By Richard Allen – December 27 , 2021
“I’m just following the Science,” said an acquaintance who was carefully masked, and proud of the fact that he followed strict CDC guidelines for “Social Distancing” (while I wasn’t). While some very strong arguments can be made as to why paper masks and social distancing at your local Walmart is not exactly following “the science,” it occurred to me that for most of these Believers in the Pandemic Faith are just that: FAITHFUL BELIEVERS!
Science used to have differing criteria for believing something as fact: Observation, Hypothesis, Testing, Replication, Observation . . . . or some variation of reasonable rational repeatable thought processes. Those days are apparently gone, as science today follows crafted narratives by the high priests and priestesses of the faith in politics, media and the academy – all to guide the faithful to desired and acceptable beliefs and behaviors! As I pondered this phenom, it occurred to me that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this type of “blind faith” among so-called learned people. If we flash back a several hundred years, we would see a different group of priests guiding the faithful – to willingly believe falsehoods!
The Church of Rome has long been at odds with the Truth, regardless of its origin. This was true of Scientific Truth such as Galileo promoted, which they eventually forced him to recant (1633), but also of Biblical Truths that they resisted with even more vehemence! When Luther nailed his “95 -Thesis” to the door at Wittenberg’s Castle Church (1517), he was trying to start a “dialogue” with the entrenched powers within the Church, and help them uncover real, biblical truth as Jesus had taught centuries before! Sadly, those truths didn’t support their agenda for political, economic and ecclesiastical power, so they came at Luther with full force! A few years later, the Church of Rome (1545) convened a Council at Trent to denounce Luther and his Reformation. No, truth of any kind could not be tolerated if it threatened Holy Mother Church and her control!
My goal today is not to hash out all of the unbiblical superstitions and clerical errors of Catholicism, but rather to reflect on the blind faith of some of her sons and daughters, which I believe should be correctly labeled as Ignorance! This ignorance is of a pernicious variety such that even when it is exposed as falsehood, the blind faith (i.e. ignorance) still abides strong. Case in point, the Church of Rome has evolved its teaching drastically over the past 1500 years, so much so that tenets that were once believed, are completely anathema today.
Case in point, Augustine – a Church Father to Catholicism, laid doctrinal foundations for the “sovereign grace of God” during his battle with Pelagius in the 5th Century. While many from the Augustinian school believed these truths, by the time that Luther and Erasmus had the exact same debate in the 16th Century, the Church of Rome was on the other side, mostly for political reasons. It would appear that “truth was relative, that is – whatever the Roman power structure wanted it to be at any given time.” Being faithful to “one absolute truth” for Rome wasn’t believing reasonable, tested or even biblical truth like it was for Augustine, but rather: “HOLDING TO WHATEVER THE CHURCH’S STRATEGIC POSITION WAS AT A SPECIFIC TIME!”
I can remember as a young boy hearing that if a Roman Catholic ate meat on Friday, they had committed a “mortal sin” no less! Then after Vatican Council II, the rule was relaxed, and in 1966 – Catholics were allowed to eat whatever. What a hoot to hear comedian George Carlin ask in one of his comedy routines: “What about all of those poor souls still in hell because of the meat conviction?” It sure seemed like an arbitrary rule to go from “you’re committing a mortal sin by eating meat,” to ‘It’s OK now to eat whatever you want.” ‘ I can state with all confidence, THIS IS NOT THE WAY GOD’S TRUTH IS TO BE BELIEVED OR APPLIED!
When it comes to Biblical Truth, I like the way Paul explains Saving Faith in Romans 10:17 (Phillips):
“Belief (faith) you see, can only come from hearing the message, and the message is the word of Christ.”
Saving faith has an object that it believes. And it involves believing the “testimony of God’s word,” not the ever-changing teachings of men, councils, popes, synods, or hierarchies. If science makes its claim to “reason,” then Biblical Faith makes its claim to the veracity of God’s Word! Isaiah 8:20 makes this bold claim:
“Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of His word. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light in them.” (Isa 8:20)
Reason and facts also are ever changing, just as learning & science increases over time. But “Faith built on the Word of God will endure forever!”
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8)
So then what does that say to those who believe that “they are just following the science,” when what they believe about Covid, Masks, Social Distancing, Herd Immunity, Vaccines, Death Rates, Treatments, etc. has constantly changed over the past 2+ years? The sad truth is, just like the Catholics who once believed that eating meat would send them to Hell (see I Tim 4:3), but now think it’s OK to eat a burger on Friday – THESE NEW FAITHFUL AREN’T JUST FOLLOWING SCIENCE or REASON, THEY ARE SUFFERING FROM IGNORANCE! Yes, you heard me! When the Establishment Media has lied to you repeatedly, and yet you continue to believe them, and have “blind-faith” in their pronouncements, this isn’t “Reasoned thought based on Science,” or “Faith in God’s unchanging word,” IT’S JUST PLAIN OLD IGNORANCE!
History shows mankind repeatedly choosing Ignorance and Superstition in every age, so we shouldn’t be surprised at this outcome! The deliberate lies and half-truths that have been spun since the Wuhan-19 Virus was released have been epic! Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of Propaganda would blush at the blatant contradictions and lies told by these priests & priestesses each night on the major cable channels! The so-called News are just Daily Sermons that the “Religion of the State” uses to propagate falsehood, and control the ignorant masses through fear! But I keep asking myself how it’s possible that people can still believe them? What’s going on in a person’s psyche that allows them to believe after every one of their predictions has proved to be false, and all of their prescriptions’ have accomplished the exact opposite of that promised?
My answer might surprise you: Ignorance is often an informed choice! I think people often “know in their hearts” that something is false, or at least highly suspect it. BUT they’re too wedded to the BELIEFS of their specific “system of falsehood” to ever let others know that they question it, or suspect it’s a lie. Human pride makes people more prone to hang on to a lie – NO MATTER WHAT, than to admit that they were deceived and have believed what is false. The reason is: “It’s a part of our fallen nature that we got from Adam.”
In the garden, the Serpent (Satan) promised Adam and Eve wisdom, and that they would be “like God,” with their eyes opened “to know both good and evil.” He was partially right, but mostly deceptive. Their eyes were opened to “know evil,” but not to “know good” – only the New Birth can do that! They lost their innocence, and immediately knew that “they were naked” (Gen 3:8-13). In fact, after they hid themselves from an omniscient God – God Himself had to pursue them as they hid in the bushes. God’s first question to our parents after they had sinned was: “Where are you?” And He’s been pursuing men and women ever since with that question. But it’s His second question that’s most telling: “Who told you that you were naked?” (verse 11). The supposed wisdom that would make them “like God” was a lie, all they learned was that they were frail and naked. That’s why they hid, and its why mankind hides in falsehoods today!
Just be aware, most people would rather “hide with a falsehood in the bushes, than confront their own sin, nakedness, and ignorance,” it’s just how the fall has destroyed mankind’s thinking. So when someone, whom you know “hasn’t really investigated the science tells you that they’re just following the science,” my advice is to say to them: “OK, you say it’s alright to eat meat on Friday now, BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE IN HELL ON THE MEAT CONVICTION? Better yet, just pray that God would open their eyes by the New Birth to know “good” as well as evil!