So I'm sitting here at my parents' house...

[JesusHChrist]

A phd in theology is like a phd in warp drive propulsion or telly tubby anatomy.

With the output of the same value

[The Valkyrie]

A phd in theology is like a phd in warp drive propulsion or telly tubby anatomy.

With the output of the same value

Whew. Glad my Ph.d is in the internal workings of Gummy Bears!

[JesusHChrist]

At least gummy bears are tasty. In small doses anyway

[The Valkyrie]

At least gummy bears are tasty. In small doses anyway

People get freaked out when you start dissecting them in public - especially when you do it while muttering to yourself.

[Minimalist]

Doublechecked, he has a PhD in theology.

Greek for bullshit.

[Ravenshire]

My condolences that your parents are getting sucked it by Dr. Charles Stanley and his "In-Touch Ministries." While not as bad as some of the other whack-jobs out there, he does preach some rather poisonous religion and tries to sell all the books he can. Personally, the guy scares me more the the Pat Robertsons and Jimmy Swaggarts of the world because he's not as obviously fraudulent and crazy.

[SteelCurtain]

Oh, they're long gone on the Jesus train. I'm mot worried about that. And I was only there for 30 minutes and the number of commercials asking the sheeple to "support" the ministry was astounding. It's so see through from the outside, so comical.

[The Valkyrie]

Oh, they're long gone on the Jesus train. I'm mot worried about that. And I was only there for 30 minutes and the number of commercials asking the sheeple to "support" the ministry was astounding. It's so see through from the outside, so comical.

Yet those who are on the inside, especially the desperate, will just throw their money at them. It's kinda sad.

[RobbyPants]

The whole point of this sermon is that wavering faith is the reason Jesus doesn't do stuff for you. That a person whose faith is 'continuously waivering' is not doing Christianity right. Somehow, natural skepticism and reasoning is being vilified. I know in my head this is the kind of thing people believe. But, for the life of me, I cannot understand why as soon as this buffoon says "Reasoning oftentimes doesn't work with God, he is above all that," there isn't a mass exodus out of the super-mega-church complex. BAH!!!

Yeah, this shit has a bunch of scriptural basis in the NT. I'm sure the early Christians were well aware of skepticism and the problems it presented, so they vilified it pretty early on.

Matthew 17:20

20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus says "you can literally move mountains. No hyperbole! You just need more faith!", yet no one has ever done this. So, it's a great way to build some non-falsifiability into the religion's claims.

"Believe in Jesus and you will have miracles!*"
* Beliefs and miracles subject to restrictions and limitations any may not apply in all territories. Check to see if these miracles apply to you.


1 Corintians 1:25

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

We are told that our logic and reasoning mean nothing compared to God's Truth. It doesn't make sense to you? Too bad! It's your fault, not God's.


So, yeah, it's all turtles stifling questioning nonfalsifiable beliefs all the way down, with scripture to back it all up!

[thesummerqueen]

It's a pretty brilliant form of victim-blaming, actually - the guilt it causes keeps people coming back as they try to figure out what's wrong with them instead of what's wrong with the situation. It's the perfect abusive authority.