Podcast appearances and mentions of Robert Ingersoll

Join the intellectual odyssey with our guest, Justin Clark, public historian and director of digital initiatives at the Indiana Historical Bureau, as we weave through a labyrinth of political ideologies, historical narratives, and the evolution of secular humanism. Unlock the mysteries of midwestern republicanism, dissect the transformation of political legacies from Robert Ingersoll to the Clintons, and explore the intricate dance of ideas across the spectra of socialism and atheism. With an ear to the past and an eye on the present, we navigate through controversial waters, challenging assumptions and redefining the landscape of modern discourse.Our discussion spans a remarkable range of subjects, from the clash of atheism and postmodernism to the funding intricacies behind political movements. We scrutinize prominent thinkers like Christopher Hitchens and Noam Chomsky, critique the New Atheists' scientific missteps, and delve into the utopian traditions that thread through American history. As a co-host of Red Reviews, I bring a unique perspective on Marxist humanism, inviting listeners to join a conversation that dares to question and seeks to understand the complexities of our shared political tapestry.As we conclude this thought-provoking episode, we celebrate the critical minds that have shaped our understanding of American culture and politics, from Sidney Hook to Gore Vidal. Reflecting on the nation's imperialist endeavors and its revolutionary aspirations, we honor the dichotomous nature of the American spirit. Engage with us on this riveting exploration of historical and political narratives that promises to enlighten, provoke, and inspire. Support the Show.Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetYou can find the additional streams on Youtube

For a special themed show, FFRF co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker discuss the harm of belief in heaven and hell. Songs include "Heaven" by Rupert Brooke, "Pack Up Your Sins (and Go to the Devil in Hades)" by Irving Berlin, "Declaration of the Free" by Robert Ingersoll, "Preacher & the Slave" by Joe Hill, "Spooky Mormon Hell" from The Book of Mormon, "This World" by Malvina Reynolds, "Reincarnation" by Wallace D. McRae, "Joy To The World" by Godless Gospel, and "None of the Above" by Dan Barker.

Today's meditation comes from The Book Of First Thessalonians in The New Testament and from the writings of Robert Ingersoll, with music by Quiet Lake.Passage: Examine all things; retain that which is good. —First Thessalonians 5:21Perspective: The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous. It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation. ―Robert IngersollMusic: “Paths” by Quiet LakeNarrator: Ryan Phipps

ATP episode description: In today's episode, Peoria City Councilmember Denise Jackson weighs in on the proposed carbon capture pipeline in South Peoria. And learn how the Pekin high school volleyball team is contributing to the fight against breast cancer in a record breaking way. Plus, hear about the friendship between Peoria's famous 19th century orator Robert Ingersoll and socialist Eugene V. Debs.

We talk about abortion, book banning and the X-rated bible. We also talk with "God." After hearing the song "The Trinity" (words by Robert Ingersoll), we speak with investigative journalist Christine Kenneally about her chilling new book Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice.

"Humanism is a philosophy of life that considers the welfare of humankind – rather than the welfare of a supposed God or gods – to be of paramount importance. Humanism maintains there is no evidence a supernatural power ever needed or wanted anything from people, ever communicated to them, or ever interfered with the laws of nature to assist or harm anyone. Humanism's focus, then, is on using human efforts to meet human needs and wants in this world. History shows that those efforts are most effective when they involve both compassion and the scientific method – which includes reliance on reason, evidence, and free inquiry. Humanism says people can find purpose in life and maximize their long-term happiness by developing their talents and using those talents for the service of humanity. Humanists believe that this approach to life is more productive and leads to a deeper and longer-lasting satisfaction than a hedonistic pursuit of material or sensual pleasures that soon fade. While service to others is a major focus of Humanism, recreation and relaxation are not ignored, for these too are necessary for long-term health and happiness. The key is moderation in all things. Humanism considers the universe to be the result of an extremely long and complex evolution under immutable laws of nature. Humanists view this natural world as wondrous and precious, and as offering limitless opportunities for exploration, fascination, creativity, companionship, and joy. Because science cannot now and probably never will be able to explain the ultimate origin or destiny of the universe, I think Humanism can include more than atheists and agnostics. The lack of definite answers to these ultimate questions leaves room for reasonable people to hypothesize about the origin of the natural universe, and even to hope for some form of life beyond this one. In fact, two of Humanism's greatest luminaries, Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll, maintained a hope for an afterlife. On the issue of whether God exists, Ingersoll was agnostic, and Paine believed in a deistic God who established the laws of nature but then stepped away and never intervenes in the world. Those beliefs did not interfere with their ability to lead outstanding humanistic lives. Thus, in my opinion, people holding such views can be Humanists if they believe that humanity is on its own in this world, and the lack of any evidence for an afterlife means this life should be lived as though it's the only one we have." – Joseph C. Sommer --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/support

Day 229 Today's Reading: 2 Peter 2 You made your bed, now lie in it. Have you heard this phrase? It means you made that decision, now you have to deal with its consequences.” That is true if it weren't for the grace of God. Today's chapter brings back Old Testament stories to the reader. Peter speaks about Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, Balaam, and the character he introduces with an adjective I would never assign to him, righteous Lot. Not Lot, but righteous Lot: If He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation. (2 Peter 2:7-9) When I read the story of Lot, I don't see him as righteous. Thank God I'm not God. I judge people too fast. It's easy to assign adjectives to people who God never sees and believes about them. The part of this verse that puzzles me about God, though, is that Lot is called righteous, and God rescues him. But Peter explains and tells us why it's important to us. He says that God rescued the righteous Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was being oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. You might think, This is a godly brother who got stuck in a really bad neighborhood that God had to burn down with fire from heaven. Not even close to the truth. Lot chose to live in Sodom. Sodom was his first choice when Abraham, his uncle, said he could have any part of the land he wanted. Lot not only chose Sodom, but Genesis says, “He sat in the gate at Sodom” (Genesis 19:1, KJV). That means he was part of the government of the city. And despite all this, God showed off His graciousness by rescuing him from his really bad choice. God didn't rescue a man who had something unfortunate happen to him. God rescued a man who made a really stupid decision. How many of us have made a bad decision before? How many of us are so thankful for the grace of God? Nineteenth-century Bible teacher J. Wilbur Chapman said: “Anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps me in my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.” Lot didn't think that way. And if we are honest, you and I have made decisions that violated Chapman's grid. So many times, God rescues us before we are swallowed by our poor choices and decisions. There are also times that God just vetoes bad decisions—in this case, bad prayers. One of the biggest atheists over the centuries was Robert Ingersoll. At a lecture, he opened his pocket watch for all the students to see and said, “I will give God five minutes to strike me dead for the things I said.” When the five minutes were over, he shut the watch and said, “God did not retaliate because God does not exist.” When evangelist Joseph Parker heard about the incident, he responded, “And did the gentleman think he could exhaust the patience of eternal God in five minutes?” God is bigger than our threats. Because God is love, God is patient. And because God is love and patient with us, He calls Lot righteous. Righteousness has nothing to do with our perfection but with God's view of us. I can be the righteousness of God in Christ and an idiot at the same time. I think many would think Lot should have perished in the fire of Sodom, but not God. Peter reminds us that God knows how to rescue the godly. Even if rescue means dragging a man out of danger when he is dragging his feet with no urgency. That was Lot's story during God's rescue plan. No gratitude from Lot, just an amazing, gracious God rescuing him. After a wedding, the newlyweds contacted one of the guests to inform her that her present wasn't generous enough. The unnamed guest posted to a forum asking for advice after she was told her cash gift wasn't enough. She revealed how the couple, who had asked for cash gifts, had emailed to say, “We were surprised that your contribution didn't seem to match the warmth of your good wishes on our big day. In view of your own position, if you wanted to send any adjustment, it would be thankfully received.” The wedding guest assumed that the reference to her position was in regard to a recent inheritance she'd received. One thing you will never be able to say to God is, “I am surprised by your contribution, God. I suggest an adjustment.” When it comes to what we don't deserve, God gives crazy generous mercy and grace every day to us—even when we do stupid things. We need no adjustment from Him. Just a grateful heart because He rescues people when they make really bad decisions. Righteous Lot is amazing proof.

"A maior prova de coragem é suportar as derrotas sem perder o ânimo" .Robert Ingersoll

"A maior prova de coragem é suportar as derrotas sem perder o ânimo" .Robert Ingersoll

TEMPO DE REFLETIR 0401 – 20 de agosto de 2022 “Escolhe, pois, a vida, para que vivas, tu e a tua descendência” (Deuteronômio 30:19). Robert Ingersoll, […]

The conservatives complain about godlessness, reactionaries think god punishes America for its godlessness, progressives think that America is too religious. But, wherever one might be on the spectrum, they each are unhappy about how religion manifests itself in America. Today, we have Justin Clark from Red Reviews Podcast here to talk about the history of Atheism, secularism and other types of godlessness in America. He also talks about the cult of Reason and all the other problems associated with the Godless. 5:46 - Who is Robert Ingersoll?10:04 - Eugene Debs relationship with Robert Ingersoll 12:40 - How Robert Ingersoll Helped Eugene Debs in the Pullman Strike13:00 - Robert Ingersoll’s Politics20:00 - Justin’s Critique of the Secular Movement23:31 - Atheism’s Golden Age from 2004-2016 26:00 - Why Esha thinks New Atheism always represented racism28:00 - Sam Harris’s Golden Girls’ Trust FundStatistician William Briggs Explains the Fraud of Sam Harris’ PHD30:00 - The Good and Bad of Christopher Hitchens The trial of Henry Kissinger35:00 - Justin on Why he left the Cult of Reason40:42 - Biological Determinism and its connection to Cult of Reason42:00 - The Bell Curve as an Example of Biological Determinism47:00 - Bell Curve and its affect on Policy during the Clinton Years48:00 - The Cult of Stefan Molyneux 51:52 - Beware of Scientism 53:00 - Skeptical Inquirer Pedaling Overpopulation Myths 59:00 - Skeptics not so skeptical of National Security Narratives1:07:00 - Verifying Historical Narratives using Primary Sources1:17:00 - Changing Narratives and Peppery Dishes by Trotsky1:19:00 - Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur and his fiction about Robert Ingersoll1:28:00 - Seven Years in Tibet and the convenient lie1:35:00 - Justin’s next project regarding Eugene Debs and the Soviet UnionFollow Justin on Instagram and Tiktok Get full access to Historic.ly at historicly.substack.com/subscribe

Join us, Elizabeth and Catriona, as we explore Power - in ourselves, collectively, and in the natural world. We look at the awe that power can invoke, the pitfalls of power, and the possibilities in thinking about power differently. We learn from power in nature: from obvious (tsunamis, hurricanes, crocodiles) to lesser known examples (mantis shrimps, mites) and nuanced expressions (glaciers, rivers, forests, elephants). We touch on topics linked to power: language; narratives; creation; destruction; inner belief; control; respect; listening; empowerment; history; myths; inclusion; and leadership. And we consider what might be possible if we choose to think about and connect with power differently and wholeheartedly. For more on Unfurling, please join our Facebook Group or visit our website. ~2: Online Etymology Dictionary: Power~6: Emily Dickinson~7: Gorillas; eagles~7, 13: Crocodiles, elephants, mantis shrimps, mites~8: Hurricane Power~12: “London” by William Blake~14: Dalai Lama XIV~15: “Empowerment” ~15: Gloria Steinem~16: “The Death of Nature” by Carolyn Merchant~18: Girl Power~19: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel~21: Ralph Waldo Emerson~24: Robert Ingersoll~24: Lord Acton: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"~24: Plato~25: Harold MacMillan~25: Ghanaian Proverb~27: Viktor Frankl~30: Mahatma Gandhi~31: Woodrow Wilson~34: The Butterfly Effect See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: Life is about choices. You and those around you will live a fuller, richer life, and perhaps discover the reason you're here if you decide to: Become a better person Become more responsible for your own actions Learn to acknowledge the noise and distractions and let them go “We rise by lifting others.” — Robert Ingersoll

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://rb.gy/efh3kj Lecture on Lincoln By Robert G. Ingersoll Narrated by Marty Krz Abraham Lincoln was probably the most iconic world leader of recent centuries and also one of the most researched. It is estimated that over 15,000 books have been written about him - significantly more than have been composed about more recent dominant figures of world history like Churchill and Hitler. For those who are not yet ready to tackle the massive biographical tomes about Lincoln, like that in six volumes composed by poet Carl Sandburg, this essay on the life and character of the 16th president by Robert Ingersoll will serve as an entertaining and informative introduction.

*This episode contains graphic but important material* “There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.” -Edmund Burke "Just how do you “supervise” a criminal who is turned loose in the community? Assigning someone to be with him, one on one and 24/7, would probably be a lot more expensive than locking him up. But of course no one is proposing any such thing. Having the released criminal reporting to some official from time to time may be enough to allow the soothing word “supervision” to be used. But it hardly restricts what a criminal does with the other nine-tenths of his time when he is not reporting."  -Thomas Sowell I'm going to tell you a real story about an evil man named Orlando Duarte. “I have many objections to the philosophy of Christ. I do not believe in returning good for evil. I believe in returning justice for evil. I do not believe that I can put a man under a moral obligation to do me a favor by doing him a wrong. The doctrine of non-resistance is to me absurd. The right should be defended and the wrong resisted. Goodness should have the right to protect itself." -Robert Ingersoll

Today's meditation comes from The Letter Of Ephesians in The New Testament, and from the writings of Robert Ingersoll.

“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”  -William Shakespeare The Washington Post has admitted it lied made a mistake:  "The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump." I'm seeing more and more conspiracy theories on the right.  In the thirty minutes before I went to record, I saw that the jab contains "a radio transmitter and receiver."  And a well-known rightwinger said "I will never get a COVID vaccine." Saying it's not worth it for someone to get the vaccine because they're young and the threat is small is one thing.  Saying you'd never get it -- and not just the three available but any potential one in the future -- is irrational. Vaccines are great.  Be rational, don't invent fears. “I would not smother one sentiment of my heart to be the Emperor of the round world.”  -Robert Ingersoll

Episode 125: In this episode, Alisha is going solo and talking about the importance of breaking the pot when you’re root bound, how making a leap can be like stepping into technicolor after you’ve been living your whole life in black and white, and knowing what seeds you’re planting in your garden. Details:It’s Spring in NC: I love getting my hands in the soilI have a jade plant that is about 24 years old and it’s not doing wellMy jade plant is losing a ton of leaves. My jade plant Helen has mealybugs and is dying because she wasn’t in the right environment. If I want my Jade plant to make it then I need to break the pot she is in. I worked in corporate America for a decade and I knew then I had outgrown that pot. If I wanted to save Helen I had to break the pot. When in corporate America It was like I was in black and white, and when I left my life turned into technicolor. This weekend my boyfriend and I broke the pot the jade plant is in. Then we pulled the pieces of the pot away. The Jade plant is totally root boundWe removed as much of the old soil as we could and put as much new soil in as I can. The new soil, the new pot is fresh soil a new homeI received a call from a former manager and he asked me if I would ever consider working on his desk again. Once you break the pot you can’t go back When I work with clients one on one and in a group capacity, for the clients that do the work, they are stepping into technicolor. They are breaking the pot and there’s no going back. If you stay in the pot there’s no chance that you’ll surviveWhat pot are you in right now that’s too small?What change could you make that would make it like stepping from black and white into technicolor. I thought really hard about what it is that I’m doing here at Yoke and Abundance. I won’t feel complete in this work here at Yoke and Abundance until I know that all of the women I work with at Yoke and Abundance are wise. Until everyone believes that their divine feminine qualities matter and make for good leadershipI won’t be done with this work until women believe that it’s safe to extend your hand to another woman and believe like Robert Ingersoll says “We rise by lifting others”I won’t be done until you believe that your dreams are worth going after unapologetically. Playing small doesn’t serve you and it doesn’t serve anyone else eitherThose are the seeds that I’m planting in my garden here at Yoke and AbundanceMy Garden is full of dreams and the divine feminine. We are gonna need a bigger pot. It is so scary to break that damn pot. What seeds are you planting, what’s important to you?What seeds do youYou need to be planting? What pot do you need to break to get after it?You can join RAW, The Gathering, You can do one-on-one coaching or group coaching. Think about how beautiful your life can be if you break the pot and go get after it. Do you have questions you want me to answer on the show? Email me at awielfaert@yokeandabundance.comPlease Support Our Sponsor: Fike + Co.Join us in our Yoke and Abundance Facebook Group -> If you love the Yoke and Abundance Wise Women Podcast Consider Supporting us through Patreon.

This week we present a musical medley of irreverent and celebratory secular holiday songs by Tom Lehrer, Tim Minchin, Roy Zimmerman, Dan Barker, Tahira Clayton, Addison Frei, Brent Michael Davids, Steven Phelps, Ken Lonnquist, and the London Humanist Choir; and we hear agnostic orator Robert Ingersoll's 1897 recitation of "What I Want For Christmas."

8. Wendell discusses winter holidays as humanist and atheist while reading pieces by famous 19th century orator Robert Ingersoll."Middle America" is a podcast using history, storytelling, and music to talk about all of the issues and feelings brought on by the world around us. "Middle America" is an access point to everything under the sun.Music in this episode:Jared Grabb “Christmas Bars (‘Prison Bars’ Xmas Version)”Jared Grabb “Untitled (Folk Song Starts 1)”Jared Grabb “The Straying Atheist (Middle America Version)”Jared Grabb “You Are Home”Sadface Killer “’03 Hoopin”Jared Grabb “Middle America Ad Music”Jared Grabb “Christmas Bars (‘Prison Bars’ Instrumental Xmas Version)”The featured music for this episode was “’03 Hoopin” by Sadface Killer. Everything else was created by Jared Grabb.All of Jared Grabb's and Scouts Honor's music is published by Roots In Gasoline (ASCAP). Editing assistance was provided by Becca Taylor.patreon.com/midamericapodfacebook.com/midamericapodinstagram.com/midamericapodtwitter.com/midamericapodmidamericapod.bandcamp.commiddleamericapod@gmail.comSupport the show (http://www.patreon.com/midamericapod)

We rise by lifting others. - Robert Ingersoll

In this episode we talk to Robert Ingersoll, owner of Zazzy Cafe in Fort Morgan, Colorado. We discuss how he was effected as a restaurant owner. He tells us about new innovations & tactics he used to enable him to remain open during the stay at home order & keep his employees. Plus some new menu items that are sure to be a hit.  To try some of the yummy food visit Zazzy Cafe at 119 W Beaver Ave, Fort Morgan, CO  or call 970-370-2800 to place your carry-out order  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/realtalkwithadriana/message

In conversation with Paul Stob about his book Intellectual Populism: Democracy, Inquiry, and the People, this episode explores the rhetoric of populist movements from America's nineteenth century.

"We rise by lifting others." -Robert Ingersoll 

In this podcast, we give a historical context to the prophecies of the great prophet Jeremiah. We compare his inaugural prophecies to those of Moses and Isaiah, among others. We conclude with the powerful words of God to His young new prophet and find in them a message that continues to echo in the ears of those with a strong moral conscience. "A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy." - Robert Ingersoll

Aron is doing all he can to stay healthy in the field, on road trips (word of advice...keep your snacks away from Aron on road trips) and avoiding "moobs." Don't get moobs...do it right with Jessica at Defiance Health. Defiance Health IDENTITY A team of collaborating experts in culinary nutrition, preventive medicine, and physical fitness who are committed to the highest achievable health of our clients and communities. "You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things." -Mother Teresa   MISSION To offer comprehensive & customized nutrition, medical, and fitness services & programs that consistently achieve optimal health outcomes. "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the life you have imagined." -Henry David Thoreau PURPOSE To maximize the potential of all team members by supporting lifelong learning, team-based health & personal growth.  We rise by lifting others. -Robert Ingersoll

The first episode in our 8 part series on the 2016 Reason Rally. We travel to Washington learning about the pre-rally coverage, how the event was marketed, the purpose and attendence of the advocacy days, and what to we have in store in future shows.This year's rally aimed to show support for the secular viewpoint, advocate that reason and scientific evidence should be the basis for government decisions, and show the political clout of the secular and atheist community. The lowdown crew traveled to D.C. in the first of an eight part series on the rally. Check it out."The Reason Rally was sponsored by a coalition of secular groups including American Atheists, American Humanist Association, and Center for Inquiry. Kelly Damerow and David Silverman spearheaded a leadership group from all walks of life and many different interests all coming together for common causes.We arrived in America's capitol on Friday afternoon, third of June, a day ahead of the rally, before most, but behind the ardent activist who made their voices known lobbying to congress. June 2nd and 3rd were advocacy days in which 275 participants met with legislators on Capitol Hill to lobby in support of evidence-based sex education programs and the REYHA Act introduced by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). They advocated for federally funded sex education that should be comprehensive, not based on abstinence-only, an approach that, the organizers feel, has been proven to be ineffective.Friday night saw Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Evolution, a performance exactly as the name suggests. The pre-rally days also included a secular bus tour, a Robert Ingersoll walking tour, and a VIP Dinner were the attendees could mingle with their favorite secular celebrities.”In the next episode we jump straight into the Rally. I’ll interview the Thinking Atheist Seth Andrews, we take a look at some crazy religious anti-rally protestors, Victor Harris waxes poetical about Christian oppression, and Comedian Ricky Gervais thinks ignorance is a pain in the ass.Sources:Fox News, “Americans Without Religion Lobby for Political Influence.” Accessed June 17, 2016. http://video.foxnews.com/v/4927893511... Reason Rally Coalition. Reason Rally Pitch Videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtnm...Ruby Mellen, “Thousands of atheists gather in DC for 'Reason Rally.’” Accessed June 2, 2016. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/politic...

Zitate Special (+Big News): Robert Ingersoll - We rise by lifting others Show Notes: SUPERNOTES App Connect mit Luca Quick Links: Wenn es dir gefallen hat, bitte schreibe mir eben eine kurze Bewertung auf iTunes und abonniere die Show! Check meine neue 66 Life Lessons Poster Kollektion Mein erstes Buch "Dein nächstes großes Ding" ist am Start, go get it here!   Mein 66 Day Journal - erreiche dein nächstes Ziel in 66 Tagen! SUPERNOTES - Das offizielle Buch zum Podcast mit allen Top Take-Aways aus über 200 Folgen - get it here! Es wäre ein Traum wenn Du mir für mein Buch eine kurze Amazon Bewertung schreiben könntest, muss auch keine gute sein :) vielen Dank im voraus! Direkter Link zur Bewertung. FREE E-Book "Mit Freunden macht man keine Geschäfte" get it here for free! Erhalte mein "Weekly Update” + 5 Tools + 11 Hacks + die ersten 35 Seiten meines Buches FOR FREE - einfach hier eintragen! Sponsor: Unity Media Business Thanks, stay inspired, dein Fan, matthew :)

In this episode, Bart talks about taking the first steps to starting your own secular community wherever you are. Consider it a practical guide to the first moves Bart recommends making, and how to talk about it to your friends and family.A bonus segment at the end focuses on Robert Ingersoll. An interview coming next week! Join the not-so-secret Facebook group for the podcast HERE.

Happy Holidays from The Podunk Polymath Podcast! For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope it was full of joy and laughs. For those who are still celebrating, continue to enjoy! And for those who struggle with this time of year for whatever reason, you have my sympathies, and I hope you get through relatively unscathed.  For the palaver, I have the honor and privilege of speaking to author of 'The PC Lie : How American Voters Decided I Don't Matter'; podcast host at 'Inciting Incident'; and activist Ris McCool. We talk about her book, her podcast, and her experiences as a transgender woman. She is very charismatic and full of a righteous rage that is and will be stoked for the next four years by a Trump administration. She is someone to watch, as I think her ambition and courage will prove to be an asset during the travails that are sure to experience for the next four years.  I also wanted to mention I was on the Christmas edition of Bi Any Means Podcast along with Ris, The Prophet Jeremiah, and Uber Forty Seven. I also contributed to the airing of grievances on The Biskeptical Podcast, and I contributed a Robert Ingersoll quote to an episode of Secular Yakking. So, grab a cold glass of eggnog and enjoy the latest PoPoPo!  Music by Dot Dot Dash, cdbaby.com/cd/dotdotdash

Alright guess what? The podcast is here for you once again to spread straight edge propaganda before all the holiday work parties you will be forced to attend and watch your coworkers get a bit tipsy and try to fight each other. On this weeks show Bill revisits the Christmas Sermon by Robert Ingersoll, so you can all enjoy that for the holidays. In the interview portion of the podcast Bill talks with Mike Driggs of Portland hardcore band Cutting Through about the dangers of marijuana, being an introvert, and the lovely city of Portland. Put the podcast on the stereo and listen with your family around the fireplace.

One the Greatest Verses In the Bible So as we come this morning to Isaiah 57, I'm going to bring us immediately right to the middle of the chapter. Verse 15 this is one of the great verses in the Bible. And without any delay, I want to go right to the marrow of the bone or the colonel of the nut. I want you to look with me at the words of the text that you just heard read, Isaiah 57:15, "For this is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever and who's name is holy. I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." So in this amazing verse, the God of the universe, infinitely high, infinitely holy, describes himself for us. He tells us what he's like. And not only that, he describes his dwelling place, he describes where he lives. And beyond that, and this is incredibly gracious, he describes people he's willing to live with in that high and holy place. People who are contrite, broken hearted because of their sins. Now this verse is going to occupy a good deal of our attention right at the beginning of the sermon, but really just going to look on it for just a few minutes. We're only going to have a few minutes to swim in the sea of this truth, to drink in the beauty of it and the glory of it. But it's vast and soaring truths are going to occupy our minds for all eternity. We're going to spend actually eternity thinking about these things. We will see in eternity how pure and holy and exalted and lifted up God is. We'll see it with our own eyes. And not only that, but we will have a sense even in heaven, I believe without any regret, without any pain, a sense of how sinful we were and how much we needed a redeemer, Jesus. And that understanding of the holiness of God and our own sinfulness will work together to make us eternally peaceful and filled with praise and glory to God. That'll go on for all eternity, I believe. We are going to fall down in humble adoration at the amazing grace that saved us and brought us to such a holy place. We're going to be amazed, and we're going to fall down as an Isaac Watts' hymn that we're going to sing at the end of this worship time. How sweet and awful is the place? How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors. While everlasting love displays the choices of her stores, while all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cry with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest?" As we unfold, Isaiah 57 we're going to see how sweet and awful heaven is. Awful, I think Isaac Watts meant they're breathtakingly are inspiring, something like that. A kind of holy awe should come over us. I think it came over Isaiah as he wrote these words, when he saw the holy exalted lord on his throne. We sinners can say with Isaiah, "Woe is me for I am ruined. Why am I not destroyed by such exalted holiness? We sinners, how would we ever be permitted to enter such a holy place? Lord, why was I, why was I a guest? How could it be that I would be a guest?" Now this chapter continues the rhythm that we began seeing last time I preached to you, Isaiah 56. The two chapters really go together is there's this rhythm from the wheat to the weeds and back to the wheat again into the weeds. The righteous and the wicked, the righteous and the wicked because this goes back and forth between the two. Remember how I talked about that a few weeks ago from the parable of the weed and the weeds? Matthew 13, Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a field that a man sowed with good seed, but at night the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. And then when the wheat sprouted and formed heads in the weeds were also made evident, and this gives us that sense of the mixed up nature of the world we live in. Much of the distress we feel as Christians, even in the political process is because of the mixed up nature of the world. The wheat and the weeds in close proximity. And we know that in the end, as the text says in Matthew 13, the son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all of those who do evil. And they will throw them into the fiery furnace where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. That's where we're heading. That's where it's going. Now when we are there in that high and holy place and when we are shining radially with the glory that's not ours. It's the glory of Christ in us. And we will be mindful of the fact that our sins were as great as those that were condemned, no difference ultimately. And we will be filled with awe at God and this high and holy person in this dwelling place. Now the more we can do that now the better. So that's just the whole thesis of my sermon here. The more we can just have a sense right now of the exalted nature of God and of his holy place and of our sinfulness and the grace he's shown us in Christ, the better. II. A Stunning Invitation from the Infinitely High and Holy King (vs. 15) So let's start and look in detail at verse 15. We have a stunning invitation here from the infinitely high and holy king. I actually think verse 15, if you look at it rightly, is a Gospel invitation. Look again at the words of verse 15, "For this is what the high and lofty one says, he who lives forever and whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite." So as I've said, God describes himself, his dwelling place, and the people he delights to dwell with. Now you may ask a pastor, "Those are three points. Why don't you just preach that as your sermon?" It would have been a great sermon, but there's more in that chapter than that. And I want to see all that there is in the chapter. So we're not going to be able to spend as much time on each of those three sub-points as I'd like to. But first, look at how God describes himself. He says he is the high and lofty one. God is infinitely greater than we are. He's so much vastly above all of his creation that the gap between God the creator and every creature is infinite. The gap exists between God and even his holy angels that have never sinned, and there's no defilement in them at all. That's why the seraphim I think in Isaiah six, cover their faces and their feet in His presence. They'd never sinned, they'd never violated any of God's laws. And yet they recognize the holiness of God means that He is infinitely above them. A. W. Tozer, put it in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, he said, "Forever God stands apart in light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel is above a caterpillar. For the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar, is but finite. While the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite." That's the holiness of God. It's the very thing, the exalted nature, of God that Isaiah saw in his calling to be a prophet. "In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him there were Seraphs each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two, they were flying and they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory.' And at the sound of their voices the door posts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." Holiness of God. And it's portrayed often in scripture, as exaltation, lofty-ness, height. I remember years ago, I was in Pakistan 1987, I was in the North-West Frontier province. I saw the second highest mountain range in the world, the Karakoram mountains. And I took the Karakoram highway and went through those mountains from Pakistan and China. In order to make that journey cross that border I went through the Khunjerav pass. The Khunjerav pass is the highest border passing between two nations on earth. It's 15,397 feet above sea level, almost 16,000 feet above sea level. It's the highest I've ever stood on the ground. And yet for all of that, as that highway snaked its way up to that pass, and then down into China, for much of that journey, the Karakoram mountains were right up against the highway, and towered vastly above the highway hundreds even several thousand feet right up off the highway. That has the power to make you feel real small, insignificant. Now listen, if finite mountains can do that, how much more of this infinite God who made them. The greatness of God. So the loftiness of God, the exaltation of God is meant to make us feel small, it's meant to humble us. This is what the high and lofty one says. That's how He identifies Himself. He is high and lofty. He also says that He inhabits eternity. I like that translation a little bit better than lives forever. He inhabits eternity. It's kind of like eternity is His personal playground. He's very at home in eternity, it's His living room, that's what eternity is like for God. He dwells in eternity. The eternality of God, He lives unchanged forever and ever. There are no limits to God. He is an infinite being. This is beyond anything we can comprehend. One thing we simply can say, is He cannot die, He is immortal, He inhabits eternity, meaning He will live forever and ever. Hebrews 6:18 says it's impossible for God to lie. I think this text says it's impossible for God to die. He is immortal. He inhabits eternity. He lives forever. His kingdom will have no end. As the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar wrote, "I praised the Most High, I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion as kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" That's the kingship of God. That was the most powerful man on earth. Daniel chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar writing those words, he was in awe of the eternal king, and that is God. His kingdom, will never end because He lives forever. Also he says His name is holy. That means His reputation is holy. His name is set apart, it's a unique name, a special name. So His reputation, because of His person and His accomplishments because of who He is and what He's done, His name is Holy. It's set apart. So in the 10 commandments we are not permitted to take His name in vain. We should honor and revere the name of Almighty God. And so in the Lord's Prayer, we say "Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name," may your name be held in honor, on earth as it is in heaven. That's the sense of the greatness of the holiness of the name of God. And His name is holy, it means that He is a holy being, separate from all creation, but especially separate from evil, from all wickedness. His eyes are too pure to look on evil, He cannot tolerate wrong. Habakkuk 1:13. "God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5. And it says in Hebrews 12, "Let us worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." The picture of God is a consuming fire, has a sense of His Holiness. This is the God of the Bible, this is how He describes Himself. God Describes His Dwelling Place But He also describes in this verse his dwelling place. He says, "I live in a high and holy place." Let me tell you about my home, let me tell you about my throne room. I want you to picture it in your mind, I want you to understand where I live. God's dwelling place is as lofty is exalted as He is, it is unreachable, absolutely unreachable by any creature-ly efforts. Satan tried didn't he, tried to scale the heights. He tried to scale the heights of divine grandeur and topple God from His throne, he didn't make it. He was cast down to the earth, and condemned. Arrogant humans tried to build a tower to reach God and they didn't come close. God had to go way down and see this little tower that they were making, this tower of Babel. I mean, God dwells in a high and holy place, we can't reach Him through human efforts we can't even scale there in our minds through philosophy. It's just impossible for God to be reached by human wisdom. God dwells in a high and holy place. He's completely set apart from all creation. He's pure, he's set apart from sin, free from any kind of evil, and his capital city in the coming world, the new Jerusalem, will be as holy as He is. Absolutely free, radiantly glorious, free from all evil. Revelation 21:27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Those are the only ones that will enter that Holy City. So this is the dwelling place, the throne-room of God. Now, I want you to picture this in your minds eye. I often talk about this in evangelism. I picture the throne-room of God in a kind of a physical way, because that's about all my mind can do. So I picture it this way: A majestic throne-room, like maybe one of those great oriental polatench, something like that. And he's up on this beautiful exalted throne, a glorious throne. There's this Heavenly courtroom with holy angels all around. I always in this image picture a perfectly white, beautiful, silk carpet just filling the throne-room. I picture it that way. And there's a guardian at the door with a fiery sword flashing back and forth to guard the entrance. The place is perfectly clean, it's free from all the filthiness. But here I come, I am a pig farmer. I've been feeding pigs. I'm covered with pig filth, I'm covered with dung, I'm covered with mud, and I approach the throne-room and I'm immediately stopped by the guardian with his flaming sword. You can't get in here, not like that. I'm aware vaguely at that moment of my filth. So I reach into my pocket and I pull out a mostly clean handkerchief, and start to wipe my brow and my face and my hands. "Stop", the guardian says, "There's nothing you can do to clean yourself up. Nothing." This is the plight of the human race. God's described what kind of place he lives in, and we are the prodigal sons and daughters who have traded our Father's inheritance for riotous living with whores and banquets and alcohol, and all manner of wickedness. We squandered the wealth until it was gone, and we found ourselves starving and feeding pigs and covered with filth. And can we clean ourselves up? Now we cannot. The wonder therefore of the Gospel is not that everyone doesn't get saved, it's how does anyone get saved? How does anyone of us, we race of pig farmer, how does any of us get in through the door? How do we end up in that high and holy place? Well, this is the grace of God in Christ. If you will humble yourself, if you will, with broken-hearted repentance look to the atonement of Jesus Christ, His blood shed on the cross is sufficient to clean us of all of our filth. If you will just simply by faith confess that you are a defiled sinner, and you have no hope of making it into that throne-room, but that God can cleanse you and fit you for heaven, and if you'll just accept it as a gift, he will give it to you freely. That's the Gospel, that Jesus shed his blood to clean up filthy rebellious sinners like us, and He will escort you into that high and holy place, and He will dwell with you forever. I live in a high and holy place, but also with Him who is humble and contrite in spirit. To revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite, that's the God that we worship. He will dwell with the humble broken-hearted sinner. You remember the parable Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector that went to pray, remember that? Luke 18, "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself." I always felt that must have been a favorite topic. "Prayed about himself: 'God I think you that I'm not like other men: Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all that I get. But the tax collector stood off at a distance, beat his breast and would not even look up to Heaven, but said, 'Be merciful to me oh God, the sinner.' I tell you, this man went home justified and not the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Do you not see it's the same teaching. It's the exact same teaching. God dwells with people who will humble themselves, and by repentance and faith accept His grace. God actually will live with sinners. The question is, what about you my friend? What about you? Has that happened to you? Have you seen in the law of God, in the mirror of God's law that you're a defiled broken sinner, no different, no better than anyone else. Have you seen that? And do you realize you have no way, no hope of getting yourself cleaned up enough for Heaven? You can't, it's just too pure and perfect, and you're defiled. Have you seen that God sent his Son to be a savior, the savior, the only savior for sinners like you and me. And have you put your trust in Jesus for the cleansing of your soul and the forgiveness of your sins, and the gift of righteousness? I'm going to talk more about that one more time at the end. III. Righteous People Rescued by Death (vs. 1-2) Now that's verse 15. We've already gone to the kernel of the nut and eaten it, we've already drawn the marrow from the bone and received sustenance from it. Now let's look at the whole chapter briefly. He begins at verse one and two by speaking to righteous people. Now friends, pay attention to these verses. These are some of the most helpful verses for those that grieve at the loss of Christian loved ones. Let me say that again, these are some of the most helpful verses you will find in the Bible for those that grieve at the loss of Christian loved ones. Look what he says, "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart. Devout men are take away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace, they find rest as they lie in death." Oh, those are comforting verses aren't they? Is talking about the death of the righteous, it begins right away that chapter begins the righteous perish by this we don't mean like John 3:16, perishing eternally, just means they die, they die, maybe of cancer, maybe of a tragic car accident, maybe of some other way, maybe just simply of old age, they die, the righteous perish and some people do not fully understand why, they are troubled by it, they don't think about it, they don't ponder it properly. No one ponders it properly, they don't take it and ponder it in their heart, they misunderstand what God is doing. They know that death should have been and was in some sense defeated by Christ, they don't ponder that death is the final enemy to be destroyed and we're going to have to co-exist in some mysterious way with death until the very end of the world and so death is going to hurt us again and again and again death is the final enemy, it's an enemy but it's the final enemy. Now Jesus destroyed that enemy at the cross, praise God, Hallelujah! He destroyed it. Hebrews 2:14, 15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." So this thing of death has been removed by Christ 1 Corinthians 15, says, "Where O death is your victory, Where O death is your sting?" death has been swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The ultimate triumph over death is given as a gift to those who have faith in Jesus. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Now, the text says that the righteous perish, they actually die. Godly people die, upright people who walked in righteousness die, we know that. And this verse God shows His gracious kindness to them, they die to be delivered from evil, do you see that? God is being good to them. Effectively the text says, you've suffered enough dear son, dear daughter, it's time for you to come home. No more suffering, no more death or mourning or crying or pain you're done with that forever, you'll never have a divided heart again, you'll never struggle with sin again. The world, the flesh and the devil can touch you no longer, you're free, you're spared from evil, that's why God does it and it's good for us to celebrate that. For me said Paul, to live is Christ and to die is what, gain hallelujah. So what does that mean for us? Don't grieve like those who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4, "We don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, that is die or grieve like the rest of humanity that has no hope. We believe Jesus died and rose again and so we believe God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." So yes, we must grieve, we will grieve we must weep, It's appropriate to cry but don't cry like those who have no hope, it's kind of a mystery its sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Hope filled tears, maybe you're just weeping for yourself, I think you probably are, you're weeping for yourself because you weren't delivered yet. And now you have to deal with the world of flesh and the devil minus one of the greatest helps God's ever given you that Godly person and it is going to be harder for you and so you grieve and it's appropriate but just know this, God is with you, He'll never leave you, He'll never forsake you, He will continue to protect you and someday He's going to do for you what He did for that person, He's going to deliver you from evil. Verse 1 and 2 hold on to it, go back to it later study it, it's going to be useful to you sometime in the future. IV. Idolatrous People Exposed and Blown Away (57:3-13a) Now, in Verses 3-13, he goes back to the weeds, he talks about the wicked. We go from the wheat to the weeds to the wheat to the weeds back and forth in these two chapters. Look what he says here in Verse 3 and 4, "But you come here you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes, whom are you mocking and whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?" Now I don't deny that Isaiah is a challenging book to read but I think here he's turned away from the topic of the righteous perishing and how they're delivered to talk about the wicked who were probably at least in part, instrumental in making life miserable for the righteous. And he calls them false worshipers, he calls them sons of sorceress, Now the Jews of Isaiah's day and beyond were constantly tempted to mingle Canaanite pagan religions with the true religion, that's called syncretism, to mix together the religion of the surrounding culture with the biblical religion. And they mixed it together and they generally leaned more and more toward pagan Canaanite-ish type practices in their religions and it was very tragic. God is a jealous God, He's jealous over the affections of his bride and He becomes very passionate and angry when His bride Israel gets drawn away into wickedness and paganism. And so these Jews who are following these Canaanite pagan worship practice, are called out here. They mock the true worshippers, they stick out their tongues in mockery, they sneer, they attack, they slander, they lie and they live lives of rebellion against God's commands and they are summoned in verse 3 and 4 to judgment by Almighty God. "Come here, you sons of a sorceress" He calls them for judgment and He exposes their idolatrous worship in Verses 5-13, these Verses describe the wickedness of the pagan worship practices of those days, they included sexual immorality, they included child sacrifice, they included occult practices and pagan rituals, dark things. Look in verse 5-10, He says, "You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree. You sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags. The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion. Yes, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In the light of these things, should I relent? You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill. There you went up to offer your sacrifices. Behind your doors and your door posts you have put your pagan symbols." You see this hidden paganism in this wickedness and sexual immorality and child sacrifice. That's what He's calling them out for. "I see everything you do. I see it all." And God speaks as a spiritual husband who is deeply offended by the adultery, spiritual adultery, of His people. Look what He says. "Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened wide. You made a pact with those whose beds you love and you looked on their nakedness. You went to Molech with olive oil and increase your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away, you descended to the grave itself. You are wearied by all your ways, but you would not say it is hopeless. You found renewal of your strength and so you did not faint." Isn't it amazing? All this wickedness, these bad religious practices, this immorality. And they grew weary of it, but they didn't repent. They said, "All right, we got to try harder. And these things are not satisfying us, so we'll do them even more. Maybe they will satisfy." The wickedness and the foolishness. They refused to give them up. They renewed their strength in sin and they kept on doing it. Now verse 11 in the NIV I think is very, very helpful. I know it's different than the ESV, but just follow the NIV translation for a minute. It is very powerful. This is God speaking to unbelievers. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?" It's powerful, isn't it? Let me say it again. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?" It's because God seems to do nothing. It's like He seems to not even exist because he doesn't respond, especially to evil. He just seems to just do nothing. And they misunderstand the apparent silence of God. Atheists think that because God doesn't speak and strike down the wicked right away that He doesn't exist. Some time ago I came across the story of an atheist public speaker named Robert Ingersoll, and he used to do these challenging debates and discussions in which he would challenge God and he would utter horrible blasphemies and he culminated in this display. He said, "Now I read in the Bible how God struck blasphemers dead for their blasphemy. I'm going to give God five minutes to strike me dead for all of the blasphemies I've spoken today." And it's very dramatic, you know, he counts off the minutes. One minute, two minutes. Five minutes is a long time for public speaking. If I did it right now, you'd be like, "Please don't do that, pastor." That's a long time to wait in silence. But it was very dramatic at that point. I mean, people fainting, people screaming, all of that. Well, at any rate, the five minutes passed and Robert Ingersoll was not struck dead. The story was later told to Joseph Parker, a British pastor, who said this. "And did the American gentleman think that he could exhaust the patience of the infinite God in just five minutes?" Now you can't, even by great wickedness, exhaust God's patience in five minutes, but at some point it will end. Ingersoll's dead, he's been dead for a century and a half. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?" Elie Wiesel, a Jewish writer after the Holocaust, wrote his book called Night. I saw this in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. This is what he wrote. "Blessed be God's name," question mark. "Blessed be God's name? Why, why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because he kept six crematoria working day and night, including the Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz and Birkenau and Buna and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations, yes, chose us to be tortured, day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, ended up in the furnaces? But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I now felt very strong. I was the accuser and God was the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God and without man." Well, I think Isaiah 57:11 addresses that. It's because God was silent and seemed to do nothing that he did not fear Him. The hiddenness of God, especially when so much suffering happens in the world, is distressing to many. It's distressing to Psalmist. How many Psalmists basically complain about why God seems to do nothing? It's in there a lot, like Psalm 44, "Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep? Rouse yourself, do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?" But here God says, "That's why you don't fear me, because I seem to have done nothing. But someday, though now I only speak through the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms and I speak through Scripture, someday I will speak plainly and you'll see what I think of wickedness. There'll be no doubt at that point what I think, and it will be clear. In the meantime, what you have is you have the Scripture." And God will speak to you through that Scripture and you'll hear Him speak in Scripture, or you will not hear Him at all and you'll think that He's silent. Idolatrous Worshipers Blown Away with their Idols Now, these idolaters worshippers are going to be blown away with their idols. Look at verse 12 and 13, "I will expose your righteousness and your works and they will not benefit you, and when you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you. The wind will carry all of them off a mere breath will blow them away." So, idolaters who follow idols are light weight and the wind of God's judgment will blow them away, and there'll be nothing left. Nothing left of all of their efforts and their works, all of them gone. Now, right in the middle of verse 13 do you notice he switches back to the weed again or back to the righteous, "But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain." V. God Dwells with Humbled and Healed Sinners (57:13b-19) And so, there we have in the middle of that section, this beautiful verse 15, that we begin with. The humble and contrite are welcome to dwell with God. God addresses the man who humbles himself, and makes God his refuge his true refuge. He will not be blown away in the judgment. The wind of judgment will not blow him away. He will survive that. He will inherit the land and possess God's holy mountain. More than that, he will effectively build up roads or highways along which the righteous will travel. Look at verse 14 and it will be said "Build up, build up, prepare the road, remove the obstacles out of the way of my people." Now you may think he's talking about the restoration of the Jews back to the promised land, and it may be, but let me tell you these words soar far above that. Why? because the very next verse. Look at the combination of verse 14 and 15. And it will be said "Buildup, buildup prepare the road remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and holy one says, He who lives forever and whose name is Holy: 'I live in a high and holy place. But also with the contrite and lowly.'" The connection between the two verses is the highway that's built up in verse 14 is the journey by which we get to that high and holy place. And friends. I'll tell you his name, His name is Jesus. He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And I get to be, and so to all of you who are believers in Christ, the righteous road constructors who lay the road of Jesus in front of lost people and say, this is the road travel in it. This is Jesus. This is the way you're going to get to the high and holy place. There's no other road that leads to heaven. We get to be spiritual civil engineers and build these roads for lost people." That's what's going to happen. Now, these contrite sinners, they have a lot to be contrite about. I remember Winston Churchill was talking about a fellow member of Parliament. He said he's a humble man with much to be humble about. I thought, "Man, he's a mean guy. I would not want him as a friend, a humble man, with much to be humble about." Well, we are contrite people with much to be contrite about. That's the point of verse 16 through 19. Do you see it? I will, this is God speaking about the righteous. "I will not accuse forever nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me, the breath of man that I created." Look at Verse 17, "I was enraged by his sinful greed. I punished him and hit my face and anger yet he kept on in his willful ways." Verse 18, "I have seen his ways but I will heal him. I will guide him and restore comfort to him." Verse 19: "Creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel, 'Peace, peace to those far and near' says the Lord 'And I will heal them.'" So this is talking about the righteous who are the humble and contrite that God will spend eternity with. He was really angry with them. He had a record of their sins. They were wicked in his sight. They pushed his patience. So they were idolaters. They had a record of sins that was standing against them and it says in Colossians 2, that God took that record of sins that stood against us and was opposed to us and nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and were free. And God's anger is gone forever. He is propitiated. His wrath is gone. He is not angry at us. He will not always accuse and instead He will heal us of our wayward ways. I have seen God is saying "Your wayward crooked ways and I will heal you." You already said how in Isaiah 53. Jesus "was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." What's the next part? "By His wounds we are healed." I've seen his ways. Isaiah 57, "And I will heal him through Jesus, through his wounds I will heal you." That's the promise he's making here. It's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. Jesus came to heal us of sin and He will. And so in our text. Look at Verse 18, and 19 "I have seen his ways but I will heal him, I will guide him. I will restore comfort to him creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. 'Peace, peace, to those far near,' says the Lord. ‘And I will heal them." So, the result of all this? We get to spend eternity at peace with God and praising him for our salvation. He's going to create praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. We're going to spend eternity mindful of our sins, but not hurt by them, instead worshipping God for our salvation. He's going to create praise on our lips and we're going to be at peace with him forever. For it says in Romans 51, "Having been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And not only that. But he's going to do it for those near and far. Do you see those words there? Oh, don't miss significance of that. "Creating praise in the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace to those far and near. For me as a gentile adopted son of Abraham, I'm really excited about that." You know from Ephesians 2, it speaks to Gentile believers in Christ, Ephesians 2-12-13, it says, "Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." That's who you were, you were far away. "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ," creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Those both near and far, that's us Gentiles and Jewish believers in Christ praise for God for the salvation He has worked. And He will heal us. You know what? He's going to give peace to the healed. The healing goes together with the peace. Go on in your willful wicked idolatrous sinful ways, He will not give you peace. There's no peace in that way. But as He is healing you through sanctification, He's strengthening your righteous living, he pours out a sense of peace in your conscience and a sense of the peace of God, the peacefulness that comes from your status of peace with God. He heals you and you know you have peace and some day you're going to be totally healed. Like I've already said, when you die and you depart from evil, you'll be free forever. VI. God Condemns the Wicked to Endless Restlessness (57:20-21) Now, the chapter ends going back to the weeds one more time. Look at verse 20 and 21: "But the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 'There is no peace' says my God for the wicked." Friends, these words describe the world. Do you not see it? This is a churning tumultuous wicked difficult world in which we live, and these two verses at the end of Isaiah 57 describe why. These people, these lost people that we live with have no rest, no peace inside their hearts. They're churning and restless and never satisfied. They don't find what life is all about. And so they are restless like Satan roaming over the surface of the earth or like the demons that go through the... Go out of the man in Matthew 12 and they go through arid places seeking rest and they don't find it. And they're restless and they're looking for something. Think about all the political unrest in the world. Think about the riots and the demonstrations and the violence. Think about the restlessness of the Muslim world leading many young Muslim men in particular, to seek an outlet for their restlessness and their rage in Jihad and terrorism. Think about the constant turmoil of nation rising against nation, a series of wars after wars after wars and it never seems to end. And why? Because people are restless in their hearts. Think about the simple restlessness of the world as seen in the nightly news reports, local news and CNN, whatever. Local and worldwide, restlessness, no peace. They are like the churning sea casting up mire and muck. They're looking, constantly looking for something. Think about the restless hearts of people who are addicted to prescription, pain medications. And they can never get enough. They seek their peace in the narcotic. Stunning levels of people who are addicted now to these opioids. Also, more and more people addicted to heroin and morphine, they're seeking peace in the drug. It's not any different than those that seek it in alcohol. They're looking for an escape, peace and they're not finding it. Think about restless people who look for peace through psychiatry and psychology and counseling. It's estimated over 600 million people suffer from anxiety or depression, clinical depression, 600 million. Many of them are literally restless, they can't sleep at night. They have chronic insomnia. They're filled with anxiety, they go to psychiatrists and counselors and psychologists and get drugs, and there's no peace. Think about the relentless drive and ambition of even successful, wealthy people who attain all their goals and they don't satisfy them. Some time ago, I saw an interview and many of you perhaps have seen it, with Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback after he won his third Super Bowl. There's a 60 minutes interview with journalist Steve Croft and he said these stunning words. When I was going over the sermon this morning, it's hard for me to read this even without crying. Brady said this. This is Tom Brady: "So a lot of times, I think I get very frustrated and introverted and there's times where I'm not the person that I want to be. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people say, 'Hey man, this is what it is, this is it.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think. God, there's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be, can it? I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. And what else is there for me?" I mean, he's saying this on tape. Croft said, "What's the answer?" And he said, "I wish I knew." I wish I knew. Friends, I'm telling you there are people like that around you every day. They're like, "I don't... Even when things go well, for me, I know there's nothing in it. It's emptiness." I mean, this man's as successful as you could ever want to be in a worldly sort of way but he says, "I wish I knew." Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's living in a high and holy place with God by faith in Christ. That's what is satisfying, nothing else. What else matters? Few verses capture the reason for the world's misery better than this one: "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace says my God for the wicked." Now that last verse of the chapter seems to read to me like a decree. There can be no peace says my God for the wicked. Not as such. VII. An Invitation from the High and Holy So God gives us an invitation. Go back one more time, as we close to verse 15. This is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is humble and contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite. God has promised in this text, He's seen all your ways, he's promised to heal you. He knows how you live, he knows what you do, he knows everything. He said I'm going to heal you, verse 18, I will guide you, and I will restore comfort to you. And I will not always accuse, I will not always be angry. Effectively, the New Testament invitation that lines up with this, is this one, Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened said Jesus and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am humble in heart and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So that's my appeal to you as non Christians. For you Christians, I would urge you to meditate deeply on verse 1 and 2. Get it ready for when you lose a loved one in Christ. Just get ready for it, or when you face your own death. Just realize God is good to take righteous people out of this sinful world. He's just... He's just good. Secondly, see if there's any restlessness in you like that of the wicked, and repent from it. God's not going to bless that kind of wickedness, even in his own children. He will discipline you out of it, so the sooner you repent from it, you will find peace in your repentance. Thirdly, meditate much on the staggering words of verse 15. I just give them to you as a gift, they're not mine to give, but I just like, here they are, read them. Just read verse 15 and swim in the ocean of greatness. And then finally, at the very end, the last two verses, understand the turmoil of the world is essentially spiritual. It's because people are out of fellowship with God that they don't know what life is about and they are so churning. We need to give them peace in Christ. Whatever happens on Tuesday, whatever happens with the election, just understand this, true peace is found only in the kingdom of God. Close with me in prayer.

Last week's episode hit a nerve, or perhaps that should be many nerves. It's late at night in his apartment in Los Angeles and Bart takes a few minutes to touch upon the many responses to the episode with his wife Marty about whether he's being ‘too nice' about Christianity.For those asking about Robert Ingersoll, Ingersoll the Magnificent by Joseph Lewis can be found HERE for free. Bart also recommends Susan Jacoby’s biography The Great Agnostic HERE.Also, a new Facebook Group for this podcast can be found HERE. Click ‘Join' to be among the very first to get in on that conversation!

We report an FFRF victory granting standing to our Pennsylvania plaintiff, Marie Schaub, who is challenging a high-school Ten Commandments monument. Scholar, author and activist Sikivu Hutchinson reports the winners of college scholarships for students of color given by FFRF and Black Skeptics Los Angeles. After hearing the music and reading an email from Tom Lehrer, we listen to Robert Ingersoll’s “Love” recitation set to music by Dan Barker. Then Dustin Lawson, who was the personal assistant for the Christian apologist Josh McDowell, will tell us why he is now a nonbeliever.

FFRF protests the city of Hondo, Texas, sign saying “This is God’s Country.” After an FFRF complaint, Ex-Muslims of America finally get their cake that was denied by a local Wegman’s food store. We hear the song “Salvation” by Elliott Ingersoll (great grandnephew of Robert Ingersoll), and then talk with FFRF’s Legal Assistant and activist Calli Miller, who has been handling state/church entanglement intake and case management for FFRF’s legal department, and who is now headed for Harvard Law School.

What is the purpose of satire?  It is it effective?  Can it get you in trouble?  Terry Lindvall is the CS Lewis Professor of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College.  He writes about humor and in his latest book, God Mocks:  A History of Religious Satire From the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert, he explores the role of religious satire throughout history.  From Elijah to Alexander Pope to Robert Ingersoll and more, Lindvall introduces us those who tickle our funny bone while calling us out.

In this episode, Bo Bennett speaks with Matt Dillahunty, host of the Atheist Experience cable access television show broadcast from Austin, Texas. The discussion covers many aspects of debate and common Christian argument, along with some suggestions on how to respond and how not to respond. From The Atheist Experience website: I was raised in a loving, Southern Baptist home and was a fundamentalist Christian for over 20 years. After 8 years in the Navy and several years in the hi-tech game, I set out to re-affirm my faith with designs on attending seminary and continuing with a life in the ministry. What began as an attempt to bolster my faith became a continuing investigation into more topics than I ever suspected I'd enjoy. After the first couple of years, reason forced me to acknowledge that my faith had not only been weakened by my studies - it had been utterly destroyed. The thoughts, writings and wisdom of people like; Robert Ingersoll, Voltaire, Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins, Farrell Till and many others, helped free my mind from the shackles of religion without a single moment of despair. I continue to study philosophy, religion, science, history and the many other topics which have helped me to understand reality and enjoy my life. Having spent the majority of my life compartmentalizing my religious beliefs to keep them safe from skepticism, it's thrilling to leave the critical, investigative, hungry portion of my brain turned "on". While my own pursuit of knowledge is a powerful driving force in my life, I'd also like to prevent others from wasting another day on irrational beliefs. Education is the key ...and if my work manages to educate even one person, I'm satisfied. Anyone interested in reading further is encouraged to visit the counter-apologetics encyclopedia, Iron Chariots (wiki.ironchariots.org). Russell Glasser and I started the wiki and we encourage others to help us build it into a great resource for anyone interested in apologetics and theological debate.

With only a few shopping days left before Christmas you can get into the spirit of the season with a new episode of Edgeland podcast. This week Bill reads a Christmas Sermon by Robert Ingersoll that sums up the Christmas holiday very well. In the interview portion of the show Bill talks with Mary Brulatour of Self Defense Family about the rock and roll town of Richmond, training in Muay Thai, and the stress/thrill of performing. In the non edge section Bill talks with Cornell Ward of the Walking Alone podcast about his early days on the tuba, playing in Count Me Out, and the art of eight limbs. If you like the straight edge, if you like rocking, and if you like deadly martial arts then this is the perfect episode for you.

If youre wondering what Im doing here, Pastor Jeff sends his regards. He was very sad not to be able to be here today. Hes not feeling so well. He spent a lot of time helping a couple of people during the snow storm get out of the ditch. By the weekend, he wasnt feeling too well. I planned on being in Iowa this weekend with my daughter. We were there on Friday looking for apartments. She got a call on her cell phone, and I hear this voice say (in a gruff voice), Jerry. Can you help me? Pastor Jeff was hoarse, couldnt speak very well, and was not feeling too great; so you get me instead today. Im glad to be here with you. Well put the Scriptures up there. As we think about this series Coming Before Winter and winter things-dealing with denial, depression, despair, and then this Sunday with death-death is a very difficult subject. Its the ultimate subject in terms of our lives, and if you dont deal with that, you really deal with nothing at all. Youre not being honest. All of us here today have probably suffered loss of people we care about. I know for myself, death is the very first memory I have in life. When I was two and a half years old, my aunt in Texas, who my parents said was my favorite, was electrocuted and died in her early 30s. I can tell you everything about it. I remember the trip and driving from Illinois to Texas. I can remember pulling up in the parking lot at the funeral home, the service, the color of the room, the color of the casket, and all of those things because it was an incredibly traumatic event. Yet, Im incredibly thankful for that. I saw death in my family. My dad had a large family, eight sisters, and they were all older than he was. I saw a lot of death with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. What that did was something that Solomon says in Ecclesiastes all of us should do. Ecclesiastes 7:1 (page 662 of pew Bibles) is a verse Ive shared hundreds of times at funerals. It says (paraphrasing) its better to go to a funeral than it is to a party because death is what happens to everyone, and wise people think about that. We live in such a party culture-such a here-and-now culture, such a grab-the-moment culture-that we dont like to think about way down the road. We dont like to think about the end. We dont like to think about death and dying, but God says wise people do. They think ahead. They plan ahead. This morning, I want to leave six pictures with you from Gods point of view about what death is and six different skills that you can use to develop your capacity to face that with courage, with hope, and with peace. Were going to look at two different passages of Scripture this morning-one in John 11 and later on the Passage that this series sprang from in 2 Timothy. If you turn to John 11 (page 1063 of pew Bibles), the first thing I want to say is this: From Gods point of view, death is sleep. Listen to what Jesus says. One of His dear friends, Lazarus, had passed away. Friends, Jesus allowed him to die. He heard about Lazarus being sick, and He allowed him to die. All of him of us have probably faced that-friends or loved ones that we pray and ask God to heal them, and God doesnt seem to hear. We say, God, why? Where are You? Why did You let this happen to me? What we need to know and remember is that God has a plan, and God views death differently than we do. We see Jesus perspective in this verse when He said this things in Verse 11, After He had said this, He went on to tell them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. The Disciples, of course, say, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. Jesus very plainly then says, No, Lazarus has died, and Im going to raise him from the dead. Thats pretty remarkable, but the first thing I want you to notice from Gods perspective is that death is sleep. I always like bringing props along (Pastor Jerry brought in a pillow with him today). Somebody asked me when I brought this in, Are you going to sleep in church? I said, Yes, its going to be incredibly boring. What does the pillow remind us of? From Gods point of view, how does He view death? He says its simply sleep. Its naptime. We lie down for a minute, but that isnt the end. One day we will rise. Remember as a little kid how you used to hate to take naps? I dont know-is anybody in that ball park along with me? Its like, An afternoon nap? You have to be kidding me! We face death the same way. We dont want to take that nap. We dont want to lie down. But from Gods point of view, Hes a little wiser than we are. He says, You need this. This is part of the plan. But what do we look forward to? We look forward to that day, interestingly, its the stuff of fairy tales when out of a deep sleep the handsome prince comes and with a kiss does what? Awakens the sleeping princess. Its the stuff of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its the stuff of Sleeping Beauty. Tragedy is befallen. That's true in our world. Sin has entered; death comes. We lie down and sleep, but we look forward to the day when the prince is coming to awaken His bride with a kiss. The people who are not followers of Jesus Christ, the people who dont believe in God, they dont believe in His power of resurrection, they say, Like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, its myth. Its fantasy. Thats not reality. That's not fact. That's fiction. Thats not hope. Thats just hype. Friends, I ask you this question: why does that story resonate with us? Why do the Snow White and Sleeping Beauty stories get passed down from generations? Why are there legends like that in so many different cultures? The reason for that, and the reason that resonates in the heart of little girls so much, is because were made in the image of God. Thats really the story of eternity. Its the story of the prince who leaves his home, leaves his castle, and leaves the safety to go and rescue his bride Thats what Jesus does for us. Interestingly, in terms of sleeping and waking, God challenges us in this regard to wake up. How are you going to handle that moment when you lie down and sleep the sleep of death? Youre only going to handle that if youve practiced waking up in this life. In the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, God says, Wake up often. What does He mean when He says that? He means, Think. Hes saying, Wake up. Study. Change your mind. Isaiah says, Come now and let us reason together says the Lord. God wants you to wake up. There are people when facing death who would rather not think about it and put it off. Dont entertain the idea that I might someday die. You see that with young people all the time, right? They think theyre invincible. Nobody can hurt me. Im young. Its going to last forever. No, its not. Wise people think about that. Friends, as you come to this question about death and eternity, that is the ultimate question. We get asked all the time, and as I challenge you to think, reason, study, and find out for yourselves, how does your religion or your philosophy with the world deal with that question of death? I tell you this morning your religion may raise you to higher levels of morality. That all may be well and good. Many of the great religions in the world say the same thing, Dont kill people. Dont commit adultery. Dont rob. But if they dont handle the ultimate question of death, they are absolutely, completely, and unequivocally worthless because were all going to die. One of my favorite movies that makes me laugh and laugh is a movie with Bill Murray in it called, What About Bob? Have any of you ever watched that? I love the fact that Bob can drive his psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, nuts! Dr. Leo Marvin has a son, Siggy, who dresses all in black. Why? Because as Siggy says, Were all going to die. No matter how much money you accumulate or how famous you are, Were all going to die, and theres nothing you can do about it. We kind of poo poo and pat that off, but you know what? Siggy is right. We are all going to die. Have you planned for that? Any religion that doesnt plan for that or doesnt deal with it is absolutely worthless. People say, Oh, there are many ways to God. Really? I want a way that deals with death. I want a way that shows me that there is hope in the face of the worst enemy that we will ever face. Thats where Jesus and Christianity stand out from every other religion that exists. The founder of Confucianism, the founder of Buddhism, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Judge Rutherford, and Muhammad-you name them-they are all dead, buried, and in their graves. One religion has the audacity, the courage, the backbone to say, No, our founder rose from the dead. Are you kidding me? That alone makes it worth testing out, doesnt it? That alone makes it intriguing because Christianity alone has the audacity to say, Our Founder rose from the dead. When I face death, I want to walk through that porthole with somebody who has been there, done that. Amen? Thats why Im a Christian. Friends, God challenges us in the same way to think, to examine the facts. One of the biggest reasons Im a Christian is I just love to think. As a little kid, I asked questions of every single pastor I had. I remember being about nine years old and asking one of my pastors a whole bunch of questions. He looked at me and said, Jerry, you think too much. I was like, Really? You have to be kidding me. I thought that was what we were supposed to do! I love the fact that so many people, if they are honest with the facts throughout history-scientists, doctors, lawyers, generals, national heroes, and authors-if they examine the facts, they come down on the side of…its inescapable; the evidence is overwhelming: Jesus rose from the dead. If you look up Lee Strobel, who is the editor of the Chicago Tribunes law section, you will find out his wife became a Christian. He saw such dramatic changes in her that he spent two years examining the facts. Finally he gave in from his atheism and embraced Jesus Christ and is a preacher of the Gospel today. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, is one of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century. I love what it says about him: he said, God dragged me kicking and screaming into the Kingdom of God. Isnt that hilarious? He didnt want to become a Christian. He didnt want to believe there was a God, but he couldnt help it. The evidence was way too overwhelming. Frank Morrison, a British lawyer, set out to prove that Jesus never rose from the dead; but after examining the facts, he gave in. He gave his life to Christ and ended up writing a famous book called, Who Moved the Stone? One of my personal favorites, Lew Wallace, a Civil War general, was a hero who saved Washington from confederate attack. He later became the governor of New Mexico when Billy the Kid was running around out there. He was challenged on a train ride by Robert Ingersoll, the leading atheist in America at the time, to examine his faith and to reject Christianity. Wallace set out to find the facts. He ended up writing a book that became the biggest seller at the time outside of the Bible. In that culture, it was the only other book besides the Bible that many people had ever read in their lives. It went on to win numerous Broadway awards and was made into a Broadway play at least six different times. It was a runaway hit and then became a worldwide movie that won an Oscar. He wrote a story of the Christ entitled Ben Hur. Why? Because he was overwhelmed by the evidence. I could go on and on. Just a few years ago, one of the leading scientific atheists in the world in the twentieth century just became a Christian, Dr. Anthony Flew. He was a professor at Cambridge. He came out in November of 2007 with his book. He embraced Christianity and wrote these words: There is a God. How the Worlds Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. Dont you love that title? Why? Because people are honest with the facts. The evidence is overwhelming. Jesus challenges us today as we approach the subject of death to think, reason, study, and examine the facts. Did Jesus or did He not rise from the dead? Like Paul said long ago, If Jesus didnt rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain and we ought to be pitied. Friends, He did rise from the dead. The amazing thing is how do you get ready for death? David wrote in the Psalms [2:12] several thousand years ago these interesting words: Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Thats an interesting phrase-kiss the Son. How do you prepare for the coming kiss of your Prince? Begin to get up every day, awaken every day, ready to kiss the Son. Get ready to embrace Him, spend time alone with Him every morning. Get used to His touch; get used to His voice; get used to hearing Him; get alone with Him, and you will long for that day when the Prince of glory comes and plants His kiss on you, awakens you out of sleep, and takes you home to live with Him forever. Amen? The second picture Id like to leave with you as you look at death is also found in John 11:33 (page 1064 of pew Bibles). Jesus is at Lazarus funeral, and He sees Mary weeping and the people around her weeping. It says these words: When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people whaling with her, a deep anger welled up within Him, and He was deeply troubled. The New Living Translation says it very well. That really is the interpretation of that Greek word. Other translations say He groaned, but the idea of anger captures it very well. Friends, death is a time for anger. One of my favorite comic book symbols is The Incredible Hulk. You know the old story: Please dont make me angry. You wouldnt like me when Im angry. Its interesting to know that there is an appropriate response, and death is not out of question or anger is not out of question when facing death. If were honest, we go through those things, dont we? People who chart that, psychiatrists or psychologists who chart that, know that oftentimes anger is one of the steps of grief. You hear that news that maybe the disease you have is terminal. Youre not going to make it. You hear the C word, the cancer word for the first time, or youre facing bypass surgery. Maybe theres a lump, theres a tumor, and your mortality comes into question. You come face to face with the end of your life. Yes, theres fear and maybe despair. You go through those things and theres also oftentimes anger. Maybe youre angry at yourself, I should have taken better care of myself. If its a loved one, Why didnt they take care of themselves better? Maybe youre angry at the doctors, They got it wrong. Im going to get a second opinion, then a third opinion, and then a fourth opinion. Nobodys ever done that, right? Interestingly, one of the people that were most angry at is God. God, if You loved me, if You cared, how could You let this happen? Even as Christians, were tempted to go there. Thats a natural response. Its a very human response. Jesus, in the face of death, is angry. Friends, I want to encourage you. Im glad we have a God that gets angry at that. That says something about Him. Its interesting: Moms, if you spend all day cleaning your house, have you ever become a little irked or annoyed when the kids or the grandkids come home and trashed it all in two minutes? None of you have ever done that, have you (sarcastically asking)? Guys, youre fixing something or youre working on a project, and you just get this thing done when somebody comes along and wrecks it! Were tempted to become angry. Thats an emotion that God carries. Back in Genesis 1, Jesus, who created the world, looked at everything He made and said, Its good. Now He stands at the gravesite of His friend, and hes ticked. Why? Because this isnt the world He made. It wasnt how He imagined it. It wasnt what He had envisioned. His creation had been trashed. He made it wonderful, and somebody messed it up royally. Friends, in a way, that can be an incredibly comforting thing. My wife and I have a very dear friend, a really Godly woman, who was molested as a young girl by someone in her family, someone who was a member of the police department. When she told people about it-what the person had done to her-guess what? Nobody believed her. It separated her from her mother. It separated her from family and friends. She felt ostracized; she felt cast out; she felt like nobody cared. It destroyed her. She went over the edge and delved into all kinds of things-drinking, drugs, and an immoral lifestyle. God, in His mercy and grace, rescued her from that. We dont know what people go through. We dont know how things comfort them. She said after she had started walking with God, one of the things that meant the most and touched her heart most deeply-one of the things that assured her that God loved her more than anything else-was the verse that said God is angry with the wicked every day. You might be sitting here thinking, Why in the world would that assure somebody that God loved him or her? but this dear lady said, My whole life, I tried to tell people who I thought cared about what happened to me, and nobody cared. Nobody was angry. Nobody was mad, but then I realized the God of the universe looked at what happened to me, and He was ticked off; and I felt loved. Somebody cared. Somebody was moved by my pain. Jesus stands at the gravesite of Lazarus, and Hes angry because it wasnt the world He had made. Friends, I would challenge you: what do you put into place at those moments of despair or anger, when your world is caving in? I would challenge you to do what Jesus did at the gravesite of His friend. What did Jesus do? He prayed. He said (John 11:42, page 1064), Father, I thank You that Youve heard Me, and I thank You that You always hear Me; but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. Then He prayed. Friends, let me ask you: How do you get ready for that moment when youre going to face death? Those words that will make your blood boil or make you angry that life is mortal, how do you get ready for that? Begin a life of prayer now. Pray over the little things that annoy you now. Pray over the things that irk you now. Pray about evil in the world. You know today is Super Bowl Sunday. One of the other biggest sports that will occur today at the Super Bowl in Dallas, Texas, and theyre gearing up for it already, is one of the things that absolutely makes my blood boil with having two daughters that I just love and am crazy about: human trafficking. There are hundreds of young ladies and some young men who are going to be sold today so that men can have their way with them. That ticks me off, and it ticks off the God of Heaven! If you have five seconds or ten seconds when youre watching the Super Bowl today, say a prayer for some of those children. Say a prayer for some of those young people who are being sold. Remember that those things make God angry. If you pray over the things that make you angry now, you will be ready for that day when you come face to face with death. Thats what Jesus did, and thats how He handled it. The third picture I want to leave with you is from our original Passage in 2 Timothy 4:6 (page 1180). Paul says these words: …Im being poured out like a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. Notice that phrase, Im already being poured out as a drink offering. A drink offering-its a gift. We dont so much present offerings today except in monetary terms, but we view our offerings as gifts to God. Drink offerings are gifts. Thats really what God has in mind. Its interesting that Jesus died well and left a legacy and a gift for all of us about how to die, didnt He? Two thousand years later, we still celebrate the Lords Supper. What do we remember? He passed on an incredible inheritance to all of us about how to die. How does He die? He died forgiving people who hurt Him. He died blessing people and offering encouragement to people who were dying with Him, the thief on the cross next to Him. What a way to go! He died trusting God, Father, into Your hands, I commend My Spirit. Friends, I would challenge you in this third picture here, to leave the way you die as a legacy to the people who will come after you. Prepare for it now. Steven Covey even says in The 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People, If you want to have a successful life, begin with the end in mind. Think about what you want on your Tombstone. Id go beyond that and say, Think about how you want to go. Friends, Im here to tell you why Im a Christian. Ive seen the death of hundreds and hundreds of people, and there is incredible difference. There is a gulf; there is a chasm difference between the death of people who have died having hope and faith in Jesus Christ and those who do not. One of the greatest blessings my grandmother ever left with me was not just the ability to play the piano, which I dearly love her for, but I will never forget this big German woman who was 510 and weighed 175 or 180 pounds when she was alive. She got ovarian cancer, went downhill very quickly, and died at about 90 pounds with family gathered around her. This woman who loved music, how did she go out? We were all singing; we were all praying; we were reading Scripture, and she died in peace. She died with a smile; she died with hope; and she died with joy. I remember sitting there thinking, Now, thats the way to go. Thats how you do it. My wife and I had a very dear friend who was the former pastors wife of the church where I first went. At one time, this church was the largest church in the city of Janesville. This woman was a rather large woman, and her husband had had multiple affairs while he was a pastor and eventually left her for the church secretary. She could have been broken by that, but she wasnt. She learned how to pray and have hope. I walked with her through all of those difficulties and one of the greatest trials in her life as she faced heartache, loss, desertion, and loneliness. She prayed, and her light continued to shine. Her personality and warmth sprang out. Then a few short years later, she contracted ovarian cancer as well; but what an unbelievable attitude. I remember standing beside her bed. This dear lady who had spent her lifetime trying to lose weight looked at me and with a smile on her face said, Guess what, Jerry? Im losing weight. Isnt that cool? Can you believe it? What an attitude! Thats the attitude of Christ. Thats the attitude of Romans 8:37, In all these things, you are more than conquerors… I will never forget the warm sunny spring day when we laid her to rest in Oakhill Cemetery. There were about 200 people standing around her gravesite. There was such joy, such happiness, and such warmth that nobody wanted to go. We stood beside the grave and spontaneously sang song after song after song after song. What a contrast to the funerals Ive had of unsaved people who have no hope. I always think of Oakhill Cemetery because theres a bar right at the end of the driveway. Time and time again as soon as the last Amen is spoken, the last word is said, Ive watched people who have no faith, no hope in Christ, boom, go right down the driveway, right across the road, and right into the bar. Why? Because they dont want to face it. They want to forget about it, and they dont want to deal with it. Ive seen time after time the gift and the power of faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It allows you to be a champion and an overcomer in the worst times of life. Leave that gift to the people who come after you. Begin to ask God to use you to enrich the lives of others where you are now. Dont wait until youre on your deathbed to try to touch somebodys life for good. You have a chance to share blessings, to share joy, with everybody around you starting today. What are you really preparing for? Youre really preparing for that moment when youre going to leave your greatest blessing and inheritance behind. Do it today. Start now. The next picture I want to show you of death is that it is the ultimate journey for those who love adventure. I love this phrase, this little short, obscure phase in 2 Timothy 4. Paul says these words, The time of my departure is at hand. What does that sound like? It sounds like somebody is standing in the lobby in the airport waiting for his or her flight time. No, Im not going to say, My flights coming at 3:15. Then Im going to go. Im going to be gone for a while, but Ill see you again. Well, my departure is here. Of if youre standing on the train platform, Well, the 8:15 is coming. Im ready to go. My time is up. What an attitude, right? Friends, thats how God views death. He views it as the ultimate adventure, the ultimate trip. The unbelievable thing is…who is the ultimate tour guide? Jesus Christ. You see, if you go visit someplace really cool, you want to go with a tour guide who knows it inside and out, upside and down, every which way under the sun. I get to let you in on my home pictures. These are vacation pictures. My wife had always wanted visit Savannah, Georgia, so last fall we went. On the way back passing through the Carolinas, we stopped at what was and is the largest private home in America, the Biltmore Mansion. You sit there looking at that, and we paid a really steep price to get in there. Its expensive to go in there, but you know what? We kept saying, Man, this is awesome. The grounds, the gardens, it was incredible. Every corner we turned, wed say, Isnt this cool? Oh, man, look at that! Thats unbelievable. Wed stop with the guides. We hit it off with one dear sweet lady. The guides kept moving, and we kept running into her in different places in the house. It was just a blast talking with her and hearing the stories. Friends, Jesus Christ is the ultimate tour guide. He has faced death; He has been through death and hell, and Hes come out the other side. He knows every nuance, every nook and cranny. He was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin. He says, When you come to that point, take My hand. Walk with Me. Ill lead you through. Ill guide you through. The places I can take you, you would never guess-rivers that flow like crystal, streets that are gold but look like glass, gates made out of pearl. For all you Packer fans, guess what the color of the rainbow around Gods throne is? Its green. Im here to tell you. Green is my favorite color. Even though Im not a Packer fan, green is my favorite color. How about that? Guess what? I cant wait to see that! Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, with four different heads [we will see]. There will be a head with a lion on this side, and ox on this side, an eagle [on one side and a man on this side]. Im like, Thats going to be bazaar! I cant wait to see that. Creatures flying around with six wings-everywhere you go in Heaven, it will be like, Look at that! Look at that! Thats incredible! Thats awesome! Jesus says, Your eye hasnt seen. Your ear hasnt heard. You cannot comprehend the things He has prepared for those who love Him. I think of our dear friend, Judy. Dennis is here this morning and got up and shared her journey and the things she went through. Judy faced her fears, she faced her difficulties, and faced her pain. Dennis and Judy liked to travel, and I know one of her favorite pictures as she talked about death, facing that, and going through that portal was this one right here, Im going on a trip. Im going on a vacation. Im going to be gone for awhile, but Ill be back. I have the greatest guide in the world. Judy died with peace; she died with hope; she died with joy. I will tell you being in that home and with that family, you could see it. You could feel it. The joy, the peace, and the hope were so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Thats not normal. Well, it is among people who know Christ; but among people in the world, its not. God says there is hope even in the face of death. Why? Because its a journey; its an adventure. God says, You cant imagine the things that I have prepared for you. Take My hand. Ill guide you through it with hope and with joy. The fifth picture I would like to leave with you is found in the next phrase when Paul says in Verse 7 (still page 1180), I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. He says, Death is the biggest fight, the most terrifying opponent, the greatest difficulty that you must face. God calls every one of us-guys in particular, you can resonate this stuff. We talked about princesses and handsome princes for the ladies. Guys, this is the stuff that resonates in our hearts. God calls every single guy to be a warrior. I dont care whether youre a guy who has never been athletic in your life, never been in a fight in your life, or never done anything particular physical. God doesnt care. He calls every single guy to face at one point in his life the greatest opponent you will ever face, and that's death. You will stare it in the face, and you will feel fear. I can tell you outside of baseball, boxing was my favorite sport. Before mixed martial arts, I just loved boxing. I loved everything about it. I started fighting in fifth grade and boxed all the way through college. I played football all the way from fifth grade through college as well. Friends, Ill tell you that Im not ashamed to admit that there was not a single fight I ever fought, there was not a single football game I was ever involved in, that I was not afraid before it happened. Whats the battle? The battle is overcoming your fear. If you read the inside stories-today is the Super Bowl-probably somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of the guys playing in the Super Bowl today will throw up before the game. Do you know why? Because theyre afraid. Heres the amazing thing: you do all that training and practice; you do all those repetitions; you go through all the struggles; and you get into the game, you face your fears, and you begin to fight. You take that first hit, and guess what? All the fear goes away, and friends, Im here to tell you: the training takes over. Ill never forget my first fight in college. I fought a guy who was the state runner up in Michigan. By all accounts, he was the biggest, baddest, and toughest guy in the entire school. He was a junior; I was a freshman. I walked out of my corner, and I walked into a straight right [fist]. Everything went black; I saw sparks; and if he would have followed up with a combination, I would have been toast. When the lights came back on and the fog cleared, guess what? All that training kicked in. I still enjoy that so much that to this day, down in my basement gym, I still hit the heavy bag on a regular basis. Im going to need some new bag gloves after a while. Its interesting that after the lights went out and then came back on, guess what happened? I never thought about being afraid; all that training kicked in. Its really fun to say I spent the next three rounds just chasing him all over the ring. That was a blast. Why? The training kicked in. Friends, heres the wonderful thing about your walk with God. Jesus has been there. He has faced the ultimate opponent. He faced not just death, but He faced hell. He went through hell for you. He faced the wrath and the curse of God in a way that you and I will never will, and He came out the other side. Theres an obscure Passage in the Book of Hebrews that says in the days of His flesh, He offered up strong crying and tears. Do you think Jesus was afraid? Let me ask you that question: do you think Jesus was afraid? The answer is yes. Hebrews says He was in all points tempted as we are. Friends, He was afraid. He didnt want to go through that, but then it says something amazing. All that training kicked in. All that time alone with God, all the prayers, all the walks with Him, all the hours spent with God in secret and the training kicked in. In the face of His deepest, darkest moments, the author of Hebrews says something incredible. He says that Jesus offered up those prayers, and He was heard. He offered the prayers up to the One who was able to save him from death. Dont overlook that phrase. It says from death. Thats the Greek word ek from which we get our word exit or out of (as in Jesus wasn't just praying that God would "prevent" Him from dying. He was praying that God would raise Him up "out of" death and the grave once He was in it.) What was Jesus praying for in the face of death? He literally prayed for His own resurrection. Thats literally what that Passage was saying. Can you believe that? Jesus is saying, God, Father, I know Im going to die, so raise Me up again. You say, But He had Gods promise. He prayed for it anyway. Father, save Me. Raise Me up again. Friends, when you spend that time alone with God in your deepest, darkest, scariest moments, what begins to happen? The power of God resonates in your lives. As you become so acquainted with the God of the universe who rolls up His sleeves and bares His arm in the face of all adversity, you begin to know courage. So, like Solomon in Proverbs, you begin to say, The good man may fall or the good woman may fall seven times, but whats going to happen? They rise again. I love the Passage in Micah, Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. Friends, sin, evil, destruction, and the wrath of God put Jesus down on the canvas, didnt it? He died; He was buried, but you couldnt keep a good Man down, could you? Three days later, the Champion comes up. He gets off the canvas; He comes off the floor; He comes out fighting, and He wins. Friends, the God of the universe says, When you trust in Him, He put that same Spirit in your heart. If youre here this morning, I dont care how weak you are. I dont care if youve ever played a sport, lifted a weight, fought a fight-God doesnt care. Inside of you beats the heart of a champion; inside of you beats the heart of the living God. God says to you, We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and you have the mind of Christ. Believe it. Start practicing those truths today. Start your training today. Get alone with God on a regular basis. Open up His Word; talk to Him about it; sing His praises when youre afraid. The training will pay off in your deepest, darkest moments. Youll make one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Amen? The last picture I want to leave with you is this: Paul says, Because of that, there is laid up for Me a crown of rejoicing, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to Me on that day. Notice what He says, …theres laid up for me a crown of righteousness… One of my favorite things about sports is I like trophies. I like awards banquets; I like medals; I like all of that stuff. Ive been very blessed. Ive coached some great teams and played on a lot of cool things. One of the coolest trophies Ive ever received came about two years ago. I won nationals in power lifting, and they gave out really cool trophies. The sculptor that made it was unbelievable. I got really excited when I first saw it. I thought it was Jesus because if you look really close, he has a beard. I thought, Well, thats cool. Jesus is holding up the world. I was truly disappointed when I found out it wasnt Jesus; it was Atlas, but oh well. You cant have everything, right? It was still really cool. I say that to say there is something wonderful about getting awards. As you think about that, is Paul really confident? Is he? He knows its going to happen. He knows hes going to stand before his Lord and hear the words, Well done, good and faithful servant. God had seen him through. He was at the end, and the awards banquet was waiting. The thank yous were coming. The trophies were going to be there. In fact, thats the last thing Jesus promises in the Book of Revelation, Behold, I come quickly, and Im bringing what with Me? …My reward. Its trophy day, boys and girls. Gods going to be handing out medals. So how should you approach that? Well, when does Paul start thanking and blessing God? Before he has received the medals or afterwards? Before. Its interesting with Jesus as well, if we look back at the chapter in John, He is standing at Lazarus gravesite. He hasnt yet raised Lazarus from the dead, but what does He do? He says, Father, I thank You that You hear Me. Theyd be lying to tell you otherwise, but all the actors and actresses that are going to win awards here in the shows coming up, if theyre even nominated and in the running, what do they practice before they ever receive the awards? They practice their acceptance speech, right? Some of them go on and on and on and on because they have all these people they want to say what to? Thank you. Oh, and I want to thank this person. I want to thank that person. I want to thank this person. Friends, how do you get ready for death? You begin thanking people a long way off. Thats what Jesus did. He hadnt raised Lazarus from the dead yet, but He was already saying, Father, thank You that Youre listening to Me. Even in the face of death, I know Youre listening. I know Youre going to hear My prayer. I know Youre going to raise him from the dead. Friends, start practicing your acceptance speech now. Get up every day telling God thank you for as many possible things as you can thank Him for. Get up every day and start telling everybody around you in your life thank you for as many possible things as you can thank them for because when you stand before God and hear Him say, Well done, good and faithful servant, trust me, there will be many more people that you wished you would have thanked in this life. Man, I should have told them thank you. I should have told them thank you. Friends, be looking for-be living for-that moment. Be thinking about that moment. Think about it now. Picture yourself standing before God, and He hands out trophies and says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Its so cool. What do Gods children who receive those trophies and awards do? They take those crowns, and they throw them back at His feet and say, Thank You. No, it was all You. It was all You. It was all You. Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You. I wouldnt be here if it werent for You. Friends, we can face death with hope, with joy, with peace. Why? Because Jesus lives, and there is hope. If you need prayer, feel free to come up. Shall we stand and close in prayer. If you need someone to pray with, feel free to come forward, and our prayer team will meet with you. I pray that youll be encouraged and blessed. Father, I thank You so much for Your love. I thank You for Your kindness. I ask Your richest blessing on Your people, especially those who may be hurting with bad news or the loss of a loved one or friend. I pray that Youd give us Your hope and courage. Thank You for the example of Jesus Christ and that we can pray in His name. Amen. God bless you all. Thank you so much.

Hopefully, youll learn some things thatll encourage you and challenge you in your framework and world view. As we looked at Larry this morning and heard what he had to say, [I thought] Im glad to be in a church thats not afraid to ask the big questions. We obviously in a half hour dont have time to address all of the things and all the questions that Larry asked, but believe me there are answers to all of those. We do want to look at a few things, and we want to talk about secular humanism in light of the Bible because what you may not believe is after Christianity and Islam, secular humanism is probably the prevailing religion in the world today. And you say, Secular humanism religion? I didnt know that. I thought it was secular. But, friends, the reality is if you were to read, The Humanist Manifesto, the first one that was put together in 1933, about 5 of the 14 planks of The Humanist Manifesto call humanism a religion. Interesting, ha? So theres nothing new under the sun, and these people believe what they believe passionately. They believe it ardently, and they believe its the answer to human beings ills, needs, and salvation, and so as such-as we talk over the next six weeks and start this series on World View, one of the things that we need to address right off the top is one of the prevailing religions in the world today-which is secular humanism. Its interesting too that since in the second and third revisions of The Humanist Manifesto that that kind of religious tone has been edited out of that, but, again, going back to 1933, the founders of that viewed secular humanism as a religion and a world view that embraced all of life. The first thing that we see out of that-if you were to go to the secular humanist website and read The Humanist Manifesto, you will find words like this: secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook, a world view, in the broadest sense. By world view, we mean a big picture kind of look at the world that embraces everything, everybody and everything we do. Secular humanists see themselves as undersigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency. I always chuckle how they got self-awareness and moral agency if there was no God, and they came to exist all by themselves by accident; but thats a whole other topic. Friends, as we look at this Passage and look at this religion in light of the Scripture, well look at Psalm 14:1 (page 538 of pew Bibles) to begin with. We will look at three Passages, but lets first turn to Psalm 14:1. David, 3,000 years ago, wrote these words. He said, Only fools say in their hearts there is no God. They are corrupt. Their actions are evil. Not one of them does good. When we talk about fools and Pastor Jeff asked me to entitle this message on secular humanism, The Fool, I dont mean that in necessarily a derogatoral way whereas we talk about being a fool; I dont mean in the terms of being mentally deranged or mentally handicapped. Were talking about someone who is simple, someone who is naïve, someone who doesnt get the big picture, someone who doesnt take the farthest look, somebody who sets aside reason and intellect in order to come to the conclusions that they do. There are many wonderful illustrations that children make. In Jesus Takes, we had little Nolan this morning, and God talks about little children as the examples of faith because they embrace things and believe things, almost unequivocally. You know you tell a child the sky is blue and the moons made out of green cheese, and, Okay. And so Jesus said trust Him as the faith of a little child. The flip side is that we want to use children as an illustration-not in a derogatory way but just an incomplete way. The children are also very naïve, arent they? If I were to ask the question, how many of you were afraid of the dark when you were a kid? Some brave people. If you were like me, I was very afraid of the dark, and basements, it was like, Oh, my goodness. Please, Mother, dont send me down to the basement for potatoes or something! I remember when the movie Home Alone came out and Macaulay Culkin went down there and the furnace kicked on. It was like, Ahhhhh! Youve got to be kidding me! I remember going down to the basement and turning on the lights, creaking down the stairs and looking for potatoes. I found their little eyes looking back at me. Then the furnace came on, and I would just make a bee-line up the stairs. It was like the bake of potatoes playing Chariots of Fire. I was sprinting up the stairs. I was terrified of the dark. That carried over every time I went to bed, you know. You had monsters and all those things. I had nightmares almost every night of my childhood in to my teenage years. As a child, when youre afraid of the dark, and youre dreaming of monsters, what do you do to get away from it? You pull the covers up over your head, right? Because if you cant see them, they cant get you, right? The secular humanist and the fool as God looks at here are very much like that. Pull the covers up over your head and pretend that God isnt there. He doesnt exist. Why? Because I cant see Him. Regardless of what youve heard in history books, the majority of the people in Galileos time or Columbus time did not believe that the world was flat. They didnt. Youve heard that, but its not true. Regardless of what some of our modern movies say, the Catholic Church did not reject Galileo because he said the earth went around the sun. That was not the issue at all. The point is that people like Sir Isaac Newton who believed in God, who made the world, said that science was possible and that you could study the world, study the universe, and study things in a scientific way specifically because there was a Creator who made it all and therefore, it was knowledge. Solomon said in Proverbs [25:2, page 650 of pew Bibles], Its the glory of God to conceal a matter. Its the glory of kings to search it out. Thats what the early scientists believed. Im going to read this other Passage from The Humanist Manifesto as we talk about religion. Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists… This is straight out of the first one. …religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life. In fact at the tail end of the first The Humanist Manifesto, it says this: Do you know what the essence of living here on the earth is? Its to have The Good Life. Isnt that interesting? It sounds like a beer commercial, doesnt it? You only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can. Lets pull the covers over my head. Going back a bit as I remember what I was going to say. You think about that, pretend it isnt there, that foundation of science led to all kinds of horrific experimentations or ways of dealing with illness in the past when like the first President of our country. We didnt know about germs and all those types of things, so what did we do when he was sick with pneumonia? We bleed him, taking away the very thing that he needed, which was his blood. We bleed him, weaken him, and hence he dies because we cant see germs, so they must not exist. The father of modern sanitation Ignaz Semmelweiss got hounded out of two different hospitals because he had the audacity to believe the Bible when it came to performing autopsies and then walking across the floor to maternity wards and delivering babies without washing your hands. When Ignaz Semmelweiss had the audacity to tell the doctors under his care that they needed to wash their hands after performing autopsies and before delivering babies, he got hounded out of two different hospitals and died a broken man. Why? Because science at the time, You cant see it, so it must not be so. Now science tells us, I cant see God, so guess what? It must not be so. Yet, so much of the technical things-lights, heat-all those types of things, so many of the scientific advances that weve enjoyed in the last 150 years are because of things that we cant see. That brings us to motivation. Well get to more specifics later, but lets talk about motivation. Why are people so passionate about the idea that there is no God? I always chuckle at that. Do you get the ridiculousness of that, the incongruity? Theres no God, but Im going to spend my life defined by telling everybody that the thing that I dont believe exists doesnt exist. Let me give you an example. If I believed that purple elephants dont exist, would I spend my life passionately crusading throughout the entire world telling everybody and making sure that everybody knows that purple elephants dont exist? Would I? No, Id just ignore it because I know purple elephants dont exist. Duh! Its hilarious to me that people will say, Oh, God doesnt exist. Guess what? God defines their lives-their whole lives and framework is built around, Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! If we tell ourselves that long enough, maybe well convince ourselves that thats the truth. Pull the blankets up over your head. If you cant see Him, it must not be so. Whats the motivation? Why are people so passionate about that? As we said, its religion. Friends, I am so glad that the Bible is not relevant for today. That was a joke. I was just seeing if you were awake. Way back in Genesis 3, we find the answer to that. This is the foundation of so much religion, so many Eastern religions-even some of the late comers to the modern Americans. What is the crux? Whats the sum total? If I follow this religion, what happens in the end? Here it is: Genesis 3, I get to be God. Why do I stand and shake my fist in the face of God, say He doesnt exist, Hes not out there. Because if Hes not out there, then who is God? Who is king? Whos boss? Whos lord? Me. Im so glad the Bibles not relevant-nailed that in the first three chapters. The serpent comes to Eve in the Garden and says, Take that fruit. Dont listen to God. He doesnt know what Hes talking about because if you eat that fruit, what will happen? You will get to be your own God! Thats the sum total of it. If there is no God, you get to be God. I like poetry. I like literature, and I dont think any poem says it better than the poem they used for the title of a movie this last year. Clint Eastwood directed a movie about the South African rugby team and their quest for a rugby championship. The name of that movie was, Invictus. What you may not know is that is a very famous and well known poem written in 1875 by William Earnest Henley. This poem espouses this philosophy in an amazing way, and I often wonder what was going on in Henleys head. Im not going to speculate about a lot of things, but I know he had a rough background. He had tuberculosis of the bone at a young age. At a young age or pre-modern medicine, he had a leg amputated. Im sure in the late 1800s, that must have been a pretty horrific experience. We can see some of that pain, some of that heartache in the middle of this poem. Lets listen to the words of his poem, Invictus, when he writes, Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole… Now theres a really optimistic world view, right? …I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. Dont gloss over that line. Is he really thanking God? Notice that god is in small letters. Whatever gods might be, who is he really thanking for his unconquerable soul? Who is the god? Himself-youre right. He is. He goes on to say, In the fell clutch of circumstance… Think about losing a leg and the pain he went through, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears… That's what life is to him, a place of wrath and tears. Whats to come? Looms but the Horror of the shade… Now theres a great view of eternity. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. Look at that line. If you dont get whats going on here or get poetry very well, get this. When he talks about, It matters not how strait the gate, whats that an illusion to? Jesus said, Strait was the gate that led to…? Heaven, everlasting life. How charged with punishments the scroll, whats that an illusion to? Whats the opposite of Heaven? Hell. Hensley says, I dont care about Heaven, and I dont care about hell. Im the master of my fate. Im the captain of my soul. Im in charge, and no god, nobody else. Im the boss. Im the king. I rule. Im God. Our secular world stands and applauds that. Now it is great poetry, and its great in terms of its artistry, its rhyme scheme. It makes an incredible impact. Its a powerful piece, but philosophically, its awful. Yet, our secular world and secular humanists stand and applaud that. That's the essence of secular humanism. Im the master. Im the captain. Friends, Ill tell you something: after looking at my own life and after 30 years in the ministry and a dozen years as a police chaplain, Ive stood beside grades; Ive stood beside beds; Ive stood beside people in hospitals and jails and watched the utter destruction that people make of their lives when they decide theyre the boss, theyre in charge, and theyre gonna do it as Frank Sinatra sang, My Way. Holding that dear little child in your arms… Ill never forget standing by hospital beds as a police chaplain because I had to tell mothers that their four-year olds just died because they were having illicit drug-laced drunken affairs and killed their own children as a result of their actions. They were so high, and they backed their vans into lakes, and their children drowned. Their lovers drowned. I listened to the parents scream because-well, they were doing their own thing. They made the rules; they wrote the songs. They were in charge, and they reaped the fruit of it. Ill be the first one to tell you that I am so glad that I realize-it didnt take me very long to realize -as a person that Jerry Dean made a really horrible god and I really royally messed my life up. If I was honest with the thoughts that went on in my head as a young person, the perversion, the wickedness, the lust, and the evil… I used to lift weights in just a rage-fueled passion thinking about people that I wanted to kill. That embarrasses me. It shames me to say that. I sit here and think, Yeah, I really deserve to be worshipped as God-really noble stuff, right? Im really in charge. Im really the boss. I spent two years in high school, thinking about killing myself almost every single day. The gloom and the darkness that covered my life were incredible. The pain, the heartache, and the agony because I couldnt find the big answers to the big questions that I wanted-but, friends, out of that, when God finally opened up His Word and showed me His Truth and His light, and I found peace, redemption, hope, and deliverance in Jesus Christ-when I found out that He paid for my sins on the cross and justice was done there, I literally at 23 years old and a pastor already, literally jumped off my couch and almost hit my head on the ceiling because I instantly knew peace. I instantly knew joy. I instantly knew hope in a way that I never had in my whole entire life. I am so glad that I am not my own god. Paul Kurtz in the second Humanist Manifesto writes these words: No god will save us. We must save ourselves. My response to that and many of your responses to that is those two wonderful English words, Balderdash and Hogwash. I did a lousy job at saving myself. If God hadnt reached down and rescued my soul, I would have died a long time ago. I wouldnt be standing here today if it wasnt for the grace, the wonder, and the goodness of a Holy, loving, and gracious God. Many of you would nod your heads and say exactly that same thing, wouldnt you? Friends, Jesus Christ will have the entire universe bow their knees to Him some day. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord. Hes boss; Hes King. What earned Him that position? Because 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced eternal hell and the wrath and curse of a Holy, righteous, and just God, He had the wisdom to say, Father, whatever You want. Not what I want. Amen? If you know peace, you know hope, and you know joy, and you have hope for eternity, its because your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, His incredible attitude said, God whatever You want. Not what I want. Thats where real power comes from. The amazing thing is when you finally surrender to God and say, Youre the King. Youre the boss, then and only then do you find true freedom and a real hope. As you grow in your walk with Him, you finally find that you become the person that [He wants you to be]. He starts to change you, and you become the person that you hoped you could be. We all have a ways to go, but you see the way God changes, moves, and molds your lives, and your gratitude grows. Friends, I would ask you to take just a minute right here, bow your head with me, and pray that prayer-you alone with God, if you would, say, God, whatever You want. Not what I want. Will you take just a minute to pray that to God right now? Father, we thank You so much for the example of Jesus Christ who prayed, Not My will, but Yours. I pray that we would pray that not just today, but every day, and follow Him. I thank You that we can pray in His name, Amen. Friends, thats the challenge-not to pray that just once, but you will be truly wise if every single day at some point in your life you turn to the God of the universe and say, Youre the boss. Youre the King. Whatever You want. Youll be amazed at how your life will change. The second thing I want to look at is Proverbs 22:3 (page 647 of pew Bibles). It says these words and is repeated in Verse 12:27. Its repeated in many different ways throughout Proverbs, but it says this: A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. A prudent person sees danger and takes precaution. Proverbs 14 says, The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and wont face the facts. If you asked me today why Im a Christian, I would say it is this more than any single other thing: Christianity faces reality in a way that nothing else does. It faces the farthest look. Do you know in this world if youre trying to get ahead financially, you plan for your future. I always chuckle that over 90 percent of Americans have no more money when they die than when they did at age 18. Why? Incredibly poor planning. They dont look ahead. The Russians, under Stalin, they had their five-year plans and bankrupted the entire country. They couldnt look just five years in the future. They only looked so far ahead. Christians, God tells and challenges Christians to take the long view, the eternal view. I chuckle at this phrase from The Humanist Manifesto, which says, Knowledge is based on the scientific mesh and observations by many impartial witnesses. Now if that is true, and youre honest, what are we all going to face some day? Every single person sitting here will someday face death. You say, Well, I hope the Lord comes back. A while ago, it dawned on me that theyre basically the same thing. If Im ready to die, am I ready for the Lord to come back? Yeah. If Im ready for the Lord to come back, Im ready to die. Its essentially the same thing. Wise people think about that. Now heres something interesting. They say the only way that you can know anything is observation by many impartial witnesses, so lets take them at face value. How many people in white coats have ever experienced life after death or observed it? Never experienced it, never observed it, but we can know for sure that it doesnt exist. On the other hand, and one of the questions Larry asked, whats the difference between Judaism, Christianity and every other religious myth? The reality is history. One of the degrees I have is in history. I am a history geek; Im a history nerd; Im a history junkie. Friends, if I were going to plan my future on something that I wasnt sure that existed, I would like the witness of somebody thats been there, done that, right? So all our experts with letters after their names running around in white coats, they havent been there after death, but I know somebody that has the audacity to claim that He did. Why is Christianity different than every other religion? Because it claims to be historically accurate. One of the most brilliant historians in the British Empire in the last hundred years said, There is more evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than any single other historical event. Good historians, good experts-people that are willing to study the facts-find out time after time after time that the Bible is true. I could go on and on and on telling you about the greatest British archeologist over the last hundred years, Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, who went to the Middle east to prove-he was knighted by the Queen of England-he was such a touring intellect. He went to the Middle east to prove that the Book of Acts was false. After he retraced the steps of Paul and Luke, he came to the conclusion and wrote that Luke was a historian of the first degree. His Book set the scholastic word on edge. It knocked peoples socks off. They never would have dreamed that, and Ramsay became a Christian as a result of his study of history and the facts. I could go on and on and on and tell you a litany of people who have come to that same conclusion from Lee Strobel, who is an editor of the Chicago Tribune, to CS Lewis, one of the greatest authors of the last hundred years. I could tell you story after story-doctors, scientists, geophysicists. My absolute favorite is Lou Wallace. Ive told a little bit about him before, but Ill tell you this: Lou Wallace was a lawyer from Indiana. He was so brilliant that at 34 years old, he was made a general in the union Army-one of the youngest generals in the Civil War. He was blamed for some of the catastrophes at the Battle of Shiloh and lost his position, but he came to the defense of the City of Cincinnati and set up its defenses; and as a result, he re-attained his rank of general. After the defense of the City of Cincinnati, he came to the attention of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln called him to Washington, almost as his special envoy, and Lou Wallace became a Civil War hero because he is credited with defending Washington, D.C., against confederate attack and saving the capital. Lou Wallace in his 30s became a national hero, credited with saving Washington, D.C., from capture. You probably didnt know that, did you? He went on after the war to become an author. After he wrote several books, he was writing across the country with one of the leading agnostics of the day-a man named Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll, in a long spiel in which Wallace says he was charming, eloquent-hed never heard anybody talk like Ingersoll had before-was so logical. Ingersoll challenged Wallace about Christianity and Jesus Christ. Wallace began to research whether, in fact, Christianity was true and that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Do you know how long he spent studying that? Lee Strobel spent two years studying Christianity before he was convinced that it was true. Lou Wallace spent seven years, after which he became overwhelmed by the facts, overwhelmed by the evidence. The lawyer, the general, the author could not deny it any longer. He gave his life to Jesus Christ and ended up writing the best seller, Ben Hur. If this guy was alive today, his name would be making headlines almost every single day because Lou Wallaces play, Ben Hur, ran on Broadway for 26 straight years. It was so huge that the chariot race with eight horses was actually redone on stage. He became world famous in an age where Christians didnt read novels or go to the theatre. Christians read Ben Hur. They went to see Ben Hur. It affirmed their faith as it had with Wallace. Again, I could go on and on talking about people like that. The evidence is overwhelming. If I come to face death some day, I want to be in the hands of someone who has been there, done that, and conquered death. Right? I dont want to base my hopes on some, Well, were not quite sure. We havent observed it. The reality is that Paul in his day, speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ-this is almost like an Eastern sermon-maybe were climbing out of the valley-said that Jesus was seen by over 500 witnesses at once, most of whom were still alive. How would that hold up in a court of law today? [Do you] think 500 witnesses on the witness stand might reinforce your case? Paul was so confident of the fact that he said, If youre not sure, go ask Him because most of them are still alive. You can check it out. As Pastor Jeff said last week, Christianity has never been afraid to say, Hey, check it out. I dont have to set my reason aside to embrace faith. In fact, the whole reason that I am a Christian is because I grew up in a very intellectual home. The Christian world view answers all my big questions. Its more logical; its more reasonable than any other philosophy of life Ive ever come across. So God calls us to embrace Truth, to embrace wisdom. What do you know about little kids that is simple? Humanism says you have to test everything out before you can find out if its true. Thats a nice way of saying you have to learn everything the hard way. How many little kids do you know that love vegetables? Maybe there are a few. How many little kids and grandkids do you know that would eat candy non-stop, 24 hours a day, if you allowed them to do that? What would they be like after 25 years, if they were still alive-which they probably would not be? But you need somebody older, wiser who gets the bigger picture a little bit better than they do to say, No, this is not good for you. If you set aside genuine truth and reality, you have to learn everything the hard way, and thats incredibly sad. Christianity is the ultimate look ahead. Paul in Romans 10 says that if youll confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, youll be saved. I love the Passage in Romans 2:7 where he says, There are those who will win eternal life if they continually seek glory, honor, and immortality. I love that phrase. Whats God called us as Christians to do? He calls us to seek for glory, honor, and immortality because all of us are going to face eternity one day. Im banking on someone whos been there, done that-not, Well, were not quite sure. In fact, were pretty confident that this is all there is. That leads us to the next point. My wife shared this Verse with me knowing that I was going to preach about the fool and secular humanism. Isaiah 44:20, we wind it down here, it says these words (page 721), The poor deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that cant help him at all, yet he cannot bring himself to ask, Is this idol that Im holding in my hand a lie? In spite of all of the arguments, all these protestations that we are impartial observers, secular humanists believe in a religion. Dont buy that nonsense that they are impartial. I always think of Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA. Ill show you what a geek I am by saying that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. There, Im a total nerd. In 1983, Francis Crick discovered DNA. Hes an agnostic-pretty confident that God doesnt exist though, and its amazing that as he looks at DNA and studies even more and finds out that in every single cell, there are miles of human DNA. It boggles his mind, and Francis Crick the agnostic, says, Dare we say the word miracle, but of course, Pull the covers over my head cause it couldnt be God. He even uses the word miracle, but, Well, that doesnt fit in to my world view, so Im gonna cross out all knowledge or understanding that God couldve created this because it doesnt fit. Impartial observers? Youve got to be kidding me. Kids believe everything that theyre told. Thats why Jesus said that a child is the model of faith. They believe easily. Sometimes this gets thrown in our faces, You Christians, youre simple. Youre naïve. You believe in God. You also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and when you grow up a little bit more and get more of the facts, youre realize that Gods just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Hes made up. Friends, this is my challenge to you as we wind it down and finish. This is my challenge to you: the God of the universe has the audacity-Isaiah 1-to say, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. You dont have to set aside your brain; you dont have to set aside your intellect. You dont have to set aside your logic. One of my favorite courses-you dont have to set aside your wisdom when you come to God. In fact, I am a Christian because wisdom, intellect, logic, and reason buttresses everything in the Word of God. The more I study, the more I see, the more I learn, the more I understand, I am amazed at the Truth of this Book and the wisdom of the Holy and Almighty God. God challenges us to think. In fact, I shake my head at our loss of history. When we have schools precisely in America because schools were built to teach young children how to read the Word of God, and 9 out of the 10 Ivy League schools-you can check it out and look it up-were started as? Religions seminaries to train preachers. Everywhere the Word of God goes, what happens? The advancement of science, wisdom, human reasoning, and logic follows. Why are dictators so afraid of the Word of God? Why are they so afraid of Christianity? Because they know that everywhere Christianity goes, it brings freedom. It brings real thinking. People dont just dumbly sit and go, A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha. They actually learn to think for themselves. One of favorite moments as a dad-one of my proudest moments as a parent-my oldest daughter was invited to a home of some Jehovahs Witnesses to discuss religion, and it was really interesting. Going back to the second one, one of the questions they got in to a discussion about was Heaven and hell, and the Jehovahs Witnesses believe there are three levels and 144,000 go to the highest level of Heaven. Then theres the middle ground that the rest of the Jehovahs Witnesses go to. Then theres the new earth, which all the good people go to. If youre really horrible, you just get annihilated. I was so proud of my daughter. She said, You know? If youre right and Im wrong, big deal. The worst that could happen to me… Remember for some of you in management, if youre planning, what do you plan for? You always plan for worst case scenarios; so worst case scenario, what happens? I get annihilated. Whoop-de-do. But if Im a pretty good person, then where do I spend eternity? On new earth, not so bad. Then she said, But if Im right, and youre wrong, youre in trouble. Then they said, Well, you believe what you believe because your parents told you that. The young lady who was my daughters age said, You know, the only reason I believe what I believe is because my parents told me that, and I was so proud of my daughter. She said, No, no, no, no, no, no. I dont buy it just cause my dad says it. In fact, she said, My dad tells me all the time, Dont you dare believe it just because I tell you that. She said, My dad tells me all the time, Look it up. Check it out. Search history; search science; search the facts; search ethics; search logically; search the Word of God. You find out if its true. I was so proud of her! Friends, thats what Im telling you. Im telling you follow in the footsteps of CS Lewis. Follow in the footsteps of Lou Wallace. Follow in the footsteps of Lee Strobel. Check it out for yourself. Dont you buy it just because Jerry Dean says it or Pastor Jeff says it-even though I love Pastor Jeff, sorry. Thats not blasphemy. Paul said, If I or you or any other angel preached you anything other than the Word of God, let them be accursed. It used to just trip my trigger in a church I was at before. I was there for a couple years, and Id walk by groups of people and hear people say, Well, Jerry said this, and Jerry said that. Thats why I have no hair anymore. Id pull it out. Id go, No, you dont get it! Its not Jerry said this or Jerry said that. The only reason to buy it is if God says it. If God doesnt say it, you can check everything else Jerry Dean says. Friends, I conclude with this: truly wise people search. Truly wise people think. Gods not afraid of the big questions. Revelation 1:6 (page 1215) says that God has called us to be kings and priests. I love the Passage in Proverbs [25:2, page 650] that says, Its the glory of God to conceal things. Its the glory of kings to search them out. As a king and a priest in Gods Kingdom, what does God call you to do? Search for Truth. Hit the books! Pray like Solomon, God, give me a large and understanding heart. Open my mind. Teach me Your ways. Teach me wisdom. Give me knowledge. Give me understanding. Im not content with where I am. I want answers! Teach me. Show me. And you can bank on it that if you do that, He will. Ill close with one last Passage from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 17:18-19 (page 189). When a new king came to the thrown in Israel, do you know what his first official act of state was? God said, Hes supposed to write his own personal copy of the Word of God. Secondly, he was supposed to read in it every day all the days of his life. Friends, you are most like the king and queen that God chose you to be when you search and devour. Solomon said, If you search for wisdom and seek for her as for hidden treasure, then you will get real understanding. You will get real knowledge. You will gain real wisdom. Itll impact you both in this life and in the life to come. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Truth. We thank You for each one of these who are Your people. I pray that You would teach us, help us to grow and learn and challenge us to seek You, to pursue You, to not be afraid of the big questions. We thank You for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and the way Youve changed our lives. I ask Your blessing on each one here, and if theres someone who doesnt know You, that maybe today they will confess that You are in fact Lord and trust that Jesus rose from the dead, even today, and find new life and a new hope. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry Magazine and director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. He also directs traditional video operations at the Center for Inquiry. He is editor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief and author of three books: the science-fiction novels Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred and the polemic The Trouble With Christmas. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Tom Flynn talks about the life of Robert Green Ingersoll, the 19th Century orator and freethinker. He explains Ingersoll's views on religion, and his secular progressive outlook that he advanced as an alternative. He details Ingersoll's role in GOP politics of the day, and explores his popularity on the national stage. He also discusses about the Council for Secular Humanism's museum dedicated to the life of Robert Ingersoll. Also in this episode, Ron Lindsay, the director of the Council for Secular Humanism's First Amendment Task Force, responds to various issues related to comments made recently by Rep. Monique Davis (Democrat, Chicago) against the atheist activist Rob Sherman, and reiterates his recent call for her to resign.

How is it, that in an age of unprecedented access to information, ignorance and anti-reason could be so widespread in American society? Susan Jacoby author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism joins us to discuss her latest book, the Age of American Unreason. During the "golden age of American freethought" the great agnostic Robert Ingersoll could argue for religious skepticism before huge and ideologically diverse audiences. But in a world where video culture has replaced print culture, where sound-bytes and 24 hour infotainment have replaced thoughtful dialogue, Americans are able to isolate themselves from other viewpoints that might challenge their own. Can freethinkers learn anything from their own intellectual heritage, that will aid them in combating unreason today? Also: Buddhist violence, another installment of God Thinks Like You, listener e-mails and a totally psychedelic Stranger Than Fiction. Check out the Reasonable Doubts Podcast group on Facebook.com or myspace.com/doubtcast for a full length "spring break" bonus episode of Reasonable Doubts including SKEPTICS GONE WILD: uncensored outtakes and bloopers from previous episodes. Reasonable Doubts: Your skeptical guide to religion offering news and commentary of interest to skeptics, atheists, humanists, apologists looking for a challenge and freethinkers of all persuasions.