Stone the Preacher

Here is a comment from a past post. How would you answer this atheist? Does he have a valid point?

Hi Steve–

I find your videos with people standing on busy intersections really strange.

To me at least, if I were a pedestrian waiting at a busy intersection for a light to change while somebody was barking a sermon into my ear with a MEGAPHONE, I can pretty much guarantee that as I walked away with ears ringing, I wouldn’t be thinking “Gee! I need to get right with God, so I can spend eternity with THAT guy!”

I’m an atheist. People like you generate people like me.

—Captain Howdy

If I had no hope of an afterlife, and if I thought I was here by sheer chance (or something like that), and if there was no real purpose in life, I’d send one of these!

If I thought that I was put here on a pale blue planet for no other reason than to make a debilitating carbon footprint and to eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow I die, then I would send one of these.

And if I didn’t believe in God, was not culpable to a Being greater than I, had no fear of recompense for my moral failures—and sin…. If I was able to ignore my conscience and all those crazies warning me to repent because my time was short—then I  would send one of these cards to my temporal acquaintances who are simply living meaningless, purposeless lives.

Merry Christmas to all my unbelieving friends (who have no real reason to celebrate this season). C’mon, “Reasons Greetings” doesn’t really cut it now, does it? Does it?

(Want to read what’s inside the snowman card?) (more…)

I was delighted to find this little ditty by an atheist commenter under this post. 

IF
(by Weemaryanne)

If truth-or-dare is neither here nor there,
and if any fool’s a teacher –
If ignorant sass in science class
may reasonably feature –
If that’s the case, then slap my face
and welcome Stone The Preacher.

Have you read all seven parts of “You might be an atheist fundamentalist if…” yet?

Because of an atheist’s video I was able to be interviewed on a secular radio station in St. Paul, Minnesota about the “Origin of Species” book give-away on college campuses.

You can listen here to Patrick Reusse and Co. at am15000 KSTP. It’s at the very start of the show. (Just you wait, the evolutionists will say that I misrepresented their case.)

Because of an atheist’s video, my blog doubled, tripled, even quadrupled in visits last week! And they continue….

Because of an atheist’s video, over 260,000 people saw a few portions of my interview with Ray Comfort, further promoting the special 150th anniversary edition of Darwin’s “Origin of Species” with an introduction that includes the Law and Gospel.

So, just who is this atheist that I’m thankful for?

His name is Thunderf00t.

He saw my interview with Ray, cut it up, ridiculed it, posted it on YouTube and… furthered the Gospel message!

Who woulda guessed?

Thank you for all your efforts! And welcome to all the evolutionist/atheists who have visited so far. I appreciate you all! XXXXXOOOOOXXXO!

Bill Maher, host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher said this:

“I preach the gospel of ‘I don’t know.’ And I think people have had, you know, so many religious movies, they’ve had the Passion of the Christ and they’ve had The Robe and The Ten Commandments. Isn’t there time for one, for the tens of millions of people who are rationalists who think like I do and who are afraid that the Sarah Palins of the world are going to be taking over? We’ve had eight years of George Bush and a faith-based administration. We can’t afford another.”
—From an interview with Harry Smith, during an appearance on The Early Show on CBS, 9/29/08

Read more absurdity from the same interview… (more…)

A year ago I posted this sentiment from Bishop Carlton Pearson found on a Starbucks cup: “In reality, Hell is not such an intention of God as it is an invention of man. God is love and people are precious. Authentic truth is not so much taught or learned as it is remembered. Somewhere in your pre-incarnate consciousness you were loved absolutely because you were. Loved absolutely, and in reality, you still are! Remember who you are!”

Here’s where the Bishop finds himself today, according to an article by OneNewsNow:

TULSA, Okla. – A once prominent leader in the charismatic movement has been forced to shut down his church in the wake of a radical change in his theological beliefs.

Eight years ago, Bishop Carlton Pearson’s Higher Dimensions Church had about 6,000 members. He served as a guest host on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, was a member of the Oral Roberts University board of trustees, and was among group of black religious leaders who advised President-elect George W. Bush after the 2000 election.

But Pearson then began preaching that everyone goes to heaven, a theology he calls “the gospel of inclusion.” Not long after, evangelical leaders rejected Pearson, the membership in his church fell to a few hundred, and the church’s property was lost in foreclosure.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
(Galatians 1:8-9)

Dave is an atheist. He responded a few weeks ago to a posting called “You might be an atheist fundamentalist if…” How would you answer his question below? Be nice, please. (I have contacted him and asked him to look for this post.)

Number one applies to me: “You became an atheist when you were 10 years old, based on ideas of God that you learned in Sunday school. . . .”

My Sunday school claimed to teach the eternal absolute perfect truth about God as directly revealed in the King James Version of the Bible, the only correct version that has ever existed. They also taught that if I didn’t believe every word of the Sunday school lesson, I would roast in hell forever, my molten skin dripping away from my bones.

This church further explained that to have the least doubt about anything the pastor said was equivalent to (1) a complete rejection of God, (2) an utter rebellion against all forms of righteousness, and (3) a loving embrace of Satan, whose realm offered me nothing but an ever-increasing level of torture as fuel for the flames that would sear the next batch of sinners tumbling into the bottomless pit.

“. . . Your ideas about God haven’t changed since.”

Since this church was delivering nothing but the unalterable facts from the unassailable Bible about the unchanging God, no error was possible, so my ideas had better not change. Otherwise I would be straying into heretical fallacy, sure to face Divine wrath at the Great White Throne of judgment, after which Our Heavenly Father would dispatch me to choke and gag on the sulfuric fumes of the Devil’s playground. (Watch out for those pitchforks!)

Explain to me why Christianity has to use that kind of threat to get small children to believe, and I’ll quit being an atheist.

(Steve’s note: If I don’t get many responses that answer this man’s sincere question, then I will respond  next week.)

The Orange County Register reported on the street performers who barely co-exist on Saturday afternoons at the Huntington Beach Pier. Here’s a sample of what this paper thinks of the evangelists who preach there every week:

Lucky John Domingue, who hammers nails up his nose as part of his act, says the performers have worked out a system where they take turns to avoid having everyone going at once. John said he tried to get Christian evangelist Ray Comfort to join the rotation, but to no avail.

“The performers aren’t causing problems. We’re organized,” Domingue said. “The Christians set up directly in front of us.”

Comfort, who co-heads a Christian evangelist ministry based in Bellflower called The Way of The Master, said he didn’t participate in the rotation because of a disagreement about allotted time per performer.

The New Zealand native offers spectators money from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on almost every Saturday at the plaza if they answer a few questions. Comfort ends up yelling at them and calling them liars before he asks them to come to God.

“We get 50 people maybe, 100 people if someone is going to beat me up,” said Comfort who uses in-your-face tactics. “But that hasn’t happened in Huntington Beach.” (Read the rest of the story and see the photos here.)

Read how Huntington Beach bicycle taxi drivers got their revenge here!

(In light of Mr. Carlin’s passing on June 22, 2008, I thought it appropriate to run these quotes from him.)

“Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do.”
“And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you!”

Here’s a few more:

“Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.”

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.”

(Unfortunately, I don’t think Carlin was a believer…)

(Read the first 7 collections starting here.)

45. You contend that no war in history has ever been created by non-belief. Yet, when you are told that 176 million people lost their lives in wars during the last century, created by non-believers like Stalin, Lenin, Mao and Hitler, to name only a few, you reply that those wars fought were fought in the name of ideology and not ‘atheism’ because atheists “don’t fly planes into buildings or start wars.”

46.You accept (and quote back to Christians) any number of works that say Jesus wasn’t the Son of God and call them “honest”, “thought-provoking”, and “scholarly” proof, even when they completely contradict each other and come to completely different conclusions.

47. You believe that when our forefathers were framing the Constitution, they were staunch deists; but when they were beating their slaves, they were Bible-believing Christians.

48. You think that the Declaration of Independence is unconstitutional because it mentions “The Creator”.

49. On that basis, you think that the Declaration of Independence is therefore void and the United States should return to British rule.

50. When it is returned to British rule, you plan to go straight to London and tell those Brits that having the Anglican church as a state church violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

More to come at a later date!

Here is a conversation direct from Godtube between a friend of mine who defends Christianity, and an atheist who hates my video “Blasphemy Challenge 666.”

AgainstAllGods: We will no longer be oppressed by the fascism of christianity!!!!!!

oldmikey: Interesting comment.

AgainstAllGods: It’s interesting because it’s true.

oldmikey: Do you honestly feel oppressed by Christianity?

AgainstAllGods: You have no Idea.

oldmikey: You have got me curious. In what way has Christianity oppressed you? Please feel free to not answer. I will understand.

AgainstAllGods: The new faith based laws. The pedophilia, Teaching kids that only abstinence will prevent STDs. Religious wars. Ted Haggard. Jerry Falwell. The ku klux klan. Right wing policy. Fascism. Segregation. Too many more to count.

oldmikey: Thanks for sharing. “Faith based laws” usually are just common sense laws. “Pedophiles”- always wrong. Catholic Church made a big mistake in the way they handled it. “Abstinence” is the best way to prevent STDs, but you are correct in that there are others. I would tend to agree with the rest of your list as not being good things. To me none of these things should cause you to feel oppressed. You are free to make your own choices and no one should be forcing you to believe in God. Peace&thanks

AgainstAllGods: Yeah you are obviously an ignorant “CENSORED”. I can’t believe I wasted my time on a “CENSORED” like you. “CENSORED” off and die.

oldmikey: Sorry that your life is so miserable that you would respond the way you did. I was just attempting to reach out in a friendly way. May you find the peace and happiness that you seek.

They always have the same old recycled arguments…

Every now and again a post from this blog gets featured on some atheist site. Atheists respond with a flurry of diatribe, then scurry away, back to their holes, never to be heard from again—until the next posting that rouses their ire.

I laughed and shook my head when I read the following kind and sensitive rants from a man named Frank last week. In response to an article I wrote about my wife sharing her faith in spite of the Bell’s Palsy she continues to suffer from, he scribbled this:

Clearly, God is trying to tell you something! Clearly, your faith in Christ is solid, but yet, God has levered upon your wife things that he levered upon many sinners in the Bible! Clearly, you must be going about faith all wrong! God sends sickness as one means of punishment, as in Hebrews 12. Maybe you should try another religion.

Frank also had some encouraging words for a friend of mine arrested in a Communist country for evangelizing:

 Of course, the reason he was arrested may not have had anything to do with the fact that he was agitating, lying, or terrorizing people in that all-too-familiar Christian way. “REPENT,” the spittle-soaked lunatic sputtered, saliva coating his disgusted audience. “IF YOU DO NOT OBEY AND BLINDLY FOLLOW THE LAWS OF THIS COPPER-AGE TOME FOLLOWED BY SO MANY IN THE BIBLE BELT, YOU WILL SURELY WRITHE IN RIGHTEOUS TORMENT, AGONY, AND MISERY FOR AN ETERNITY! YOU DESERVE IT,” he continued, collapsing into a spasmodic, rabid heap.

Yeah, you people are totally sane.

But he reserved his strongest criticism for evangelists after he read a series of articles entitled “You might be a fundy atheist if…”

Ah, more idiotic antagonizing against secularists and rationalists from the snake-oil salesmen known as evangelists, and their shamanistic theology tutors.

Do you not see the absurdity of your beliefs? Talking serpents? The rejection of scientific values and evidence? The abandonment of sanity and “worldly” reasoning in favor of spiritual claptrap?

And you have the audacity to insist that others partake of your venomous delusions!

I took back my preaching stool from a Frank in Huntington Beach; I wonder if it’s him? (Click here to read about that…)