What Most Anti-Vaxers Don’t Understand

If a world-renowned doctor tells you that a particular medication or medical treatment is not good for you, should you believe him or her?

Answer: It depends.

When a world-renowned medical expert holds an opinion on a matter within his (or her) field of expertise, his opinion should be taken seriously. However, if you then learn that 95% of all experts in the same field of medicine believe that this particular expert is wrong on this issue, who should you believe?

Did you know that if you do a “google search” on the internet, randomly selecting any topic in medicine, you will probably find one or even several doctors who hold a very controversial position on that topic; a position that is contrary to the position of the overwhelming majority of other medical experts? So, is this small group of experts correct or is the overwhelming majority of experts correct? How would you know?

Many people today believe that if they spend a couple hours on the internet, they themselves can decide which group of experts is correct on complex medical issues. But is that really intelligent? We are talking about experts who have graduated from a university, then attended medical school or graduate school, and then have spent years conducting research in their specialized field of study! What makes you think that you can judge which group of highly educated and specialized experts is correct? Are you a specialist in this particular medical field? Are you a doctor? Did you graduate from college with a degree in science? Did you even attend college?? Surprisingly, many anti-vaxer bloggers on the internet, acting as if they are authorities on Covid and vaccines, don’t even have a college education.  These bloggers are asking readers to trust their health and their very lives to someone with a high school education!  How outrageous.

“But the majority of experts can be wrong!” I have heard many anti-vaxers say. Sure. The majority of experts can be wrong—once in a great while—and the small minority of experts can occasionally be right.

Let’s look at this topic using an analogy: If you decide to place a very large bet in a horse race, choosing to bet on a long shot when you are not an expert in race horses, that is a very, very risky bet! The odds heavily favor you losing your bet! Even if there are a couple of racing “pros” who advise you to bet on the long shot and against the heavily favored horse, is that a wise bet? What do these experts know that all the other experts don’t? If you are just betting a couple of bucks, go ahead. Live on the wild side! Have some fun! But if you are betting everything you have, you are risking financial ruin! Wouldn’t such a long shot bet be foolish?

Yet that is exactly what you are doing with your very life when refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19! The overwhelming majority of medical experts believe that the Covid-19 virus is real, that it is deadly, and that the vaccines against it are safe and effective against coming down with severe illness, being hospitalized, and dying. A recent study demonstrated that 96% of all physicians in the United States have been fully vaccinated against Covid. That percentage represents an overwhelming majority of medical experts who by their own actions endorse being vaccinated against this deadly disease. Betting that this overwhelming majority of medical experts is wrong; that they have been fooled by the drug/vaccine industry; and betting that the 4% of doctors who aren’t vaccinated (for whatever reason) are correct is like betting on a very, very long shot horse. It’s like betting on a long shot horse with odds worse than 1:20! That is a very risky bet, folks. Unless you have insider information about this long shot horse and insider information about all the horses your horse is running against, this is a DUMB bet! Again, if you just bet a couple of dollars on this long shot, so what. But if you bet your entire life savings (and your children’s life savings) on this long shot, you are being very, very foolish.

Don’t be a fool, dear friend! Go with the odds. Bet with the 96% of medical experts who themselves have been vaccinated against Covid; who themselves have bet on the life-saving benefits of being vaccinated against a disease that has now killed more Americans than the 1918 Spanish flu!

Losing this bet could cost you more than your life savings. It could cost you your life! Get vaccinated today!

True. But should you bet your life on a long shot? No. The odds are that you are going to lose and the consequences of losing are horrific.

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A Pandemic of Stupidity

Within weeks, the United States will reach a tragic milestone: More people will have died from the Covid-19 pandemic than died from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (675,000). Many of these Covid deaths were preventable. A vaccine, which was not available in 1918, is available in 2021. Yet millions of Americans today refuse to trust scientists and medical experts who overwhelmingly endorse the efficacy and safety of the vaccines, instead listening to Fox News and other right wing media pundits for their medical advice.

How stupid. What a bunch of idiots.

Science, the Scientific Method, and trust in consensus expert opinion are the foundations of an advanced, industrialized society.

What has happened to the once great United States of America???

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Did Jesus Prophesy the Destruction of the Temple?

The Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. ² Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” –Matthew 27

Did Matthew the Apostle hear Jesus make this prophesy? The evidence is poor that he did. Even many evangelical Bible scholars (Richard Bauckham and NT Wright) doubt or at least question that Matthew the Apostle wrote the Gospel of Matthew, primarily because it would be odd for an eyewitness to copy so much of another author’s work (the Gospel of Mark) who was not an eyewitness (allegedly, John Mark). It is estimated that the author of Matthew incorporated over 90% of the Gospel of Mark into his Gospel, often copying Mark word for word. Why would he do such a thing if he had witnessed these events himself? That doesn’t make sense.

Bottom line, the authorship of ALL the Gospels is disputed, that is a fact. Even most Roman Catholic Bible scholars—who believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and in miracles—reject the apostolic authorship of the Gospels.

Let’s look at the first Gospel written, the first Gospel to contain the alleged prophecy in which Jesus predicts the future destruction of the Temple. The overwhelming majority of scholars date the writing of the Gospel of Mark to sometime between 65-75 CE. That means that it is possible that the prophecy about the destruction of the Temple occurred before the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. If this is the case, then it is certainly possible that Jesus did make this prophesy. But, it is also possible that this prophecy was simply a lucky guess, either by Jesus or by the author of Mark. The author of Mark, if writing in 65-69 CE, knew that trouble was brewing between the Jews and the Romans as the Jewish-Roman Wars started at about that time, and predicting a Roman triumph, knew that the destruction of the Temple, the last place where Jewish authority had been allowed under Roman rule, would be the probable outcome of a failed Jewish revolt. If the Romans won the Jewish-Roman War, everyone knew the Temple was doomed.

So this “prophecy” has four possible explanations:

–Jesus did have fortune-telling powers
–Jesus made a lucky guess
–Jesus never said this, the author of Mark made a lucky guess and invented Jesus making a prophecy about the Temple before the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.
–the author of Mark, writing after 70 CE and knowing all about the destruction of the Temple, invented the prophecy to make it look like Jesus had fortune-telling powers.

If we were talking about a prophesy from any another religion, I will bet that most Christians would assume that the correct answer is 2, 3, or 4. So why do they assume the answer is 1 for their religion? The chances are very high, based on the evidence, that this prophecy was an invention of the author of Mark.

I suggest the answer is: They have a bias; Christians WANT the prophecy to be real. You are not using good critical thinking skills, my Christian friends.

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If Jesus Prophecies Are So Good, Why Aren’t They in History Textbooks?

I know I have posted on this topic before but it is a very important issue in the debate regarding the truth claims of Christianity. It is a topic which exposes the weakness of the Christian argument that there is good historical evidence for the claim that the first century peasant, Jesus of Nazareth, is the resurrected Creator God of the universe.

“Fulfilled prophecies!” This is one of the principal pieces of evidence that many Christians give for why we non-believers should believe in Jesus the Resurrected Corpse as our Lord and Master. (How ghoulish!)

Yet, if the alleged prophecies about Jesus were as amazing and as good as Christians say, shouldn’t we find these amazing predictions in the Guinness Book of World Records and in history textbooks?? But we don’t. Why? Christians will make up all kinds of silly rationalizations for why these amazing feats are not recorded in record books or textbooks, such as, “historians and record keepers have a bias against Christianity”. Baloney. If the Bible contained detailed, specific, accurate futuristic predictions, the whole world would know about them. The fact is that ALL the alleged prophecies about Jesus in the Christian holy book are contested and/or vague.

Here is an example of a good prophecy:

In 1932, an imam in Pakistan published a book in which he prophesied that on September 11, 2001, two airplanes will deliberately crash into the tallest skyscrapers of New York City bring them both crashing to the ground.

That is an example of a good prophecy! It is specific and detailed. (It is also pure fiction. It is my invention. No such prophecy was ever made.) Fortune-tellers, palm readers, mediums, and bible prophets (male mediums/sorcerers) never make specific, detailed prophecies!

Here is an example of a bad prophecy:

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask ^aa sign of the Lord your⁶ God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he⁷ said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you ^bweary my God also? 14 Therefore the ^cLord himself will give you a sign. ^dBehold, the ^evirgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name ^fImmanuel.⁸ 15 He shall eat ^gcurds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 ^hFor before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be ⁱdeserted. 17 ^jThe Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that ^kEphraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

Christians believe there is a prophecy in that passage that predicts that centuries after the death of King Ahaz, a Jewish virgin will give birth to God the Creator! How ridiculous. This alleged “Jesus prophecy” is vague and non-specific. It is a joke. Educated Christians should be ashamed to trot out this fortune telling nonsense as evidence for the historicity of their ancient tall tale!

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Dear Christian Apologist: How Old Were You When You First Believed in Jesus as Your Resurrected Lord And Savior?

This is one of my favorite questions when debating Christian apologists. It often throws them off guard. Some of them will even try to avoid answering it. Why? Because studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of evangelical Christians first believed in and committed their lives to Jesus the resurrected corpse as their “Lord and Savior” prior to the age of TWELVE!

Good god!

How can anyone claim to be “objective” if they have believed this ancient fairy tale as fact ever since they were a small child?

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Why Isn’t the Bible Listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for Most Accurate Prophecies?

Christian: No other book ever written has the amazing accuracy of its prophecies as does the Bible. 

Gary: After subjective personal feelings and perceptions of the presence of Jesus of Nazareth in their hearts and in their lives, the second most frequently mentioned evidence given by Christians for the reliability of the Bible is the alleged “amazing” accuracy of Biblical prophecies about Jesus. But the odd fact is, the only people on earth who seem to believe that the Bible is amazingly accurate in its prophecies about Jesus are Christians! The overwhelming majority of Jewish Bible scholars don’t believe that the Old Testament has any prophecies about Jesus or about any messiah who is born of a virgin, who is crucified for the remission of sins for all mankind, or who comes back from the dead. Christians allege that Jewish Bible scholars are biased. Ok, let’s ignore the fact that thousands of Jewish Bible experts for the last 2,000 years have extensively studied the Hebrew Bible, in Hebrew, and have not found any prophecies about a virgin-born, dying and rising messiah, what about the rest of the world’s historians and scholars? Can anyone provide a public university textbook written by a non-Christian which states that the Bible is amazingly accurate in its predictions (prophecies)? Let me know if you find one, but I highly doubt that such a textbook exists.

Why do the world’s non-Christian, professional historians fail to mention in their books the fact that the Bible contains the most accurate predictions of the future (prophecies) than any book on the planet, including the writings of Nastradamus? A conspiracy against Christianity?? Well, once again, let’s ignore the fact that the world’s non-Christian professional historians for some reason never mention the Bible as being the most accurate collection of futuristic predictions (prophecies). Let’s look at another category of book authors.

What about books written by collectors of record breaking events? If the Bible’s futuristic predictions are as amazingly accurate as Christians believe, why is this amazing feat not listed in any secular record book such as The Guinness Book of World Records? Nope. I checked. Not listed!

The fact is, the only people on the planet who believe that the Bible contains amazingly accurate prophecies about Jesus are Christians. Does anyone detect the signs of…bias?

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Dear Christian: How Much Sleep Do You Lose Worrying About Waking Up in the Muslim Hell?

Christian: …You [atheists] don’t have to worry about God’s existence right now, or all the way to your last breath. You, like all others, who go to their grave in disbelief on such shabby grounds will one day see Him on His Throne, and judging you. After all, the thought of God does tend to interfere with living your life the way you want to live it, so the next best thing is to just live it up while you can, and then…you will find out if it was all true, which I wager it is because of personal experience that I have not the ability to transfer to you or anyone else. You have to embark on that journey yourself to find out if it’s true or not. After all, you’ve obviously never really done your homework well enough to find out if He’s real or not after living your life thus far in rejection of the evidence all around you that you still question, even now.

Gary: How much sleep do you lose worrying about dying and waking up in the Muslim hell?

Christian: Zero.

Gary: I will bet that the reason you spend zero time worrying about the Muslim hell is the same reason why I and other atheists spend zero time worrying about the Christian hell: Lack of good evidence for the existence of the god in question.

Like atheists, you reject the existence of the Muslim god, the Hindu gods, the ancient Greek gods, the ancient Roman gods, the snake god, the river god, the sun god, etc., etc.. You, like atheists, reject the existence of hundreds of gods. Our only difference is that we atheists reject one more imaginary god than you do!

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What Evidence Should We Require for Very Unusual Truth Claims?

Christian reader of this blog: Good morning! When I am studying, I look at more than one translation; lately I especially like to see Young’s Literal Translation. Here is Luke 1:1-3:

Seeing that many did take in hand to set in order a narration of the matters that have been fully assured among us, 2 as they did deliver to us, who from the beginning became eye-witnesses, and officers of the Word, 3 it seemed good also to me, having followed from the first after all things exactly, to write to thee in order, most noble Theophilus.

Of course you could take that differently than I do… we all see things through our own world views. I have questioned literally everything about my Christian faith; with my educational background in science, I am trained to have a “high index of suspicion” so to speak. And I am still a Christian. I pray that you too will come home to Christ. Here is an interesting site on documentation of the words of Christ:

https://www.gospelevidence.com/about_me/
God bless you.

Gary: History records many, many instances of very sincere people claiming to have experienced very unusual, very extraordinary events. What criteria do you believe that we should use to determine which of these extraordinary claims are true and which are not?

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Is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod a Cult?

Ted Luebkeman, a Christian reader of this blog:

You don’t know what you are talking about [in reference to my claim under a previous post that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is a cult]. A cult looks at itself as the only vehicle for salvation. This is not and has never been the position of the LCMS nor any other conservative, orthodox or traditional Christian denomination. The LCMS and other more conservative Lutheran groups are not “fundamentalist.” No Lutheran, conservative or not, can be “fundamentalist.”

Gary:

If you believe that others must believe like you or face eternal physical and/or mental torture for their unbelief, then you are a member of a cult. Period.

Conservative Lutheranism is simply a subset of the larger cult of conservative Christianity, a cult which teaches that those who reject Jesus of Nazareth, a delusional first century peasant, as their Lord and Master, are doomed to an eternity of some form of unpleasant punishment.

Eternal punishment for thought crimes! How disgusting.

Conservative Lutherans are fundamentalist in the sense that they believe that they alone possess the ultimate truth; that non-conservative Lutherans and all other Christians and non-Christians are not only wrong but sinful (evil, wicked) for their lack of proper belief; in need of repentance; deserving of divine punishment; and unworthy of “full fellowship”. When Muslims hold similar views the news media refers to them as “fundamentalists”. Therefore, when Christians, whether they be Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, hold similar views and behaviors regarding Christianity, they should likewise be referred to as “fundamentalists”.

I remember attending an LCMS service in which several former Presbyterians who wished to join my LCMS parish as members were made to undergo a ceremony in front of the entire congregation in which they were instructed to kneel before the Lutheran pastor and publicly repent of their “heretical” Reformed beliefs. In addition, teenagers undergoing confirmation in my LCMS church were required to pledge their loyalty to the Lutheran Church even under the threat of death.

That is a fundamentalist cult, folks!

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Utilizing the Methodologies of Religion and Science to Find a Black Cat in a Dark Room

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