Tag Archives: The Simpsons

Apologetics

“And what if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder.”

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Someone Tweeted this today so I thought I’d rerun it with some bonus features.

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The title is from the episode of The Simpsons where Homer decides to stop attending church.

Marge: I can’t believe you’re giving up church, Homer.

Homer: Hey, what’s the big deal about going to some building every Sunday?  I mean, isn’t God everywhere?  And don’t you think that the Almighty has better things to worry about than where one little guy spends one measly hour of his week? And what if we picked the wrong religion?  Every week we’re just making God madder and madder.

Bart: Testify!

Marge: [Groans]

In one of those odd ways where someone speaks some truth without knowing it, it reminds me of this important passage:

1 Corinthians 15:12–18 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

So the Apostle Paul seems to agree with Homer, at least in one sense: If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we are misrepresenting God – and that’s never a good place to be.   And the writers even have Homer realizing that not all religions are the same.  How do you discern which is right?  Look at the facts.

But the evidence points to the fact that He did rise from the dead, and that changes everything.

—–

As I noted in a recent post, Christianity is unique in that it is testable and falsifiable.  You can research the truth claims yourself.  Christianity involves knowledge, truth claims and faith in evidence.  Many people think religions are just a matter of opinion or are the result of “blind faith,” but that is the opposite of Christianity.

There are all sorts of apologetics resources (see the links to the right of this blog) or even simple things like the minimal facts approach, where nearly 100% of historical scholars from 1975 – present agree with the following statements and 75% of the same scholars agree that the tomb was empty:

  • Jesus really lived and was killed on a Roman cross.
  • Jesus’ disciples believed He appeared to them.
  • Jesus’ brother, James, went from being a pre-crucifixion skeptic to a post-crucifixion church leader.
  • The Apostle Paul believed Jesus appeared to him and he wrote most of the books attributed to him, including Romans, I & II Corinthians, Philemon and others.  He converted from persecuting Christians to being the greatest evangelist ever, despite nearly constant challenges, persecution and ultimately dying for his faith.

The Christian view that the physical resurrection of Jesus best accounts for these facts is highly supportable and logical.

This explains those who reject God.

Romans 1:18–20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Romans 2:15-16 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

This sums it up as well:

To defy the Creator’s commands, you must ignore His exclusive right to rule His own creation as He wishes. You have to exalt yourself to a level of imaginary importance that would make Him at least second in command–if you are that generous–and place yourself first in command over the part of His creation you want to control–in this case, yourself. The arrogance of such a feat is astounding…No wonder there is a Hell! — Jim Berg

It is foolish and rebellious to think that you get to define whether God exists and what He must be like. Repent and believe while you still have time. Eternity is a mighty long time to suffer for your pride.

Devotional

Promises!

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From The Simpsons
Lisa: You promised to take us to the lake.
Homer: I promise you kids lots of things, and that’s what makes me such a good father.
Lisa: Actually, keeping promises would make you a good father.
Homer: No, that would make me a great father.

God is a great Father. God makes lots of promises, and He keeps them all – 100.00% of the time. Try flipping open your Bible and seeing how many you find.

I did a test once to show how this and other Bible study techniques work. I had someone pick numbers at random without telling them the purpose. I used the first number to pick a book of the Bible and the second to pick the chapter. The first choice was 1 John 5. I had people search for what stood out to them, what commands they saw, and if there were any promises to claim. And there just happened to be some big time promises. Check these out:

  • 1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
  • 1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
  • 1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Try looking for promises when you study your Bible — but be sure to read them in context.  For example, the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is not for any reader or even for Christians today.  It was part of a very particular promise made to the exiled Jews.  God kept that promise, of course, but it wasn’t aimed at us.

God is the most trustworthy being in the universe. He always keeps his promises. No one has ever regretted putting their trust in Jesus.

Apologetics

“And what if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder.”

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The title is from the episode of The Simpsons where Homer decides to stop attending church.

Marge: I can’t believe you’re giving up church, Homer.

Homer: Hey, what’s the big deal about going to some building every Sunday?  I mean, isn’t God everywhere?  And don’t you think that the Almighty has better things to worry about than where one little guy spends one measly hour of his week? And what if we picked the wrong religion?  Every week we’re just making God madder and madder.

Bart: Testify!

Marge: [Groans]

In one of those odd ways where someone speaks some truth without knowing it, it reminds me of this important passage:

1 Corinthians 15:12–18 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

So the Apostle Paul seems to agree with Homer, at least in one sense: If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we are misrepresenting God – and that’s never a good place to be.   And the writers even have Homer realizing that not all religions are the same.  How do you discern which is right?  Look at the facts.

But the evidence points to the fact that He did rise from the dead, and that changes everything.

—–

As I noted in a recent post, Christianity is unique in that it is testable and falsifiable.  You can research the truth claims yourself.  Christianity involves knowledge, truth claims and faith in evidence.  Many people think religions are just a matter of opinion or are the result of “blind faith,” but that is the opposite of Christianity.

There are all sorts of apologetics resources (see the links to the right of this blog) or even simple things like the minimal facts approach, where nearly 100% of historical scholars from 1975 – present agree with the following statements and 75% of the same scholars agree that the tomb was empty:

  • Jesus really lived and was killed on a Roman cross.
  • Jesus’ disciples believed He appeared to them.
  • Jesus’ brother, James, went from being a pre-crucifixion skeptic to a post-crucifixion church leader.
  • The Apostle Paul believed Jesus appeared to him and he wrote most of the books attributed to him, including Romans, I & II Corinthians, Philemon and others.  He converted from persecuting Christians to being the greatest evangelist ever, despite nearly constant challenges, persecution and ultimately dying for his faith.

The Christian view that the physical resurrection of Jesus best accounts for these facts is highly supportable and logical.

Christian worldview

Has your condition been upgraded to alive?

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When Mr. Burns was shot in an episode of The Simpsons, newscaster Kent Brockman delivered these lines:

Dozens of people are gunned down each day in Springfield, but until now none of them was important. I’m Kent Brockman.

At three p.m. Friday, local autocrat C. Montgomery Burns was shot following a tense confrontation at town hall.

Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. [scene shows Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital]

He was then transferred to a better hospital where doctors upgraded his condition to “alive”. [scene shows Springfield General hospital]

I love the part about his condition being upgrade to “alive.”  That is a perfect phrase to describe what God has done to believers.  We were spiritually dead and He makes us spiritually alive.

Verses 8-9 get quoted a lot but read the rest of this closely as well:

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV) 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

If your condition hasn’t been upgraded, now is a good time to ask.
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This quote from The Simpsons sums up the history of unions quite nicely:

Factory Worker (circa 1900): You can’t treat the working man this way! One day, we’ll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we’ll go too far, and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!

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Remember Planned Parenthood’s revenue is proportional to the number of abortions they perform, so they have every reason to lobby the Democrats to pass laws that allow Planned Parenthood to bypass parents and entice children as young as 10 into sexual activity. It’s all about the money.

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Castro Regime Secretly Tapes Hollywood Liberals — ugh.  Will they change their views now that they know Fidel spied on them, or were they so effusive in their praise because they were blackmailed?

Listen to the Hollyweird elite gush with their love of the brutal communist dictator Fidel Castro, who took over a prosperous country and reduced it to a slave state so hellish that people take to shark-infested waters in inner-tubes to escape:

Jack Nicholson: “Fidel Castro is a genius! We spoke about everything. Castro is a humanist. Cuba is simply a paradise!”

Chevy Chase: “Socialism works. I think Cuba might prove that.”

Oliver Stone: “Castro is very selfless and moral, one of the world’s wisest men.”

Harry Belafonte: “If you believe in freedom, if you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, you have no choice but to support Fidel Castro!”

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Hitler was pro-abortion — as least for non-Aryans.  That reminds me of the pro-choicers who favor abortion to “prevent” children from being poor. 

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Politics

Why do so many believe in fake conspiracies yet ignore the real global warming fraud?

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Lisa Simpson: According to Junior Skeptic magazine the chances are 175 million to one of another form of life actually coming into contact with ours.

Homer: So?

Lisa: It’s just that the people who claim they’ve seen aliens are always pathetic low-lifes with boring jobs . . . oh, and you, Dad . . . heh heh.

An Apologetics.com Podcast on logic mentioned how over 70% of people polled believe in some sort of JFK conspiracy, over 30% believe that 9/11 was an inside job and a large amount believe the government is covering up alien activity.

So why don’t people get excited over the very real conspiracy behind the man-made global warming fraud?  The media continues to ignore it.  The Houston Chronicle had an article buried that noted the controversy but focused on the “experts” who still claim that warming is real — you know, the folks whose livelihoods depend on perpetuating the myth.  The Chronicle didn’t bother to list the evidence. Another article didn’t even mention the controversy.

If you only get your news from the mainstream media you are being fooled daily.

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Great points by Ann Coulter:

These e-mails aren’t a tempest in a teapot. They are evidence of pervasive fraud by a massively influential institution that has dominated news coverage of global warming.

CRU was regularly cited as the leading authority on “global climate analysis” — including by the very news outlets that are burying the current scandal, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. The CRU alone received more than $23 million in taxpayer funds for its work on global warming.

. . .

Most disturbingly, the CRU-affiliated “scientists” were caught red-handed conspiring to kill the careers and reputations of scientists who dissented from the religion of global warming. Indignant that scientific journals were publishing papers skeptical of global warming, the cult members plotted to get editors ousted and the publications discredited.

This sabotage of global warming dissenters may be more galling than their manipulation of the data. Until now, the global warming cult’s sole argument has been to demand that everyone shut up in response to the “scientific consensus” that human activity was causing global warming.

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The truth and “the truth”

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I always enjoyed this bit from The Simpsons with Phil Hartman playing Lionel Hutz, Real Estate Agent and how it played on the concept of truth.

Lionel Hutz: Marge, I had a lot of calls about you.  Customers love your no-pressure approach.

Marge: Well, like we say, “The right house for the right person.”

LH: Listen, it’s time I let you in on a little secret, Marge.  The right house is the house that’s for sale.  The right person is anyone.

M: But all I did was tell the truth.

LH: Of course you did!  But there’s the truth [shakes head ominously side-to-side] and the truth [nods head up and down with big smile].  Let me show you. [Shows pictures of houses]

M: It’s awfully small

LH: I’d say it’s awfully . . . cozy.

M: That’s dilapidated.

LH: Rustic!

M: That house is on fire.

LH: Motivated seller!

Here’s the dictionary.com definition of truth:

1 .  the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.

2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.

In egghead philosophical circles those definitions are referred to as the correspondence view of truth.  It is also the definition that five-year olds intuitively know.  And it is the real version.  The problem is that some highly intelligent people try to mangle the concept of truth to mean all sorts of other things.  Some people mock those who hold to the correspondence view as if we are ignorant or old-fashioned. 

But I’m quite confident that the correspondence view of truth will always be demonstrably accurate compared to other views.  Here’s why: If you want to convince me that your view of how truth works you’ll unwittingly use the correspondence view to do so.  You’ll try to tell me that your version of how truth works is what corresponds to reality, and you will prove my point every time. 

Truth matters, and those who try to distort the plain definitions of it usually have ulterior motives.  As noted in a highly recommend and  more detailed perspective by J.P. Moreland:

Postmodernism denies the correspondence theory, claiming that truth is simply a contingent creation of language which expresses customs, emotions, and values embedded in a community’s linguistic practices. For the postmodernist, if one claims to have the truth in the correspondence sense, this assertion is a power move that victimizes those judged not to have the truth.

But note how the Postmodern must go on to prove that his definition of truth corresponds to reality.

I completely agree with Moreland’s closing:

For some time I have been convinced that postmodernism is rooted in pervasive confusions, and I have tried to point out what some of these are. I am also convinced that postmodernism is an irresponsible, cowardly abrogation of the duties that constitute a disciple’s calling to be a Christian intellectual and teacher.

. . .

Faced with such opposition and the pressure it brings, postmodernism is a form of intellectual pacifism that, at the end of the day, recommends backgammon while the barbarians are at the gate. It is the easy, cowardly way out that removes the pressure to engage alternative conceptual schemes, to be different, to risk ridicule, to take a stand outside the gate. But it is precisely as disciples of Christ, even more, as officers in His army, that the pacifist way out is simply not an option. However comforting it may be, postmodernism is the cure that kills the patient, the military strategy that concedes defeat before the first shot is fired, the ideology that undermines its own claims to allegiance. And it is an immoral, coward’s way out that is not worthy of a movement born out of the martyrs’ blood.

Postmoderns will admire you for seeking the truth, but they will mock and revile you for claiming you found it.  They are proud that you can’t know things, though that is just a smokescreen for lying, cowardice or laziness.

Also see There is no truth except these five things, which highlights how postmoderns continually make truth claims while denying they do so.

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Yea!  The Post Office finally came out with stamps just for my family!  Oh, it’s those Simpsons . . . well, that’s still good.

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Very cool idea that I hope grows and grows — Online schooling — sort of a home schooling hybrid.  I see huge benefits for the kids and the teachers.  We’ll be doing this in the Fall (unrelated to this program), as my youngest will do some online classes and some local home school classes.  We’re excited about the change.  The family of a friend from HP is in the video!

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Mark Tooley is the new president of the Institute of Religion and Democracy.  He has done great work with the United Methodist Action group in trying to restore orthodoxy to the denomination.

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Oh, great, AGW Legislation To Create More “Victims” — and lots more lawsuits, and lots more money for lawyers.

An under-the-radar provision in a House climate bill would give plaintiffs who claim to be victims of global warming a way to sue the federal government or businesses, according to a report Friday in The Washington Times.

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Why taxing the rich to grow government fails — I wish they would teach this in public schools!  It is basic economics and should be required reading for all voters.

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Study finds that women who have abortions are twice as likely to argue with their partner and three times as likely to experience domestic violence  — I’m sure they mention this to you at Planned Parenthood.