Pilate did not believe there was such thing as “truth.” He was a skeptic. Jesus affirmed that He was the essence of truth. Between Pilate the skeptic and Jesus the Messiah, I believe Jesus got that issue right! -Terry W. Benton
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I am coming to the conclusion that this is probably the most appropriate way to respond to such views:
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That guy is pure genius.
I particularly like the illustration of Adam and Eve with belly buttons. . 🙂
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Whilst looking at things from a humorous angle, the Onion reports on the Sumerians looking on in confusion as God created the world in 3991 BC: Here
Just a short quote from this classic satire:
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Ah yeah, I’ve read that before, Peter. Pretty hilarious! 🙂
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Hi Terry,
Thanks for coming by! Sorry your comment was held in moderation for a while. Now that you’ve been approved, that shouldn’t happen again.
So you were once an unbeliever? I think that’s interesting — I’d love to hear more about it sometime, if you don’t mind sharing. I’d particularly like to know what it was that initially drew you to Christianity.
I must admit that using “so stupid” as the title of this post was probably a bad idea. I don’t think religious people are stupid. I was a Christian for over 20 years myself, and I don’t think I was stupid during that time — just uninformed about a few things. My use of “so stupid” was primarily directed to the individual whom I was talking about in the post. I don’t mind that she’s a Christian. However, because of her beliefs, she thinks that she must “withdraw fellowship” from me and my family. Since she believes I’m going to Hell, I think she would have lots of incentive to discuss our differences with me in the hope of bringing me back to Christianity. But after a couple of conversations, she now declines to talk to me anymore. So knowing that’s her position, I found it really hypocritical that she “liked” a quote that talks about preaching the truth. If she feels that strongly about it, why doesn’t she do it? So that’s really who the “so stupid” was directed at.
The other issue I had after viewing your site was that I think many of the statements are demonstrably wrong. And to see wrong things presented as truth is frustrating.
You said:
I definitely agree that there’s such a thing as truth and that all of us should strive to know it and present it. But a preacher can think he’s telling the truth and be mistaken. So if there is a day of judgment, it’s very possible that this same preacher could still have people accuse him of not telling them the truth, even if he thought he was.
That’s what I don’t like about the quote. It’s hinting that people shouldn’t complain about having their feelings hurt by someone telling them the truth. But we all know that truthful statements can be presented in different ways, so it’s not a given that simply telling the truth would be offensive to people. Maybe the guy’s just being a jerk? But again, the other problem is that he may still not be telling the truth anyway.
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Which story are you referring to, Terry? The one in which Yeshua (Jesus) was silent. Or the one in which he was a chatterbox? Which of those were, “The Truth”?
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