Sol's Conundrum--a scientific approach

by Dr. Jason Lisle

DO NOT ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY, LEST YOU ALSO BE LIKE HIM.

ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY, LEST HE BE WISE IN HIS OWN EYES.


The "Answer, Don't Answer" mandate.

First, don't answer according to a fool's worldview,  making the same unwarranted and disastrous assumptions he makes.  True of materialism and relativism, two snakes that devour their own tales, heh...

Second, hold up a mirror to the foolish mindset that excludes God; such that they can see how they undermine themselves.

Example:"Christians are dishonest. They teach that God created the world some thousands of years ago, which is clearly false."  To which one may answer, "I don't accept your claim that teaching creation is dishonest. We are equally convinced that evolution as you teach it, is untrue." ( opposite worldview not accepted)

But the second part shows that the critic's objection is inconsistent, internally and externally. "But for the sake of argument, even if we were lying, why would that be wrong according to your worldview?  The idea that lying is wrong is not a universal human idea; The idea that lying is wrong is a Biblical concept. Lying is wrong because it is contrary to the nature of God.  But in an evolutionary paradigm, on what basis could I say that lying is wrong--particularly if it benefits my survivability?"

And the point I would  make is that Christians and Jews are not to lie--so long as they believe in God to the extent that they can rest in God, to make it right; to make it up to us, as it were, even though we may suffer for telling the truth. 

I have come to believe that in modern and post-modern science, truth-telling is out, and mere rhetoric is King. Telling the truth to power does not increase our survivability, esp. in the 10-40 window, where Mark is going, Burma, where Buddhist troops have been attempting to wipe out the Christian tribes for a long, long time. Not that these tribes have not resisted--but like South Sudan, they really are a separate country  oppressed by the centralist Burmese tribes.

The Irish saved civilization from the vantage point of isolated monasteries, and "white martyrs"--as well as red ones.  I think that that sort of thing must needs happen again, unless Christ comes first. Which I fully expect, but can't say when.