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Pragmatism is a tool of the devil!

July 25, 2010 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

I can't embed this video, as whoever posted it deauthorized that feature, probably so you have to go to the site and see the giant Google ads and things (I see a big ad for Estee Lauder myself) hovering next to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvialpgl9Jg

Here we see that even though William James gave an extensive defense of religion, apparently naughty pragmatism is a tool of the devil to trick us into disregarding the stark truths of scripture. You see, says this dude John F. MacArthur, who apparently has a podcast and daily radio show and a million books (i.e. this guy represents a constituency and is not just a lone crazy person), the devil likes to trick us into thinking for ourselves instead of mindlessly submitting to revelation, as we're fundamentally flawed and can't be trusted to think our way through thorny philosophical issues. Thanks, John, for clearing that up!

You'll notice, however, that Johnny here is just as afflicted as his pragmatic opponents with a receding hairline, so ha! Gotcha!

I especially like the use of music on this video, and if you can stomach enough of it to see the dopey depiction of the snake and Eve near the end of the video, you're in for a treat!

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Filed Under: Things to Watch

Comments

  1. Erik says

    July 26, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    The snake was cool and Eve was hot.

    Thanks for that video – I had been worrying about pragmatism. And here it was all along the devil…

    On a slightly more serious note — nope, no serious note to pipe here at all just now.

    Reply
  2. Dan says

    July 27, 2010 at 12:23 am

    Ugh! This kind of crap slays me too. Was Eve picking satan-berries?? It could really have used a dance number….

    This guy definitely represents a constituency of conservative Christians… but I suspect his beliefs are sort of the vocal minority type (though I worry that the constituency is deeply influential). Liberal theology, and just about everything else in the secular world, really threatens the ultra-conservative’s interpretation of scripture. I’ve seen much creepier web sites out there about hypocrites and heathens and deceivers and what not… whole lists of satan’s minions! lol.

    I’d dismiss anyone who fails to see the dilemma of biblical interpretation as anything beyond black-and-white! There are only two kinds of Christians in this guy’s world… those that agree with him, and those that he perceives are dangerous to his ministry and themselves. There are interesting statistics about folks that join, leave, and return to these camps of ultra-conservative religious thinking.

    The video gets only 2 stars. \m/

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Social Contract and libertarianism | The Partially Examined Life | A Philosophy Podcast says:
    August 3, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    […] this guy and his ilk can’t be argued with any more than the anti-pragmatic Baptist minister, as will be clear if you look at his channel. I find extreme views like this fairly entertaining, […]

    Reply

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