For a guy with a whole mouth full of sweet teeth (why only have one?), I still have to admit that some candy is just nasty. Maybe I’m getting old, or maybe my tastes are being “refined”…just not toward refined sugar as much as before! There’s a place by us called The Peanut Store that offers hundreds of candy options, and our kids have chosen some that can only be defined as an abomination.
I call these Poison Pills, but my wife somehow likes them! She’s otherwise a wonderful person. 🙂
I try to explain to them how salt-encrusted black licorice (I just threw up a little) is a poor substitute for the health and taste of a marinated and grilled piece of meat, or even their mom’s excellent grilled veggies! There’s been limited success, partly because they’ve simply not been exposed or willing to sample the myriad superior options.
Of course, my boys are and likely will continue to leave (please God!) some of these fructose-filled experiments behind. But what we as human adults often don’t grow out of – to our own detriment – is an overly eager acceptance of flawed or even nasty beliefs. And also often because we’re not exposed or willing to sample better options out there. This can happen when people feel like believing something and therefore ignore what their minds know to be more valid options. Or it can happen when a trusted “authority” makes their opinion seem more correct by purposely excluding better-supported opposing views.
Such a method of hoping you seize the sweets because you’ve been denied the real food is not infrequently seen in discussions of faith, and it’s very manipulative. A person with popularity – and a message that’s emotionally comfortable to accept – can easily deceive many people, without providing ample or accurate evidence for his teaching and without including counterpoints that would quickly render that message false (Click to tweet).
During the years of research that went into Healing Hereafter, I came across many very successful examples of such exclusive candy-crunching. Then when I sent out the manuscript to be critiqued by PhD-level academic theologians, I was even encouraged by one to avoid sharing opposing views! “It’s not the best way to advance your own argument,” he said. And these people are teaching and preaching to college and graduate students…and taking money from them for it!
Can’t ignore the nastiness. Terrifying!
I absolutely disagree with them. It’s irresponsible and harmful to artificially strengthen a position by hoping you or others don’t consider viewpoints that have been left out (Click to tweet). If you desire to seek what is most likely to be true from others (even if it requires changing some beliefs), demand from them the respect of relevant alternatives. It is neither honest nor fair for these “authorities” to exclude them and hope the candy tastes good enough for its nastiness to be ignored. You will be far more secure in your beliefs about God and his words if you know both why you believe and why it’s more valid than your other options.
You’ll find that Healing Hereafter is packed with both of these “why’s”, as I want you to be as doubtless and excited about God’s explanation of himself and his plans as I am. And hey, it’s a free and direct download! It’s easy to be deceived; we all have been by those over us in some way. But you don’t like sickly sweetness any more than I do, so come explore the variety of food about God and his hereafter that we’re given. Let’s find together which truly tastes the very best!
