Stormbringer's Thunder

My Medical Plastics

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Sat, 16 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

First, a bit of history. It has been two years (11 August 2023) since I had triple-bypass open-heart surgery. I finally got home on the nineteenth or so and was going to write about all the plastics involved in my hospital stay. (None of the medical personnel referenced Darwin in my hearing.) My wife suddenly died 20 September and I had many things to deal with. Legal and emotional matters, post-operative brain fog coupled with grief fog... writing that article was not important, but I will do something with it now.

Some of my medical plastics, image by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

There are various kinds of plastics all over the place. I disremember what all is on the table with my eBook reader (in the red, black, and gray cover, and it has metal and plastic components), but the small water pitcher and cups are discernable. Mayhaps the tube trailing off the bottom of the picture was connected to me.

I was taken off guard by the entire experience, and even though nurses and others try, modesty — fuggedaboudit! There was going to be a good article about that, but it got destroyed. It was going to include a joke: "I was naked in front of three hot babes."... "Those were nurses who have seen it all and were just doing the jobs." In fact, I asked and was told yes, they've seen it all and focus on the task at hand.

Medical plastics - bodily fluids

Going back to trauma times gets me feeling a bit lightheaded even after two years.

Restroom-going was a project. Yes, I had a gravy boat (what I called the plastic urinal because of an online joke), but to get to the room itself involved bringing the IV pole and monitor and several of those boxes used for drainage. That stuff came along on the journey. The phrase"Exchanging bodily fluids" could involve trading containers.

I asked a nurse and was told that they do not recycle the plastics. Before people clutch their pearls, they should study on it a spell. When dealing with medical conditions, illnesses, surgeries, and so on, microbes are involved. Contamination. Biohazards. It's not like washing out a jug and using it again later, not hardly! Those containers get destroyed for the most part.

So, in both literal and figurative senses, I was quite attached to plastics. Medical science relies heavily on them to help them keep people alive, and I testify that God guided the hands of the surgeon and the medical personnel to hooked me up.

Watching you Sleep — a Creepy Logic Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

After getting acquainted with logic and critical thinking in general, some things practically shout, "Fallacious!" This is very important nowadays, as people "think" with their emotions and do not ask important questions.

When confronted with a statement or claim that seems important, it is good to pull back on the reins and slow down. Examine it. A favorite of mine probably tricks gullible folks: This year will be the first time in 666 years that Halloween falls on a Friday the thirteenth.

Woman watched by spirits while sleeping, made with AI at Bing

That was the comedy. The creepy one up next is...truly bizarre.

It was posted on X (formerly Twitter), informing readers that when we wake up between two and three AM without any reason, there is a 99% chance that something has been staring at you for a long time. The clincher is that this is "according to experts."

People familiar with my work know that I am mighty fond of asking questions. This post raises a prairie schooner full of them:

How does anyone know this?
What experts?
How was research conducted?
Who or what is doing the watching?
Are there other possible explanations for waking up at that time?

Use of the word experts tends to make people sit up and take notice, maybe even letting their defenses down. Experts in the secular science industry make assertions and write papers that often contain bad logic. This bad logic may include ignoring possible alternative explanations other than what is being postulated.

Got your pony reined in? Good, now ease on over to the internet. You can do what I did and look up reasons people wake up around 3 AM. The wee hours. (For me and many others, wee hours has two meanings.) Assuming that people go to sleep around ten or eleven PM, the sleep cycle is changing to a lighter sleep pattern. Indeed, people briefly wake up several times in the night. Nothing supernatural here, Horace.

Implicit in the text is some kind of psychic activity: People are sensitive to spirits staring at us. That would be a belief smuggled into the thing, but there would be nothing to back it up.

Y'all can see that there is nothing to this. Also, it can be seen that I took it far more seriously than was intended. Still, it was a fun logic exercise. An important note is that spotting logical fallacies can help us from being deceived. Logic applies to many areas of life. For Christians, we use our minds for the glory of God and should strive to not be like the deceivers and to keep our discussions clean.

The Beginning Prepper

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

The other day, I was going through a storage cupboard to find things my late wife had purchased but never had a chance to use. A few were past the "use by" date, some from even before she passed away. A few canned goods were past due.

I took a notion to check online about expiration dates; it seems I heard that there is a kind of grace period. Very much so! In fact, if people check for damage, rust, bad smells, and so forth, most canned foods will last indefinitely.

Prepping pantry photo by Cowboy Bob Sorensen, modified with FotoSketcher

"People have safely used canned stuff that is sometimes decades out of date, Cowboy Bob. Why do they even have expiration dates?

I can think of a few reasons. One is they may be required by the government. Also, self-preservation in case something is damaged and the contamination is slow and a customer gets sick. Third, they are just trying to get people to throw something away and buy more, but I kind of doubt that.

As for expiration dates on other things, I won't address those except to say to use your own discretion. Anybody know about how long jars of goods will last? I'm thinking of things like pasta sauce and those kinds of jars.

We went off the trail, didn't we? Back to the canned things. The videos and sites I came across are from preppers. Those are people who prepare for disasters or emergency conditions. The first I heard of them was "Y2K," where people were afraid that there would be an apocalypse because computers were not programmed for the year 2000. This was parodied on The Simpsons. People were stockpiling food that would last long-term, getting guns and ammunition, packing bug-out-bags, and more. It would be nice to have space to store things beyond my one-bedroom apartment...

Ever notice that the "Zombie Apocalypse" idea is strictly Hollywood? Some believe that manufactured fiction.

Preppers crossed my radar again when my beloved wife Charlene was passing along "news" just after the 2020 election. She was told that Donald Trump would be triumphantly returned to the Oval Office by the military, Hillary Clinton was executed and what people were seeing was a clone, and other outlandish ideas. (I never found references from reputable sources for any of that stuff that amazed her.) There are rumbles that something is going to happen in September 2024 or thereabouts, so preppers are quite visible, especially on YouTube.

Note that preppers come in all sorts of varieties. Some are nuts, like those who float clone stories and fear zombies.

People may laugh at Christians who prepare for eventualities or go to doctors, misunderstanding and misrepresenting our faith. No, it is not unchristian or unbiblical to get treatment or be prepared. Going to extremes and even making the family suffer because more supplies need to be stuffed in the basement, yes, that is harmful. But there is nothing wrong with because cautious as long as those making preparations are living in their means.

As for me, I wonder a little bit if "something's coming" because many folks are agitated. I'm thinking of having stuff that will last a long time, and I can get into it when I feel like it. More, it will be useful if the power goes out for any length of time, we get hit with a blizzard, or something feasible. I'm just at the beginning prepper level. There are some weapons here, and I want another portable stove so I can heat up food without electricity.

I want to leave you with this. Have you seen that graphic with text about Grandma saving, washing, and reusing aluminum foil? It says we'll understand it ourselves through personal experience soon enough. Or something like that. Here is a video the preppers should watch. It has some food ideas from the Great Depression that sound good to me, and a few that I'll give a miss:

Learning to Photograph Better

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

People require illustrations on posts and such, but there is a risk of copyright infringement. I cringe when I see bloggers and site owners using images that are not free to use, as they are risking disciplinary action from their providers, or even lawsuits. Shoot your own pics, Sherman.

Although I do not always have item-specific photos and illustrations when necessary (use extreme caution, many can be found). Sometimes I use related images — occasionally with effects, especially my own pictures. Part of what I call "nature therapy" (seriously, get out in nature) is taking pictures.

Esopus Lighthouse on left, barge on right, all on Hudson River (photo by Cowboy Bob Sorensen)

This child is old enough to remember being selective when taking snapshots because we had to send them away for processing and pay for them. Even the crummy ones. It's so different now. We can use digital cameras and take dozens or hundreds at a setting, depending on storage space and battery limits. Check them later and delete what we don't want. Sometimes I just go nuts clicking away. Heh, one time with a new phone, the camera kept going off while I was walking and I got about seventy. I used some of the pictures, blurs and all, as effect illustrations.

No, I do not have sophisticated camera equipment. Cameras on cell phones are getting very good. Unfortunately, my hands are unsteady and I use a tripod that takes cameras and cell phones (I was steady enough to get this picture of it in action). Then I give them away. There are several free-to-use sites, and I have mine here. But there are requirements.

When reading the guidelines, I learned that Unsplash is operated by photographers. While God gave me a good eye, there are things I need to learn. Using the word photographer in the sense of "someone who takes pictures," I'm in. But it has the connotation of someone with training, skill, experience, high-end equipment, and more. So I generally self-identifying with that word. The guidelines from the photographers led me to reject the idea of uploading the picture above.* Also, I took it with a high megapixel setting and cropped it. It made it only slightly better.

I was excited because I could make a tribute to Charlene with the lighthouse and a barge on the Hudson taken by a place she and I had visited. Take a critical eye to it. Since it was in the morning, the sun was at the wrong angle for this. Very little color. Try again some other time.

Probably everyone can learn to take better pictures. There are tutorials online, including YouTube and such. Also, if people would simply pay attention and learn from their mistakes (be honest about poor photos that were taken), that could go a long way. Mayhaps even talking to professional photographers if they're not busy.

So, I'm learning and expect to improve. Bloggers, site owners — be careful. Especially Christians because we don't want to dishonor God by stealing.

* Running that picture through effects at LunaPic at least gave it some color, but that is not acceptable to upload to such sites:

The Easter Day of Transgender Visibility?

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 23:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

There are millions of professing Christians, many celebrate the bodily Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Today my wife is celebrating Easter with Jesus for the first time. I miss her, but my grief is tempered with the knowledge that I will see her again.

Unbelievers and leftists taint and distort good things that were created. Biblical creationists are called "science deniers" because we reject fish-to-phlebotomist evolution, but those who believe that people can change genders really are science deniers.

Distorted woods, original image by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Study on it a bit. A person's DNA is in every cell, and to change genders would mean to change that in all those trillions of cells. Taking hormones, changing clothing choices, forcing others to use preferred pronouns, having surgery — those are superficial changes.

March 31 has been called the Transgender Day of Visibility where people who deny what God created demand to be celebrated. Not that many people had heard about it and even fewer cared. Leftists hate God, and Joe Biden's regime even banned religious-themed eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt. Resident Biden rode that pony of the leftists to a gallop by issuing a presidential proclamation. Now the transgender "holiday" is front page news, and millions of Christians are rightly offended.

Ken Ham pointed out that there are many subjects for Christians and creationists to pursue, but each one does not need its own systematic approach. There's a bigger issue. Something more to study on is that leftists and atheists (there are not all that many atheists on the political right) have a worldview that opposes things that God has created. True marriage, the family, prayer, creation, life, and more. Leftists endorse transgenderism, abortion, euthanasia, evolution, and all sorts of evil — which they call "good." Biden's proclamation is demonic.

It's all about worldviews. Those of us with a biblical worldview work from our foundations, enabling us to see and point out the flaws in worldviews that oppose the Word of God.

I’ve had many Christians express dismay at what they see as a plethora of problems in the culture, such as abortion, gender issues, LGBTQ, gay “marriage,” racism, and so on. They have said to me that there are so many problems to battle, we can't fight them all. It’s almost like they want to throw their hands in the air and give up because the problems seem so overwhelming. But are these really all separate problems?

You can read the rest of this 2023 article by clicking on "How Should Christians View Transgender Day of Visibility?"

Bigotry through Low Expectations

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

In the formerly United States, today is the conclusion of Black History Month. Some things I want to say will rile a few folks. (Of course, those will be the ones who "think" with their emotions and are less concerned with actual thought.) This material came together for me in a big box store.

Like many places, our shopping experience is allegedly enhanced by the music system. The store had several announcements about being proud to support black-owned businesses. They also exhorted people to buy items made by those businesses.

Limestone near Rosendale, NY railroad trestle, Photo by Cowboy Bob Sorensen (modified with FotoSketcher

The messages on that radio rubbed me the wrong way — they struck me as manipulative.

Conservative talk show host Chris Plante refers to the "soft bigotry of low expectations." The messages sound like "white man's burden" because they need the help of white people in order to succeed. Blacks also need to be prioritized in anyone's patronage. (Interesting that there is little to no mention of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month or patronizing their businesses in May.) Stuff is in the store for Easter and St. Patrick's Day, and some of the glitz says "Women owned."

Let's be blunt here. Blacks, women, other groups supposedly cannot make it on their own, they need the help of those who are assumed to be more successful. (If you assume I'm successful because I'm white, guess what, Wilberforce? That's racist!) They cannot compete.

Not hardly! Such a coddling attitude will keep any of those groups down and decrease incentive to succeed. Those who are indeed successful most likely grabbed the reins and galloped to good business practices and competition.

"You're being racist, Cowboy Bob!"

Nope. As biblical creationists have pointed out for a mighty long time, there is only one race! Racism is an evolutionary construct. Let's get back to it now.

Long ago, I picked up some directories (small booklets) with listings of Christian-owned businesses. I was enthusiastic and wanted to support my own kind. However, there were some in there that I knew did not have Christian business practices, they just wanted the publicity. Today, if I saw one of those directories, I might pick one up for curiosity.

My loyalty is to my wallet. So is yours, admit it. We want good items at fair prices that will meet our needs. It just now occurred to me: How many black and women-owned businesses want to receive special treatment instead of earning their successes? That's a good ending point for this article. Hope I gave you some things to think about.

A Silent Contradiction on the Birthplace of Jesus?

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

At this time of year, misotheists and professing Christians of a liberal bent make their disbelief in the Bible known. Documentaries on television and articles in secular sources give actual Bible believers little or no credence.

One does not need to even be a theist, let alone believe in biblical inerrancy, to be a professor of the New Testament. It is important for Christians to use critical thinking when dealing with alleged experets. In this case, one indicated that since two of the Gospels do not mention that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the silence is an implicit contradiction.

Christmas Nativity Scene, Pixabay / Andreas Böhm

They didn't mention Bethlehem? This child's first response was, "Huh. How about that?"

Calling the omission of the birthplace of Jesus a possible contradiction is a massive argument from silence, old son. In police investigations, the witnesses are separated to keep them from discussing the details with each other. That cuts down on influencing each other so the details from each can emerge.

The Gospel authors had their own styles and details they presented, and some emphasized certain details of Jesus' life for particular audiences. Small differences indicate authenticity. Besides, Jesus said and did a lot of things (John 21:25). Now I would like to direct you to an excellent article on all this. See "Why Do Mark and John’s Gospels Not Mention Jesus Was from Bethlehem?" I wish you a blessed Christmas!

Keeping My Wife at a Distance Online

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Sun, 08 Oct 2023 14:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Although nobody asked and I am under no obligation to explain myself, I will anyway. In several places, I have mentioned that I have a wife. (At Piltdown Superman when I'm writing in my cowboy character, I do not.) However, I never named or described her.

The reason is quite simple: atheists and leftists. On more than one occasion, I have been physically threatened by them, especially angry misotheists. This only happened online, but some have stated they wanted to come over here — especially because I staunchly present creation science.

Charlene at Niagara Falls in 2007 (?)

EDIT: It occurred to me later that I left out a secondary factor. Years ago (and I am leaving off the sequence of events that led me to my reluctant conclusion), I could not have a Fakebook account under my real name. Apparently atheists in power there kept deleting my accounts, so I became someone else. She didn't call me by my real name when I was using that account.

Although I lack belief that any would try to do me harm, I know it made her a mite uneasy. I have noticed that whenever atheopaths become vile or threated physical harm to Christians, it is exceptionally rare to find one that says, "That is not cool! You're making the rest of us look bad." Their silence seems to be tacit agreement. (Fakebook removed some when I reported them.) So I chose not to mention her. My beloved Charlene did not share my Fakebook posts to her own timeline to keep her distance, but she began to in our last couple of months together.

In an ironic side note, one militant atheopath was trolling me on what was then called Twitter. He said my wife is dead. Why? Because he could find nothing about her online. That strongly resembles the logical fallacy of argument from silence, and also that he made a conclusion without considering other possibilities. My first marriage ended, then she remarried. I remarried later. With Charlene, we chose to have her keep her last name, so there was no current Mrs. Robert Sorensen associated with me. Others, sure.

Neither of us liked having our picture taken. With me, it's easy to see why, so I pose with sunglasses and such. I deeply regret not getting more pictures of Charlene.

She unexpectedly passed away almost three weeks ago, and I miss her so terribly much. We had twenty-three years together. Some comfort in having her Fakebook account memorialized as a tribute. I love her and know that we will meet again, and will be with Jesus as well as people we love and love the Lord. [EDIT: More details, faith, and my heart at "How Then Shall I Mourn?"]

Meanwhile, atheists are lost and without hope. They need to repent. The bigotry and rage image samples of feral atheists can be clicked for larger viewing. At least, they can on PCs.

Used under federal Fair Use provisions for educational purposes

Haunted Hospital, Gaslighting, or...

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Here I am at Westchester Medical Center waiting for open heart surgery for a double or triple bypass in a couple of days. There was a strange sequence of events that got me here, I was originally expecting to have a short visit to the Urgent Care for a different problem.

This is being written using an old cell phone, speech to text, and other technological wizardry.

There is a small table on wheels just under 3 ft long for me to use. I did not notice before, it has a small drawer that is not very deep. I put some things in there that I wanted to be close to me. I needed something, went to look for it - and it was gone.

Creepy hospital, Unsplash/ Andy Li

Time to write off on a short but relevant side trail.

The word gaslighting is overused nowadays, but it is still something real. When used correctly, the word involves psychological manipulation to make someone deny their perception of reality - or even their own sanity. You can see that it is malicious, not just a mistake or something.

Also, people who have read my material may have seen articles that draw inspiration from those so-called real ghost video collections. There are those videos as well as tales told about haunted hospitals. I joked with the staff here when they're transporting me for various tests and things, "Are we going to the haunted wing?"

However, I do not believe in ghosts per se. Any kind of activity that is recorded on video or something that has a semblance of documentation and cannot be explained, I would be seriously considering demonic activity other than the so-called spirits of those who were there in the hospital before.

Back to the main trail now.

A nurse had just shown up while I was looking. I told her what happened and that the drawer was empty. She commenced to searching her ownself. (I should add that I am somewhat confined because I have tubes and wires attached to me so I cannot get up and roam around.) Nothing was turning up where it would likely be, and I was beginning to think I would have to make some security calls to do some damage prevention.

Maybe it's funny in a way but the nurse certainly didn't want me to be having a heart attack while I'm waiting to have heart surgery. Is that a correct example of irony?

She found the things right there in the drawer that I had looked in earlier.

Some people might say that I gaslighted myself. I kind of wonder that at the time, but I have been under a lot of stress and lack of sleep the past several days in here. Still, it is weird that I looked in that drawer and did not see those things.

For fun, take a look at the one in the link, look for the flaws in reasoning such as lack of evidence, unwillingness to consider other possibilities and explanations.

Cryptozoology and Arguing from Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Fri, 19 May 2023 09:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

This article was inspired while I was writing an introduction to a post about wolverines. At first, it was going to be a part of the introduction, but it needed its own place. It is expanded from that intended introduction.

Wolverines are known to mostly live in the far north, but a few live further south. Captain Meriwether Lewis saw on in 1806 and referred to it as a "tyger cat," as it was unknown to white folks. Indeed, when the first specimen of a platypus was sent from 'Straya to England, the recipients thought it was a prank.

Public domain image from the National Park Service, modified at FotoSketcher

I am doing a backward approach to cryptozoology, which is a search for animals that are hidden or extinct. I spent my first forty years in Michigan, which is called the Wolverine State even though it apparently never had a large number of them. Did they ever exist there? All we have are eyewitness accounts and the fact that there are others further west. An actual sighting in 2004 supports historical accounts.

The thylacine or Tasmanian tiger was declared extinct in 1936, but there have been reports of sightings over the years — and even in 2019. A critter known as the thylacoleo (very similar spelling to the previous animal) was a carnivorous marsupial lion. Sightings for that have also been given. (And you thought the Drop Bear, Thylarctos plummetus, was bad. Good thing that last one is fun and games.) People make reports, shoot kinda-sorta-type videos — but nothing concrete is found.

To go for some big news, let's consider dinosaurs. We know they existed from fossils and (despite evolutionary propaganda) eyewitness accounts. There have been expeditions to remote areas to verify reports of dinosaurs living today, but those came up empty. (Sure would be great for biblical creation science but awful news for secularists than the findings of dinosaur soft tissues.) Some creationists endorse cryptozoology (here, for example) and want to find some dinosaurs, others say they're probably taking dirt naps and we have better things to do.

Let's move on into more familiar unknowns and what is commonly considered cryptozoology. What we discussed before, aside from the hoax, are creatures that are known to have existed. Some disappeared for a while, pulled up stakes, and a few are thought to be extinct — then again, maybe not. Consider modern monsters.

Bigfoot, Pixabay / Ryan McGuire

To dismiss these things because they have not been verified by credible scientists (define "credible") is an argument from silence. I'll allow that some evidence is hooey. Also interesting is that Skamania County, Washington, has an ordinance against killing Bigfoot. To claim that this indicates they know it's real is fallacious. Was it made to be a joke? Possibly. Practical considerations for it are that someone could shoot a person by mistake, and that if Bigfoot is indeed real, someone could be killing an endangered species.

An interesting program on the History Channel titled Monsterquest (available on Hulu, Freevee, and YouTube) shows how people are investigating sightings of various oddities. Yes, they cover Bigfoot as expected. Other things are explored in the sea and on land. They seem to be fair about the coverage, not sensationalistic, showing dismissals and raising questions of facts that may not be easily explained away.

This show and other intelligent materials on these subjects can get people thinking. There are accounts of Sasquatch/Bigfoot/Yeti and more from many places. It is unreasonable to dismiss them all on the grounds of hoaxes or illusions, since there is evidence of...something...in many. Also to take into consideration that so many sightings happen in the American Northwest, which has a great deal of wilderness. Every parcel of land there and other areas of sightings have not been fully explored, nor are they patrolled.

As for me, I'm not making a case that creatures exist. Cryptozoology may be a frustrating but worthwhile pursuit, but it does not exactly receive lotsa grotzits in government funding. Some of these things may exist, but we'll have to wait and see. F'rinstance, Bigfoot may exist and be some sort of ape. You savvy that, pilgrim?

The video embedded below can also give us things to think about. Ask yourself if any are compelling, believable, why or why not.

The Secular Science Industry is Weaponizing Science for Leftists

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:00:00 +0000

People think that scientists are dispassionate and aloof, but that is the opposite of reality. There are posts on this weblog and on Piltdown Superman showing that the secular science industry is hell-bent on supporting leftist causes. (Again, there are scientists who just want to do their work and not bother with the cultural and political wars of their employers.) The organizations are getting way out of line. Instead of doing what they supposedly stand for, their campaigning is actually harmful to the public. Leftist elites love it, though.

Democrats and other leftists utilize social(ist) media to supposedly combat misinformation (essentially, uninformed erroneous statements) and disinformation (goal-oriented falsehoods). Since leftist politicians and their bedfellows in the secular science industry are elitists, they decide what is right or wrong. They also tamper with the meanings of dis- and misinformation to include truths they don't like.

Secular science is rooted in materialism; there is no God in their worldview. The same manipulation of research, logic, and data that they use to promote particles-to-politician evolution are also used to con the public into accepting their disinformation. It is ironic that they hate the Creator and suppress the truth, but science is impossible without God. Atheism gets into postmodernism, where no truth is absolute because all truth is relative. Another irony is that science is impossible without truth. Materialists do not have an ultimate foundation for morality.

Why do you think they hate Bible-believing Christians? We stand on the authority and accuracy of Scripture from the very first verse. This includes one man one woman marriage, recent creation, and the global Genesis Flood.

Money is a big motivator, and in the formerly United States, Democrats make promises. Gullible people think they will get money, so science organizations and academia strive to keep leftists in power. This includes supporting abortion, global warming, transsexuality, critical race theory, and many other things near and dear to the hard, cold hearts of leftists. We expect politicians to engage in demonizing Republicans and Conservatives, but the science folks have joined in. Since most people stink on ice when it comes to critical thinking; sheeple are easily manipulated. Loaded terminology to "nudge" thinking and actions, for example.

We are seeing what happens to a nation (really, a world) under God's judgment. I believe that he has given people over to their sinful natures and is pulling back the restraining work of the Holy Spirit. Are we living in the last days before Christ returns? With the increase of evil and the way things that were unthinkable just a few years ago becoming commonplace, it looks like time is short. People who do not know God need to repent, and professing Christians must examine themselves to make sure they are indeed in the faith — and then proclaim the saving gospel message.

If your mental image of the scientist is the morally pure, unbiased guy in a white lab coat measuring chemicals in a flask, you need to catch up to the 21st century. There may be many rank-and-file scientists who approximate that image, but the Big Science Cartel is a huge unelected political force wielding significant power over public policy. And because any thought of creation or intelligent design has been scrubbed from the classroom for decades, the remaining cadre of outspoken scientists and their leaders are mostly atheists and Darwinists with left-leaning, globalist intentions.
The generalization doesn’t fit every scientist, of course. But it does fit the powers who arrogate the right to “speak for science.” We’ve been documenting the leftist bent in journals and science news sites for a long time (e.g., 14 Oct 2020, 1 Feb 2020, 5 Dec 2018). Anything dealing with public policy coming from Big Science is indistinguishable from Democrat Party positions, whether it be about abortion, education, LGBTQ, government spending, economics, affirmative action, climate and energy, public health, race relations, foreign policy, civil rights or any other Democrat hot-button issue. Reading the flow of verbiage from Big Science and Big Media, one might be justified in concluding that “science” today has a new mission: prop up Democrats and tear down Republicans.

You would do well to read the rest at "Big Science Embraces Disinformation." Come back to learn about how Nature handled to criticism.

In an article on being professional in the workplace, I wrote how employees are representatives of a company. If someone feels mistreated or disrespected by employees, that person may condemn the entire company. (Indeed, my wife received poor service by receptionists at a medical facility, and she wants to get treatment somewhere else.) The prestigious journal Nature endorsed Joe Biden for president.

It did not go well.

Not only has Biden failed in previous attempts at running for the American presidency, he is known for being dishonest and — well, stupid. He can have nuclear missiles launched, you know. But hey, he's a Democrat and he promised money to the secular science industry, so Nature made their first-ever endorsement. President Trump had been maligned for being a threat to "science", but his record shows such accusations to be lies. (Mayhaps they were conflating science with naturalism, and Trump is not an atheist.) In fact, Trump did many pro-science things. The endorsement was one step beyond the leftist biases of science organizations.

Illustration by Sidney Paget from 'The Adventure of the Crooked Man', The Strand Magazine, 1893, colorized by Palette

Nature publishes a variety of things interesting to different people, not just evolutionary and leftist propaganda. Since they went so far as to endorse Biden, there was a backlash. Like bad experiences with employees reflect on perceptions of a business, people reacted negatively to the endorsement. Not only did they lose confidence in that publication, the declining trust in scientists also went lower. What did Nature do?

Nature is widely viewed as the world’s leading science journal. After the 2016 election, Nature and other powerhouses in Big Science displayed no love for President Donald Trump. They constantly criticized him in their editorials. Then, before the 2022 election, Nature endorsed Joe Biden over Trump. This angered some readers of both political parties, who viewed political endorsements out of bounds for science.
How bad was the loss of trust? And did Nature learn its lesson to stay out of politics? No; they doubled down.

Read the rest and be amazed at the hubris by visiting "Journal Nature Would Rather Lose Public Trust than Stop Politicizing Science."

A Basic but Effective Internet Security Tactic

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 14:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

The most effective way to keep your identity, finances, privacy, and so on safe online is to never go online. Easy enough... Unfortunately, since internet activity is ubiquitous and even expected, it is impractical to stay offline and live in this world.

There are owlhoots looking to get information and money, and many are very skilled. Software developers are constantly updating against viruses, phishing, and other hacks — which is one reason to let your operating system, virus scanner, and other software update itself.

Cybercrime warning, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann (geralt)

Okay, we know that most folks cannot completely avoid going online to do certain minimal things. Sneaky people still find ways of causing people harm. Education is extremely important, and I reckon a good measure of suspicion is useful. Experience is helpful but getting that also has risks because people are exposed to sites that may be harmful.

Suspicious Facebook Messenger message with link (used under federal Fair Use provisions for educational purposes)

Study on this: How well do you know your social(ist) media friends? This child has friends in New Zealand, Canada, 'Straya, Thailand, and other places besides the US. But only online. Some alleged friends are wicked and waiting. Unfortunately, the ones we trust can have their accounts hacked. Another trick is to copy an account that doesn't secure the friends list and other personal information, then send out friend or follower requests. People oblige and put themselves at risk.

"My account was hacked, Cowboy Bob!"

No, it was copied. I got your friend request and saw that the account was extremely new, even though we'd been connected for a long time. Because of my education, experience, and suspicion, I deleted it.

The screenshot above didn't pass the sniff test. It had vague wording that reeked of scam (a combination of mint, dung, and cordite). Using my resources, I tested it. The results said it was fine, but I still wasn't going to click on it. Another test showed that it was a redirect that went to YouTube. That's silly to put a disguised link to a valid site. Mayhaps the original content had been removed, so I was sent to the YouTube landing page.

Also, the "friend" that sent me the message seldom has anything to do with me; he sent me a friend request that I accepted, and he moved on. So that was another reason for suspicion.

The basic thing is not to click on links, open files, and so on that you are not expecting. That's easy. They say your account is in trouble and has been suspended, so click on a link or a file? Not hardly! The best thing to do is to go to the company or individuals on your own, without that link, or even call them and verify things. (One of my favorites is when I was told my Citibank account was suspended, and I don't even have one.) Don't click, and verify with the source if you are concerned. That's the basic but effective internet security tactic.

I want to emphasize one other thing: Watch the wording. Most of these things don't use your name or any part of your account number, so that's a reason not to panic.

The Devious Motte-and-Bailey Fallacy

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Way back in 1066 AD, William the First took a notion to extend his power from Normandy and conquer England. People who have been invaded are not too fond of the idea. Bill knew this, and acted quickly to keep control, so he built a passel of strongholds.

These castles could be built rather quickly with available wood. (Later, castles would be made of stone.) The wide area that was protected which was known as the bailey. The nearby hill, existing or manufactured, had the top leveled off for the greater stronghold, the motte. This is where the keep, often a tower, was built.

Windsor Castle with motte and bailey, Flickr / Mike McBey (CC BY 2.0)

The basic idea of a motte and bailey was successful, since attackers would have to get through the outer defenses first, then they would have to fight the greater defenses going uphill. When the attack was thwarted or abandoned, the people would leave the motte and return to bailey life.

This layout has been applied to a particularly devious logical fallacy. We have discussed the straw man fallacy where, essentially, someone misrepresents the position of another and knocks down that straw version. (Similarly, expecting someone to defend a position they do not hold). Here is one that is like an opposite, the Mott the Hoople fallacy —

"No, that's an old rock band, Cowboy Bob!"

Oh, right. The motte-and-bailey fallacy is when someone holds a ridiculous position (bailey) that cannot be defended. When challenged, he heads for safer ground (motte), and may pretend that he held this position all along, or that it is an area upon which people can agree.

It is sneaky because the original position (bailey) is left alone, and the safe position (motte) is given the appearance of having been the original argument! In a way, it is also equivocation because the impression is given of having defended the original bailey idea. When you spot this as well as the straw man, the original topic or position is what needs discussing, not a substitute.

The motte-and-bailey fallacy is used by atheists and evolutionists. They have bailey positions, but those annoying Christians and biblical creationists who have done their homework challenge their positions and they do the motte thing. It may be difficult to see this particular fallacy in action, but we can see that they are changing the subject and moving to what they perceive is safer ground.

Christians and creationists need to learn about these things, or at least notice when professing atheists and evolutionists change topics. Also, we must use our minds and glorify God with good reasoning and avoid faulty reasoning ourselves.

What follows is an editorial from Creation magazine, which has references to content in that particular issue. Even so, the content is helpful and worth reading a couple of times.

Nicholas Shackel, Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University (Wales), applied this design to name the motte-and-bailey fallacy. This fallacy originates from an arguer holding a very controversial and hard-to-defend position (‘bailey’). When refuted, the arguer retreats to a non-controversial and easily defendable position (‘motte’), pretending this was his real view all the time. When opponents agree that the motte view is fine, the arguer returns to the bailey. And then makes the false equivalence: if the motte is defensible, then so is the bailey.

To read the entire article, visit "Medieval castles and modern fallacies." Also worth reading is "Logical Fallacies: Motte-and-Bailey Arguments." The pair of these should be helpful, Hoss.

Atheists Must Believe Antiscience

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Those of us who have been riding the Apologetics Trail for some amount of time know that professing atheists (Rom. 1:18-23) on the internet are, for the most part, weak thinkers. While some may have a modicum of skill at philosophy, most make serious logical and philosophical errors.

For example, demanding scientific proof that God exists is a category error, because God is not a material object. We also see ridiculous professing Christians used as examples to say that all religion is evil, which is a hasty generalization. (You can see more of the common informal logical fallacies that misotheists use on the logic lessons page.) Worse, though, is that atheists are forced to believe antiscience because of their worldview.

Darwin antiscience, modified from a Pixnio image

Examples of why molecules-to-misotheist evolution is unscientific are in many places, including Piltdown Superman and this weblog. Evolution is foundational to their belief system. (Yeah, I know, they "lack belief", which is a disingenuous redefinition of atheism, and is still a positive affirmation which they cannot defend.) Science itself is dependent on a predictable, orderly universe: Science and logic are impossible without God.

Digging deeper, those who reject the existence of God must deny basic laws of science! Instead of such mental gymnastics, they need to deal with the fact that God is the Creator, he makes the rules, and they need to find out what he has to say. It's in the Bible. You savvy that?

Good science shows that in this world, perpetual motion machines and ‘free energy’ machines are absolutely impossible. The first and second laws of thermodynamics dictate with absolute certainty that these machines are impossible,1 and any claims of making or discovering such a machine are either mistaken or fraudulent. But upon reflection, this knowledge leads, if you are willing, to belief in our glorious Creator, God.

Perpetual motion machines and ‘free energy’ machines are imaginary machines that can either run forever without additional fuel, or they can produce more work, energy and/or fuel than they use.

To read the rest, see "Self contradictory atheism — Why antitheists are forced to believe in antiscience." You may also be interested in "Atheists and Evidence for God."

Great Baals of Fire at the Commonwealth Games!

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Something flew under my radar that I would have missed except for a post from WHYOutreach. So anyway, while there are some folks who imagine occult symbolism and conspiracies everywhere they turn (such as the CERN collider causing the end of the world), this imagery is blatantly obvious. People who know their Bibles and biblical history are aware of the demon known as Baal.

How do you pronounce it? On Stargate SG-1 and other places, it's pronounced ball, like bouncy. Some say bail, like what you do when the boat is filling with water (I use this one). Others insert a gap, Ba'al, making it buh-ALL. However it is pronounced, it is a generic way of saying lord. Then it became a proper name.

Since I can't find a legal image, here's the Palmyra Temple of Baal-Shamin, WikiComm / Dosseman (CC BY-SA 4.0)

So who was this sidewinder, anyhow? Basically a fertility deity for Canaan and Phoenicia — better yet, read "Who was Baal?" Different places had their Baalim (plural form of Baal) and variations in their forms of worship. It also had equivalents like Hadad and Zeus, and possibly Bel (over yonder, Assyria and Babylon way). Some people believe that Islam is modern Baal worship. The Israelites frequently fell into worshiping this vile thing instead of the true God.

There are numerous images used to represent Baal, but the most common seems to be the form of a bull. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England included a giant mechanical bull and lots of ritual. Listening to the narration, it sounds like they are ushering a new era a peace, love, and grooviness for humanity. Blessed be! See "Now They Are Literally Bowing Down And Worshipping Baal Right In Front Of Our Eyes." (On a side note, the metal band Black Sabbath is from Birmingham. Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne of that band performed.) Seeing those clips of the opening ceremony, I wouldn't have been surprised if the Antichrist was the guest star. Yeah, it really put me off.

Let's ride a side trail for a moment. Professing atheists frequently whinge about people who believe in creation, the Genesis Flood, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, miracles, and so on. We're an "enlightened" society, no need for st00pid dujmb Xtian fictions, just give us science and reason. So why, in an increasingly secular (and dare I say, Islamicised) country like England were there no significant outcries about blatant paganism in today's society?

One simple reason is that atheists hate God and support things that God opposes. A second reason is that England (like many other countries including the formerly United States) is pagan. After all, evolution is an ancient pagan religion. Papa Darwin just popularized and tweaked it for his Victorian audience. Atheism was conspicuously absent on social(ist) media, otherwise I may have seen it about two weeks earlier.

Is this Baal worship a sign of the end times? Quite possibly. Listen up, Hoss: Whether you believe in the pre-tribulation Rapture, some other eschatology, or reject them all doesn't matter. What does matter is that sooner or later, we all will stand before Jesus. You had better be ready.

Bad Science and the Climate Change Bludgeon

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Expressions resembling "Never let a crisis go to waste" have been attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli, Winston Churchill, and Rahm Emanuel. Nowadays it appears to be a motto, especially for leftists attempting to increase political power. I suspect that there is a second part: "If there is no worthwhile crisis, manufacture one or take an existing problem and magnify it."

Leftists and their obedient sheeple have been finding and causing crises for years. For a while, global warming had been on the back burner (heh!), but it was brought back with a vengeance, even using brainwashed children to manipulate emotions in the public.

Global Warming, Pixabay / Pete Linforth

As we have seen, the secular science industry will saddle up and ride with any leftist saddle tramp that comes to DC town. They have a worldview based on atheistic naturalism, so they reject the Creator (and his promises to sustain the earth) out of hand. In addition, the secular science industry has shown that they are willing to ignore inconvenient truths, suppress contrary evidence, and more in order to support leftist agendas. Also, there's big money in it. This is indeed unfortunate for the scientists who just want to do their jobs but are swept along.

The key to informed opinion about climate is to understand the limitations of science. Every week, new findings come to light that question the models used to characterize climate trends. To those reckless reporters shouting “science denier!” at anyone failing to kowtow obediently to the consensus and its doomsday alarmism, we remind readers that uninformed opinion is the definition of prejudice. One cannot be informed by reading only one side of a controversial issue.

Keep in mind several principles of reason known to philosophers and historians of science:

To read the full article, see "Politicians Overplay Climate Science." (Alternate link here because the site has had some problems lately.) Be sure to come back for some related material. You'll thank me later.

Climate change alarmists are blatant hypocrites. That's right, I said it! They leave their own huge "carbon footprints" by flying their private jets to climate change conferences — and they do it a lot. These sidewinders make policies that are absurd and cannot be implemented.

Some of their claims are laughable even on the surface, and there are dozens of predictions at the Extinction Clock that are listed as failed or ridiculously long-reaching. Remember the scare of a guaranteed next ice age by the 21st century that was popular in the 1970s? Good times, good times.

There is a tremendous amount of emotional manipulation, and leftists are using that to seize power. It doesn't matter that people are dying, and will die, in large numbers. Meanwhile, those of us who want all the evidence examined are labeled with the epithet "deniers", bludgeoned, and kicked down the stairs into their discarded caviar and wine bottles. Is it not the place of real scientists to seek the truth and find answers? Manipulation, suppression, and repression do not accomplish this. Leftist politicians just love them secularist toadies, though!

The globalists’ recommendations, such as eliminating chemical fertilizers and animal stock, have already led to political collapse in Sri Lanka and Ghana and are now causing major protests and upheavals in the Netherlands, Canada, Argentina and some African countries. These upheavals come with very real prospects of mass starvation and mass migration for millions of people. Germany is facing cold winters without power because of over-reliance on so-called “renewable energy” that is being pushed worldwide due to climate change scares. The countries striving for the highest ESG scores (Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance, a measure of conformance with the climate consensus policy recommendations) are the worst off, and the ones suffering the most there are the poor and middle classes. Sri Lanka specifically outlawed chemical fertilizers, which literally spells famine. The consensus elites don’t care. Their solutions are as unworkable as they are cruel. They wouldn’t mind if billions died to reduce human impact on the planet. Some of them think that would be a good thing, as long as they are exempted themselves.

To read all of this heavily-documented article, click on "Big Science Spreading Climate Disinformation." (Alternate link here.) It is interesting that I did not see the video embedded below until after this post was written, but Mr. Watters echoed several of the points that were raised:

The Secular Science Industry vs the Abortion Ruling

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 01:30:00 +0000

Addendum added 2 July 2022.

We have seen many times in the past where the secular science industry has supported leftist causes, and now it is increasing. This is indeed unfortunate for the scientist who wants to do science stuff. Many of us can relate, having to earn a living trying to do what is best for the patient or customer. Indeed, if a prospective employer reads this and rejects me, their company is not worth my talent.

Abortion is a sacred sacrament to leftists. Although fake science gave abortion a veneer of deniability with, "The fetus is not human yet, it is just going through past evolutionary stages", people know full well that the fetus is an unborn human baby. Fetus means baby. They want to kill it anyway.

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United State Supreme Court overturned the terrible legislation of Roe v. Wade from 1973. Abortion has been an important aspect of the Democrat Party for many years, so they and other leftists are incensed about the ruling. They are also lying about it. After all, it's who they are and what they do. Facts are trampled:

Abortion never was a "Constitutional right."
It is not outlawed across the nation, the matter is up to each state to decide — the way it should have been according to the Constitution.
It is not "healthcare", especially since someone dies.
They have no right to protest outside a Supreme Court justice's house, that is a criminal act.
Protesting, crying, acts of violence, and other tantrums will not change anything.
Most abortion are based on convenience. Special circumstances do not justify them all.
There are no known organized efforts to put women who have had abortions into jail. However, they do need Christian counseling, but that is not a legal matter.

The secular science industry got the bit in their teeth and galloped away with all sorts of leftist propaganda that had nothing to do with actual science. Has anyone found anything in secular science journals from a pro-life perspective? For that matter, has anyone seen remarks that those aborted are image bearers of God? That'll be the day!

These are the same sidewinders that control the narrative on origins, disallowing scientific evidence for creation and the Genesis Flood. (They also do the same regarding climate change, favoring the left and suppressing inconvenient data.) After all, creation and Flood evidence would be troubling for these organizations that are populated mostly by atheists, and they won't admit that there is a Creator who makes the rules. It fits that pro-life material is suppressed, since the Bible commands Christians to defend the defenseless and to do good to the downtrodden. Christians need to continue standing up for the unborn, but also presenting the gospel to people.

There is nothing scientific about abortion. If left to nature, the unborn would be born. A few are stillborn through natural occurrences not involving intervention by the mother or doctor, such as by genetic defects, but the system of conception, development and birth is the norm in all sexually-reproducing organisms. Abortion by willful intervention in this natural process is entirely a moral issue grounded in human exceptionalism: the belief that human beings are not merely animals, but free moral agents with minds and souls responsible to God.

Big Science (the leaders of academic science departments, lobbyists and journal editors), should keep out of abortion debates except to offer facts about embryonic development. But consisting primarily of atheists and evolutionists, Big Science and its cohorts in the media have intervened in the abortion issue. The dish out all the Democrat talking points with a false veneer of science, as if to say “all scientists agree” with their position. Bias like this is not new. Historically, Big Science strongly supported eugenics, which had strong ties to Planned Parenthood.

You would do well to read the entire article at "Big Science Tried to Stop Overturning Roe." You may also like "Refuting Arguments Abortionists Use." ADDENDUM 2 July 2022: "Big Science Still Defending Abortion."

Fifteen Years of Thundering

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Mon, 30 May 2022 14:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

My calendar reminder tells me that today is the anniversary of this, my first weblog. I think it was a contact in a newsgroup who encouraged me to do one. As expected, many things have changed and I have learned a great deal.

When I started, I had no idea what to say, so I did a getting to know me thing. The subjects were about whatever struck my fancy, and Stormbringer's Thunder was written in a conversational style. This still covers a variety of subjects, but I focus on logic, refutations of atheism, and internet things such as browser security.

Quick fun facts about the Edge browser. It has Immersive Reader to make a page more, well, readable. In that is a Read Aloud function (Natasha is my favorite voice). It also does a read aloud thing even if the site is not conducive to Immersive Reader. Like other browsers, Edge will open up PDFs. Here's what was fun for me: Using the Reader View by Yokris extension, a user can annotate and mark up a web page, then save it off as a page in HTML. Open it in Edge and the favorite Edge voice, can be used.

Yes, Lake Katrine really exists

I try to keep it active about once a month, sometimes more if I need to post something extra. There have been times where Fakebook decided something I was trying to post was spam, even though it was from an established site. So, I cranked out something and couched the link and then posted it that way. Also, social(ist) media stifle speech about homosexuality, transgenderism, and other subjects, so I have written about them and used titles that are less likely to trigger their bots, such as "Science Faces Reality of Genders."

For quite a while, I wrote in an "Italian businessman" persona and had some associates, several of which were based on real people. This may have provided some entertainment when I was doing political material, and can be seen in older "Logic Lessons" and other material.

I deleted quite a few posts and articles from the past. By the way, my distinction for a post is something where I do not contribute extensive original content, and an article has substantially more.

It seems to me that articles and posts require graphics or they're more likely to be missed. The one I used here, which is my own, has nothing to do with this article. It was added to fulfill the "requirement" for a graphic on a post. You savvy that, pilgrim?

Something that I learned is that a blogger cannot just grab any old photo and use it, and a slight modification is not a derivative that qualifies as Fair Use. One day I got alarmed, read up on copyright infringement, then spent many hours deleting graphics from my sites and account. While it's safest to use your own images, it's not always practicable. Now I know that there are plenty of free photos to be found that can be used legally (as I explained in this missive). That is one thing I hope any writer will seriously consider.

I set up shop on Blogger (owned by Alphabet, owned by Google, owned by Pyra Labs). Adjust settings, endure forced changes in the format that made a lot of the work look crummy... Most recently, I had to change the overall theme so that the weblog was mobile-friendly. That resulted in many nightmares and even cries for help to the Google community. Finally got most of my Goolag-owned properties looking okay.

Along the way, I had to learn some HTML basics as well.

Interestingly, I don't even have the Chrome browser installed in my PC. I use Chrome extensions on several of my browsers, though. While Google and Chrome are safe from interlopers, the watchers have to be watched; Chrome and Google spy on people. But you know all that.

When I started this thing, I was probably using Firefox. Although Chromium-based browsers rule the Web, Firefox is still in there and may be regaining some of its popularity. However, it needs "hardening" to cut down on spying. After breaking up with Firefox because they support censorship, I gave the fork called Waterfox a try. It was an adequate substitute for Firefox. Several settings recommended for Firefox safety are already established. However, Waterfox must have grown in a short time, now I use it frequently. Waterfox uses Firefox extensions, so we got that going for us, which is nice. That Multi-Account Containers extension helps with security.

My writing has improved over the years, and there are times where it is more formal. Learning new words and paying more attention to grammar in serious posts and articles has been a challenge at times, but helpful.

Time to wrap up. Things I've learned doing this weblog have helped with the other ones, and vice versa. Although my work will never be famous, it is dedicated to the glory of God. Remaining faithful to my calling is most important.

Definitions, Evolution, and the American Police State

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Fri, 20 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

Edited 23 Mat 2922

Free speech is something that is cherished by many people in the Western world, but it is being suppressed drastically. Most of the mainstream media are so left-wing, they fly in circles; news reports infested with opinions. The secular science industry promotes leftist views, and is anti-science in many ways.

Biblical creationists uphold the authority of the Word of God, beginning in Genesis. Biblical truth undermines socialism and many other political evils, so no wonder creation scientists are suppressed when they present evidence against evolution. Something very important that many of us teach is the importance of definitions.

Surveillance, Pixabay / Jürgen Jester (modified with FotoSketcher)

Darwin's acolytes tell us that evolution is a "fact" and that it has been observed. This often comes with conflating variations and speciation (among other things) with evolution, where they are intending to dry gulch people into thinking that Darwin was right. Variations have been observed, but not something changing into something else with added genetic material as vertical evolution requires.

Similarly, an important part of particles-to-paleontologist evolution is mutations. Supposedly, beneficial mutations accumulated over millions of Darwin years and made organisms better than they were. A problem here is that beneficial is a subjective word. Sickle-cell anemia was falsely called a beneficial mutation, therefore, evidence for evolution. Not hardly!

We see that evolution and beneficial mutation can mean different things, so when discussing origins science, definitions need to be nailed down.

In the past few years, the phrases hate speech and hate crime have been used quite a bit. As if assault and battery or vandalism weren't bad enough in the first place, someone decides it had racial or other motivations that are important to those in power. That magically makes those crimes worse. Indeed, sometimes just saying something that is arbitrarily deemed offensive can be a "hate crime!" Hate speech/crimes are not exactly codified, and are ill-defined.

I reported anti-Christian obscenities to Facebook and selected the hate speech option. Every time, the rejected it. But we know what kind of people run Fakebook. No hate speech against Mohammedans is allowed. Two standards, no waiting. Here is one of the milder attacks:

Click for full size. Used under federal Fair Use provisions for educational purposes.

In May 2022, the House of Representatives in the formerly United States is working on an anti-domestic terrorism bill. That should be reason for concern, because leftists are in power. Groups like Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and others that are looting, destroying, and even killing people are seldom prosecuted. The actions of these groups clearly fit what one would expect to fit a term like domestic terrorists. They are favored by the left, you savvy that?

As Tucker Carlson points out, terrorism is not really defined. When words are flexible (as we saw above), they can mean what those in power want them to mean. Conservatives, Christians, and others can be simply labeled as terrorists and have their basic freedoms infringed. This child suspects that it helps pave the way for the Antichrist, but even if I'm wrong, there are serious reasons for concern.

Definitions matter, old son. There's a video below I'd like you to see, and I also suggest reading "Logic and Definitions", both my part and the article linked within.

Miracles and the Evolution of Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 09:00:00 +0000

For many professing Christians in several denominations, Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. As a child in the United Methodist Church, we were given palm tree fronds to place at the front of the church. There are variations where Holy Week ends on Saturday, others count Easter Sunday.

Credit: Pixabay / Gerd Altmann

Some sects continue liturgical celebrations after Easter. Bible-believing Christians know the truths from Scripture that Jesus rose from the dead and is at the right hand of God the Father (Rom. 8:34), so our observance is continual.

Naturalists deny miracles, including the recent creation in six days, the Resurrection, Jesus and Peter walking on water, and other things, so they attempt to evosplain them away according to their fundamentally flawed presuppositions. (Liberal theologians and secularists can be seen at this time of year on secular documentaries denying the truth.) Some say that religion evolved (see "The Non-Evolution of Religion"), but that is the opposite of the truth and is based on speculations.

These owlhoots need to cowboy up and be honest: Jesus is God the Son, and he did what the Gospels have recorded to us. This is an excellent time to examine the evidence without evolutionary preconceptions, humble ourselves, repent, and believe in Christ for our salvation. What follows is an article from 2014 that illustrates how fake science and bad logic are used by materialists to suppress the truth.

It’s Easter time. That means the secularists are hatching and buzzing like cicadas with their latest attempts to debunk the Bible’s account of Christ and his miracles.

With atheist billboards proclaiming “Jesus did not die for your sins,” what position should scientists and science reporters take on documents pertaining to a historical figure written by contemporary eyewitnesses? Perhaps neutrality would be preferable to what often appears in the media in Easter season.

How does one put “Jesus” and “evolution” adjacent in the same sentence? Steven Prothero (religion department, Boston University) on National Geographic found a way; “On Easter, Jesus’ Evolution Tells of Changing America.” He doesn’t assert that Jesus himself evolved, therefore, but that American attitudes about him have. True as that may be, it gives the impression that anyone can think whatever they want about Jesus. A scientist or historian should pursue the facts, not the swirling opinions of diverse interest groups who try to appropriate Jesus to their biases.

To read the rest, head on over to "Did Jesus Evolve? Secularists Make Hay at Easter".

Leftist Political Activists in the Secular Science Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

If there is anyone left who thinks that scientists are impartial and motivated by facts, they need to drop those illusions quick-like. Scientists have the same qualities and fallacies as the rest of us, but are committed to a worldview of atheistic materialism — with atoms-to-aerobiologist evolution at the forefront.

At many points in history, the "intellectual class" would exert influence on governments for elitist rule. After all, they were educated and "smarter" than the commoners. This is happening today, and it is escalating.

Adapted from an 1883 image by Kate Greenaway

Elitists desire power, and it has been glaringly evident in recent years, especially in the formerly United States. Political leftists are famous for spreading their propaganda. This includes the usual techniques of concentration and repetition, the big lie, arbitrary assertions, excluding inconvenient facts and other fallacies. "Follow the science" is shouted from the rooftops, but true science is being denied: aborting babies is not murder, people can change genders, neo-Darwinism is proven, and more.

It is disappointing but not surprising that the secular science industry supports leftist causes. Their worldview is fundamentally flawed. Using exceptionally dishonest propaganda and feeding it to the public, Christians, Conservatives, and others are demonized into non-persons — we are enemies of truth and science. Except that they have no consistent foundation for morality and ethics!

Outright lies have been told about President Donald Trump and others, lying by omission is blatant, censorship is frequent, and the fraudulently "elected" President Biden and his associates are touted as heroes. None of these tactics are virtuous, and true science has no place in them.

For all intents and purposes, Big Science is an arm of the Democrat Party who impeached President Trump twice over a Russia hoax and an innocent phone call with a foreign leader (for which Trump produced the transcript after the call for his impeachment, which the Democrats ignored). The Democrats’ hatred of Trump was (and is) vicious and visceral, so much so that they schemed to rig the 2020 election so that he could not win despite getting the most votes received for any incumbent President in history. Mollie Hemingway tells what happened in Rigged, her best-selling book about the plot to seize the election from what would have been an assured second term. Big Science was right there with the Democrats, working to get him out and keep him out.
Does this sound like what science was supposed to be about, to seek the truth about the natural world in an unbiased way? Are we exaggerating about their bias? Nature, Science or PNAS and the other leaders of Big Science could falsify these assertions by printing one unadulterated editorial—just one—praising Trump for something he did and accusing Biden of being anti-science. You won’t find it.

This article was published on 22 January 2022, and things have become worse since then. I recommend that you read the whole thing anyway, jet over to "Big Science Has Sold Its Soul."

Medical Science Incompatible with Abortion Arguments

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 16:00:00 +0000

In these formerly United States, January 23 is the 38th observance of Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. We are bombarded with claims about "reproductive rights for women", "my body, my choice", and others. The baby has half of the DNA from each parent, which is another problem with such arguments.

In many cases, this is a political power grab by people who have had their consciences seared. Abortion is the ending of a human life, but many do not care and are even proud of murder. In very few cases is ending a pregnancy medically necessary.

Ultrasound picture from Pexels by Melike Benli

By the way, they have the rights to use contraceptives or even abstinence.

What women who demand their "rights" are not told are the enduring consequences of having an abortion. Leftists and others who support abortion on demand use several arguments that can easily be refuted, and they also present the viperine falsehood that it is "religious" people who are forcing their views on everyone else. Thinking people can see through that. Even though people of various religious views oppose abortion, and it goes against biblical teachings, there are medical reasons where abortion is harmful to the women who end their pregnancies.

The expression "follow the money" is helpful when there are doctors who give approval for unnecessary abortions: many have a financial interest. Kickbacks are unethical, you savvy that?

These doctors should know (if they're doing their jobs) that yes, women have psychological and emotional traumas. Women who have full-term births and no abortions have a decreased risk of breast cancer, but since the fetal cells remain in the mother when a pregnancy is terminated, they risk miscarriage in future pregnancies. Further, fetal cells have been detected in several cancers.

Our Creator intended one man, one woman, one lifetime — which clearly is not happening in this fallen world. Women who remain faithful to one spouse and do not kill their unborn children have better physical and mental health benefits. Those who have had abortions, adulterers, and everyone else who has sinned against God can have forgiveness by humbling themselves and repenting at the foot of the cross of Jesus, who bodily rose from the dead — demonstrating his bona fides.

I am a GP, and as a doctor, it seems I must agree with the proponents of abortion on demand, abortion as a contraceptive right, and abortion all the way through pregnancy, including at term. Otherwise, I am labelled an “obstructive, manipulative, rude or a disrespectful anti-choice doctor”. This is according to a pro-abortion GP writing in the Medical Observer on 19 October 2018.
. . .

In light of this, it’s a good chance to revisit some of the science of abortion and what the science says about the harm that abortion does to the woman, not just the baby whose life is brutally ended.
. . .

In the case of surgical abortions, often a healthy, but unwanted fetus is surgically destroyed and removed from the womb. If the baby survives the process, he or she is left to die.

It is estimated that in a single year, 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed in the United States alone. According to the World Health Organization, over 50 million abortions occur each year worldwide, i.e. ~125,000 per day. In Queensland alone, in 2015, about 10,000–14,000 abortions occurred—and this was with the ‘archaic’ law that supposedly restricted abortion.

What’s driving this intense worldwide campaign for radical abortion? The United Nations seems to be involved, using innocuous-sounding banners like ‘reproductive health’ and ‘equality for women’. The UN World Survey on the Role of Women in Development 2014: Gender Equality and Sustainable Development uses double-speak and soft phrases to advocate what is in fact sterilization, abortion, and reduction in fertility rates.

I really hope you will read the article in its entirety. A bit long, but definitely worth it. You may also want to bookmark/favorite it for later reference. See "How abortion harms women: The science." Also of interest, Answers in Genesis is doing a series, "Prenatal Development: Life of an Unborn Baby."

Misotheists, Evolutionists Play the Offended Card

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Sorensen) — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:00:00 +0000

Instead of dealing with issues and confrontations with reason, people dodge them by playing the victim card. They often claim to be offended. This manipulation ploy works on many people, especially Christians and Conservatives, who do not want to be seen as aggressors.

It is one thing to tell the truth in an offensive manner (which can potentially negate a message), but the truth itself is offensive to people who are in the wrong. Especially the gospel message itself.

Modified from an image made by Why?Outreach

While Christians and creationists are to present our message graciously, there are times when we must stand firm. Some Christians clutch their pearls when firm responses given to atheists and evolutionists. They give what I think of as the milk-and-cookies-group-hug reaction: "You'll hurt their feelings, they'll chose against Christ and go to Hell, and it'll be all your fault!" Not hardly! They're responsible for choices and decisions, but I'll allow that some of us can get a mite rambunctious when standing up to bullies, and we have to be careful of that.

When someone claims to be offended or have hurt feelings because we present the gospel, argue for creation (both biblically and scientifically), and so on, they need to cowboy up. Deal with it.

There was a time when people were trained to think critically and examine material, not seek safe spaces because the very existence of someone offering a contrary view hurts their feelings. Some atheists pretend to be offended at word choices, but their feigned outrage is often manufactured, as I demonstrated in this article. We have to be bold and not back down, but take care to not be offensive in our conduct. Although the article linked below is from 2010, it still has a great deal of relevance today.

“I’ve been doing science for 30 years; don’t you think it offends me when you say you don’t believe in evolution?”

I nearly fell out of my chair! I had been asked by an atheist group (the Center for Inquiry) to come down and speak at a meeting they were holding to discuss their recent promotion of a bus advertising campaign on the Toronto Transit line declaring “There is probably no God, so relax and enjoy your life.” They apparently wanted a “religious” view represented so had invited me.

After the initial pre-determined questions to the panel members were asked, the audience (all atheists except for one to my knowledge) were invited to ask questions. The (biologist) gentlemen’s question (above) was issued to me after I had declared I was a creationist.

You can finish reading this useful article by visiting "Sticks and stones may break bones, but … “Your words hurt me!” say atheists." Now if you'll excuse me, I need to watch this video again.

Prophecies and Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 11:00:00 +0000

One of the most difficult aspects of the Bible for scoffers to ignore is fulfilled prophecies, of which there are many in the Bible. Those regarding the birth of Jesus are found in several Old Testament books, all the way back to the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15. (Even his death on a cross was prophesied in Psalm 22:12-18, long before the Romans even existed.) It is impossible for Jesus to have fulfilled prophecies by accident, and many were usually not known until after his Resurrection.

Prophet Isaiah by Fra Bartolomeo, 1516

In Isaiah 7:14, for example, we read that Jesus would be born of a virgin. Micah 5:2 tells us of his birthplace. Old Testament scribes knew the prophecies, which helps belie the claim of scoffers that they were written down afterward to make Jesus look good. (If you study on it, that's ludicrous even on the surface to claim that a holy God who hates lying would condone such a practice.) Many prophecies were fulfilled at the birth of Jesus. There are also prophecies about his triumphant return. What are you going to do with him?

Millions of Christians around the world choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus during this time of year—some on December 24 or 25 and others around January 7—while some choose not to celebrate at all. Whenever a Christian decides to celebrate, or if he elects not to celebrate His birth, we can all rejoice in the fact that, by putting on humanity, the Son of God became one of us to deal with our sin by dying in our place before conquering death when He rose from the dead.

You would benefit by reading the entire article at "Fulfilled Prophecies at the Birth of Christ."

People Died in Kentucky, so Biden Lied

noreply@blogger.com (Piltdown Superman) — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 10:00:00 +0000

We have seen how mainstream science is catering to leftist agendas (see "More Leftist Malarkey in the Secular Science Industry"), and although attention to anthropogenic (manmade) global warming had faded for a spell, secularists are polishing up that meadow muffin with the help of secular science. It is not in the least surprising that Joe "Quockerwodger" Biden used tendentious leftist pronouncements about climate change to politicize the December 10-11 tornado in Kentucky and Tennessee.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens

I received an email from someone who makes crusading for climate change his reason for being, and he echoed leftist propaganda (then I deleted the rant). Climate alarmists do not believe God is in control (most do not seem to think that he even exists), and their fundamentally flawed worldview is based on molecules-to-meteorologist evolution and deep time. Both aspects of secularism use similar approaches to bad science.

Since Biden is the spurious General Secretary of the Joint Battle Command, it should have not surprised me to see an article from the US Department of Defense talking about rendering aid in Kentucky — and then turning it into Wuhan Virus vaccine propaganda! The shock is wearing off, but this child is still outraged.

Climate alarmists have a horrible track record of failed predictions for the end of the world, so they are now dating them out many years. Convenient, since they will not be held accountable in their lifetimes. Still, career politicians like ol' Joe use bad science to help get and keep power for the party, right on. Does everything have to be about power? Come on, man!

We are told that tornadoes are increasing, and that is because of global warming. No, it is because of better reporting. Also, this tornado was an exception in its ferocity as far as the lateness in the season (not during the usual timeframe). Before that weekend, the death toll for tornadoes was the lowest it had been for over a hundred years. Doesn't fit the narrative.

Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday [December 11, 2021], President Joe Biden blamed the recent deadly tornado outbreak in Kentucky on “climate change.” Biden stated, “The fact is we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming and obviously it has some impact here.”
Biden’s statement is laughably inept and easily disproved. All one has to do is look past the opinions, pronouncements, and hand waving and concentrate on what science and data actually say about the issues.

To read the rest, see "Joe Biden vs. the Tornados", which is far less sarcastic than I am.