Posted on 11/28/2012 7:01:52 AM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
There have been several supposedly “scientific” studies published this year that either disparaged people of faith or insidiously mocked religion.
That includes a study, published in the journal Science, which asserted that people who believe in God are not analytical thinkers.
There also was a study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, which claimed that “highly religious” folk are less compassionate toward the needy than atheists.
Now comes yet another study, published this week in the Journal of Sex Research, which claims that adult film actresses are actually more religious than women who don’t get paid to have sex on camera.
“In terms of psychological characteristics,” the study’s five co-authors concluded, “porn actresses had higher levels of…spirituality compared to the matched group.”
This dubious study would be unworthy of comment except that it has gotten a lot of media coverage. It pretends to be scholarly research. But it’s nothing more than junk science.
Indeed, for those who blindly accept its findings, it leads to the absurd conclusion that there is some sort of link between sexual depravity and religiosity.
Uncritical thinkers could come away with the cockeyed notion that, just because a woman is sexually depraved – because she is a stripper or a prostitute or a porn actress – doesn’t mean she isn’t a woman of faith. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t love the Lord.
The authors of the Journal of Sex Research study argue that their findings disprove the “damaged goods hypothesis” with respect to “female performers in the adult entertainment industry.”
But close examination of the study’s methodology reveal obvious flaws that skew its findings.
It relied on the self-reporting of 177 porn actresses who responded to an advertisement posted at a Los Angeles health clinic, which was founded by a retired porn actress, and which catered to the adult film industry (before it was shut down last year by the L.A. County Health Department).
Apparently, it did not occur to the study’s authors that self-delusional porn actresses might misrepresent themselves as well-adjusted.
Might claim to have higher self-esteem, more positive feelings about themselves, a better support system, a more satisfying sex life and even a closer relationship with the Lord than women who don’t defile themselves for all the world to see.
The reality is that the 177 porn actresses who responded to the survey on which the study published in the Journal of Sex Research was based are indeed damaged goods.
And there is no better authority on the subject than Shelley Lubben, a former porn actress and born-again Christian. She is currently the Executive Director of the Pink Cross Foundation, a faith-based organization that reaches out to women caught up in the adult film industry.
The pornography business destroys body and soul, Lubben attests. Many porn actresses battle alcohol and drug abuse. They perform sex acts that are physically harmful and psychologically traumatizing. They contract sexually transmitted diseases.
There is a way for porn actresses to avoid that almost certain fate – give their lives to Christ. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Since I don’t have nor need any proof, I don’t know how to demystify it for you, sorry, you’ll have to remain baffled.
Because there are parts that are not believable.
I am only baffled, as I asked of you before, to identify what "it" is. I am not baffled in the fact that either: (a) you do not know what "it" is, or (b) you choose not to disclose what "it" is.
Because there are parts that are not believable.
I think you mean that this response is to the explicit question, "Why do you not believe in the text of the Bible?" is it not? (where "it" refers to "this response")
As a favor, please, I beg you, refer me to one selection of Holy Scripture that is to you unbelievable -- a passage in the Bible that hinders you from believing in the Bible as a whole -- and tell me why you estimate that you cannot reconcile that passage with a truth. Eh?
Could the first sentence of the first chapter of the first book of Torah be one such passage (in my translation denominated as Genesis 1:1)?
Are you talking about the ‘it’ in my #3? If so, that is about the clarification you provided about how God communicates with you.
I do not dis-believe the Bible as a whole, just the parts that I have read that are not believable;
- Revelation, about a dragon
- burning bushes and talking animals
- the flood and the whole Noah story with the animals
- Jonah
- virgin birth
- the Resurrection
- the forgiveness of sins
- water into wine and other miracles
- the guys that got tied up and thrown in the fire by a king
- the story of Adam and Eve
- the existence of hell
- walking on water
- the Trinity
- the creation story
- sin
- parting of the Red Sea
- demons
- satan
- the need for salvation
there’s probably more, but I haven’t read the entire book. To me these are some of the unbelievable things in the bible. I do not believe any of it happened so to me, it’s unbelievable.
The parts about people begatting and wars and names and lineages, stuff like that are believable. These are things that happen on a regular basis throughout history.
While I believe that all things are possible with God, I do not know if that is actually true.
How could I prompt you for what your "it" was if you had not made clear what the impersonal neuter pronoun was referring to? This shows that your description was ambiguous, and defied interpretation without greater definition. Don't expect that you are communicating without exercising greater precision. The question you just asked in the first sentence above implies that I already did know or suspect what "it" was when I told you plainly and clearly that I did not! You finally gave up the critical information in the second sentence above, that finally defined what "it" was in your mind, but was not previously known to anyone else.
I do not dis-believe the Bible as a whole, just the parts that I have read that are not believable;
Thank you for taking the time to list these areas that are written about things that are commonly thought incredible. In this you are coming forth with communication that sounds as though you are not playing a cat-and-mouse or hide-and-seek game with others. I can grasp your point of view when you give a little more depth to your perceptions, and when you confirm you have understood what the other person was trying to project to you.
That brings me to comment what I have observed, and said many times to others -- that if a person cannot believe Genesis 1:1 (and that is what I read between the lines in your note here) that person is not going to believe the rest of the Bible. That's my point of asking.
A second point is that you seem to have accepted that the New Testament/Covenant, that was said to have been initiated by the Jesus of Nazareth, is also a valid part of the Bible. Is that so to your understanding?
I have no idea or interest in what you are trying to say in the first para.
I’ve honestly never thought that much about the bible.
I have no idea or interest in what you are trying to say in the first para.
That is too bad, because I was trying to precisely explain to you why your communication style has not permitted you to get the information you wanted, nor to allow others to identify what your intentions were. That ought to be of concern for you, going forward.
I’ve honestly never thought that much about the bible.
That may be, but you have clearly stated that you have some firmly held opinions about parts of the Bible which you do not accept as literal truths, and which The Holy Spirit, speaking through humans by special revelation over a long period of time, has declared are true -- sometimes miraculously so.
But actually, all of them are easier to believe than to believe what you have claimed: that through your faith, The God of The Bible has somehow transferred useful information to your mind and spirit, with no means or facts to show it rationally, nor ability to prove that otherwise unseen things have become substantial, nor without reference to His previously given verbal commands and illustration of His Will, His Ways, and His Work. That is harder to believe, say, than the Presence of The God in/as a burning bush; or the parting of the Red Sea; or the implanting of a cellular human being in a virgin, even as today our surgeons can do it with a human female virgin to host the developing and birth of a child not of her own flesh.
Simply, let me suggest that you may have faith in your own faith, but your words seem to be without faith in The God or in His claiming of having created you as the offspring of Adam/Eve and thus possessing Lordship over you; nor furthermore of the ability to save of your soul after your physical death in a resurrected perfect body to have everlasting, abundant, joyous Life.
That's not a criticism, just an observation.
What I do know is that The God of The Bible has put people in this world who know him, to be preachers and teachers of The Faith of Jesus Christ from His Preserved Inerrant, Infallible, Plenary Verbal Written Word of God, and that that is the way He has chosen to communicate with you -- the only way. I'm just one of those people, like it or not, care about it or not, but ignore it, you may not -- not yet, that is. He does seek to reach you, that you might know Him as a Friend.
Arrogant? No, just stating an impersonal broadly applicable fact.
With regard -- sayonara --
Some things are just easier for some folks to believe, as you have stated...which is why I believe that God deals with each of us individually.
He deals with us individually, and he deals with us personally, but he doesn't deal with us differently. He has no favorites.
I disagree, I believe He does deal with each of us differently and I don’t think He has favorites. Everyone has their own path to follow as per His will.
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