There is a certain biological stupidity in neuroscience. Anatomy, or blood flow, is seen as destiny. The brain structures are seen as fixed. They are not. They are fluid: this took the work of a few engineering types who are not that neurotypical counting every structure in electron microscopes and finding the bulk of our brain volume is synapses.

From that has come both an understanding of glia as cells that signal at they synapse, the role of microglia in pruning synapses (connections between cells) under stress, and mathematical analysis of the structural network within the brain. This mas led to the abandonment of the “chemical imbalance” theory and an understanding that behaviour and mood and experience can drive the development of neural pathways.

Much of this is done by people who are not particularly nice. Most people who are fairly bright are moderately to very weird. But this is not a bad thing. Having no time for others, and no ability to emotionally connect, is a bad thing. And that is not the realm of those who we currently label autistic, but the psychopath or the Orc.

Which, of course, is just another way of describing a lack of empathy. This makes sense, as I have all the attributes of the average atheist, with one key exception: I am highly empathetic. The short answer to the common question: “how can you believe in God when you are highly intelligent and well-educated” is “Because I am capable of empathizing with my fellow Man.”

As will be clear to anyone who has read the Metaphysics bestseller, On the Existence of Gods, atheism is not a rational position justified by reason and evidence. It is, quite to the contrary, an instinctive and emotional reaction to the atheist’s inability to identify with and relate to the world around him. This is why most atheists become atheists in their teenage years, and why so few are able to provide any justification for their atheism beyond a highly subjective appeal to their own credulity.

That doesn’t mean that atheism is not a legitimate expression of disbelief. It absolutely is, it simply isn’t what it purports to be.

However, it also explains the intrinsic distrust that normal individuals harbor for atheists; it is the same distrust they harbor for psychopaths and others who do not “read” normally.

As I once told Sam Harris in an email when I was helping him with the neurology experiment that led to The Moral Landscape, the scientific investigation into belief and unbelief is far more likely to discover things that trouble the atheist perspective considerably more than the religious one.

For example, if we can ever cure psychopathy by instilling empathy into those who lack it, one likely consequence will be the eventual elimination of atheism. And if the suppression of religious belief necessarily means the suppression of empathy, this renders all dreams of a functional post-religious society intrinsically impossible.

Now the Orc is one who feels empathy but has expunged it from their life. They do not grieve: they abrade those parts which allow us to connect and treat others as useful tools. They see the game — correctly at times — as stacked against them and they manipulate the goodwill of others.

But these people can repent. This hurts: but that hurt is good. For to repent they have to give up their ideology and their status. They have to stop having struggle sessions when those who they see as enemies are abused, beaten, tortured and killed. They have to leave the horde, be that the Red Guards, the mujahideen, or the social justice activists who are destroying the US elite universities.

Because Vox is wrong in one aspect. You can come to Christ because of reason alone. The resurrection is eithe rcorrect, or we are deluded.

And if, as I did, you turn to CHrist because you are convinced of this, the spirit can take your scarred and stony heart and give it life.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

(1 Corinthians 15:12-28 ESV)

How do we apply this? Well, we can start with a little bit of intolerance. As there is no safe space, and no gun free zone, we need to say that there are errors and we do have enemies. Then we need to pray for them.

We need to send preachers to the Muslim areas and mission teams. With guards, if needed. We need to make it clear that Europe and the West is a bunch of tribes that were converted from the joys of revenge, bone fires, polygamy, pederasty and the shield wall to Christ, because of the resurrection. We need to remind them that there has been a faithful witness in their own countries for millenia. We need to prefer our fellow believers, because they are family.

And those who will force untruth and hatred and remove brotherly love from us are Orcs. We pray for their repentance, and their rediscovery of humanity. But we let them not in. We subvert their platforms to preach the gospel.

But this implies we will have to spend millions on defence, and not a cent in tribute.

And we should have confidence. Christ will make us more human. Christ will grind all enemies under his feet. For he has already won. The day of his coming approaches.

And to our enemies I pray that their conscience will be pricked, that they will have tears of godly sorrow, and turn to Christ who wants no person to become Orcish, and face the fate of eternal fire.