Mr. Hostile

by Bodie Hodge on April 20, 2012
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Bodie Hodge, AiG–U.S., responds to a particularly vitriolic email directed against our ministry and Christians in general.

To whom it may concern,

You’re business is an aboslute disgrace and abomination to the progression of man. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves for wanting to teach kids such fallacies you have no evidence for as ‘facts’. Though a complete picture of how the world was derived hasn’t been totally identified, the evidence is so far stacked toward evolution that I pity how heavily you must have been brainwashed and how much you have to ignore and reject to maintain your selfish beliefs. I am truely embarrassed to be on the same planet as you backward idiots! I challenge you to spend a few months to IMPARTIALLY research opposing theories and the possiblilty your ‘God’ does not exist. If you dont think your faith can withstand this examination, then I guess ignorance is bliss!

Who needs logic rationale and reason anyway. If you can believe a genocidal malevolant tyrant wants you to ignore science, then you better do it!


[Editor’s note: For the duration of this article, the term evolution refers to the atheistic (or naturalistic) view of evolution.]

Dear M.,

Thank you for contacting us. My comments are below and I really hope you consider these. Also note, they are said with sincerity and respect, though I am being direct in places.

You’re business

It is actually a ministry.

is an aboslute disgrace

First, I’m glad you believe in absolutes. Second, I’m glad you believe there are such moral things as respect and honor—the opposites of shame and disgrace. Most evolutionists would disagree about these things.1 They say there are no such ultimate standards as absolutes, shame, or honor. They argue that everything is material and all things happen—even your own thoughts—as mere chemical reactions, so life is basically meaningless because there is nothing immaterial.

Of course, many evolutionists are being illogical when they claim there are no absolutes, as they just made an absolute statement! All this is to say that I’m glad you disagree with leading atheistic evolutionists about absolutes and morality. These attributes are very Christian of you. However, based on your email it seems that following the Bible is not a high priority for you, so as an atheistic evolutionist, why would you think there are absolutes and disgrace without the existence of the biblical God? Ultimately, there is no basis for morality without Him because He is the absolute standard for morality, which comes from His perfectly good nature.

and abomination to the progression of man.

But from an evolutionary perspective, why care about the progress of man? “Eat, pass on your genes, and die”—that really is the evolutionists’ motto. Why would they be concerned about the next generation instead of letting the offspring fend for themselves before they die? And how would evolutionists even define progress since that implies moving toward something better, but they have no basis for defining what is good, better, or best? Why care about anything? Really?

Caring about people or society is a godly attribute, as people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27; 9:5–6).2 I’m glad you do care, but you must borrow from the biblical worldview to make sense of it.

You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves for wanting to teach kids such fallacies you have no evidence for as ‘facts’.

We are not ashamed since we are teaching the truth, but evolutionists should be ashamed that they teach kids lies about God, morality, truth, science, and justice—and even kill children in abortion facilities as if they were weeding the garden (recall that it is an evolutionary tenet that views children as purposeless organisms like plants or animals that can be eliminated).

But let me ask: what fallacies? Furthermore, in an evolutionary worldview where everything is material, why would truth and logic even exist? These things are not material; they are abstract. It is the biblical worldview from which we have a basis for knowledge, logic, reasoning, morality, and so on. The atheist must borrow from the biblical worldview just to try to argue against it.

Though a complete picture of how the world was derived hasn’t been totally identified,

Then why believe it is “absolute” enough to argue against other worldviews as the absolute standard?

the evidence is so far stacked toward evolution

Such as? We have the same data as the evolutionists, and God disagrees with the evolutionists who make such claims. He says all of it is stacked His way: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1; see also Romans 1:20). So what is the best evidence that evolution is true (even though there is no such thing as truth in the evolutionary worldview)?

that I pity

Why “pity” if people are just chemicals? Chemical don’t “pity”? Again, like morality, pity comes from the Bible. I’m glad you have pity, even though it is misguided, because it is a self refuting position (that pity and other immaterial things do not exist) and verifies that you are indeed made in the image of God.

how heavily you must have been brainwashed and how much you have to ignore and reject

I was brainwashed by public education that taught me that I was just chemical and a waste of space in a “billions of years” universe where nothing matters and when you’re dead you’re dead. But then, I actually studied the subject. And I found out who was doing the brainwashing.

I thank the Lord God for saving me from the secular humanism (which includes evolution and millions of years) that I was taught in school and university. It sounds like this false worldview was forced on you without question. I want to encourage you to question it.

to maintain your selfish beliefs.

How is being loving and caring to others selfish? How is teaching people the truth selfish? How is taking a stand to save souls of children selfish? How is loving and being obedient to the God that died to save us from sin and death selfish?

But in an evolutionary worldview and its free-for-all, survival-of-the-fittest competition, why shouldn’t we be selfish?

I am truely embarrassed

Again, consistent evolutionists have no basis for truth or shame, so why maintain this belief? If you want to be consistent, you should either give up on truth and logic or give up on an evolutionary worldview.

But I don’t understand why atheists don’t seem to be embarrassed about fellow evolutionists like Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot who killed millions of kids and adults, or the maniac evolutionist Anders Behring Breivik, who recently killed all those young kids in Norway? Instead, many atheists take the time to email us to say we, who preach righteousness, should be the ones embarrassed.

to be on the same planet as you backward idiots!

How are we backwards and ignorant? Such a claim is merely a question begging epithet fallacy.

I challenge you to spend a few months to IMPARTIALLY research opposing theories

Like this “impartial” email? The fact is no one is impartial. There is no such thing as impartial research. This email and others we have received like it is evidence that those who criticize the biblical position clearly haven’t “lifted a finger” to sincerely research out what the Bible teaches about creation, truth, knowledge, science, and so on.

There is no such thing as impartial research.

Furthermore, I have searched hosts of other beliefs including the six differing views of evolution (Epicurean, Lamarckian, Traditional Darwinism, Neo-Darwinism, Punctuated Equilibrium, and Hopeful Monster).3 Out of curiosity, since you’ve professed a belief in evolution, which of these do you believe right now, and why are the others wrong?

As a matter of note, what Lamarck and Darwin did in trying to find a mechanism for evolution was really just a rehash of trying to make some Greek idea work. The Epicurean Greeks proposed the myth of evolution; it was one popular form of Greek mythology—even Paul refuted it thousands of years ago in Acts 17.

But with aspects added by Lamarck and Darwin, they simply made variations in this mythology. Rightly, it is still Greek mythology, but their new aspects can also be dubbed French mythology (Lamarck was from France) or English mythology (Darwin was from England). Sadly, WWII in Europe was instigated by Adolf Hitler, who bought into the English mythology of evolution.4

and the possiblilty your ‘God’ does not exist. If you dont think your faith can withstand this examination, then I guess ignorance is bliss!

When it comes to the existence of God, I have researched the subject as well— the classical arguments (which presume rational thought as the absolute standard) and the Transcendental Argument for the existence of God (which explains how the existence of the biblical God and mankind being made in His image provides the basis for rational thought).5 How have you disproved the transcendental argument for the existence of the biblical God?6

Who needs logic rationale and reason anyway.

Evolutionists don’t consistently believe in such immaterial things.

If you can believe a genocidal malevolant tyrant

Well, this is clearly not the biblical God as anyone could tell who has actually read the Bible. This is straw man fallacy that God-haters like Dr. Richard Dawkins have set up. Keep in mind that the last few genocidal, malevolent tyrants have been evolutionists like Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot.

wants you to ignore science, then you better do it!

I love science and have a Master’s degree in it. It is sad to see when evolutionists can’t tell the difference between evolution and science. It is a common equivocation fallacy on their part.

Mr. M., I would like to encourage you though. You have expressed a belief in evolution (with its atheism, since evolution comes out of an atheistic worldview), yet you are living your life borrowing from the biblical worldview that morality, logic, and truth exist; science is possible; and the like.

I even presuppose that you wear clothes, which comes directly from a literal Genesis 3. Let’s face it, frogs don’t wake up in the morning and put their clothes on. The point is, you are living a life that is a contradiction. You follow the Bible in some areas (perhaps unknowingly), yet you argue against its truthfulness.

But it is time to stop and repent. It is time to change your life and start on the path of truth and righteousness. M., I would love to see you get saved through Jesus Christ and be reconciled with God. It seems you have a passion for standing up to things you feel are wrong, which is a biblical attribute. That is something I would hope you continue to do. But you need to understand what is right and wrong and have a basis for it like the Bible. I want to encourage you to begin the journey. A good book to get you a good overview of who God is and what the Bible is all about with selected passages from the Bible is simply entitled Begin.

At the very least, it would help you understand who God is and what the Bible teaches on a number of subjects.

With kindness in Christ,
Bodie Hodge

Footnotes

  1. Evolution is an atheistic worldview and one of the popular forms of secular humanism. Evolutionism is really an attempt to explain life without God. Sadly some Christians try to mix this religion with the truth of God’s Word. Similarly, many Israelites mixed the religion of Baal with worshipping God. The Lord was not happy with them. Is God happy with mixing evolution and Christianity?
  2. Also see Were Angels Created in the Image of God?.
  3. For a concise review of some of these positions see Ken Ham, Gen. Ed., New Answers Book 3, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2010, pp. 271–282.
  4. Hitler was purely an evolutionist and gave up any thoughts of God. For more on this, see Hitler’s Second Book, The Unpublished Sequel of Mein Kampf, dictated in 1928. It can be purchased offsite.
  5. Ken Ham, New Answers Book 3, pp. 263–270.
  6. Being in the vein of Van Til in philosophy, I’ve tried to follow this debate. For good summary of people’s attempts to refute TAG, please see The Transcendental Argument for God’s Existence by Michael R. Butler.

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