Have you been Decieved? Common Lies

Here are some common lies that our culture struggles with. Have you been deceived?

Lie	Truth
Pursuing happiness is my purpose.	Happiness is fleeting. You were created for more than seeking pleasure!
Love is a feeling.	Real love is a decision and a choice. It must be grown like a plant. Infatuation does not equal love.
Truth is what I feel it is.	Truth is absolute and is dictated by reality.
I'm a pretty good person, I'll probably go to heaven when I die.	We are compared to God not to the worse person in society. We all fail when compared to God. You need more than being good.
If I don't feel "in love" anymore, then I need to move to a new relationship.	Love is so much more than a feeling. You need to understand what love is before you look for happiness in the wrong places.
Life has no meaning or purpose	God created you. You are not an accident.You are not the result of random chance.
Real men do not express feelings	Real men have feelings, express them, and they even cry sometimes!
Women and men are interchangeable	Women and men are equals, but they have different strengths. We should embrace this, not ignore it!
I cannot help the way I am.	Yes we are born faulty and sinful, but we can overcome that! Do not give in.
New means better, improved, superior!	Newer does not always mean better. New lies seem to commonly replace old truths. Mankind likes to think we have progressed beyond some things, when really we just recycle our problems into newer problems!
I know what is best for me.	Just like a small child, we often demand our way because we know it is best. However, just like a small child, we are often wrong. What we want is often bad, wrong, unhealthy, dangerous, and the cause of many of our major issues without us realizing it.

and so many more.  A comprehensive list would be huge!

I have given this some thought, perhaps you should look into it?

*Note: If someone sent this article to you, then they care about you! Spend a few minutes to read the article below. It cannot hurt.  It might be the best time investment you've made in a long time.

I am analytical by nature. I am skeptical at first of most everything I see, read, hear, etc...

I am not an idiot. I am not a fool.  I am not happy believing a myth just because it makes me feel good. It has to be real. I am not happy to follow a behavior system simply because it might produce good citizens or good people. It has to have the power to change me. It has to have the power to save me. It has to have the power to help me when I am: lost, hurting, lonely, depressed, tired, over whelmed, confused, and scared.  In other words, I want more than a warm fuzzy feeling about what I accept as true. It has to be supported by reality and be more powerful than me.  A doorknob or a statue just does not cut it!

In other words, I've given my worldview some thought; perhaps even more than you. Have you ever considered your worldview and how it shapes the way you see the world?  Yes, you have a worldview!  We all do.  If you've never intentionally thought about or shaped your worldview then your worldview has been created passively by your experiences, things you have accepted as true, things you have observed, and things you have incorporated into your thought processes.

My worldview is based on the premise that the Christian Bible is 100% true. All 66 books. This may seem foolish to some, but let me go a step further and assert that:

- I believe the Bible is accurate from Genesis (the first book) to Revelation (the last book)
- I believe a biblical worldview describes the goodness and the evil we see in the world around us better than any other explanation.
- I believe that science does not disprove the Bible, but supports its accuracy.
- I believe a biblical worldview answers all the big questions in life better than any other option.
- I believe that Bible gives great advice, provides great wisdom, and gives us great boundaries.
- I believe that living outside the boundaries God sets has serious consequences.


In other words, I believe the Bible is true and that the Bible accurately describes the reality we see each day. You do not have to take my word for it.  I am not asking you to immediately accept my views as accurate. I just want you to consider that your worldview matters. Exploring your current worldview and researching the merits of my worldview are something you should make a high priority! Do not wait until it is too late.

A distorted worldview can utterly destroy your life and leave huge devastation in your wake.  A proper worldview: gives you fulfillment, purpose, helps you make healthy choices, and explains all the big questions in life (where did man come from? what is man's purpose?  Does my life have meaning?  where does evil come from?  etc... ).  Failing to intentionally shape one's worldview can be very dangerous.  It is like gambling with your future and with the future of any people who you have the power to shape their worldview.

Alternative Views
I do not live under a rock, despite what some people may think. I am well aware that every religion in the world makes truth claims about our world and reality.  I am aware of the advancements of science over the last century.  I am aware that some people have discarded the Bible as a fair tale long ago.  It might be popular to believe all of these other views are simultaneously true, but that cannot be. Many of their claims contradict another religions claims.  Proposing 17 answers for the question, 1 + 1 = ? does not make all of them true or none of them true. One of them is still the only correct answer, it just creates a lot of noise so that you might miss the correct answer. 

I would like to finish by saying: questioning your worldview and actually changing the way you have seen the world for many years, can be extremely challenging.  It takes courage, strength, intelligence, and perseverance.  You have to give yourself permission to accept conclusions that are unpopular, uncommon, and possibly difficult to accept.  I think you can do it. It might be the best choice you have ever made!


Suggested reading resources:

This section covers the reliability of the Bible:  Bible Questions and Answers - creation.com
http://creation.com/bible-questions-and-answers

The Q&A section covers a wide range of great topics: history, genetics, the origin of life, archaeology, aliens, ethics, the age of the earth, science, geology,  etc.....

Q&A - creation.com
http://creation.com/qa#Some%20key%20articles

Planned Parenthood - The Unnecessary face of abortion

Update: This link goes to an article which posits the idea that Planned parenthood does not do as much good as they claim and is probably not needed at all. Something to think about.

Defunding Planned Parenthood and Women's Health Care Access
http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/03/the-truth-about-defunding-planned-parenthood-and-womens-access-to-health-care/


Original Post:
There is a lot of controversy around abortion and Planned Parenthood. I have strong views on abortion, so I understand the controversy. However, it seems that leadership somewhere in our society is intentionally associating things that could be separated in order to create controversy, conflict, and deception.

Pro-life people appear to see the this issue like this:
murder = evil
abortion = murder
Planned Parenthood = abortion
Planned Parenthood = evil


Planned Parenthood advocates generally direct debate with these points:

• Yes, Planned Parenthood gets federal funding, but the money does not go to abortions.
• Planned Parenthood does so much more than abortions, if you defund them or kick them out of a community, then women's health / care will decline in that community.
• .. and some other points which focus on the moral and legal areas of abortion, but I will focus on the previous two points for this post.

 Why does a community have to choose between allowing abortion and getting other family planning services or getting neither?  If Planned Parenthood really cared about "women's health services" than they would do something to distance themselves from abortion and focus and real health services.

If I was the director of Planned Parenthood, here is what I would do:

• Immediately form two companies: one called Planned Parenthood that offers all the less controversial services that actually help communities.  The other company would have a different name and would only offer controversial services like abortion.
• Request that all federal funding be directed to the new company called Planned Parenthood, that offers no controversial services. 
• This way the claim that "Federal dollars do not pay for abortions" would actually be true and easy to check.

I doubt this will ever happen due to government / corporate cronyism (where the line between a corporation, government, and money is blurred beyond recognition).


Note: This article should be construed to mean that I support planned parenthood or any of the horrible actions they have done.  If any crimes were committed, then perpetrators should face consequences.  Even if no crimes were committed I do not support abortion.


About My Views
I am pro-life. For more information on my views regarding abortion see my other post: 

Your View of Sex may be a huge Lie!

 This sermon video is awesome. It covers a brief history of how we got to where our current culture's view of sex came from.

WHY JESUS CREATES SEX - Pastor Mark Driscoll
http://markdriscoll.org/sermons/why-jesus-creates-sex/

Do you have a worldview?

This is a great piece of information, source listed below:


"Everyone has a worldview upon which they base their lives
The big questions of how to extract reliable information about the world, and how to separate fact from mere opinion are clearly complex.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that we can simply ignore them or remain agnostic about them. These questions are critical to the construction of our worldview, that is, the set of values and assumptions upon which we base our lives. Our worldview may be carefully thought out, or it may consist of a hodgepodge of unexamined ideas that we have picked up from family, friends, school, or the media. However it emerges, every person has a worldview, and it plays a critical role in how we live our lives.

As a Christian, the Bible is key foundation upon which I build my worldview. Therefore, it matters greatly to me whether or not this text is a reliable source of knowledge. This is a fascinating topic that I don’t have space to address here. But, I believe that there are strong rational grounds to believe that the Bible is indeed reliable ^[20]."


source:

Free - Resources - Has physics disproved the existence of God?
http://www.free-online.org/free-thinking/lifes-big-questions/science/has-physics-disproved-the-existence-of-god.htm

civil rights issues and homosexual activism

Comments located on Reddit

(http://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/2enaul/catholic_couple_fined_13000_for_refusing_to_host/)

About this news story

Catholic couple fined $13,000 for refusing to host same-sex ‘wedding’ at their farm | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-couple-fined-13000-for-refusing-to-host-same-sex-wedding-at-their

Remind me how many people still confuse civil rights issues and homosexual activism.

The second half of this article does a good job explaining why being gay is different than being black:

Hypocrisy in the Black Church? A Same-Sex Marriage Debate
http://www.blogos.org/compellingtruth/same-sex-marriage-debate.html


Also, people seem to compare not serving a black person at a restaurant to facilities that do not want to perform gay weddings. I don't think this is an accurate comparison. Most christian restaurants do not have a problem serving food to homosexuals, but endorsing their lifestyle or participating in a ceremony is different. 



Being gay has to me an immutable attribute for most of the arguments used by homosexual activism to standup and that argument has only been made poorly up to this point.

Some secularists envision no consequences....

Consider a description posted on the group’s Facebook page that reads: “We envision a world where there are no social costs for being secular, where families and communities remain whole when some members have moved away from religion or supernaturalism. We promote the values of acceptance, reason and love.”

 

source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/23/millionaire-atheist-reveals-plan-that-he-says-will-profoundly-change-how-society-views-those-who-reject-god/ 

My thoughts:

People should not mistreat others for having differing views, but there is always a cost for rejecting God and living as though God does not exist. Accepting a lie and feeling good about it does not alter the Truth of the matter. We can "envision" anything we want, but that does not make it any more real.