‘SCIENTISTS’ BALDERDASH BEATS GURUS: An international team of researchers have conducted a survey to see whether people have higher regard for statements made by scientists compared with spiritual leaders, even if the people don’t understand what has been stated. To do this they presented people with apparently erudite statements that were really nonsense generated by a computer algorithm that puts together modern-day buzzwords and technical terms into grammatically correct but meaningless sentences. The statements were neither overtly scientific or religious. The team surveyed 10,195 participants from 24 countries, asking them to rate how credible they found the statements. The sources of the statements were ascribed to either a person with a fictitious name and described as “a spiritual authority in world religions” or to someone else with a different fictitious name yet described as “a scientific authority in the field of particle physics”. Overall, the survey revealed people gave higher credibility rating to the “scientific authority” source than the “spiritual leader”, even by people who identified as being “religious”. The research team called this phenomenon the “Einstein effect” and summarised their results: “across all 24 countries and all levels of religiosity, scientists held greater authority than spiritual gurus”. They then concluded: “These findings suggest that irrespective of one’s religious worldview, across cultures science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information”.
References: Science Alert 13 February 2022; Nature Human Behaviour published online 7 February 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8.
ED. COM. This last statement may also sound like it came out of the balderdash producing algorithm, but it does make sense if you understand the term “heuristic” which means enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves. Therefore, these researchers were claiming that people see science, and therefore the teachings of scientists, as the way to find the truth. It is interesting that even people who considered themselves religious put scientists above spiritual leaders. This has provably happened in the Christian church over the past century and a half, as the evolutionary words of Darwin, Lyell, Dawkins and Attenborough and their followers have been elevated above the Word of God on Six Day Creation, Noah’s Flood and other Biblical issues.
It pays to remember that when something is not true, it won’t ever be made true by being said by scientists, no matter how many university degrees they may have. To find the truth you need to go to the One who is the truth – The Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke the truth and backed up His words with actions that only the Creator could do.
Finally, don’t let anyone bluff you with ‘heuristic’ balderdash or big words. If something looks or sounds like balderdash it probably is, and being said by a scientific or religious authority will not change that. God’s Word uses plain language, meant for all to understand. If someone claiming to have scientific or religious authority tries to make it more complicated than it is, or change the plain meaning to suit current popular theories, don’t let them confuse you. If someone tries to bluff you with big words don’t be intimidated. Politely ask them to explain. If they can’t give you an answer in plain language, they probably don’t know what they are talking about.
We were recently called upon to deal with this issue when we were asked about a book by Ken Coulson, a Science PhD who proposed a new theory that to many appears to reconcile Darwin’s and Lyell’s theories with Genesis. The same author also made claims about dogs and evolution. For our response to both his claims see the questions:
What do you think of the book ‘Creation Unfolding’ by Ken Coulson? Is it evolutionist? Answer here.
Dogs have undergone many changes since people have been breeding them. Surely this is evolution? Answer here. Also see the item on dog genes in this newsletter below.
Further questions related to the issue of scientific authority:
A School Chaplain claims students lose faith unless we teach God used evolution. How do you reply? Answer here.
Can you show me one error made by Richard Dawkins? Answer here.‘https://mailchi.mp/creationresearch.net/creation-research-email-update-23rd-february-2022?e=ce21bf0337
Fake News
All posts tagged Fake News
‘Our country is divided. Many say it is more divided than any time since the Civil War. Most of you readers live here, so this is no surprise to you. Many articles and even whole books have been written in the last decade on the division in the United States, but the present situation provoked some to write in the last month on the subject. The following paragraph represents writing in the last month on severe division in America.
The City Journal published an article by Andrew Klavan, titled, “At the Heart of Our Divisions.” Klavan, part of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, tries to explain the division as others have. Newsweek reports that a “Majority of Trump Voters Want to Split the Nation Into ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Halves.” The Las Vegas Sun reported it this way:
A new political poll offers an alarming look at the state of American unity and our population’s respect for some of the nation’s core values.
The poll, conducted by the University of Virginia’s nonprofit Center for Politics, shows that 52% of respondents who voted for former President Donald Trump were in favor of splitting the country into red and blue states, while 41% of voters for President Joe Biden agree with the idea. More than 2,000 voters participated in the poll, nearly equally divided between those supporting Trump and Biden.
Ed Kilgore at The Intelligencer, part of New York Magazine, writes, “No, We Can’t Get a National Divorce There’s growing sentiment for secession, particularly on the right. It should be rejected.” At Substack, Claremont senior fellow David Reaboi writes, “National Divorce Is Expensive, But It’s Worth Every Penny.” Karol Markowicz writes at the New York Post, “Sorry, but a national split up just won’t work.” Steven Malanga at the City Journal writes, “The New Secession Movement.” Conservative commentator Rich Lowry writes at Politico of all places, “A Surprising Share of Americans Wants to Break Up the Country. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.” Dan Rodricks writes at the Baltimore Sun, “Civil war unlikely, but the nation’s present course could still be disastrous.” Most of these were written in the last week, and there are more.
Okay, so there’s division. Everyone can agree with that. Putin of Russia and Xi of China smile. Why though? I’ve read or heard a lot of different reasons: media, tribalism, the education system, the deep state, and more. Klavan lists reasons in the first paragraph of his post. Those are typical, whole books written about them, but I believe these are surface reasons, I would call, non-worldview reasons, that are superficial and don’t dig deep enough.
My take on the acute and bitter division between states, people, and parties in the United States, I want to give credit, corresponds to something Nancy Pearcey writes about in her book, Total Truth. She explains a division portrayed by the lower and upper stories of a building or house with the lower story being “facts” and the upper story being “values.” Today you hear a lot about facts in the media, news, and schools. This is the “science is real” at the top of the leftist value sign. In this upper and lower story bifurcation, values are probably not what you think they are. Let me explain.
God is One. Truth, which proceeds from God, is also one. Pearcey’s proposition is “total truth,” the title of her book. There are not two stories that treat facts different than values, where values are constructed, personal and subjective. You can’t really know these with certainty. No, with God His natural laws, facts or science, are no different than moral laws. If you fall from the edge of a cliff, gravity sends you down to destruction. Breaking moral laws also destroys. Worse even. God is the Author of both.
Premoderns took a transcendent view of the world. Truth, goodness, and beauty, the transcendentals, all related to God. God transcending the world is the basis of the transcendentals. He’s not part of the world. He created it and having created it, He is separate from it. As James 1 says, that with God there is no shadow of turning. God is holy. He is Self-existent and immutable. Nothing affects Him. All meaning comes from God, so truth, goodness, and beauty, the transcendentals, are objective.
This world is God’s world. Even if someone doesn’t believe in God, they are living in His world. This is reality. The division breaks down into those who live in reality, recognition that this world functions according to laws according to which everyone must live, even if they reject the God of the Bible, and then those who don’t live in reality.
The ones not living in reality, which are one side of the division in the United States, see the top story, values, how they want to see them. It’s one reason they are called “values,” and not “morals” or “moral laws.” Using “values” is using language with power. Incidentally, part of critical theory is perfecting this language for use in reconstructing reality.
Looking at the world like two sides of the campus, religion, art, etc. on one side and then science, math, and engineering on the other, the blue part of the country thinks they can assign their own meaning on one side of the campus. They ultimately don’t want God in charge. They don’t want objective values that clash with what they want, so they make up their own and dismiss God or make up their own god that approves of their values. This is the basis for the Democrat party booing God when voting on their political platform in 2012. This is also how they justify killing babies.
The truth is that the blue states, people, etc. now assign their own meaning to science as well. They call it science like hanging out a shingle, pulling science out of a Cracker Jack box. Their subjectivity on the upper story, think of it as bad plumbing, has burst through into the lower story like a broken pipe. That side can’t tell you that a girl is a girl. This is one reason why many don’t want to go to college in this country anymore. They know it’s a racket that is not living in reality.
One side of the division in the country wants the nation to be called like it really is. Borders are representative of this. You can’t be a nation when you don’t protect, not just protect — how about acknowledge that you have a border. Whatever one thinks about the virus and masks and the vaccination, it’s understandable why a big chunk of the country doesn’t trust authority on this. I’m not going to even get into what Fauci has said. He doesn’t speak science and this is demonstrative on multiple occasions.
The government, the media that supports it, and now even corporations are all in on the lies. They allot whatever meaning they want and they expect you to receive it. If you don’t, now they’ll even prosecute you. They’ll fire you. If you don’t put on their particular pin, which supports whatever lie that they deem correct, you might lose your job.
I believe most churches too have succumbed to the two stories I’ve described. They put beauty, music, dress in the personal, the subjective, the top story. They capitulate on basic doctrine and practice to accommodate for popularity and numbers. Their targets see the world according to the lie of these two stories. They know it and they concede to it. This does not bode well for the country. Even if the nation does split into two parts, what will happen to the red side when the churches have taken the same basic approach to truth? This is the most fundamental aspect of worldliness in churches today.
Another metaphor to demonstrate what the division of truth, the two story view, does to the country is a rudderless ship. The country has no certain belief to hold it together or to give it direction. It moves according to whatever current or wind produced by the world, like a float or a bob on an aimless sea. The force of popularity, what scripture would call lust, the combined desires of the population, decides what is it’s truth, it’s goodness, and it’s beauty, whatever each of these is in their own eyes.
Everything above explains the division in the country. Maybe the next question is, what is the solution to this division? That, my friend, is much more difficult.’https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/10/10/what-is-the-primary-cause-of-division-in-the-united-states/
It probably doesn’t come as any real surprise but the enemy has taken over the education system.
‘According to a terrifying report from the Heritage Foundation, as of 2019 there were already 4,500 schools teaching the New York Time’s incorrect and anti-American 1619 Project!
I couldn’t find more up to date data, but Heritage’s 2020 report is shocking enough. Thousands of schools are indoctrinating their students with the Marxist propaganda contained in that abominable project.
While you should read the full report, available here, the most important takeaway is that thousands of schools are teaching this communist hogwash and tens of thousands of students are being indoctrinated with the 1619 propaganda.’https://genzconservative.com/the-1619-project-is-already-being-taught/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=occupied-america-racist-anti-racism-and-the-contradictions-of-american-life_199
The New Zealand Government is pretty WOKE as well as being under the thumb of the CCP. There’s also something else to consider and that is the NZ media. ‘Is it because of the $55 million bestowed upon them – the “trusted media” (Jacinda’s words) – by a beneficent government eager for them to put the right spin on the story?
Just asking.
As many Kiwis now know, Jacinda in on record having pronounced from on high to the assembled reporters: “We will continue to be your sole source of truth” regarding the Covid story.
I didn’t notice any outrage coming from the “Fourth Estate” at that outrageous remark, no shrieks or even murmurs.
Just crickets.
They just swallowed hard; their paymaster had just spoken.
Just another day on the plantation.
That the press has bought into the patently ridiculous idea that the government is the sole source of “truth” means that any hope we might entertain that mainstream would do its job and investigate the true ramifications of this Covid pandemic – is misplaced and futile.
Remember this when you look at stuff.co.nz or pick up the NZ Herald. Much of your “news” has been bought and paid for, not only by big advertisers, but by a government beholden to a monumentally huge “Big Pharma” which has been “calling the shots” for many years, and is now fully determining what New Zealanders hear and see about Covid and other vaccines.
And I am not just referring to these poisonous, potentially DNA altering “shots”, although I can live with the double entendre.
I am referring to a government that knows who its boss is, just like the media know who’s its boss.
So it’s no surprise that New Zealand’s “trusted media” has gone along with the YouTube, social media and mainstream media censorship agenda, attacking New Zealand’s honest vaccine sceptics like The Real News, AdvanceNZ and Voices for Freedom together with thousands of doctors and scientists around the world.
– Including America’s Frontline Doctors which together with thousands of doctors worldwide came out strongly in favour of Hydroxychloroquine.
Many people here have stood with NZ’s courageous lawyer Sue Grey who has dared to notice that not only does the “official story” not stand up under scrutiny, governments the world over – including NZ – are using the pandemic to grab what amounts to dictatorial power over all our lives.
The facts, which our “trusted media” have refused to acknowledge, are simple:
- There are several preventative and successful treatment options for Covid. These include Hydroxychloroquine with zinc, Ivermectin, intravenous vitamin C, vitamin D, and probably the amino acid lysine, among others.
- Any of these when used appropriately can stop Covid in its tracks.
- All are cheap as chips, and because they work, they are seen as a huge threat to vaccine companies like Pfizer and Moderna. Who would go for a poorly tested experimental vaccine when a few dollars worth of Ivermectin or intravenous vitamin C would do the job with few, if any, side effects?
- Consequently there is not only an embargo on success stories in the mainstream media, there is a concerted effort by mainstream to rubbish those outlets like The Real News that dares to publish … well, the real news.
- And shockingly the NZ Ministry of Health at this writing, more than a year since the pandemic began still does NOT recommend ANY therapies (drug or natural) to treat Covid-19, other than hand washing, social distancing, masks and vaccines. This is international and it’s an outrage.
Recently “official organs” like Radio NZ, The NZ Herald and Stuff.co.nz have gone out of their way to disparage Voices for Freedom and The Real News for publishing “misinformation” – their new favourite word – with four articles up to now.
They never quite get around to telling anyone what this “misinformation” actually is. “Misinformation” is what the government is giving the people of New Zealand.
Instead they dredge up some pompous academics to riffle through The Real News on camera, trying to disparage the magazine with selected adjectives and shopworn epithets – but never once contesting the facts.
They question the qualifications of our writers, without ever acknowledging that our sources include medical journals like The Lancet, and official sites like VAERS, or even a highly respected German neurologist.
Instead they trot out people like Dr. Nikki Turner (who works for IMAC which promotes vaccination and gets funding from “private industry”) and “vaccinologist” Helen Petousis-Harris to tell the country how “safe and effective” the vaccines are. (She omits to say that the touted 95% efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA Covid-19 vaccine was based on approximately two months follow up of trial participants.)
Petoussis-Harris is also on record as saying that there have been “hundreds of millions who have had [Covid vaccines] and there’s no indication they kill people.” Yikes.
This is a ridiculous statement in view of the cases of people who have developed severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) within a few minutes of Covid vaccination and subsequently died – despite the best efforts of medical staff to save their lives.
The website of the US government Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) includes thousands of reports on “Adverse Events” like deaths and serious new medical conditions following injection with experimental Covid jabs but people like Helen Petousis-Harris seem to want you to believe that this tidal wave of reported new medical conditions and deaths of recently vaccinated people is all a coincidence.
The fact is that in NZ, the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine was approved only for a “limited” number of recipients – not the entire country.
This has been the subject of a recent case in the High Court in which the judge agreed that the roll out of the Covid vaccine in NZ was not legal – but declined to stop the vaccination programme.
The NZ government’s response was to first issue a press release stating that they would update the law, and then to change the law so that the illegal roll out would become legal. (The phrase “making it up as they go along” comes to mind.)
And in the United States the Covid vaccines only have “Emergency Authorisation” from the FDA and not full approval, which may or may not come in 2022 and 2023.
However, although they don’t have any evidence for their assertions, mainstream media continue to fulfil their assigned role as “trusted media”.
So they puff themselves up with their titles, credentials and adjectives.
And hope that you haven’t been paying attention.
If you have been reading The Real News, you will know that its sources are impeccable, the evidence available for verification by anyone with a computer and an internet connection.
“Anyone” includes “trusted” journalists working for “trusted” media companies.
But they don’t want to look.
The facts might spoil their narrative.’https://advancenz.nz/nz-mainstream-media-caught-lying-again/
The Big Tech giants such as YouTube and Facebook are truly Leftist propaganda puppets. Use them when they allow you to but also find conservative alternatives. If the facts don’t square with their Leftist facts they censor you. Now, ‘Steven Koonin is one of the country’s top physicists. He worked for President Barack Obama, a Democrat, as Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. Science Feedback, one of Facebook’s “independent fact-checkers,” is barring reviews about his book, “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t and Why It Matters,“ and classifying its content as false.
“Mr. Koonin is no ‘climate denier,’ to use the concocted phrase used to shut down debate,” The Wall Street Journal writes in a review of the book. “The word ‘denier’ is of course meant to associate skeptics of climate alarmism with Holocaust deniers. Mr. Koonin finds this label particularly abhorrent, since ‘the Nazis killed more than two hundred of my relatives in Eastern Europe.’ As for ‘denying,’ Mr. Koonin makes it clear, on the book’s first page, that ‘it’s true that the globe is warming, and that humans are exerting a warming influence upon it.'”
“The heart of the science debate, however, isn’t about whether the globe is warmer or whether humanity contributed,” The Wall Street Journal continues. “The important questions are about the magnitude of civilization’s contribution and the speed of changes; and, derivatively, about the urgency and scale of governmental response. Mr. Koonin thinks most readers will be surprised at what the data show. I dare say they will.”‘ For more https://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2021/05/20/facebook-fact-checkers-punish-and-censor-debate-on-climate-science-n2589647?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/20/2021&bcid=08b5a1e2f2263b83e918fb56d7a12a3e&recip=26169367
One doesn’t have to have much medical knowledge to see that teetering Fake President Joe has a problem. Yes, there definitely is something ‘…very wrong with Joe Biden—mentally, medically, strategically—or all three.
Of course, he’s long been known as a tone-deaf gaffe-meister. Swearing on live mics. Patronizing politically. As head of administration transparency for Barack Obama, Biden closed the meetings.
Last year, as a candidate for the Democrat nomination, Joe spent much time looking lost in his own Delaware basement. All presidents since 1952 have used teleprompters, few more than Biden’s boss, Obama, who once comically used one standing in the dusty poop of a rodeo arena.
Those machines can be tricky, and the user is expected to appear to speak spontaneously and genuinely from the heart while robotically reading aloud every single word written by someone else scrolling before your eyes. Recall 2016 when Hillary Clinton, likely the worst modern presidential candidate, went on autopilot and even read aloud her parenthetical script directions “(PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE).”
Biden did overcome a childhood stutter. No easy task, but essential for politicians since the invention of radio. Biden’s problems, however, aren’t stuttering. He often appears confused, lost, unsteady, unprepared. Last fall he clearly had no idea what he wanted to say, so at times gave the teleprompter operator on-camera directions—“No, go back.” At one appearance Biden lost track of where he was, standing with his back to the camera.
He shunned spontaneous contact even with cooperative reporters, hardly taking questions. Aides, cupping his elbow for leverage, steered the 77-year-old (now 78) briskly through crowds. Before reducing personal appearances, Biden rambled, often without a point beyond being heard. One time when Jill Biden was speaking and gesturing, Biden put her hand in his mouth. Presumably, he was being silly, but it was a bizarre, worrisome action. Last month she interrupted one joint interview to finish her husband’s wandering answer.
Biden’s campaign days often ended by 9 a.m., while 73-year-old Donald Trump was doing four or five major rally speeches in multiple states daily. You might argue Biden’s absence was strategic to give an imploding Trump the full media spotlight. But it’s not the image of a sharp, fully competent chief executive confident and eager to lead the free world on the world stage.
At one town hall in Iowa, Delaware resident Biden asked audience members how the infrastructure was there in Ohio. Easterners do seem susceptible to confusing Iowa and Ohio. But that’s a dumb mistake casting doubt on mental acuity if you’re campaigning to be president of all Americans. Especially four years after your coastal party lost the election by ignoring most of the Heartland.
In office, Biden has been no model of action beyond photo-op signings. While a masked Kamala Harris stands stoically behind him, the oldest man to become POTUS sits at an empty impromptu desk with an immense presidential seal and his notes. On one Zoom conference with Democrats Biden offered to take questions. Boom! The video feed was instantly terminated. At another event the president couldn’t remember his defense secretary’s name, standing right next to him. While memory losses can occur ordinarily, they are also early signs of dementia, according to medical studies.
When Biden did get out of the White House, he had last week’s disastrous trip up the stairs of Air Force One, where he stumbled not once, not twice, but thrice. As my colleague Nick Arama and others have chronicled here, inept aides, who might have credibly dismissed the awful image as something that happens to everyone sometimes, blamed the wind. The wind? The President of the United States, who must face Xi Jinping, Kim Jung-un, and those murderous mullahs, was felled by the wind? This’s the best line Biden’s band of experienced aides can devise?
You saw much media attention last week on Biden’s exclusive network interview with a handpicked former Bill Clinton aide. It was taped Wednesday but not broadcast until Thursday. What you likely missed in the avalanche of adulation was a tiny italic note on ABC’s transcript—“Edited for Clarity.”
So, in those intervening 24 hours, Joe Biden’s potential confusions, mumblings, mistakes were edited for clarity? Seriously? By whom? Former presidential aides had never heard of such a thing. ABC didn’t answer an email request for clarification. But media does not clean up a president’s words for him. White House officials do not allow anyone else to play with presidential words. And you don’t let the White House change what’s on tape either, certainly not without a full public explanation.
Thursday’s scheduled live news conference should preclude such tinkering.
More importantly, exactly what did Biden confuse? Americans have a right to know without sympathetic media covering for him. And what might that reveal about his mental state? Most Americans know some elderly, even care for them. They understand old folks accidentally fall, forget daily details, confuse names. They’re sympathetic. It’s called aging; it happens to those of us who survive.
But elderly grandparents do not have the nuclear launch codes. They cannot send loyal sons and daughters in harm’s way for decades in distant lands on mission-creep operations. During his almost daily media encounters, Trump underwent nonstop scrutiny. He said and did many controversial things in those 1,461 days. But No. 45 launched no new military conflicts.
Biden has not held a solo news conference in his first two months, a modern record. Another dodgy piece of circumstantial evidence raising concerns about his cognitive condition among ordinary Americans, who may disagree on policies but covet confidence in any leader. Not to mention worried allies and opportunistic adversaries, who may see an opening.
Reminder: In 1962 the world came closest to Armageddon when the Soviet Union moved nuclear missiles into Cuba after Premier Nikita Khrushchev determined that John Kennedy was a weak president.
Biden’s first news conference is Thursday. But by seeking to hide what has become obvious infirmities, aides have not served him well so far. And media seem reluctant to press that issue hard. This has now gone beyond politics. The concerns must be addressed forthrightly.
Don’t hold your breath, though. Political coverups are just too tempting. Ask Andrew Cuomo.’https://redstate.com/andrewmalcolm/2021/03/22/a-detailed-and-disturbing-overview-joe-biden-looks-seriously-unwell-n347977
Dorothea Mackellar wrote:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
‘If you recall, last year around this time, the lead story was “global warming set Australia on fire”.
Last year we experienced one of the worst bushfire seasons in recorded history; the devastation was genuinely shocking. But like any natural disaster, climate change activists refused to let this grand opportunity pass without capitalising on it.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t deny climate change exists.
Of course, the climate changes; it’s been doing that forever. Take the old testament, for example; there’s evidence of the “climate-changing” throughout it, from the extreme floods in Genisis to the severe droughts in the book of the Prophets.
My issue is the narrative that man-induced global warming caused last years bushfires without any actual scientific evidence, just a lot of theory.
But even more dishonest than that, neglecting the critical facts, namely:
- The fact that we were experiencing a natural phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean Dipole, which, if you remember, none of the climate change protesters I spoke to at the time even knew what it was.
- In addition to the natural phenomenon, we also had extreme fuel loads on the ground, which resulted from Green policies restricting the amount of prescribed burning and fire breaks allowed.
The truth is, in Australia, we have always experienced intense bushfires, drought and flooding. We always will. Reducing carbon emissions may help; it definitely won’t stop the fires, droughts or floods.
The only thing scientifically proven is that managing the fuel load will stop bushfires from spreading so far and wide.
For example, take this year, no natural phenomenon plus all the fuel on the ground burnt away last year, and what do you know, a bushfire season that the media doesn’t want to discuss.
If global warming was responsible for Australia burning last year, then by definition, we should be burning hotter this year.’https://www.rebelnews.com/mild_bushfire_season_australia?utm_campaign=rb_5_6_21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel
If you understood what this Fake President said please leave me a message!
‘Do you realize that on Good Friday they killed the truth?
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Yet, we know that the truth came back! Jesus came out of the tomb, showed Himself to many and is alive to this day. The point is that no matter the evil forces coming against the truth, the truth “bounces back” and cannot be kept down.
Today it is the same. Truth is denounced at every hand. The crowds may holler in favor of unrighteousness – like they did for Barabbas – but God’s truth cannot be suppressed for long! The Bible teaches this throughout, holding forth the ultimate hope of victory over sin and death – including its roots in lies and deception. Jesus is indeed “the way, the truth, and the life”.
The Bible also teaches that we should not be surprised at the depth of depravity of mankind. We read, “For…men… hold the truth in unrighteousness…and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man… and changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:18-25).
Note in these famous texts that mankind has “changed” both “the glory” and “the truth”. They go together. “Glory” is synonymous with splendor and gorgeousness, brilliance and beauty. So the truth of God is correlated in the Scriptures to the resplendent beauty, the glory of God. And Jesus is that divine personification of truth and beauty.
Philosophers, poets and theologians have noted the link between truth and beauty. The poet John Keats famously and simply put it in his “Ode to a Grecian Urn”:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Lies, on the other hand, are ugly. Deceit is ugly. Sin is ugly. Thankfully, the judgments of our Lord are “true and righteous altogether”, and He is, thus, thoroughly glorious and brilliantly beautiful! He has marked His creation with the elegant and exquisite touch of beauty everywhere – in a profound proliferation of harmony in shape and sound and color that is at the same time magnificent and mysteriously intriguing so as to win our fascination and admiration.
Flowers blooming all around, leaves budding from the trees, and birds singing in the breeze. The sights and sounds of spring remind us again of the wonderfully refreshing beauty of God’s creation! But what forms and functions define beauty and the harmonious order which make things pleasant to look at and listen to? Philosophers have wondered about this for ages. Nature is full of a very pleasant beauty and harmony tied together by a mathematical order that is both elegant and mysterious.
We have written previously about how the ancient Greeks proposed what later became known as the “Golden Mean”, or the “Golden Ratio”, and still later as the “Divine Proportion”. The Golden Ratio can be used to draw Golden Spirals, Golden Rectangles and Golden Triangles, defining many forms and shapes in nature of what we consider beautiful in this world. The ratio is the famous irrational number (continuing infinitely) known as Phi, ϕ , 1.6180339887…. Its inverse ratio – the “Golden Section” – just happens to be 0.6180339887…, which is the exact same number to the right of the decimal. And its square, Phi2, is equal to 2.6180339887…, with the same infinite numeration to the right of the decimal. No wonder the Greek mathematicians found it mysterious and intriguing!
The Golden Ratio is actually defined mathematically by a particular sequence of whole numbers called the Fibonacci Series, after Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci who wrote about it in 1202 AD. The series, beginning from the origin, is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377… on to infinity. It is formed by adding two adjacent numbers in the series in order to get the next number: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, etc. And the ratio of any two adjacent numbers converges to the Golden Ratio – which means that the further out in the series you go, the more precise the value of Phi. For example, 13/8 = 1.625 and 377/233 = 1.618025.
Why would a series of numbers formed from the addition of adjacent numbers work out in such a way as to give this mysterious beauty-defining Golden Ratio? And why would the Fibonacci numbers themselves be so important and beautifying and harmonizing in nature, such as being so prevalent in the human form as well as in music? It is because our great Creator knew what He was doing and set it up that way! Our Creator arguably left us with a profound foreshadowing of His great and beautiful purpose of redemption in calling out the bride of Christ, His Church! “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). The addition of two “intimate” numbers is a picture of the addition of two “intimate” persons!
Interestingly, you can add any two sequential numbers together and develop a Fibonacci-type series where all numbers in the series are the sum of the two preceding numbers, and their ratio will also converge to the Golden Ratio! For example, starting with 5 and 6 we would get 5, 6, 11, 17, 28, 45, 73, 118, 191, 309, 500, 809…. The ratio of 118/73 = 1.616 and of 500/309 = 1.6181…. No matter what two numbers we begin with, the ratio of two successive numbers in ALL of these Fibonacci-type sequences always approaches a special value – the Golden Ratio, 1.6180339887.
There apparently is a special harmonizing and beautifying principle tucked into the addition of two adjacent whole numbers to form the next one. But starting with the origin itself, we get the perfected analogy. God, who is the Origin that has no origin, the uncaused Cause, created Adam. Then from Adam’s side, the Bible tells us He created Eve (0+1). Then those two, Adam and Eve, became “one flesh” to make the next person (1+1). And the rest is the history of the human race, populating the earth in an ongoing series where “intimate” males and females add together their individual sets of chromosomes to get the next person. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34….
The amazing beauty and marvels of Creation should indeed remind us and teach us of God. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…” (Romans 1:20a). Though mankind has “changed [or even horribly deformed] the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25a), as we noted earlier, the truth returns. It comes back victorious!’https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/the-truth-can-be-suppressed-but-not-permanently/?mc_cid=2380f1938c&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
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