en-US Fri, 10 Jan 2025 01:47:23 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1413314166 Fri, 10 Jan 2025 01:47:23 -0800 Comment284863803 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:24:01 -0800 /review/show/4993300924 Cindy's review of Lies We are Told, the Truth We Must Hold: Worldviews and Their Consequences
by Sharon James

I agree... It wasn't very well organised in my opinion. ]]> Review7135071966 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:27:55 -0800 /review/show/7135071966 Arukiyomi gave 2 stars to Lies We are Told, the Truth We Must Hold: Worldviews and Their Consequences (Paperback) by Sharon James
The lie: government authorities are bad and must be torn down (p126) The truth: authorities are instituted by God and we should obey them (p247). But when they impose lockdowns to fulfill their mandate to "protect citizens from... epidemics" (p248) they are somehow doing so "at the cost of other aspects of human flourishing." (p256).

This example gives a good insight into where Ms James is coming from. You're either going to come from a very similar, if not identical place and find her teaching you to suck eggs or you're not and going to think her a right wing loon.

For the record, I firmly believe said eggs do need to be sucked. But I also firmly believe that this book could have been better written and better argued.

Fire example, as someone who has not only actually studied and worked in the field of linguistics, I was amused at her insistence that "words do relate to objective truth" (p117). That is so demonstrably false it's laughable... in fact it made me feel gay just thinking about it. See what I did there? 😉

Perhaps I've misunderstood her, but if so, she's just illustrated that when she says that it is "nonsense" that language is "a series of linguistic signs to be interpreted by the reader", she is ... er ... talking nonsense.

It doesn't stop there. She counters the socialist "lie" of goods held in common with the argument that "when property is held in common, incentive is removed, and work is often badly done" (p234). Er... this seems oddly in conflict with the early church holding property in common as a sign that the Kingdom of God was present (Acts 2:44).

She goes on. As the Bible is inerrant and "without mistake", Paul was not wrong to think of Adam as a historical individual. Presumably then he was also not wrong when he said that ""Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.� This saying is true." Titus 1:12-13.

For a book that's written to help you stand firm in the face of non Christian criticism, it's frustrating to find it so easy to pick holes in. Sadly the book is full of such inconsistencies.

If you're a Christian who needs to be encouraged to stand up for the truth against the lies of the world, give this a miss and pick up a copy of the much better written Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin instead. ]]> ReadStatus8777995970 Sun, 22 Dec 2024 14:31:12 -0800 /review/show/7109534420 Arukiyomi started reading The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides
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Very thorough... The last section in particular needs updating though. It's now pretty out of date as culture and policy have moved on. ]]> ReadStatus8530436862 Thu, 17 Oct 2024 11:25:26 -0700 /review/show/6934097643 Arukiyomi wants to read The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum
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]]> ReadStatus8411500188 Sun, 15 Sep 2024 14:37:51 -0700 /review/show/6849414475 Arukiyomi is currently reading The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics by Robert A.J. Gagnon
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