Skeptripe #9: "Quote-Mine"

Welcome back to "Skeptripe," where I expose words and phrases used by so-called "Skeptics" and Athiests that are overused, misused, or just plain stupid.

Sometimes "Skeptics" will accuse their opponents of using "Quote-Mines," which are little quotes so potent that they explode the "Skeptic's" argument, like a mine on a battlefield. "Skeptics" claim that this is some kind of dirty, dishonest trick, but what else do you expect from whiny liberal peaceniks?

The best way to avoid being whined at like this is to just not use any quotes anywhere, but sometimes you can't avoid it. My only usual exception is with quotes from the Bible: I hope that if I use enough Bible quotes, exposing the "Skeptic" Athiests to God's Holy Word a little at a time, the Holy Spirit will build up in their hearts until eventually it'll be too much for even them to deny. It hasn't happened yet, but I have Faith that it still might.

Anyway, "Skeptics" who complain about quote mines usually talk about how the words are taken out of context, or how they don't mean what we say they mean. This is obviously absurd: words have specific definitions that were made by God and written in His Divine Dictionary on our hearts. The meanings of words don't change, regardless of what other words are around them. I can go to any passage of the Bible, pick out any string of words, and find that it means the same thing as it does when I read the whole chapter, and it's just as profound. I'd be tempted to say that "Skeptics" just don't understand how reading works, but I think it just relates back to their fears. They're afraid of their Athiest and Big Scienceist heroes being Godly men, or showing that Athiesm is stupid, so they claim we're taking those people's anti-Athiest quotes out of context, and that they actually meant something else. The "Skeptics" are afraid of looking stupid and silly, so they lie about us misrepresenting their arguments. They're afraid to admit that we're right, so they try to mangle God's words to mean other things.

"Skeptics" live their whole lives in fear because they don't have God to rely on. So next time a "Skeptic" accuses you of using "Quote-Mines," just imagine them as they are: a scared, sad little Athiest trapped in the middle of a minefield, shivering and hoping no one hears them praying. There are no Athiests in foxholes, whether on the battlefield, or on the blogosphere.

Skeptripe #7: "Theory"

Welcome back to "Skeptripe," where I expose words and phrases used by so-called "Skeptics" and Athiests that are overused, misused, or just plain stupid.

"Theory" is one of those words that "Skeptics" just love to redefine. I mean, we all know what "theory" means. Like all words, its meaning was written by God on our hearts at Babel thousands of years ago; God doesn't change and neither do His definitions. When I say "I have a theory about what "Way of the Master" will be about this week," it doesn't mean "I did years of experiments and found fossils and lied and faked a bunch of things" like "Skeptics" want you to think it does. It means "I'm totally guessing, and this is pure speculation." It's not something I pretend to be sure of; if I watch WOTM and it's nothing like my theory, then I'm going to shrug and say "well, it was just a theory."

Contrast that with the kind of certainty you feel when reading the Bible or listening to a sermon or hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit. You know that those things are true, because you feel it in your heart. When you make up a theory about what's going to be on your favorite TV show or which car is going to win the Nascar race, you don't have that knowledge in your heart, you just have a guess in your head, and you know it could be totally wrong.

Well, Athiest Big Scienceists and "Skeptics" don't believe in the Bible or the Holy Spirit, so they never get to feel that from-the-heart certainty. All they have is their head-guesses--their "theories"--so they have to pretend that those theories are more than just pure speculation. When you call them on it, on redefining the word "theory," they always get so upset--and why not? You're trying to take away the only thing they have left, this pretend certainty that they try to have in place of real Godly confidence. You really have to pity a mind so fragile that it would cling to such a flimsy delusion instead of looking at the real world.

In any case, don't pull any punches. If you take away the security blanket they hide under, exposing them to the full and awesome glory of Almighty God and his Absolute Truth, maybe they'll actually see the light.

Or maybe, like all such things, they'll hiss and skitter back into the darkness. But you have to try; it's your God-given duty.

Skeptripe #4: "Just Words"

Welcome back to "Skeptripe," where I expose words and phrases used by so-called "Skeptics" and Athiests that are overused, misused, or just plain stupid.

"Skeptics" often like to use dirty words and vulgar language, then say that it doesn't make their arguments wrong. "The words I use don't matter," the "Skeptics" will say, "only the facts and evidence and the reasoning behind them."

As usual, the "Skeptics" are dead wrong. Their claim doesn't even make sense! Of course it matters what words you use in your argument! If I say "The Bible is the inerrant Word of the Almighty God," I'm making a true argument. By the "Skeptic" logic, if instead I used the words "Lap Mart force blob demilitarized Toad men sex Underwear Poltroon," it would be just as valid an argument, because the facts and evidence and reasoning behind Biblical inerrancy are all that matter. This is obviously absurd: those words are nonsense, therefore it clearly matters what words I use in my argument.

"Skeptics" want to have their cake and eat it too; they want to look smart because they're all snobby intellectual elitists, but they also want to use the language of the bums in the gutter and the sailors in their bell bottoms and little capes. They need to pick a side--either pretend to be better than everyone and talk like it, so we can see what you are, or recognize that you're the fallen Godless waste of society and talk like that.

I think it boils down to Godlessness as usual. The "Skeptic" Athiests don't understand that God made language Himself, but (like everything else) it was corrupted by Man's sins, which is why He had to split it up at Babel. When sin entered language, it caused things like confusion and offensiveness, and vulgar words are like pure sin in letter form. God wants us to use higher words, words that are closer to the ones He created. He can't stand to hear sinful words, and neither can Godly people. When "Skeptics" use naughty words, they're saying "I am a sinful being, fallen away from my Creator, and my words are sinful words designed only to separate others from God." I know I don't need to tell you that the only proper course of action is to stop reading then and there, and to express your sincere offense to that sort of talk. Remind them that people who have to resort to such language are of lower intelligence (otherwise, why wouldn't they have accepted God?) and that it shows how angry and desperate they are.

Remember, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jhn. 1:1). When "Skeptics" and Athiests use bad words, they are attacking God Himself. And they say that words don't matter.