So This Is How They Think

OK, this is a somewhat misleading title. The tragic truth is, many folks today aren’t thinking at all. We are doing a great job of dumbing people down – and we seem to be proud of it as well. Sadly people are not being taught to think nowadays – they are simply encouraged to emote.

Emotional knee-jerk reactions is what passes for thinking and careful reflection so often today. The ability to actually reason, think logically and critically, and deal with facts and evidence has gone missing from much of the world. Instead we parrot mindless clichés and bumper-sticker ethics picked up from MTV or from the wit and wisdom of Lady Gaga.

On most cultural and moral issues being discussed today, far too many folks will just throw out utterly mindless clichés, and when solid evidence and facts are offered in response, they will simply ignore them and keep right on emoting.

The inability to offer rational debate and informed thinking on the many hot potato issues of the day is simply staggering. And it is not just non-Christians who are unable to think – regrettably far too many believers are also in this camp.

I could fill up a small library of books containing examples of all this. Let me just appeal to one such recent example, as found on another site. A friend had posted something about how homosexual activists are pushing their radical agenda in a most frightening manner.

One gal – let’s call her Kate – weighed into the discussion, claiming it was not really happening, and if it was, it wasn’t a big deal anyway. I was not originally a part of this discussion, but someone asked me to provide more examples of this, which I did.

Since I had now become a part of this lively debate, which continued to go back and forth, I started paying a bit of attention to it. It certainly revealed some classic examples of how the other side “thinks”. Early on “Kate” offered the following remarks:

“i hardly think this happens often!”

“It happened in one school why dont u all calm down! My mantra is love not judgement! This incident is sad and most gay people would also agree! Live and let live”

“homosexuality is hardly up there with murder! It is not a sin! It is a natural part of this life! Children should b educated about it! That it is a completely normal and natural thing! I dont get it! Why dont u as christians put all this energy into more philanthropic pursuits!!!!”

“Such as homelessness poverty childhood illness womens abuse cancer research blah blah”

By now I thought I had better offer a few remarks in response. Indeed, another person came along and offered this zinger: “get over it,are you christians or moral police”. Leaving aside the clear inability of ‘Kate’ and her buddies to offer actual sentences free of spelling and grammar mistakes, I offered a quick reply to this fellow:

“When Wilberforce sought to love his neighbours by freeing the slaves, he got the same moronic criticism: ‘Are you Christians or moral police?’ It is a good thing he ignored such senseless advice and continued to be salt and light in a very needy society.”

But getting back to ‘Kate,’ I offered this brief comment:

“You might as well argue that rape is a natural part of life – so just get used to it! Sorry, there is nothing natural about homosexuality. Two men cannot conceive. It is as un-natural as two bowling balls trying to conceive. Sex of course is nature’s way of procreation.”

Another person rightly added these remarks:

“The rectum isn’t a sex organ. Nothing ‘natural’ about that.”

“I don’t know if you realise, but Christians have ministries for all those things and many other things.”

“We’ve been around for 2000 years with our ministries yet you don’t affirm a lifestyle choice and you’re accused of forsaking starving children (?) LOL.”

To which I added, “Yes they are doing all these things already, while also seeking to keep marriage and family from being destroyed by the militants.”

Much more could have been said of course. This gal was right about one thing at least: when she said her mantra was “love not judgement”. A mantra is a phrase repeated over and over again, in an almost magical fashion. It can be just a mindless repetition.

And that is certainly the case here: regurgitating meaningless and vacuous clichés over and over again – as if that is going to win an argument and settle a debate. The secular left is of course full of such meaningless mantras. They are churned out with regular monotony.

Moreover, the idea that Christianity should only be about engaging in various charitable pursuits, and not dealing in issues of truth and morality, is another zinger. But that is how many folks mischaracterise Christianity: simply being nice to people and doing nice things.

Sorry, it is far more than that: it is a set of truth claims about all of life. It is an exclusive worldview which offers the answers to the big questions of life, and also offers us a personal relationship with God through Christ. As a by-product of all this of course there will be plenty of good works and charitable deeds. And there have been millions upon millions of these done over the past two millennia.

But by now all this was getting to be too much for our friend, so she came back with another comment:

“Oh please! Honestly this is all so radical and stupid! Everyone has a place in this world and choices! Let gay people be!”

Spoken like a typical secular humanist. I could only respond as follows:

“Oh please! Honestly this is all so radical and stupid! Everyone has a place in this world and choices! Let racists be! Let arsonists be! Let baby killers be! Let people who think those with the name ‘Kate’ should be imprisoned be! After all, choice is all that matters! Hitler made his choices too – just let him be!”

“Sadly ‘Kate’ began this debate with these words: ‘i hardly think this happens often!’ We offer heaps of links showing that this is happening all the time, and instead of dealing with the evidence and facts we provide, she now launches into an attack, saying ‘this is all so radical and stupid!’ Actually, ignoring the data when it is staring you in the face is what is really stupid here.”

But as I have already said, this is the normal way in which the other side tends to operate. They make some wild claim; you respond with a pile of evidence; and they change the subject or just launch into another ad hominem. That about sums up how they think and how they argue.

Oh, and another person decided to join in the debate with these words of wisdom:

“I think you should all leave ‘Kate’ alone as it doesn’t make you sound like nice Christian people at all. Let her have her own beliefs as you feel you have the right to have hers. Make love not war!!!!”

Yep, now there’s another great conversation stopper. I think I just discovered what the title of my next book will be: “The Jumbo Book of Mindless Secular Left Clichés”.

[1222 words]

13 Replies to “So This Is How They Think”

  1. I see this all the time! Sometimes it takes just one person to stand up and go against the flow for others to follow and back them up.

    Jo Deller

  2. I see this all the time as well! However, I find most of the time when I take a stand those that agree with me stay silent!

    Jeanette Nellor

  3. The Hoopla always has a strong anti Christian comments section and bullying of Christians is rife but news.com.au and smh.com,au have people commenting that are supportive once one Christian takes a stand.

    Jo Deller

  4. Thanks again Bill for reducing the problem to its ultimate cause – the illogical secular humanist worldview that exults man over God, to the extent that it boastfully denies the plain and obvious existence of God.

    Secular humanism makes no sense, denies the plain and obvious, clashes against its own claims repeatedly like any house divided, and is culturally taught to people who cannot even articulate their own blind belief in it, most prominently our children and youth.

    And these groups often come out and admit freely, whether its the communists, islamists, or the homosexual lobby, that targeting the youth is their key means to transforming society into their image. But who is listening?

    There is a strong delusion across the west these days, a demonic haze that shuts eyes and ears, that has many nodding in agreement to the outright admittance that these groups are gunning to push Christianity to the fringes at best and more likely make us disappear altogether.

    We need to pray for deliverance in the Church and fight these doctrines of demons with meek and humble biblical truth so that we can be the light we ought to be!

    Simon Fox

  5. Too true. I’d love to see some of these people trying to cope with an elementary lessson in logic.
    David Morrison

  6. There comes a place where rational debate fails because people are so given over to the dark side that they don’t want to hear anything which might show up their thinking as a fallacy. These are not the so-called ‘truth-seekers’ that we knew in the 60s. This generation makes no pretense of seeking truth but rather they seek the spiritual that their own darkened spirits crave.

    Dee Graf

  7. Hi Bill.

    From what I saw in online debates about gay marriage in NZ, was that people lacked the rebuttals to the immature gay mantra being preached.

    The main theme that came up over and over was “but how do two adults in a Marriage harm your Marriage or other’s Marriages?” [The PM even said that.] If you argue that the destruction of marriage in society effects everyone’s Marriages by effecting society itself – the very next question is “but that’s STILL no reason why gays can’t Marry, AND the destruction of Marriage is currently by heterosexuals, not gays, so why do you think that a gay marriage will harm Marriages anymore than a heterosexual marriage will?

    You can then argue that gays are not monogamous etc etc etc which all harm Marriage, which then leads back to their response ‘it’s heterosexuals who are currently harming Marriage by not being monogamous etc….that’s STILL no reason why gays can’t marry.”

    I even argued the sex organ argument that you described, adding that the anus is part of the digestive system, and from mouth to anus is a hole through the entire body where the digestive system is therefor ‘outside’ of the body, and therefor gay ‘sex’ is then only a crude and disgusting form of masturbation, and is therefor nothing like normal sex which takes place inside of the body.

    So then they replied “but the penis is outside of the body – so why does it matter if two parts of sex are outside the body?….. and anyway we can’t have kids just like some hetro marriages can’t……so how does that effect others marriages anyway?

    You get to the point where you get sick of giving 50 valid answers – only to be told “that’s STILL no reason….

    The MSM didn’t bother putting up all the arguments against….about as ‘offensive’ as they got was to say ” a doctor who treats homosexuals has said that they suffer from lots of sexual diseases, and one ‘patient’ has had over 40 partners in one month! These homosexuals were then also described as ‘people’ who don’t want to ‘marry anyway’. But that of course was said about two weeks before the final reading in parliament – where most MP’s had already announced their ‘certainty’ that gay marriage will pass.

    The only good that came out of the debacle in NZ was that the general public who were online got to see how immature and shameless the gay community is. Maybe that will now open their eyes and stop the gay rubbish from being spread through the schools. Hopefully.

    Thanks again for your good work Bill. God Bless.

    Mike Marshall

  8. Simon Fox#

    There are Christians in NZ who want to vote for the Christian Conservative Party so they can then seek political protection, just like Labour and the Greens give it to the gays.

    Yes it is that bad, but it is also a good idea as solid arguments against the Liberal progressives ‘ideals’ will then at least be said in the parliament. And repeated in the MSM. There is some hope.

    Mike Marshall

  9. A.P. Herbert summed this up quite succinctly around about 1942:

    “God gave us eyelids: we can hide the eyes
    From what is hideous or horrifies.
    I wonder greatly that in recent years
    We’ve not grown little flaps to close the ears.”

    “Oh, please!” But sadly I see evidence of this sort of thing every day. Once I was told by a neighbour who had come to my home to pick up her daughter who had spent the day with our children that she thought it was, ‘ok to have religious beliefs so long as it was practiced in the home and not in public’. She made it sound like some sort of deviant practice and she knew we are a practicing Christian family. That was at the time her marriage/relationship broke up so she was a great role model for secularism. This sort of thing makes my husband and I all the more determined to stick to our beliefs and to bring up our children to be independent and discerning thinkers with strong moral values.
    We can only keep praying and living out our beliefs. It is through the love of Christ on the Cross that we will come through – not war but God’s love.
    Marie Ross, Waimauku, New Zealand

  10. Britain’s atheist church, is a gathering for the non-believers and it’s making its way to Australia.
    Nearly three dozen gatherings nicknamed “atheist mega-churches” by supporters and detractors have sprung up around the US and Australia – with more to come – after finding success in Great Britain at the beginning of the year.
    Their motto “A movement of wonder and good”
    Their spokesperson said “There are heaps of people who don’t believe and just want to be good people and part of a community.”
    Um, “good?”. What does “good”mean to an atheist?
    If you posit there is such a thing as good and evil you must have a moral law against which to differentiate good from evil.
    If you have a moral law, there must be a moral law giver outside of mankind. If the atheist says there is no God, there can be no moral law-giver and hence no moral law. Therefore there can be no good or evil- so how can the atheist “church” have “good” in its motto? Logical inconsistency, surely?

    Philip Murray Impey

  11. Re Christians being “nice”.
    I take my lead form my Lord- I’ll be as “nice” as He was when He witnessed the temple being desecrated by the money-lenders and rent-seekers.

    Philip Murray Impey

  12. PS If you want to read some more of tis sort of stuff, check out the “Conversation” web site, the article called “the trouble with Gay Marriage.- its a beauty. Much of the repartee is form academics (Phd students et al) and reading their logic reminds of the truth of Muggeridge when he wrote that “we have educated ourselves into imbecility”.

    Philip Murray Impey

  13. I believe it might be time that the church, well, who exactly that would be, I don’t know, but that Christians anyway, I put my hand up here acknowledge the sad fact of marital infidelity as a sin, one that in the old testament drew the death penalty and I believe that verdict was not as a punishment or payment of the offender, but “so that the evil will be put away from among you”. So, it is pretty serious and confessing it would, I believe take the wind out of the sales of the enemies of God who now use that very thing as an argument for their position re Michael’s post above. The other is childlessness in heterosexual marriage, which we have almost no control over but is a general result of the sinful state the world is in.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

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