I read this a few days ago. It is a fictional dialogue, from William Briggs. The dialogue as a form of philosophical discussion is as old as Aristotle, particularly between teacher and student. Here is the warning: this is a corrupt dialogue, and so it is the best kind of example. Do not do this: do not be this. Do the exact opposite.

Teacher: “Certainly. You see, when it came to pass in our culture that two men or two women wanted to claim to be married to each other, they had no logical argument to support their desire. They could not point to biology or science, for instance, for those harsh realities insisted that families were for procreation, as that subject is understood writ large. Same-sex pairs could not use history to support their desires, either. For, you see, history did support the idea that only pairs could be considered married, but history also insisted that it was only men and women who could marry each other. History is thus prejudiced. And you have to take it whole. Picking and choosing which bit of history to rely upon is arbitrary and illogical.”

Student: “I take your point. Or points.”

Teacher: “Yes. So since science was of no help, and neither history, it was judged that both reality and history were bigoted, hateful things, and that any who called to these subjects were themselves filled with irrational animus and were thus bigots. Do you see?”

Student: “Yes, I think I finally do.”

Note that this is not logic, it is emotion. It is not dialectic, it is rhetoric. All facts are to be called hateful. And we are to invent entire organizations to support this: make propaganda, encourage surrogate pregnancies, censor those who preach the old truths (because humans are still created in the old manner) because biology, history, theology and society have been deemed hateful.

This is the lie of this time; that the good is evil. And this is predicted, this is expected.

The sophists have always weaved their network of lies, and they have always been confronted.

Psalm 1

¹   Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

²   but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
³   They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

⁴   The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵   Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶   for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Ephesians 2:1-10

¹You were dead through the trespasses and sins ²in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. ³All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. ⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

We need to be clear. This world is fallen. There is evil, and the powers of evil have control. Those of Christ are the opposition, rescued from the convergence with the spirit of the age that leads to hell. We are to do good. Not what this world calls good.

Every act which is beautiful, good, true and honourable is an act of rebellion.

Ignore the sophists who falsely claim to be tolerant and loving. We are still the same humans that have always been. There is no progressive evolution in history: the destruction of many and the holocaust of peoples[1] is still within living memory.

So let us do our duty, and worship God and him alone. This will drive the sophists to rage, for their master knows that his time is short.

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1. The Jews and Gypsies under the NSDAP, The Hutus, The Armenians under Ataturk, the White farmers under Mugabe, and most of the Cambodians under Pol Pot: all scholars under Mao. Multiple peoples under Stalin.