I knew a man once. He was my friend.
He was a PhD scientist, a successful investor, and an avid hiker. He was a family man. By the measures of THIS life, he was well-rounded and accomplished.
He was also a staunch atheist. It would be better to call him a ‘proud’ atheist. He esteemed the various accomplishments of his mind, and he catalogued his spiritual convictions as part of those.
While I had several talks with him about his spiritual views, there was little I could say or do to get him to reevaluate his position. He was convinced of his choices. His mind was set like hardened concrete.
Because this man dismissed ALL evidence of God in physics, creation, history, and the Word of God, he didn’t believe in sin. He believed instead in the “inherent goodness of mankind.”
With that came his affections for open borders, gun control, lenient jail sentences, and all forms of government assistance and control. He blamed most of society’s problems on “a lack of education” – and so he was always distraught whenever educated people made bad choices. For him, that didn’t add up.
No surprise, he was also a radical environmentalist, and that’s an understatement. By his assessment, this earth was IT! There was nothing more to come. The fate of all humans was tied to this whirling celestial ball.
He fawned over all creatures great and small. He labored to raise alarm against any policy or situation which he perceived as harming or threatening the environment, and he wrote multiple checks to various environmental causes. He applauded the “peaceful” tactics of the radical Greenpeace, and he “respected” the baseless climate warnings of illiterate, attention-seeking, and patently obvious fools like AOC and Greta Thunberg.
His environmental views made him acutely intolerant. He absolutely loathed people and policies that didn’t align with his specific passions. Reusable grocery bags, cloth diapers, EVs, and bicycles were a big deal to him. As he saw it, ALL matters about the welfare of planet Earth were humanity’s top priority.
When I first met him, he talked incessantly about the problems of “global warming,” but even he admitted that term was misleading. He became more comfortable with referring to the issue as “climate change” instead. It was much more permissive and accommodating.
He blamed all notable weather events and natural disasters on “climate change” – even though historical records and documented weather patterns showed these things had happened multiple times before. By all accounts, he was a fanatical zealot for this planet.
I caught him reading a book one day that challenged his “climate change” notions, and so I asked him about it. He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips as he pontificated on the “responsibilities of being a scientist.” In a more lucid moment, he acknowledged his own views needed to be subordinate to real data points and studies. I don’t think I hid my smile.
One book led to another like it – and then a few more. I noticed he became quieter on this matter. He pored over volumes of academic research, and he wrote to various qualified people with his questions. I must admit, his due diligence was impressive!
He came to me after a while, and he dropped a bombshell. He said, “I no longer believe in climate change. The data does not support it. It’s a lie – it’s a complete fabrication. It has become a false religion for many people. The true agenda of climate change is social re-engineering and total economic control.”
It was his turn to smile as he added, “I’ve converted.” He knew I’d see the humor there.
I had to respect this man for what had happened. He’d moved from one position he’d been extremely passionate about to an opposite position he’d become just as firm on. The facts had found a toehold, and they’d won him over.
What prompted his change? I think it was several things.
First, he chose to exercise objectivity. It wasn’t easy for him; he really WANTED to believe certain things. His personal agenda and his emotional and subjective side WANTED to believe in ‘climate change’ – but his scientific, professional, and objective constitution KNEW the data didn’t support it.
Being as he was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, he had embraced good-sounding ideals and language without applying any common sense or discipline of thought. It had been so much easier for him to float downstream with all the other dead fish than fight against their pressures to ‘stay in step.’
But, in the end, he was a proud scientist – VERY proud! He was afraid of falling victim to the clammy clutches of emotional, senseless thinking. Properly assessing the data ultimately became a higher priority for him than conforming to a particular view.
Second, he realized he didn’t have a true dog in the fight. He didn’t have any personal agenda except to get to the bottom of the truth.
Other than the fact he had a huge ego and he loved being regarded as “knowledgeable” by others, he would figure out how to fit the truth – whatever it was – into all the other notions he still obstinately wished to cling to.
Third – and this is a big one – he got weary of the sham. As is often the case with folks like him, he’d always reacted with hostility when he was presented with the facts.
His tensions were a byproduct of his conscience being at war with his decisions. The clear evidence constantly reminded him that his chosen views were suspect, and every day he’d struggled to keep clear principles. He’d worn his anger and frustrations on his sleeve.
That took a lot of energy. He was exhausted from his self-inflicted wounds, and he had finally decided this was a battle he could no longer fight.
And fourth, he approached the truth like a therapeutic salve and not a poison. This permitted a much-needed ray of humility to break through his obstinance. Tiny glimmers of truth had illuminated those dark corners of his mind where cobwebs of arrogance, deception, foolishness, and pride were most tangled.
Wherever he let the truth in, it healed him. His recovery was proportionate to his exercise of personal humility.
When I most recently spoke to him, this man still clung to other ridiculous fallacies and foolish ideas that are the direct by-product of his spiritual poverty. After all, if you don’t believe in an all-powerful Creator – or if you choose to put a sovereign and infinite God into a box which is more palatable to your preferences – then you will not respect those laws, truths, and values which find their source in God’s Word.
For that matter, common sense and logic will completely elude you if you refuse to have a right relationship with God.
Even if you THINK you and God are on good terms – but you’re really keeping Him and HIS terms at arm’s length instead – then your choices will be shot full of holes. You’ll maintain double standards, you’ll believe in lies, you’ll look stupid with the things you support – and you’ll be just fine with all of that.
You’ll rage against truth of all forms, and you’ll embrace deceptions instead. All of this will be necessary for you to keep up your pretenses. You’ll ignore the things your conscience is instructing you to pay attention to because your chosen identity is sewn up in the poor and indefensible decisions you’ve made.
If this feels close to where you’re at, then let me tell you a few more things about YOU.
Your mind has become dangerously conformed to the world’s ideas (Romans 12:2). You lack discernment, but you think you have it instead. You are inclined to profess yourself as wise, but if those you esteem told you 2+2 does not equal 4, you’d agree. You are starting to show in so many ways that you are foolish (Romans 1:22).
This is not hard to understand because you’ve REFUSED to give God His rightful place in your life. This is your choice. And that’s why God has given you over to a ‘depraved mind’ (Romans 1:28). That basically means your brain no longer works like it’s supposed to, and this is something you’ve done to yourself.
Your agenda ‘goose steps’ with the world’s agenda. You keep shouting “Resist!” even as you do whatever is necessary to conform to the crowd you’ve chosen to run with.
That crowd’s talking points are now yours, and its political ideals are the altar you bow down to. Just like them, you’re prepared to fight – and to become violent – to protect what you most WANT to believe.
Underneath it all, you are afraid. You fear the truth will expose you. And so, in a pathetic self-defense effort, you mock anyone who chooses to engage in the hard work of due diligence that your own fears, prejudices, and insecurities keep YOU from doing.
Your close-mindedness is clear to everyone. You believe America’s present leadership came to power unlawfully – and you think our previous President was legally voted into office.
You think BLM and Antifa are the good guys. You feel wearing a red cap with a patriotic slogan is wrong – but wearing a black hoodie and facemask with fascistic and antisemitic symbols is just fine.
You see nothing wrong with clamping down on this nation’s law-abiding citizens and removing their rights while encouraging multiple thousands of criminals and illegals to pour into this country.
If you don’t already think capitalism is bad, you’re less inclined to defend it than you defend the principles of socialism. You think law enforcement should be defunded, college should be free, reparations should be distributed, tampon dispensers should be in boys’ bathrooms, and SUVs should be heavily taxed.
You thought the jab was really a true vaccine. You still don’t see any cover-ups or corruption at the CDC and the NIH. You still think the ‘good’ doctors were the ones who condemned Ivermectin and HCQ and the ‘bad’ doctors were the ones who supported those treatments. You believe that masks work, that you need to wear them in your car when you’re driving alone, and that folks who are vaccinated are protected.
You support men using women’s bathrooms and women using men’s bathrooms. You’re fine with drag queens reading gender-bending stories to your kids at libraries the same way you’re OK with lousy and insecure male athletes competing as ‘transgenders’ in women’s sports.
If you’re honest, you’re uncomfortable with the absurd and comedic claim that men can become pregnant. But since you’re running with all the other dumb lemmings – well, yeah, you’ll just go ahead and say you believe that too.
I could go on and on here. If any of this even partly describes you, then the examples of your soggy ‘vital signs’ are many. But my point is already clear, so saying more doesn’t bring it into better focus.
If you are truly honest with yourself the way my friend was with himself, you’d do a little digging here. You’d test your convictions, you’d drink upstream from the herd a little bit, and you’d open yourself up to the facts.
Make no mistake – procuring insight and wisdom is hard work according to Proverbs 2:3-4. It’s like hunting for hidden treasure. But these qualities are available to the common person if that person is willing to take on the task of gaining them (Proverbs 1:20).
The goal of moving from a biased, foolish view to an unbiased, wise view means one must make personal changes. A person like that needs to be Tenacious, Resilient, Unbiased, Mature, and Proactive.
In other words: “TRUMP.” That should be easy for you to remember.
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