In science, theology, politics, and interpersonal communications, it’s difficult to tell the difference between reality and make-believe. We observe things, but not directly. We filter our observations through our own worldviews. Worldviews are powerful filters that don’t allow us to observe what doesn’t already fit into the worldview. Group-held worldviews are even more powerful, since they provide the group-think confirmation bias that creates an even stronger illusion . . . that our worldviews are reality itself rather than an just inner concept of what we think reality is.
Look at the Theory of Evolution as an example. When you actually look at the so-called “evidence,” every evidence is based on assumptions. Assumptions consist of made-up stuff that generally has been formulated to conform to the existing worldviews. The worldview is merely a fake reality masquerading as real reality. If you allow yourself even a single assumption, you can prove anything to yourself.
Let me give an example. Allow me one assumption. I will assume that you don’t exist. That’s now a given. Since you don’t exist, you don’t exist. That didn’t take any heavy lifting, did it? I just proved that you don’t exist based on my assumption.
Of course, that wouldn’t fool anyone. You need many more fallacies to cover up the fact that I’m making the whole thing up. So, how do I do that. Add more stories and complexity to the idea using the hundreds of available fallacies, and I could develop a story about your non-existence that’s as funny as the big bang, billions of years, no Flood, life from non-life, amoeba to human, no need for God story.
Here, we have a situation where every person who follows Christ knows Christ and is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. As you know that you exist because of your experience of being you, everyone who follows Christ knows God exists because of his or her experience of being led and taught by the Holy Spirit. That’s not to say that we’re always faithful in listening, acknowledging, submitting, or allowing Him to think His thoughts, speak His Words, or do His acts through us. It just means we’re familiar with Him to some extent. To the extent that we have yielded to Him, we have discernment between that which comes from Him and that which comes from other sources. Many times, we do lean on our own understanding rather than acknowledging Him. Hence, you can witness the many doctrinal and denominational divisions in the Church. Yet, Jesus Christ is real, and He is the reality of the ongoing experience of every single person who follows Him.
For a Secularist (skeptic, Atheist, Agnostic, Humanist, etc.) to claim that a follower of Christ isn’t experiencing what he or she is experiencing is as bizarre as me claiming that you don’t exist. The Secularist has only one tool to develop such a thought: making stuff up and then confusing the issue with smokescreen fallacies.
Yet, when confronted with the fact that you know Jesus Christ personally, Secularists commonly will begin to use the fallacy of faulty comparison. There are several types of faulty comparison fallacies. This one is false equivalence of two opposites. It’s very helpful to the Secularist in this situation, since the Secularist is faced with a stark contrast between Divine revelation and making stuff up. The Secularist isn’t comfortable with the fact that every single thing he or she thinks he or she knows is based on made-up stuff. So, in this case, Secularists intuitively reach for a tu quo que (you too) fallacy. They want to say, “You too have the same problem.” Of course, tu quo que doesn’t solve the Secularist’s problem. It merely is a way to project their problem onto you. In effect, they’re saying, you’re situation is just as bad as mine. There are many problems with this kind of thinking. Most importantly, you don’t have the same problem the Secularist has. Yet, if you don’t stay in the Presence of Jesus, if you try to lean on your own mind rather than His Mind, you will become confused by these tactics.
To use tu quo que, the Secularist must use a faulty comparison fallacy first. Therefore, the Secularist will try to lump Divine revelation in as part of the made-up stuff. He or she must claim that Divine revelation is also made-up stuff. This asserts the following universal negative: “God doesn’t reveal anything to anyone.” This, of course, is based on that bare assertion and universal negative, “There is no God.”
When the lumping fallacy fails, the Secularist may turn to other ways to equate Divine revelation with making stuff up. He or she may claim that you can’t know it’s God speaking to you, and, if Divine revelation depended on human ability, that would be true. However, Divine revelation is, as the term implies, dependent on God. He is able. What would possibly prevent the Almighty God from being able to reveal Himself and His Truth to a willing human heart? Another common Secularist tactic is to claim that the human mind must interpret the revelation, and the revelation is, therefore, subject to human interpretation. That’s a statement contrary to fact. God’s revelation is pure. Human interpretation adds to it or diminishes it. That’s why God commands us not to add to His Utterances or diminish them. Divine revelation plus human interpretation equals human ideas. We must leave the things God hasn’t revealed with God and receive the revelation He has given. Then the Secularist is likely to remind you that your own mind can fool you, and this is true. However, that’s not a problem to God as long as we remain humble. It’s a very good reason for us to hold our theology loosely, but it’s not a good reason to stop seeking God or to follow the Secularist’s delusion. The Holy Spirit is constantly leading us. As we yield. our spiritual senses are exercised, which brings maturity and discernment between good (what God is saying) and evil (what comes from human or demonic minds). The Holy Spirit is given to lead us into all Truth. Just keep following Him, and be ready to abandon your own convictions and many things you’ve been taught in favor of Divine revelation.
The big problem that the Secularist has with all his or her claims is that Secularist’s claims are based on made-up stuff. It’s irrational to make stuff up and call it real. Their claims to deny Divine revelation are based on made-up stuff. Your testimony of Divine revelation is based on Divine revelation. It always comes down to Divine revelation versus made-up stuff.
If the Secularist is successful in convincing himself or herself using these arguments, the Secularist loses the ability to know the difference between reality and make-believe in this regard. It’s no longer a game. It’s insanity. Secularists have lost touch with reality.
The big bang, billions of years, no Flood, life from non-life, amoeba to human, no need for God story is a complex story based on fallacies. The hundreds of fallacies can be classified into two groups, and only one of those groups is functional. The functional fallacy is always some form of making stuff up and calling it true. It could be an outright lie. It could be a hidden assumption. It could be an “axiom of science.” There are many ways to make stuff up.
All other fallacies are smokescreens to give the illusion that the made-up stuff isn’t made-up stuff. Those smokescreens include appeal to ridicule, which has become very popular. There are many ways to ridicule. Appeal to offence is becoming very popular: “I’m offended; therefore, you are wrong and I am right.” Appeal to anger works the same way.
Then, there are the many statistical fallacies: “It’s very unlikely that God exists.” Really? What is the number you can put on that probability, and how do you derive it? How do you know that you have taken every factor into account? What are the steps to your scientific experiment you use to determine that every follower of Christ is not experiencing what he or she is experiencing?
Bill Nye debated Ken Ham. He suddenly realized that he had to defend the use of assumption. He claimed that assumptions come out of experience. Another word for experience is experiment. One of the ways we observe in science is through experience/experiment. These experiences are repeatable, so many people can observe the same thing. Assumptions don’t come out of experiments. They’re used to interpret the observations made when performing an experiment. Interpretation always adds to what has been observed or diminishes it. These assumptions are developed to conform to the existing worldview, in most cased, the group-think of the ruling shared worldview of the scientific community.
Of course, the same thing happens in Christian denominations. It happens in politics. Is there any hope for humanity?
Yes. Jesus Christ came to set us free. In fact, He said that the Truth will set us free. He is the Truth. God knows all things. He reveals some things to us. For instance, He reveals Himself through the things He has created to every person. Those who acknowledge Him and thank Him receive further revelation and faith, that is, certainty of reality, comes to them. Those who refuse to acknowledge Him lose the ability to tell the difference between what human minds are making up and what is coming from God.
When we believe what God is telling us about Jesus Christ and how He died to pay the price of our own sins, how He rose again from the dead having overcome sin, and how He now offers us forgiveness and a path to freedom from our fallen state, we are changed. We are born into the family of God, when we had previously been slaves to Satan. At that point, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to be our Teacher and Leader. If we seek Him and His Will, then, we continue to learn and be changed. One of the first things that He teaches us is that the Bible is His Word without error, and that He speaks to us through the Bible. He teaches us that there are many gifts that come through the Spirit, that the gifts, ministries, offices, and orders that He reveals through Scripture are important to Him and that He will eventually reveal how all of them work for us and are part of our salvation.
As we walk with the Spirit and keep step with the Spirit, we don’t stay in the same place. What we thought we understood yesterday soon becomes quite shallow compared to the new, unfolding, revelation of today. Tomorrow, there will be more as we progress in the Spirit. God has built many safeguards into the Church to keep this unfolding revelation on track. Every human-developed method that isn’t in Scripture creates a danger of going off course. As we yield to the Spirit, our spiritual senses are exercised by reason of use to discern between good (what comes from God) and evil (what comes from other sources).
We don’t need to boast of our spirituality. In fact, such boasting is a sure sign of spiritual immaturity. God has provided no way by which we can truly measure our maturity in Christ. We can tell a bit about our spiritual immaturity every time we exhibit some form of the fruit of the flesh: thoughts, words, or acts of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Every time we find ourselves irritated or striving for something, we realize that we need more of Him.
The way forward is glorious for those who don’t get distracted. There are higher heights and deeper depths in Christ. Keep on keeping on.
\
