Homeschoolers Miss Out on Sexual Promiscuity and Much More

Home-schooling in the U.S. has become very popular in recent years. For a number of reasons, it’s also becoming more accepted, not only in Christian circles but also in the secular world. I have met many kids who have been educated by their parents (using what one atheist on my blog called "idiot" home-school textbooks), and I have found that they are consistently respectful, well-adjusted to life, sociable with their peers, and extremely knowledgeable. This is because those that are educating them deeply love them, and they have the ability to care for them as individuals, rather than as a class of young people. Studies have shown that children whose parents are directly involved in their education are more apt to excel in academics. That’s the positive side. But there are some things that home school kids miss out on.

By not being educated by the public system, their kids will miss out on learning how to communicate using filthy language. They will also miss out on the use of illegal drugs. According to a survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, "Millions of U.S. teens attend ‘drug-infested schools’ where students routinely see drugs used, sold or kept on schools grounds . . . Thirty-one percent of high school students -- more than 4 million -- see drug dealing, illegal drug use or students high or drunk at least once a week on their school grounds."

Home schooled kids will also miss out on sexual promiscuity, contracting sexually transmitted diseases (statistics show that one in four U.S. females has a sexually transmitted disease), being bullied, and maybe being shot to death (to date, there have been shootings resulting in the deaths of students in 76 different U.S. public schools). According to the National Conference of State Legislatures an incredible one in five kids in public schools “has seriously considered suicide."

Back in 2007, nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out of school. According to ABC, "A study this week from Strong American Schools reports that 40 percent of seniors still do not understand the math they were taught in the eighth grade. And an earlier study. . . found that nearly a quarter cannot identify Adolph Hitler, more than half cannot place the American Civil War in the right century, and a third do not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees free speech." The American public school system is a failure to adequately educate our young people.

Had home schoolers attended public school they would have also been brainwashed by an unproven theory about human origins, and ended up believing that they are nothing but an animal with no ultimate moral accountability. A recent study revealed that in the 50 top universities in the U.S., in the field of biology 61 percent of respondents described themselves as atheists or agnostics. Evolution doesn’t simply teach that we have a common ancestor in primates. It seriously teaches that we are primates, and if the result of public schooling education is to reject God and His gift of eternal life, the depth of that tragedy will only be measured in the light of eternity.

Photo by alegri / 4freephotos.com

Potiphar’s Wife

If a man doesn’t fear God, he will naturally have eyes that are “full of adultery.” He will burn with lust and look for opportunity to put out the raging fire. But Solomon was wise. He knew that it is the fear of God that keeps a man from committing adultery, or even imagining it through lust. He knew that the ways of man are “before the eyes of the Lord.” This was Joseph’s experience when Potiphar’s wife tried to entice him into adultery:

And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her. But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. (Genesis 39:7-12).

Notice Joseph’s reasons for refusing such enticing pleasure. He was firstly concerned about a betrayal of trust, and secondly (and more importantly) he was concerned about God’s disapproval of his actions. He asked, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” He saw that betrayal of Potiphar was a “great wickedness.” We sin when we lie to or steal from another human being. This is because the essence of God’s Law is to love every other human being as much as we love ourselves:

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”(Romans 13:9).

When Joseph talked about sinning against God, there was the duel sin of betrayal of trust and the sin of adultery. If he had no fear of God, neither would have been considered a sin, and no doubt Joseph would have yielded to the temptation, as do millions who have no understanding of God or of His power to cast body and soul into Hell.

Photo: Source

An all-time favorite re-post...

http://bit.ly/howtobecomeanatheist

Have a good weekend.

Feed the Mind.

Yesterday I spoke of Mark Twain’s idolatry (making up a false god because he was offended by moral accountability). He said,

“I wish I could learn to remember that it is unjust and dishonorable to put blame upon the human race for any of its acts. For it did not make itself, it did not make its nature, it is merely a machine, it is moved wholly by outside influences, it has no hand in creating the outside influences nor in choosing which of them it will welcome or reject, its performance is wholly automatic, it has no more mastership nor authority over its mind than it has over its stomach, which receives material from the outside and does as it pleases with it, indifferent to its proprietor’s suggestions, even, let alone his commands; wherefore, whatever, the machine does---so called crimes and infamies included---is the personal act of its Maker, and He, solely, is responsible.”[1]

Notice that Twain wasn’t foolish enough to think that the human race made itself. He knew that we had “no hand in creating.” He also believed that we have no more control over our mind than we have over the stomach. While it’s true that the stomach works independently of the will, we are the ones who choose the food that goes into the mouth and into the stomach. 

We feed the mind. We choose thoughts that we enjoy chewing over, and if those thoughts transgress God’s Law, then we are morally accountable to the God who considers lust to be adultery (see Matthew 5:27-28). While some may swallow Twain’s foolish attempts to blame God for all human “acts,” it makes no sense when we think a little. Many a rapist or murderer has tried the “God made me do it” defense, and if it doesn’t work in a court of law, it’s not going to work on Judgment Day.

[1] The Complete Letters Of Mark Twain, by Mark Twain, page 491

Photo: Source

Hitchens & Twain

<< Twain's remark that Ray witlessly refers to reminds me of a response Christopher Hitchens gave to the question: if you truly believe there's no God, what light is there in the life of an atheist? Hitchens responded: “Well, I can only answer for myself; what cheers me up? I suppose mainly gloating over the misfortunes of other people, I guess that has to be it: crowing over the miseries of others. It doesn’t always work, but it never completely fails. And then there’s irony - which is the gin in the Campari - the cream in the coffee; sex can have diminishing returns but it’s amazing…that’s pretty much it, then it’s a clear run to the grave.” >>

That’s one thing I liked about Hitchens. Now and then he was blatantly honest. Mark Twain was too when it came to the subject of sex, but he whined when it became a mere memory as he aged. Then he too, like Hitchens and the rest of us, headed straight for the grave.

Hitchens was a clone of Mark Twain. They both had a sharp tongue and a venomous attitude towards God. Of course Twain wasn’t silly enough to be an atheist, even though atheists mistakenly believe he was one of their kind. He wasn’t. He was an intelligent man who hated the God that demands moral accountability, and so he made up his own make-believe god. That’s what we tend to do until we repent and trust Jesus. Then we come to know God, and the truth make us free (see John 8:31-32).

Photo: Derek Harper

The Sleeping Conscience

Mark Twain said, "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal." It is good advice indeed to have good friends and good books, but to instruct to have a sleepy conscience is a philosophy for criminals. It is the ideal for fools.

Conscience should be a best friend who should be treated with the utmost respect. To ignore its voice of warning is to treat it like an enemy. Twain’s twisted guidance should rather have been “Good friends, the Good Book, and a conscience that is awake and doing its duty: this is the ideal.”

His words reveal his love for that which the conscience exposes and condemns—lying, theft, blasphemy, fornication, lust, adultery, godlessness, and all the other vices the human heart so joyfully embraces. Conscience should rather be awake, and diligently standing guard as a vigilant soldier on duty, watching for any infiltration of the deadly enemy.

Talk about having a primed and alert conscience flies in the face of this godless world. This is because they don’t see sin as an enemy, but as a beloved friend. They embrace it, and they mock those who fight against it. However, on Judgment Day, that friend will prove to be a deadly Judas, and those who fall under its deception will see that guilt-free sin is a delusion.

Photo: Source

Fearing Heaven

Atheists pride themselves that they don’t have “faith.” But look at how two founding-fathers of modern atheism base their whole life’s philosophy on a blind faith. Bertrand Russell “believed” that when he died, his body would corrupt and that nothing else would live on. That was his belief. That’s where he placed his faith…having nothing to base it on, unless he had some sort of unique insight into the afterlife:

“I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.”

Professing atheist, Isaac Asimov, also had a blind faith:

“I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.”

With no evidence upon which to base his faith he said that he didn’t believe in the afterlife. That was his belief. He was so full of faith that it got rid of his fear of Heaven. His fear needn’t have been of boredom. If Heaven exists, then God exists, and if God exists, Mr. Asimov, like the rest of us who die without as Savior, is in big trouble.

Photo: Isaac Asimov

Life’s Transient Pleasures

“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Notice the word “forevermore.” Every pleasure we experience on this earth is transient. It doesn’t last. We are left looking for more. Whether it’s the pleasures of sex, laughter with friends, the enjoyment of good food, the excitement of some sport…all of it is like water in our hands. It falls through our fingers. It is gone in a moment of time and becomes like a faded photo in the memory that senility eventually rips in two.

King Solomon concluded that the pleasures we chase are like the futility of chasing the wind, and he certainly chased pleasures. But the consolation we have is the knowledge that this futile existence isn’t the way things should be. When Adam sinned, he brought about the Genesis curse which ushered in futility, disease, pain, suffering and death. God subjected the entire creation to futility because of sin:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:20-23).

The whole of creation groans because of the curse. Earthquakes, flood, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc., rock this earth. Animals, fish, birds and insects devour each other. Beautiful women fade like a rose, become old and die. So do birds, fish, dogs, cats, elephants, and trees. We all whither and fade because of the curse, and groan as we wait for the promised new immortal body that God can now legally give us because Jesus reversed the curse. He satisfied the anger of God against wicked humanity. He took our punishment upon Himself, and that meant that God could lawfully commute our death sentence, and let us live. He could freely give us eternal life with pleasure that never ends. We have the promise of life from Almighty God. All we need do is repent and trust Jesus. What incredible love God has for sinful humanity. How unspeakably kind and merciful.

Photo by: Nino Barbieri