Motivating Factors

Buon giorno. It has been over four years and over eight hundred posts on this Weblog alone. Add my other Weblogs, and my total is easily over a thousand posts. Most of those are my own work, but I have been increasing the number of links to other sites lately. One reason is obvious, that I believe they have something worth reading. The other reason is to give myself a break.

I put a great deal of work into most of these posts, plus heart and soul. It gets draining. In a word: Burnout.

Some of my longer-term readers know that I rededicated my life to Jesus just over a year ago, after rudely putting God on the back burner for about fifteen years. So, my interests and what I emphasize here has shifted, obviously. But I still maintain that this is a general-purpose Weblog, going where I want to go. Or where God leads.

I was questioning if I was getting burned out, or if my priorities were out of order. Does God still want me doing this in the first place? I mentioned to Rhomphaia a while ago that I was seriously considering shutting it all down, and she gave me a slapping down. (If you find a friend that will slap you down instead of coddle you, hang onto this friend!) But something else happened as well (1 Peter 5.8).

Atheists.

First, I have to say that I have a couple of atheists in mind that are intelligent and pleasant. Unbelievable, I know. If they were anywhere near me, it would be great to meet and talk in person. But I think they're on an inconvenient side of the Atlantic.

For the most part, I was attacked again by piranhas. Especially on Twitter. I have read some astonishingly vacuous remarks and been subjected to extreme antipathy just because of my beliefs and statements. Like piranhas, one would attack, then bring another, and another. I would reply to a "Tweet" (it still grates on me to use that silly word for a form of electronic communication), and then would see that I was replying to three people instead of the first one that lashed out at me. Agonizing. Some of the foolishness was along the lines of:

• Ad hominem. Yes, childishly attacking me for even daring to post anything against evolution or atheism. Also, sites I linked were attacked with sentiment resembling the intellectually stunning attitude of, "They're doo doo heads just like you!" What amazes me is how they will have "forums" or "clubs" where all they do is rail like a group of juvenile delinquents in the schoolyard. Grow up, already! Actually, I think they're unemployable; you can tell by the way they act. By the way, they sure can't take it when someone gives it back to them. Hoo, boy!
• Straw man. I hate to break it to you, Poindexter, but I have no need to defend a position that I do not take.
• "Argument by assertion" fallacy. Evolution is true because it's true. There is no God. Christians, especially Creationists, are inherently stupid. Creationism is a bastardization of science, or, Creationists are not scientists, or... (This is closely related to "poisoning the well".) Presuppositions like these by fundamentalist evolutionists inhibit actual thought.
• The fallacy of exclusion, or suppressed evidence. Excluding facts or alternate theories because they do not fit your presuppositions are anti-science, Sigfried.
• Prove to me that your God exists. Yeah, sure. On Twitter, with 140 character Tweets, and you're bringing in other players to gang up on me. It's only slightly better than attempting a deep philosophical discussion in Weblog comments.
• Fear of contrary evidence. They would rather rely on assumptions and chanting their mantras rather than honestly examining opposing viewpoints and examining the evidence. Declarations were made that the articles I linked were idiotic. Brilliant scientific deduction, Sherlock! Tell me, how did you reach that brilliant conclusion without even bothering to read the article? (Prov. 18.13 NASB)
  
• Addendum: Ad populum fallacy. "Real scientists believe in evolution!" So? Most scientists believed in phlogiston, too, but that did not make it true. This is a cheap, lame excuse to avoid looking at inconvenient evidence against evolution and uniformitarianism.
• Blatant stupidity. That's right, I said it! I received assertions that were outdated or simply untrue, as well as the horrible logic. Two other gems for the Stupidification Squadron: One guy Tweeted me for about two hours while I was away from my computer watching "Columbo", and he claimed he won the debate with me. The other gem was that a couple of guys that I blocked continued to send me messages, often through friends of theirs. Guess what happened to their friends in some cases? Yep, blocked as well.

One thing that alarms me is that cafones like this are the future of their respective countries, capice? The idiot loser that suggested that I kill myself is walking around loose...

So, since sharing my views and linking to sites bothers Satan and his children (John 8.44), guess what? It looks to me that I'm doing something right in the spiritual realm, so I'm motivated to stick around. This is war, you see. Oh, wait. No, you don't see (1 Cor. 2.14). You can't see. I have some hope, however, that some people will be intellectually and spiritually honest to actually consider the truth. I will talk to those people. Trolls get bitten.