Excerpt from The Question Every Christian Must Answer, by Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen. The grantor of Thiessen’s alleged doctorate is unknown. Make of that what you will. Regardless, Thiessen views himself as an expert on the Bible, history, science, archeology, LGBTQ issues, and why I’m no longer a Christian. Doubt me? Just ask him.
If science is pursued correctly and honestly, then science agrees with the Bible. What turns young minds away from biblical truths are the theories, opinions, and conclusions that are generated from unbelieving scientists.
It is their assumptions, leaps to conclusions, conjectures, and hypotheses that say the Bible is wrong, not true scientific exploration or facts. Once believers understand this truth, then holding on to their faith in the face of the onslaught from secular science becomes much easier.
It is their assumptions, leaps to conclusions, conjectures, and hypotheses that say the Bible is wrong, not true scientific exploration or facts.
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When Christians take unbelieving or secular science over God’s words, then they are not exercising faith.
Instead, they are rejecting what God has said in favor of what unbelievers have claimed to be true. This is not just doubt but clear rejection of God’s words. Since God cannot lie, then we can take his word over what unbelieving scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and other unbelievers claim.
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These institutions need to get back to God and rein in their science teachers/professors and get them to teach the truth, not unbelieving science.
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The Bible is not wrong. It is the unbelieving scientists who are.
Most Evangelicals are young earth creationists, though an increasing number of them are theistic evolutionists — God is the force, the mover behind evolution. Some Evangelicals are old earth creationists or day-age creationists. This allows them to distance themselves from crazy young earth creationists, even though their beliefs are just as nutty. Regardless of the belief, all of them believe the universe came into existence because “God did it.”
According to Bishop James Ussher’s seventeenth century chronology, God created the universe in six twenty-hour days, 6,029 years ago. While other chronologies exist, Ussher’s seems to be the one that stuck with Evangelicals. Imprecise Evangelicals will say the universe is 6,000, 7,000, or 10,000 years old, but Ussher usually lurks in the shadows, even if few believers remember his name.
I was a hardcore young earth creationist for most of my life. In the early 2000s, my beliefs bit by bit moved towards scientific consensus, and by the time I deconverted in 2008, I was no longer a creationist.
As a young pastor, evolution was a favorite sermon target of mine, even though the only science training I had was general science and biology classes in high school, and a worthless biology class in college. I had no business talking about science in my sermons — much like preachers who pontificate about evolution today. “Evolution” is a buzzword used by Evangelical preachers to call the faithful to duty and commitment. “Them evil commies are coming for our kids with Satanic “evil-ution, ho-mo-sex-u-al-ity, rock and roll, Mary Jane, and premarital sex.” None of the church kids in youth group during the days when I heard such sermons became communists as adults. That other stuff? Most of us engage in them to some degree or the other, proof again that this sort of preaching never works (over the long term).
One Sunday, I was preaching on the second coming of Jesus. He’s still late, decades later. During this fine piece of Baptist oratory, I brought up the hole in the ozone layer — a hot topic of discussion in the 1980s. I heartily laughed, as I thundered from the pulpit, “Who cares if there’s a hole in the ozone layer!” That’s just a bigger hole for Jesus to come through when he returns to earth.” Like that “deep” exegesis? 🤣 Yes, I’m embarrassed that I said dumb shit like that. I was in my 20s and 30s, lacking basic science training past middle school. My understanding of science wasn’t much different from that of my colleagues in the ministry, and most of the people I pastored had no science training beyond high school.
In the 1970s forward, creationist “experts” traveled the land indoctrinating Evangelical church members in young earth creationism. (This is when Dr. Dino, Kent Hovind, got his start on the creationism circuit.) My first remembrance of a “creation conference” comes from 1979. At the time, I was the assistant pastor of Montpelier Baptist Church in rural northwest Ohio. Montpelier Baptist was a fast growing church, reaching 500 in attendance in October 1979. The church was filled with young adults excited to learn the truth about “science,” cults, and the end times. I still remember the buzz in the packed building when these subjects were addressedby Pastor Stuckey. We heard sermons on all the hot theological subjects and conspiracy theories. Good times? In the moment, yes. Think of being in the front row of a rock concert. Good time? In the moment, yes. However, morning follows night, and now you feel like you have been run over by a truck — twice. That’s how I feel about the 50 years I spent in Evangelicalism, especially the 25 years I devoted to the pastorate.
The church brought in John Whitcomb to hold a creation conference. The building was filled with people as Whitcomb indoctrinated them in young earth creationism. Henry Morris’ and Whitcomb’s 1961 book, The Genesis Flood, was popular at the time. I owned the book, so I was familiar with his beliefs. I was excited to have an “expert” teach me the truth about science, creationism, Adam and Eve, and dinosaurs.
These conferences turned ignorant preachers into science experts — in their own minds, anyway. If you have spent any time in Evangelical or Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) churches, you likely have heard sermons about science, evolution, and creationism. Maybe you even attended a creation conference or two. Did you ever question the qualifications of these “experts?” Probably not. Evangelicals tend to give too much respect and deference to men behind pulpits and lecterns. Few people bother to ask if the person speaking is qualified to teach on these subjects. Sadly, way too many “experts” are anything but. Going to an Evangelical preacher for your science knowledge is akin to thinking that eating a Big Mac at McDonald’s is fine dining. No one in their right mind would confuse McDonald’s with Ruth’s Chris Steak House. So it is with trusting Evangelical preachers to teach scientifically correct science. These preachers were indoctrinated just as their congregants were by them. Ignorance is multigenerational in Evangelical churches. It is not surprising that most church members are young earth creationists, and those who aren’t typically keep their mouths shut lest they be outed as “liberals.”
In the early 80s, I attended a Bible conference at the Newark Baptist Temple in Heath, Ohio, pastored at the time by Polly’s uncle, James Dennis. I believe Jack Hyles was the headliner — uh I mean humble servant of God. 🤣 Afterward, I had a delightful discussion with the Glen West, the principal of the church’s Christian school. We jabbered back and forth before landing on dinosaurs. Both of us believed dinosaurs existed with humans on earth before Noah’s flood.
Somewhere in the discussion, Henry Morris and John Whitcomb’s book came up. Both of us had read the book — two “intellectuals” discussing the finer points of science. I was pleased that Glen recognized my “scholarly” knowledge. It was nice to talk to someone on my level. Alas, this was little more than the blind leading the blind.
I want to think Glen’s science knowledge increased over the past forty-five years, but he’s an Evangelical preacher, so I doubt it. Mine, on the other hand, has increased incrementally over years, though I will never be anything more than a rank novice.
As a grandfather, I’m pleased to watch my older grandchildren choose STEM programs for their training at Ohio State University, Miami University, and Trine University respectively. Other grandkids coming behind them have STEM interests too.
I can’t imagine — oh, I can, and I shudder to think — what kind of educations these kids would have received had our family remained Evangelicals and Grandpa was still a fire breathing Baptist preacher. Fortunately, the curse has been broken. Two of my granddaughters are taking college evolutionary biology this coming year. I relish the day when we can sit down at the pub and they can school Gramps on science. Maybe we can have a rousing discussion about endogenous retroviruses.🤣
The first 10 seconds of this video, I Am Willing to Cause Division in the Church over This, show a ‘Christian’ leader denouncing Young Earth Creationists. We are not sure who the speaker is, but we have heard of him. [The video was produced by Ken Ham.]
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The man is dead wrong, of course, because anything but Young Earth Creation is wrong and telling everyone God lied not once but several times throughout the Bible. People may argue that God cannot change the biblical content, yet that is a mistaken idea.
God can change his word if it were wrong, and if you have noticed, God has not changed the Bible in over 2000 years. If YEC were wrong, do you not think that God would have raised up someone to make the corrections in time so that everyone had the truth?
But as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Silver Scrolls, and other ancient archaeological biblical discoveries have proven, God did not do that. YEC has remained in the Bible ever since God had man put his words to paper.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Both Bg [Bruce Gerencser] and MM [Meerkat Musings, Ben Berwick] say things that are not the most intelligent or wise to say.
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He obviously has not read our books on Noah’s Flood [link removed to book] in which we record a large amount of evidence for that event. BG should do so in order to not make this silly mistake again. Only unintelligent people would ignore the evidence and make such erroneous statements.
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Another unintelligent and silly thing to say. Gonorrhea is not a ‘living element that was targeted by the flood. What was killed were all the humans who chose evil over God.
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What makes BG’s statement so silly and unintelligent is that the flood did ot wipe out sin or corruption that entered the world at Adam’s sin. It also did not wipe out evil that leads people to sin and corruption.
Thus, gonorrhea would not be wiped out as its source is found in a variety of places. The cattle on the ark were not perfect and incorruptible, nor were the other animals or the people on board. To assume that they were would be stupid andidiotic.
The germs that affected the pre-flood world did survive in a variety of ways simply because the components that act as a catalyst were not removed during the flood. After the flood, people still got sick and died.
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But stupid people just do not think things through when they make their weird and out-of-reality accusations against the Bible and God. They also prove they do not know how diseases come to life and what conditions are needed to fuel that existence.
They would rather just blindly accuse God of making a mistake. They take this step when they do not look at the whole picture.
Sigh, Where, oh where, do I begin? Being a “stupid” man, I won’t have much to offer a renowned Biblical scholar and author such as the mighty Tee, but I will try.
First, why in the world would I read Thiessen’s books? I have, in the past, read all the big- name authors in young earth creationism. At the first church I worked for, we had John Whitcomb come in and hold a two day Creationist Conference. I am well-versed in what Christian Fundamentalists believe about creationism and Noah’s flood.
Second, it is evident that Thiessen does not know how to competently search the Internet. Had he done so, he would have learned that Gonorrhea doesn’t survive for long in water — no more than a couple of hours, depending on the water source. It only survives for a couple of minutes in chlorinated pool water. Thus, the flood did not kill the disease, and since it needs a human host, at least one human on Noah’s big boat was infected with the clap.
Thiessen hurled a lot of slurs my way instead of actually engaging what I wrote. He failed to follow basic research principles, choosing, instead, to just make up shit as he goes. Thiessen has no answer for my Gonorrhea claim other than personal opinion and religious dogma.
Do better, David,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I spent the first fifty years of my life in the Evangelical church. I was taught and later preached as a pastor young earth creationism. Parents, preachers, Sunday school teachers, and Bible college professors taught me the universe was 6,000 years old, created out of nothing by the triune God of the Bible in six literal 24 hour days. Most importantly, I was taught that the earth and its human inhabitants are the pinnacle of God’s creative work. In other words, we are s-p-e-c-i-a-l. Not the other animals on earth, just us. Further, I was taught that we humans had dominion and control of the earth.God is the owner of the earth and we are its caretakers.
Sadly tens of millions of Americans believe the creation myths — yes, plural — recorded in Genesis 1-3. The blame for this rests solely on the shoulders on Evangelicals. and now, through subversive programs such as Lifewise Academy, public school students are being taught young earth creationism, including trips to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter — Ken Ham’s monuments of ignorance.
After I deconverted in 2008, it became clear to me that I didn’t know much of anything about science. My entire understanding of science was based on what I learned in high school biology and a college biology class without a lab or a qualified teacher. As a pastor, I believed that only science book I needed was the King James Bible. This led to me saying all sorts of absurd things about science — embarrassingly so. Fortunately, my congregant were as ignorant as I was about science, so we all shouted AMEN together when I mentioned the creative acts of God.
I have spent the last twenty years educating myself not only about science, but also about logic and philosophy. Over time, reason, skepticism, and common sense delivered me from some of my ignorance, but I will admit that I still have a lot to learn.
Science has taught me that the Evangelical worldview is false. The earth and its human dwellers are not the center of universe, nor are they unique. Special, we are not. We are itty-bitty people with itty-bitty brains on an itty-bitty planet in a vast, mostly unexplored universe. In other words, we are a planet of nobodies; people who will live and die, never to be remembered again. A harsh reality, to be sure — and why so many stay irrationally attached to religious faith — but knowing and understanding this can and does help us focus on the here and now. No Heaven. No Hell. No Purgatory. No afterlife. No second chances. This is it. What will we do with this life of ours? I, for one, want to live every day to its fullest. I suspect you do too. When I look at Voyager One’s pale blue dot, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be alive in this corner of the Milky Way.
Dr. Carl Sagan said at the time,
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives… Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. (Google)
I continue to be amazed as I observe the skies and biological world. What a wonderful, yet dangerous, world we live in. Beautiful, to be sure, but the universe will kill us if we aren’t careful. And even it we are careful, the universe will someday likely kill off the human race. Death and extinction await, not Heaven and the sweet-by-and-by. Again, a somber thought, but also a reminder that we only have one life and it will soon be past.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I recently asked an AI engine to critique a recent science article by world renowned Evangelical scientist, Dr. David Tee. Here’s what it had to say. enjoy! 😉 (This, by the way, could be a critique of many creationist arguments.)
The article you provided, titled “Science & the Bible” from Theology & Archaeology, argues that science is a fallible, human-driven endeavor that should be secondary to the “inerrant” word of the Bible.
While the article is written from a theological perspective, a scientific critique focuses on its representation of the scientific method, epistemology (how we know what we know), and its use of concordism (the attempt to find modern science in ancient texts).
1. Misunderstanding of “Theory” and “Fallibility”
The article argues that because science is “fallible” and changes over time, it is less reliable than religious text.
Scientific Critique: This characterizes a core strength of science as a weakness. Science is self-correcting. The fact that theories are updated when new evidence emerges (e.g., moving from Newtonian physics to Relativity) does not mean the previous science was “wrong” in a vacuum; it means it was an incomplete model that became more precise.
The Error: The article implies that “change” equals “unreliability,” whereas in science, the refusal to change in the face of evidence is what constitutes unreliability.
2. False Equivalence of Evidence
The author suggests that a “Biblical worldview” and a “Secular worldview” are simply two different but equal ways of looking at the same data.
Scientific Critique: Science relies on methodological naturalism. It requires hypotheses to be testable, falsifiable, and predictable.
The Error: A “Biblical worldview” as described in the article starts with a conclusion (the Bible is true) and filters data to fit it. Science starts with data and builds a conclusion. By treating “revealed truth” as a data point equal to empirical observation, the article departs from the scientific method entirely.
The article claims the Bible contains “scientific facts” that were ahead of their time, such as the water cycle or the earth being a sphere.
Scientific Critique: This is often a result of exegesis bias. Many of the verses cited (like Job 26:7 or Isaiah 40:22) use poetic language that can be interpreted in multiple ways.
The Error: If these texts were truly “scientific,” they would provide predictive power (e.g., explaining the mechanics of evaporation rather than just mentioning clouds). Identifying “science” in the Bible after the science has already been discovered by secular means is a form of hindsight bias, not a validation of the text as a scientific document.
4. Categorical Misclassification
The article states, “The Bible is not a scientific book, but it does reference a variety of scientific facts.”
Scientific Critique: This is a rhetorical “have your cake and eat it too” strategy. By saying it’s not a science book, the author protects it from scientific scrutiny when it is demonstrably inaccurate (e.g., the order of creation in Genesis), but by claiming it contains “scientific facts,” they attempt to borrow the authority of science to bolster the text’s credibility.
The Error: From a scientific standpoint, an observation is only a “fact” if it can be verified independently of the source. The article asks the reader to verify the source (the Bible) using the facts, and then verify the facts using the source—a circular logic.
Summary
The article’s “science” is actually apologetics. It uses the language of science to argue for the supremacy of a specific religious interpretation. Scientifically, the article fails because it rejects falsifiability—the author explicitly states that the Bible cannot be wrong, which means no amount of evidence could ever change the conclusion. In science, if a theory cannot be proven wrong, it cannot be used to claim truth.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
At least a dozen LifeWise Academy Ohio programs have taken public school students on field trips to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky, which claims humans lived alongside dinosaurs and the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
LifeWise Academy is a controversial Hilliard-based religious instruction program for public school students on “religious release time,” that operates in 34 states and plans to enroll nearly 100,000 students this school year, according to its website.
LifeWise Academy programs in Adams County, Holgate Schools (Henry County), Continental Schools (Putnam County), Antwerp Schools (Paulding County), Wayne Trace Schools (Paulding County), Paulding Schools (Paulding County), Central Local (Defiance County), Van Wert (Van Wert County), and Tinora (part of Northeastern Schools in Defiance County) have all taken field trips to the Ark Encounter this year, in 2024 or 2023, according to Facebook posts from those LifeWise programs. [Central Local is our local school district and we have grandchildren who attend Northeastern Schools]
Pandora-Gilboa’s LifeWise Academy Program (Putnam County) has visited the Creation Museum every year from 2021-2025 and Upper Arlington’s LifeWise Program (Franklin County) visited the museum in 2023, according to Facebook posts from those LifeWise programs.
The Creation Museum promotes young Earth creationism, the belief that God created the universe and everything in it in six 24-hour days 6,000 years ago.
This comes from a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 where God created the universe.
The museum in Petersburg, Kentucky depicts humans and dinosaurs living together and characterizes the Earth as approximately 6,000 years old.
“LifeWise teaches Bible lessons, plain and simple,” Christine Czernejewski, a spokesperson for LifeWise, said in an email. “As such, kids are taught what Genesis 1 actually says — that God created all things and that He created them over the course of 6 different days.” [I bet that children aren’t taught about the divine council or the multiple deities mentioned in Genesis 1-3.]
Scientists have determined Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.
“The science (at the Creation Museum), it’s just appalling,” said Daniel Phelps, a retired geologist based in Kentucky.
“They depict dinosaurs and humans as living together. They have many, multiple attacks on the standard view of science, especially things like geology and biology and paleontology. … They misinterpret a lot of the human fossil record, and the Art Park especially has a display that disputes climate science.” [Thanks for speaking the truth, Daniel.]
“We tend to teach the Bible kind of as it teaches,” said LifeWise Founder and CEO Joel Penton. “We do talk through the six days of creation as outlined in Genesis 1. However, developing a systematic theology of young Earth versus old Earth, we leave that to local churches.” [Most, and I mean MOST, Evangelicals are young earth creationists.]
It concerns Phelps that LifeWise programs are taking students to the museum and the ark.
“I would like to call this educational malpractice,” Phelps said. “It simply is not science, and the students are being misled. They’re basically learning to distrust science and follow an extremely fringe version of Christianity.” [Yep.]
A 2019 Gallup poll showed that 40% of U.S. adults believe in creationism, the belief that God created humans in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years. [actually it it almost 7 in 10 when you add theistic evolution to the equation]
“Most Christians don’t accept the fundamentalist version of creationism,” Phelps said. “… It’s also going to hurt kids that want to have a future studying science and are going to learn all these things that just simply are not true.”
The Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter are both operated by Answers in Genesis, a fundamentalist Christian apologetics organization that promotes young Earth creationism.
The Creation Museum opened in 2007 and the Ark Encounter, 510-foot wooden ship intended as a replica of the biblical Noah’s Ark, opened in 2016.
LifeWise said all field trips require parental permission.
“LifeWise programs have taken field trips to museums, local parks, sporting events and area churches,” Czernejewski said. [Nice dodge. the focus is on trips to an explicitly Evangelical business that promotes science illiteracy.]
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
According to the Bible, God created the universe and everything in it. From this basic premise, Christian thinking goes off in all sorts of directions. Generally speaking, Christians believe one of the following about the creation of the universe:
Young Earth Creationism: God created the universe in six literal twenty-four-hour days, 6,028 years ago.
Theistic Evolution: God created the universe by and through the process of evolution, leaving room for God to personally intervene in human history when needed.
Old Earth Creationism: God created the universe with the appearance of old age.
Yesterday, I listened to a podcast featuring an old-earth creationist trying to defend his beliefs. Things did not go well for him. Science aside, old-earth creationism posits that God deliberately deceived humanity by creating the universe with the appearance of age. Thus, they can accept what science says about the age of the universe while at the same time claiming God created everything.
In other words, God lied to us. The Earth “looks” old, but it’s not. God is just playing a trick on us. If the Earth is 6,028 years old, why do various testing methods say differently? Simple, God is playing a game with us. He’s a trickster, telling us a painting is thousands of years old, when it is, in fact, two years old.
Why would God do this? What is his endgame? Why would he lie to us? You would think that God would want us to have accurate information about creation and the age of the earth/universe. When science says the universe is billions of years old, this is a factual claim, old-earth creationists say, but — with a wink — they confidently say, “God created the universe with apparent age.” This, of course, is a faith claim.
Evangelicalism has nothing to offer when it comes to science. Their core beliefs about the universe are directly contrary to what science says about the matter. Even the theistic evolutionist is inserting God where none is needed. Science doesn’t have all the answers, but it is superior to the manic rants of preachers about the literal interpretation of Genesis 1-3.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Evidence for the Bible is everywhere, including outer space. We just have to be willing to look for it in a credible manner that brings glory to God. He does not lie, and the presence of water in Space shows us that God does not lie about biblical events. We know God did it because he told us he did it, and the evidence comes to shore up Christian faith when the time is right. As Christians, we do not need physical evidence. We just need to believe God because he does not lie.
And this is why having a discussion or debate with an Evangelical Christian is usually a waste of time. Discuss and debate if you must, but you won’t win. Why? When shown their beliefs and practices are false, what do Evangelicals do? Do they admit they are wrong? Do they admit you are right? Do they deconvert? Do they admit to having serious questions and doubts about their faith? Of course not, silly boy. When cornered, Evangelicals run to the safety of the house of faith and the inerrancy/infallibility of the Bible. Within the house of faith, all is ordered and well, and the Bible is true. Everything is right in this house. Of course, toking marijuana gives the same result — in my professional opinion. 🙂 It is only when Evangelicals venture outside the house of faith that change is possible. For it is in the world that they will find their beliefs and practices questioned, challenged, and overcome. Over the years, many devout Evangelicals and IFB Christians have stumbled upon this site, only to crawl away beaten and bruised, with more questions than answers.
Is my goal to evangelize for atheism? Nope. I don’t do it — ever. I am just one man with a story to tell. If my writing troubles someone or causes them to question or doubt, that’s on them. If they contact me, I will help them any way I can. I’m content to answer sincere questions and suggest books for people to read. Whatever they do with what they learn is up to them. Do some of them deconvert or move on to what I call “kinder, gentler Christianity?” You bet, and I am glad they did. Some sects of Christianity are more harmful than others. Evangelicalism, the IFB church movement, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Catholicism come to mind. These sects might be “right” about religion, but they sure cause a lot of harm, both physically and psychologically.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, is a Fundamentalist Christian blogger who has spent the past few years using my writing without credit or attribution for what he calls “teachings.” He takes a similar approach with my friend Ben Berwick. Thiessen has written more posts about the two of us that I can count. Sometimes, I just ignore the man. He’s little more than a gnat flying around my head on a warm summer day. These days, I selectively ignore Thiessen, choosing to only respond to posts I consider so egregious that they demand a response or are personal attacks on my character, family, or the readers of this blog.
Twice this week, Thiessen has demanded that both Ben and me apologize to him, for what I am not sure. I assume he’s demanding an apology because we dared to challenge his assertions about science. Thiessen sees himself as a defender of young earth creationism, a Bible literalist who will resolutely defend all sorts of nonsense because it appears in the Bible or is a personal belief of his. No amount of argumentation will change his mind. (And his defense of clerics who commit sex crimes is beyond disgusting.)
Thiessen claims to have a doctorate, including four science degrees — a claim he recently made for the first time. Geoff, a long-time reader of this blog, had this to say about Thiessen’s education claims and his understanding of science:
I don’t really care what educational achievements Tee claims, the proof of the pudding is in the eating or, in Tee’s case, the writing. There’s almost not a single sentence he writes that I can’t take issue with. Grammatically he’s dreadful, a clear indicator of his lack of proper education. Writing style not withstanding, his reasoning is impossible to understand by anyone with the slightest grasp of logic. He just doesn’t understand the scientific method. He seems to think it’s some isolated part of human existence, standing on its own, when in reality it’s the foundation on which everything we know about the world is based. Science essentially is observation and testing, reaching provisional conclusions, and incorporating them as needs be. Science and the scientific method is actually the only way we have of determining reality.
How is exploring the natural physical world going to provide the correct answers to our origins if science is not looking in the right direction or looking in the correct places? Providing the best explanation is not sufficient enough as the best explanation is not the truth.
The best explanation is the lazy man’s way to avoid the problems that arise with scientific research, when that research leads them away from natural solutions and into the supernatural. The scientists are too lazy and dishonest to say that the supernatural method is the only method possible.
Hence, God did it is the correct answer when science has no solutions. Here are some examples of science/evolution cannot answer why something exists.
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How can anyone trust science when it fails to provide the answers to these and a myriad of other mysteries? It is not lazy to say God did it because that is the answer to all the mysteries science cannot answer.
Science is incapable of digging for and finding the truth because it does not want the truth. it wants something that misleads, misinforms, and hides the truth. In other words, they want something they and their biases can live with, and that is not science, nor is it objective.
True science would recognize the weakness of the natural-driven science and recognize God as the creator, as there is no alternative answer. It would also recognize God’s creativity, power, and glory in all of these and other examples science cannot find a natural solution.
It is just idiotic to dismiss the phrase ‘God did it’ because science cannot accept the supernatural. That dismissal is arrogance and ignorance on display at the same time. It is also a demonstration that science is incapable of studying the past as well as deriving the correct answer.
Saying science is the only way to get to the answers is showing a great bias against reality and the truth. Science is no longer objective but a tool to promote one bias or preconceived conclusion over the truth.
Instead of providing the correct answer, science becomes a place for unbelievers to hide from both reality and the truth. No one can trust a research field that takes great pains and many steps to avoid coming to the right answer.
When one expounds the truth, God did it, they are not being lazy, but illuminating the correct answer for everyone so that they are not misled by the lies that come from the deceived and blind secular world.\Yes, God did it all and science is a tool used by evil to lead people away from God and giving him the proper credit and glory.
Only a fool would say or repeat the words in the title in the exact same sentence structure. God created everything supernaturally and without the aid of science. Science is in over its head and outside of its scope when it investigates origins.
The Bible has the correct answer every time.
This is a good summary of the way Thiessen thinks about science.
Thiessen confuses “science research” with “science.” They are not one and the same. Further, Thiessen might want to study what Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder’s critics think of her work.
This brings me to Thiessen’s demand that I apologize. After posting Hossenfelder’s video, Thiessen wrote:
With the above video, we expect a very honest, public, humble, and personal apology for the attacks and off-the-wall comments from both MM & BG.
We know what we are talking about; they do not.
I still haven’t stopped laughing about Thiessen’s demand. There’s nothing I’ve said that deserves an apology. Thiessen is butthurt over our coverage of his bogus “four science degrees” claim. Until Thiessen actually provides evidence for his degrees, there’s no reason for anyone to believe he has them. All we know for sure is that Thiessen attended an unaccredited Bible college in Canada as a young man. And we didn’t even know that until I outed him. Thiessen claims “God knows, and that’s all that matters.” This is a common ploy of Thiessen’s. Don’t want to answer a question? Deflect or make some sort of God claim. End of discussion.
MM [Meerkat Musings] continues to make false accusations against us [me], so we [I] are [am] ignoring his latest response. Yet, neither he nor BG [Bruce Gerencser] has [have] apologized for their false accusations and their lies about us [me]. They like to make things personal, which we [I] do not, thus they have no credibility or an honest character.
We [I] have proven our [my] point quite well and guess what. We [I] opened up YouTube a few minutes ago and at the top of the suggestion list was the following video:
….
We [I] do not make fraudulent or misleading statements about anything. As you may have noticed, we [I] use legitimate websites and books to support our [my] points, so our [my] readers know they are getting accurate information.
That video is 20 minutes long, and it is well worth listening to as it provides not only information to defend one’s views on science but also provides eye-opening information on what is going on behind the scenes in science.
Maybe MM [Meerkat Musings] is upset as his rose colored view of science is destroyed, and it is not as glorious as he thought it was. Do not be fooled. Christians cannot trust scientists, and they do need to be fact-checked, etc., to get to the truth.
The Bible warns Christians about unbelievers and what they say. Those warnings include scientists and science, whether done by unbelievers or believers. We [I] are [am] not saying Christian scientists are all pure and do not commit fraud.
Those ‘Christian’ scientists who accept and promote evolution cannot be listened to either.
So once again, we [I] are [am] expecting a public, honest, humble, and sincere public apology from both BG [Bruce Gerencser] and MM [Meerkat Musings] because they are falsely accusing us [me] and have done nothing but lie about us [me] through their personal attacks.
Make sure to listen to the entire video to get all the right information on science.
Once again, Thiessen demands an apology from me.
Thiessen believes that Hossenfelder’s eighteen-minute video PROVES that Ben and I are lying about him and his science prowess. This claim has no merit. Besides, does Thiessen really believe that an eighteen-minute video by a controversial theoretical physicist justifies his criticisms of modern science? As I mentioned above, Thiessen confuses “science research” with “science” itself. He stupidly thinks that because a small minority of researchers lie or manipulate data that science itself can be disregarded anytime it disagrees with young-earth creationism and his wooden, literalist interpretations of the Bible.
Speaking only for myself, no apology will be forthcoming. I stand by every word I have written about Thiessen and his errant views of science and the Bible. I do kinda, a little bit, — I mean a teeny, tiny microscopic bit, regret saying a few years ago that Thiessen wants a picture of me naked to hang on his bedroom ceiling, but outside of that bit of risque humor, I stand by what I have written about him.
And Derrick? The offer of a picture still stands, but my nude photos are no longer available. 🙂
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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