Tuesday, September 2, 2014

When a Friend Goes Insane

Always be wary of people claiming special knowledge of the divine…



Before you watch the following video from this Youtube ‘truther,’ I have a disclaimer to make: I used to be friends with the fellow in this video, very good friends in high school. After years out of touch, we got back in touch via Facebook. As time wore on I noticed his beliefs weren’t what they once were, becoming more and more insane. Personally knowing some of this person’s trials in recent years, I’ve drawn the conclusion that he has chosen to accuse the world around himself for his misfortunes since, as he is an egomaniac, he cannot accept the misfortunes that befall him as anything that might be his own fault. He’s in good company to that end. (Okay, not everything was his fault. I'll grant that.) While I believe that in his becoming a 'truther' he means well and I believe that he believes he means well. But, this only brings to mind the old saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  Eventually I had to halt our friendship on my end because I cannot abide by people so deeply invested in their own bullshit. Plus, you can’t have a conversation with someone who refuses to listen to your arguments even when they insist you should always draw your own conclusions. In a way, I’m mad at him for that. Maybe you’ll see why. So, onto the video followed by my analysis of this person's madness.



Chris, like many believers, presupposes the existence of God – it doesn’t matter in which way – and twists information to agree with what he already believes. Chris is not someone who doubted God’s existence and went looking for logical proofs because if he did that, he would never have found that logical proof. Observe the manner by which he looks towards the Bible for his evidence which just happens to be the dominant scripture in the country he lives in. If he lived in the Middle East, would he be saying, “If you read the Koran, you’ll see that blah blah blah but it doesn’t mean what you’ve been taught”? Probably.



He’s says about 666 being the number of Satan, “That could technically be true.” So if it’s not technically true that means it’s not true at all. If 666 is not the number of the Beast, human beings being carbon-based life forms is totally irrelevant. So I really would love Chris to give proof that 666 is symbolic of some actual and ultimate evil. ‘Cause if it’s not true – I’m pretty sure someone afraid of the numbers three and six just made that up one day – this guy more crackers than anyone gives him credit for.



Chris then says – in talking about us as beings of light – says if you look at your skin under a microscope, you’re made of atoms, that is, electrical components, that is, light. Jeebus, someone get this guy a physics book; he can’t tell the difference between an atom and a photon. Next, he says because we are beings of light, we call our children “youngsters” while completely ignoring the word’s Germanic and English roots, etymology being something Chris likes to disregard so that he can make the most spurious conclusions regarding words sound like the truth.



From there, he holds up a symbol claiming that it represents God and his proof that human beings have God in us is a picture of a newly fertilized embryo which, sure, is vaguely similar but in actuality a two dimensional symbol of God looks nothing like a three dimensional embryo. And, the so-called symbol of God could just as easily be a hydrogen atom (or just about anything else) if you use your imagination as much as Chris does.



Now if you’ve watched the video up to this point, I know what you’re thinking: You don’t understand Chris’ point because you don’t know what he’s saying; is he saying that human beings are the Beast or that we have God inside of us? Is it both? Someone call the logic police.



[By the way, it’s worth noting here all kinds of stupid conclusions one could draw from symbols. For example, I could argue that a triangle is the number of the Beast. You see, a triangle has three angles which when added together make 180 degrees. If you add 1 + 8 + 0, you get 9. You can get 9 by adding 3 and 6. Or, you could divide 18 (drop the zero) by 6 and you get 3. Either way, this is a roundabout yet unmistakable way of saying that a triangle equals three sixes; 666.]



At the end he says, “For all the people who think that you go nowhere when you die, let me ask you, where do you come from? Something can’t come from nothing.” Ugh, I can’t believe he said that. His logic is so unbelievably flawed on several levels here. First of all, the former has nothing to do with the latter, Two, Chris never bothers to apply this very logic to the existence of God. Granted, almost every believer tries this ridiculous argument but that doesn’t make it true because it keeps getting repeated. Three, even if something exists for us after we die, this says absolutely zero about the existence of a god. Four, if the universe has always existed, given enough time the existence of human beings is a 100% certainty in exactly the same way that 12 monkeys at 12 typewriters, given an infinite amount of time, will accidently reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Five, how does he know about the origins of the universe? Was he there? I have to throw that back at him since he uses this very counter-argument against a critic in the comments section. (He also says in the comment section that we are light; so what are we made of, carbon or light? He can’t seem to make up his mind, probably because we are mostly made of water.)



As always, Chris likes to open his videos by claiming he loves to make people think, so I find it odd that he gets remarkably defensive when anyone disagrees with his conclusions. (Or, I would find it odd if I didn’t already know he’s an egomaniac.) If you disagree with Chris, he predictably will counter with a line or two about how you are programmed by the Illuminati or otherwise metaphorically ‘asleep’ or ‘blind.’ Yet, he can’t see his own programming for what it is, the programming that leads him to cherry-pick information from the Bible and other sources to suit his needs. Chris will admonish you for being educated because somehow, all formal education is bad, which makes sense for someone who couldn’t last two months at one of New York’s most well-known party colleges. Yet, all the knowledge he seeks out is magically legit. Wow!



Indeed, be wary of those claiming special knowledge of the divine, especially those who, in another video,  tells you that all forms of government are bad and then asks you to join his “Barnone Nation.” Are you kidding me?

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