Herein we continue considering objections raised by an Atheist from “The Skeptic Arena” who goes by the pseudonym “Neo” with regards to my repository website TrueFreethinker’s “About” page during a June 28, 2014 AD podast. In that which follows, you will find the contents of my About page in italics, his comments underlined and my replies in regular font.
While we are at it; note that this Atheist goes by the pseudonym “Neo” but why? Well, I asked him about it and he stated that it is from the Matrix movies, “Neo saved humanity from the Matrix. I hope to do no less (I like to dream big).” So, this Atheist sees himself as saving humanity from its delusional, theistic, matrix and is here to wake us up to the true way; Atheism. Yet, of course, as aforementioned and specified in part 1; he provides no premise upon which to seek truth in the first place. But the true oddity is that Sophia Stewart wrote a book titled “The Third Eye” from which arose the Terminator and Matrix franchises. She is the oracle depicted in the Matrix movies and is known as “the mother of the Matrix.” She has stated that she sought to envision what Jesus’ future return would be like and wrote a story about how He would come to set us free from the delusion of the world and would be persecuted by robotic machines, etc.
Thus, she states that within the Terminator mythos; John Connor’s name is such in order to denote that his initials J. C. stand for Jesus Christ. Then, within the Matrix mythos; Neo is a rearrangement of the term the “one” which is a reference to Jesus. Go figure, an Atheist ends up using a pseudonym that refers to Jesus.
At a very young age I found out that they were not real and that my parents, with good motives, had deceived me and I became furious.
Ken, you got furious with your parents because they dashed your dreams about the tooth fairy? Holy **** dude. No wonder your mind is like a sack of leftover pork chops.
Note his odd reaction to learning that a child took reality, truth and trust very seriously; he mocks it. It is all the more odd due to the fact that many Atheists boast about just how young they were when they became Atheists. This, of course, means that they did not become Atheists based on logic, philosophy, science, reasoning or being rationalistic but likely due to nothing more than an emotional rebellious reaction against mommy and daddy’s authority.
How pleased I was to find, decades later, that the Bible enjoins true and honest skepticism:
Aw. Widdle Kenny feel all better now. You lost the tooth fairy, but now you’ve got someone better … another invisible friend.
I do not know when Neo became an Atheist but his statement denotes that of those who became Atheists as children. They rejected a childish concept of God made in their own childish image, based on childish reasons and their theology becomes stagnant and remains undeveloped. That is why they correlate a philosophically necessary being, such as God, with invisible friends, sky daddy, Santa Clause, unicorns and any other number of childish concepts.
“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD” (Isaiah 1:18), in the New Testament the Bereans are considered more noble (or more “fair minded”) for double checking everything that Paul told them (Acts 17:11)
Ken, here is Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Ken, they weren’t more open-minded – they were simply more open to scriptural brainwashing. That isn’t the same thing, Ken.
Do you see what I meant about Neo being a cynic? Why conclude that “they were simply more open to scriptural brainwashing” when it is clear that they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” and were accounted as being “more noble” for doing so?
You see, the true and honest skeptic will receive whatever they are told with all readiness of mind and will then search to discern whether those things were so. The cynic will instantly reject whatever they are told if they discern it is not in keeping with their current worldview and may or may not bother getting around to searching in order to discern whether those things were so.
Thomas asked for the evidence which the others had seen and had merely retold to him (John 20:24-30)
Ken, it doesn’t sound like you’ve ever read Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I guess Thomas pretty much failed the “Faith” test, huh Ken?
Too bad that Neo is not a Berean as he, again, demonstrates that he lack knowledge of that which he criticizes. Just as with the Kingdom of God that we considered in part 2, faith is a term that can be understood in various ways. In this case, Thomas did not need faith in the Hebrews 11:1 sense since the physical evidence was available. The other apostles told him that they had witnessed the available physical evidence and Thomas merely wanted to witness the physical evidence they claimed was available; Jesus resurrection, which he did witness when he saw, heard and touched Jesus. I like to think of as (true and honest) skeptical Thomas (the Bible nowhere calls him “doubting Thomas”).
Once Jesus ascended we no longer have the physical evidence of His body amongst us and thus, exercise faith. Think of faith as being like reading scientific papers on the existence of subatomic particles; which no one has seen, heard, touched, tasted, etc. If you conclude that you can trust the evidence then you are not exercising blind faith but faith based on evidence. Faith is taking a final step based on trust. It is believing in that to which the evidence points, even if the evidence leads towards something that you cannot verify in the usual sense of verification; like believing in subatomic particles (granting that this is just a metaphor and all metaphors eventually break down as they are just that, metaphors).
Jesus stated, “Love the Lord your God with all your…mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38).
Hey Ken, why don’t you tell everyone what God will do to them … if they don’t?
I am certain that Neo is referring to the fact that God will not force anyone to love Him.
We are clearly called to discern, test, and judge
Ken, but if you don’t reach the proper conclusion – it’s off to … “The Big Barbecue.”
It is interesting that an Atheist who asserts that we must come to proper conclusions besmirches the Bible when it asserts that we must come to proper conclusions. He also seems to miss the point which is that “The Big Barbecue” is not about conclusions but about sinning and not repenting by grace (a free gift) though faith (trust in, reliance in, the gift).