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Atheist and anti-theist\u00a0Bob Seidensticker<\/a>,\u00a0who was\u00a0\u201craised Presbyterian\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0runs the influential\u00a0Cross Examined<\/em><\/a>\u00a0blog. He asked me there,\u00a0on 8-11-18<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve got 1000+ posts here attacking your worldview. You just going to let that stand? Or could you present a helpful new perspective that I\u2019ve ignored on one or two of those posts?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0He also made a general statement\u00a0on 6-22-17<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cChristians\u2019 arguments are easy to refute . . . I\u2019ve heard the good stuff, and it\u2019s not very good.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>He added\u00a0in the combox<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cIf I\u2019ve misunderstood the Christian position or Christian arguments, point that out. Show me where I\u2019ve mischaracterized them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Such confusion would indeed be\u00a0predictable<\/em>, seeing that Bob himself admitted\u00a0(2-13-16<\/a>):\u00a0\u201cMy study of the Bible has been haphazard, and I jump around based on whatever I\u2019m researching at the moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bob (for the record) virtually\u00a0begged<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0pleaded<\/em>\u00a0with me to dialogue with him in May 2018, via email. But by\u00a010-3-18<\/a>,\u00a0following\u00a0massive, childish name-calling attacks<\/a>\u00a0against me,\u00a0 encouraged by Bob on his blog (just prior to his\u00a0banning<\/em>\u00a0me from it), his opinion was as follows:\u00a0\u201cDave Armstrong . . . made it clear that a thoughtful intellectual conversation wasn\u2019t his goal. . . . [I] have no interest in what he\u2019s writing about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And on 10-25-18, utterly oblivious to the ludicrous irony of\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0making the statement, Bob\u00a0wrote in a combox<\/a>\u00a0on his blog:\u00a0\u201cSomeone who\u2019s not a little bit driven to investigate cognitive dissonance will just stay a Christian, fat \u2018n sassy and ignorant.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Again,\u00a0Bob mocks some Christian in his combox on\u00a010-27-18<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cYou can\u2019t explain it to us, you can\u2019t defend it, you can\u2019t even defend it to yourself. Defend your position or shut up about it. It\u2019s clear you have nothing.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0And again\u00a0on the same day<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cIf you can\u2019t answer the question, man up and say so.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0And on\u00a010-26-18<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cyou refuse to defend it, after being asked over and over again.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0And\u00a0again<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re<\/i>\u00a0the one playing games, equivocating, and being unable to answer the challenges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bob\u2019s cowardly hypocrisy knows no bounds. Again,\u00a0on 6-30-19<\/a>, he was chiding someone for something very much like he himself:\u00a0\u201cSpoken like a true weasel trying to run away from a previous argument. You know, you could just say, \u2018Let me retract my previous statement of X\u2019 or something like that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Yeah,\u00a0Bob<\/em>\u00a0could!\u00a0\u00a0He still hasn\u2019t yet uttered one peep in reply<\/a>\u00a0to \u2014 now \u2014 46 of my critiques of his atrocious reasoning.<\/p>\n Bible-Basher Bob\u2019s words will be in\u00a0blue<\/span>.\u00a0To find these posts, follow this link:\u00a0\u201cSeidensticker Folly #\u201d<\/a> or see all of them linked under his own section on my Atheism page<\/a>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Bob shows us yet again that he doesn\u2019t have a clue what he is talking about when it comes to Christianity and the Bible: this time in his article, \u201c25 Reasons We Don\u2019t Live in a World with a God (Part 2)\u201d<\/a> (2-21-18):<\/p>\n There\u2019s a progression of wisdom from sociopath, to average person, to wise person, to sage. As we move along this spectrum, base personality traits such as the desire for adulation fall away, but the opposite is true for the Christian god. Not only do\u00a0we hear this from Christianity itself\u00a0(\u201cMan\u2019s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever,\u201d according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism), we read it in the Bible (\u201cAt the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s the point of praise? Obviously, God already understands his position relative to us. We\u2019re informing him of nothing new when we squeal, \u201cGolly, you\u2019re so fantastic!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Imagine a human equivalent where you have an ant farm, and the ants are aware that you\u2019re the Creator and Destroyer. It would be petty to revel in the ants\u2019 worshipping you and telling you how great you are. Just how insecure would you need to be?<\/span><\/p>\n This sycophantic praise makes sense for a narcissistic and insecure king, but can God really want or need to hear this? We respect no human leader who demands this. Christianity would have us believe that the personality of a perfect being is that of a spoiled child. . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n God should be a magnification of good human qualities and an elimination of the bad ones. But the petty, praise-demanding, vindictive, and intolerant God of the Bible is simply a Bronze Age caricature, a magnification of\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0human inclinations, good and bad.<\/span><\/p>\n How melodramatic! And how very ignorant. Wouldn\u2019t you think that if God was as Bob portrays Him, that we could and would find explicit indication<\/em> of it in the Bible? Surely if his account is true, and God is a cosmic narcissist and egomaniac Who exists in order to receive human praise, which is to Him like blood to the mosquito and applause to the opera star, then the Bible would be filled with descriptions such as God desires praise, or needs it, or wants it or demands it, right?<\/p>\n In fact, when I went to do a search for such phrases with the online Bible<\/a> that I use, I could find no such thing: zero, zip, zilch. It can search phrases<\/a> and also \u201cproximity\u201d searches<\/a>, where you put in two words and see if they are found within 80 characters of each other. I did both kinds of searches for the following words:<\/p>\n desire praise<\/p>\n want praise<\/p>\n demand praise<\/p>\n need praise<\/p>\n praise me<\/p>\n command praise<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It produced absolutely nothing. Odd<\/em>, ain\u2019t it? God\u2019s supposedly full of Himself and obsessive about receiving praise, yet we can\u2019t find any<\/em> explicit indication of such a thing. And we don\u2019t because the fact of the matter is, that according to standard orthodox Christian theology regarding God (what we call \u201ctheology proper\u201d), it\u2019s not only true that God needs no praise, but also that He needs<\/em> nothing whatsoever<\/strong><\/em>. If Bob had gotten to first base in his study of Christian theology, he would know this. The Bible does<\/em> teach that<\/em>:<\/p>\n Acts 17:24-25<\/strong> (RSV)\u00a0The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man,\u00a0[25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything<\/em>, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Before I explain the Christian concepts that describe these attributes of God, I shall use a human analogy to illustrate how Christians view the praise of God. It\u2019s like war heroes: say the soldier who risks his life in an extraordinary way and saves 20 of his fellow soldiers. Or men or women who come back from battle with missing arms or legs or permanent brain damage, having voluntarily put themselves in harm\u2019s way, or, say, the firefighters in New York City on 9-11 who repeatedly went back into the twin towers to save people, thinking nothing of their own safety.<\/p>\n The heroes who did these things and managed to survive, invariably don\u2019t think of themselves as heroes, and they seek no praise or adulation. No doubt (as they are human beings, and want to feel loved and appreciated like we all do) they feel grateful if someone compliments or thanks them, but they don\u2019t seek<\/em> it. Now, does it follow that we shouldn\u2019t praise and honor them, because they feel that way? No. We do it because it is right and because it is good for us<\/em>. It makes us better people to recognize heroism and noble behavior.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how it is with God and our praise of Him, for all He has done for us. He doesn\u2019t need it because He doesn\u2019t need anything. God the Father doesn\u2019t experience emotions as we do, at all. This is the doctrine of impassibility<\/a>. For further information on that, see:<\/p>\n Does God Suffer?<\/a>, Thomas G. Weinandy (Capuchin priest),\u00a0First Things<\/em>, November 2001.<\/p>\n Does God Have Emotions?<\/a>, Patrick Lee.<\/p>\n Concepts of God\u00a0<\/a>(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy<\/em>: 2nd section)<\/p>\n God is entirely self-sufficient: what is called aseity<\/a>. He needs nothing and besides being impassible, is also immutable<\/a>, meaning that He doesn\u2019t change<\/a> (a thing that would be required for Him to have emotions and change from one state to another). Someone might say, \u201cnow, the Bible does refer often to God changing His mind and \u2018repenting\u2019 etc. How is that to be explained?\u201d It\u2019s explained by anthropomorphism and anthropopathism<\/a>: which mean that God is often portrayed non-literally<\/em> in the Bible in order for human beings to better understand him. Not one atheist in 50 understands this, but they should. It\u2019s important to know.<\/p>\n In summary, we praise God because He is worthy of praise, as the Creator of the universe and a loving God Who will save us, and provide us with a blissful never-ending life in heaven when we die, because of Jesus\u2019 sacrificial death on our behalf, if only we will let Him do so. He\u2019s utterly worthy of it. We do it because we are grateful and because we are only fully ourselves if we acknowledge the God who made us and designed us to be most happy and joyful when in communion with Him. But He doesn\u2019t need<\/em> it (let alone demand it). He has need of nothing whatsoever.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Photo credit:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0BarbaraJackson<\/a>\u00a0(12-18-14) [Pixabay<\/a> \/ Pixabay license<\/a>]<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Atheist and anti-theist\u00a0Bob Seidensticker,\u00a0who was\u00a0\u201craised Presbyterian\u201d,\u00a0runs the influential\u00a0Cross Examined\u00a0blog. He asked me there,\u00a0on 8-11-18:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve got 1000+ posts here attacking your worldview. You just going to let that stand? Or could you present a helpful new perspective that I\u2019ve ignored on one or two of those posts?\u201d\u00a0He also made a general statement\u00a0on 6-22-17:\u00a0\u201cChristians\u2019 arguments are easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":50856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,172],"tags":[3804,2660,2661,1043,11830,258,4126,5552,11836,2900,9081,11827,11824,11842,11839,11833,5510],"class_list":["post-50851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-agnosticism","category-trinitarianism-christology","tag-angry-atheist","tag-anthropomorphism","tag-anthropopathism","tag-anti-theism","tag-aseity","tag-atheism","tag-bob-seidensticker","tag-cross-examined","tag-emotions-and-god","tag-gods-attributes","tag-immutability-of-god","tag-impassibility-of-god","tag-praise-of-god","tag-praising-god","tag-self-sufficiency-of-god","tag-simplicity-of-god","tag-worshiping-god"],"yoast_head":"\n