Erick Erickson is Concerned With Consensus Science Religion

AD Robles iconAD Robles

4 views

0 comments

00:07
Oh boy, oh boy. Let's jump right into it today. I heard about this from John Harris.
00:16
I'm listening to his show that he posted today. It started off, it's pretty good. I haven't finished listening to it because when
00:23
I heard him reference this, I stopped the video and I said, I have to see this for myself.
00:28
So let's watch it together. This is Eric Erickson.
00:35
Now, I don't really know anything about Eric Erickson, to be honest. I didn't even know he was a radio host.
00:42
I don't know what he's known for and really, I don't care. But I do remember him on Twitter.
00:49
When I used to be on Twitter, I remember the kinds of things he used to tweet and he struck me as a bit of an unstable person.
00:55
If I'm thinking of the right guy, he would get unreasonably aggressive at the weirdest moments.
01:03
Like someone insults your mama or something, yeah, you'd get upset. But he would get upset about the strangest, weirdest things.
01:11
Anyway, so I don't want to say that I'm totally unbiased, but I don't know a whole lot about him.
01:19
So I do have a little bit of a bias here. But when I heard about this, oh my goodness. This is a little clip that he took from his show called, and it says, doubting the
01:31
Bible has a lot in common with doubting the vaccine. Doubting the
01:39
Bible, the Holy Word of God, the scriptures, has a lot in common with doubting the vaccine.
01:49
And the argument that he's going to make here, I haven't listened to the part about the vaccine yet.
01:56
But I have listened to the stuff about the Bible and scholars who doubt the Bible.
02:01
They try to emphasize the differences in the gospel accounts.
02:07
And they think that that proves something. And they use their critical theories to analyze the
02:15
Bible as just a regular work of literature and stuff like that. And of course, you know,
02:21
Christians understand that the Bible is the word of God. It's self -attesting, by the way. You know,
02:26
Jesus himself says that my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
02:33
And so we understand that the scripture is self -attesting, that now there's good scholarship about the Bible and all of that kind of thing.
02:41
But it's not like, I don't know, maybe Eric's doing this. I'm not doing this, guys.
02:47
And I'm not ashamed of this. It's not like I'm weighing out the evidence and I'm like, well, the evidence kind of seems to indicate that the
02:53
Bible is more likely to be the word of God than it's likely to not be the word of God.
03:00
And it's like, I'm weighing it out. And like, if there was a little bit more evidence that it wasn't the word of God, then maybe I wouldn't believe it.
03:05
Like, I'm not doing any of that, guys. I don't know what you guys are up to. I don't know what Eric is up to.
03:11
But I'm not doing that. But that's what he's saying. He's saying, you know, if you doubt the Bible in this way, you're kind of overemphasizing the things that don't make sense about it and under emphasizing the things that do make sense about it.
03:23
And so I guess he's going to say that people are doing that about the vaccine.
03:28
This is going to be interesting. Let's check it out. Citing Dr.
03:35
Robert Malone, a lot of you have cited Dr. Robert Malone, who claims to be the inventor of mRNA.
03:42
He's actually been called out on that and has walked it back now that he actually didn't invent mRNA. That was his original claim.
03:49
He invented a technology involved in transporting mRNA, but it's well settled on who the inventors are and it's not in dispute.
03:59
But there are a lot of people who are spending so much time on the doubts raised by those people and giving full veracity to those.
04:09
They're very much like the critical literary scholars in Scripture who cast all sorts of doubt on Scripture and you spend all of your time there.
04:15
Guess what? You're going to elevate the doubts above the truth as well. Okay. All right.
04:22
So here's the thing. So he's going to say that I guess the vaccine skeptics or the scientists that are raising, you know, the risks of the vaccine, because that's the thing.
04:32
It's like all these scientists that are out there, what they say is that not that it's totally worthless technology, it's garbage, whatever.
04:40
No, they're saying like, you know, a lot of people are like not considering the costs, right? They're only considering the benefits, not really the cost.
04:47
And there's actually some serious costs here. Then it could be harmful long term, it could actually strengthen the virus itself and create all these variants.
04:57
So maybe you like pump the brakes a little bit before you start insisting that people get this vaccine.
05:02
Otherwise, they can't go to work or they can't eat or whatever the thing is, like very mild claims here.
05:08
But you know, people that are pro this, this, this, this COVID, you know, fear cult, they, you know, they, they, they freak out anytime anyone says anything even mildly contrary.
05:20
Like I remember when I was like, saying about the mask mandates, I was like, you know, my position is that I think everyone should get to choose for themselves whether or not they wear a mask, you know, they all do the cost benefit analysis themselves.
05:32
You know, we did this last year with the flu, you know, everyone knew how to handle being sick before, but for some reason, now you're mandating it.
05:39
And people were like, freaking out. Like I said, the most extreme thing ever. And it's like, no, actually, that's the middle of the road position, right?
05:46
Like, on the one hand, you can have the mask mandates, that's extreme. On the other hand, you have the masks disallowing masks, that's another extreme.
05:53
And the middle of the road position is everyone picks for themselves, which we've been doing for a long time in this country.
05:59
That's somehow extreme to these psychos. And so, okay, so, so, so if you, if you, if you look at the literature, that's kind of contrary to these vaccines, well, then, you know, you're, you're, you're, what you're doing is the same kind of thing that people do with the
06:14
Bible, they look at the contrary, critical analysis. You just are, you spend all of your time there.
06:21
And you decide, well, you know, the pharmaceutical industry has a vested financial interest in getting me to have the vaccine, the government has a vested financial interest in trying to force me to get it as a matter of elevating their control and setting precedent, you're going to stay away from that stuff.
06:34
And you're going to focus on the doubters, and you're going to elevate the doubt. It is true, the vaccine, I actually don't care about the science at all.
06:41
And, and my argument about not getting the vaccine is I don't want to get it. And I know that those first two things are true.
06:48
Hopefully he'll, he'll try to refute those two things. Yes, the pharmaceutical company has a vested financial interest in making me take as many drugs as possible.
06:56
That's their whole game. And yes, the government is absolutely using this crisis as a means to power.
07:04
There's just no question about that. That's not questionable. There's no doubt about that. There's so much overreach, there's so much contradictory information, the propaganda is so thick, that it's not even debatable that the government is doing this.
07:16
And for so for me, I'm not getting it. Because I'm not in the habit of just taking extra drugs when
07:22
I don't need them, right? Like, every time I have a headache, I don't pop an aspirin. Like, sometimes
07:27
I do if it's really hard, and I'm trying to focus on something. But most of the time, I don't. Every time
07:32
I have a cold, I'm not chugging NyQuil. Although I do like NyQuil. I'll give you that. I mean, NyQuil, it knocks you right out.
07:39
That's sleep. That's some good sleep. Only problem is though, then you get like the NyQuil hangover. And it's hard to wake up in the morning that I like NyQuil.
07:46
I'll give him that. But, but again, it's like, you know, am I am I am I a cold medicine denier if I just choose not to take cold medicine?
07:55
What if you were forced to take cold medicine, like you had a cold, and you know, you were feeling sick, and you know, you're all stuffy, you know how you sound when you have a cold.
08:02
And what if it was mandated by your employer that you take cold medicine? Like everyone would see that's insane, guys.
08:09
That's crazy. But But the thing is, like, nobody's called a cold medicine denier if they choose not to regularly take cold medicine.
08:16
That's a simple choice. Some people take it at the slightest sign of a sniffle. Some people never take it.
08:21
It's like, we know how to do this, guys. It's it's the mandates. I don't care about the science at all.
08:28
I'm sure that that one day the mRNA technology will be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Right now it doesn't really seem to be so but either way, though,
08:36
I wouldn't take an unnecessary vaccine. I just wouldn't. I don't want to get the COVID virus.
08:41
But I also don't want to get the flu. And I don't take the flu vaccine. It's like, what's the problem with that?
08:48
Like, why does that offend you so much? Seeing is not 100 % effective.
08:54
It is true. There are people who have had self side effects. In fact, there are people who have had self health side effects of every medicine known to mankind.
09:02
I mean, have you ever listened to the to the Viagra commercial? If it lasts more than four hours, you go to the doctor, you're thinking what?
09:08
How do they know that? Well, it probably happened to somebody and they had to go to the doctor. Does it happen to everybody? No. Does it happen to most people?
09:14
No. Does it happen to a large minority? No. Does it happen to some? Yes. And so why is why is it not okay to be like, yeah, you know, you should really consider the cause before you take a
09:25
Viagra pill. There's nothing wrong with that. You should really consider the costs before you take, you know, an aspirin or Tylenol or, you know, whatever it is like that.
09:38
See, this is this is the thing that he's that he's so upset about. This is the thing that gets them all red in the face. It's that anyone would dare say, and I'm not so sure about this one.
09:47
You know, it's pretty new. You know, yeah, people, a lot of people say it's safe, but they don't really know. And there seems to be some some, you know, you know, legitimate concerns.
09:56
He's admitting that there are some concerns here. So so then that's the so what is hard to understand about this,
10:02
Eric? What does this have to do with doubting the Bible? This is not why people doubt the Bible.
10:11
Some of you want it to happen to you. Let's be honest. Ooh, he's a spicy one,
10:17
Eric. He's a spicy one. He's talking about an erection.
10:24
If you elevate the doubters and give them sanction to inform your worldview, guess what?
10:32
Your worldview is going to reflect the doubters, whether it's about scripture, whether it's about the vaccine. That's right.
10:38
And likewise, if you elevate the people that are pushing this and coercing people and lying for months and months because they did lie for months and months about coronavirus and they're overstepping their authority, if you overemphasize their authority, that's also going to inform your worldview, right?
11:00
That's also going to inform your world. What does this have to do with the Bible, by the way? Because I want the scripture to inform my worldview.
11:08
So of course, I'm going to, well, I guess I'm not going to overemphasize, but I'm going to emphasize what
11:13
God says over what some, you know, punk, you know, philosophy student first year says, obviously.
11:20
I'm obviously going to emphasize what God says about creation rather than what some stupid scientist with a lab coat and a stupid haircut says about creation, right?
11:31
Like what's that fat guy, uh, PZ Myers, that schlub, that guy that the only evolutionary biologist is just like spit coming everywhere and stuff like that.
11:41
Like, I'm not going to take him, his word. I'm not going to weigh it against God's word. Like, yes,
11:46
I want the scripture to inform my worldview and no, I don't want, you know,
11:51
Pfizer to inform my worldview. Like what, what's hard to understand about this? It's very weird.
11:59
And you can say, well, what about the other side? What about the other side? Well, you know, why don't you listen to the rebuttals?
12:08
Not just the one person rebuttal, listen to the overwhelming number of rebuttals. Yeah. The overwhelming number of rebuttals rebut creation science as well.
12:16
I mean, I'm sure Eric, Eric Erickson is a, is a evolutionist. I mean, I don't doubt that at all.
12:22
I mean, he certainly seems if, if he's going to have consistent logic here, right? Yeah. The overwhelming, you know, you know, authorities tell me that the world is the universe is billions and trillions and whatever years old.
12:35
And, you know, we're, we're, you know, the sun is just going to explode into a big ball. We're all going to die.
12:40
And it's like, and I'm not weighing out the evidence here, guy, like,
12:46
God says what has happened. And so I believe God, right? And so when it comes to the vaccine, though, see, this is the difference.
12:54
Like, like when people are doing critical analysis on the word of God, right?
13:00
What we know is that we have a infallible, perfect, holy word from the
13:07
Lord, right? So we know the source material is, is perfect, right?
13:12
It's God's word. And so we're seeking out what God's word says. Now, when it comes to the science, though, we also, likewise, we have natural revelation, right?
13:22
And so we're, we're going after natural revelation. We see natural revelation is a little bit more complicated, right?
13:28
It's a little bit more complicated. And we understand because we understand how science has changed over the years that science is regularly wrong.
13:38
And we know if, if, if our lives don't depend on it, then we don't necessarily need to, you know, make, you know, perfect, infallible decisions on what nature is saying to us.
13:50
We can make decisions that we, you know, use our cost benefit analysis and that's fine, right?
13:56
That's fine. And so, yeah, I might emphasize certain things more than others, but, but again, what, what does this have to do with the scripture, right?
14:03
Because with the scripture, God says, my sheep hear my voice.
14:09
I know them and they follow me. And so when PZ Myers comes and tells me what
14:14
Matthew 13 says, I don't have to consider what he's, what he's saying as authoritative or important, or I need to weigh it against what
14:23
God says. Like that's not how it works. I'm just very confused by this. I said to one of these guys today,
14:30
I had to walk it back and kind of apologize for being a little bit harsh in my response to him.
14:36
He has a hot head. I've gotten this from a ton of people and looks like he has high blood pressure.
14:44
I got it almost at exactly the same time from someone else. But his point is, you know, it's not clear.
14:50
It's not black and white. It's not perfect. And he's right. But the overwhelming preponderance of science and data is that, yes, there are some problems for some people.
15:01
See, this is amazing because this is the same kind of person, right? Who will say that we're not qualified to read the studies and understand the arguments, but we are qualified to understand the arguments so long as they're pro vaccine and, you know, everyone for everyone.
15:19
Like that's why it's so, it's so inconsistent. So it's like, I don't understand the arguments against the vaccine, but I definitely can just accept the arguments for it.
15:29
It's like there is an infallible authority here and it's the science. And I'm sorry, the science is regularly incorrect.
15:36
And the science is immoral because the science is put forward by immoral scientists.
15:45
So why would I accept the word of immoral scientists? See, the science is not really a thing.
15:50
The science is just what immoral scientists like to say. You see what I'm saying? Like, like actual science is fine, but the science is a deity that is worshiped by people around the world, including,
16:03
I guess, Eric Erickson. I've seen just as there are, some people can't eat peanuts.
16:09
They have a deadly allergic reaction, but do we, do we stop everybody from eating peanuts? No. Now you're saying, well, it's peanuts.
16:16
They're trying to force us to get the vaccine. Yes. They also do that with the MMR. If you want to go to school.
16:22
Yeah. And they should stop doing that. They should close the schools.
16:28
You shouldn't get, just get the vaccine just because the government tells you to, you should get it because you think you should get it.
16:35
I mean, I don't know. And we know, in fact, there is a vaccine registry of people who have been paid claims because the
16:43
MMR has had a negative side effect against them. And it is hundreds of people out of hundreds of millions who have gotten it.
16:51
Now it is true. The MRNA vaccine has more people respond negatively to it.
16:58
It is also true that for example, let's take the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. They put a pause on it because the potential of a blood clot, you're more likely to get that same blood clot from taking birth control than you are from the
17:09
MR from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. If you're a woman. Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't take birth control either because if you're taking birth control, because you think that there are no risks, there are no costs, then you're an idiot.
17:21
And maybe you should reconsider, you know, this is the thing, like, you know, if you only look at the benefits and don't allow people to make their own decisions based on what the costs of those benefits are, that's tyranny.
17:35
Why is Eric Erickson promoting tyranny? This is the thing. Like I thought from what
17:41
I understand about this guy, he's supposedly some conservative stalwart, whatever. But the thing is, like, get the vaccine.
17:48
If you want to get the vaccine, knock yourself out. Knock yourself out. Why are you okay, though, with people not being able to make their own decisions?
17:56
Why aren't you okay with people doing their own cost benefit analysis? Why do you insist that there is this thing called the science that has a consent?
18:06
There's no such thing as a the science concept consensus. There's always people that are naysaying, and often those naysayers are correct.
18:19
There's just no consistency to this at all. And yet we elevate the blood clot concern of the vaccine when it's actually far less likely for a woman to get that than they are to get a blood clot from birth control.
18:33
And yet birth control, there are a lot of people who want it over the counter now. All I'm saying is that there are reasons to be concerned.
18:41
But overwhelmingly, most of those reasons have a scientifically orthodox response, just as scientifically orthodox response.
18:52
I mean, this seems to certainly seems to me like more of that priestly class propaganda for the science.
19:00
This is the religion. This is the religion of our time. It's the science.
19:05
And there's priests that interpret what the science is. This is Romans one. Hold on one second.
19:13
It's a clear it's Romans one. There's an orthodoxy here. So we've got people that they worship and serve the creation here.
19:23
And so they're going to interpret what the creation is telling you. And there's an orthodoxy.
19:28
So whatever the priest says, whatever the science says, that's what that's what goes.
19:34
There's no room for unorthodox takes here. You see, that's not that's not real science, though.
19:39
You see that that's that's a religion. That's a religious commitment. Real science allows for unorthodox takes and and and that people who understand the actual history of science understand that this is something that regularly happens that there's this.
19:55
I mean, listen, like a lot of times, you know, these these atheist types will talk about like Galileo and now, you know, but the thing is, like, like, like, we have to understand that that today the
20:04
Roman Catholic Church is the science and they're not allowing for, you know, people like Galileo to say, yeah, you know,
20:11
I'm not so sure about the science because we've got guys like Eric Erickson telling you that you can't doubt it because there's an orthodoxy here, just like with scripture.
20:22
Who rushed to focus on the criticisms of the Bible and well among the critics of the
20:28
Bible based on what are perceived inconsistencies or or perceived nonsense or perceived perceived errors that they spend a little bit of time in passing with a couple of the people who try to debunk it.
20:40
But overwhelmingly, they spend their time with the critics. And guess what? If you spend your time overwhelmingly with a group of people, you are more and more likely to become like those groups of groups of people.
20:50
So you spend your time engaged with and and focused on the criticisms and the concerns of the vaccine.
20:56
Guess what? You are going to wind up criticizing and having overwhelming, perhaps debilitating concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine.
21:05
OK, so he actually makes a pretty good point here. But the thing is, so yes, of course, you will be like the people that you hang out with, the people that you study, the people that you learn from.
21:15
That's a that's a biblical concept. You're going to become like your teacher. But here's the thing,
21:22
Eric, like this is what is so weird about this. And to be honest with you, like.
21:30
This is I don't really even know the right word, but blasphemous,
21:36
I don't know, because here's the thing, why do people look up PZ Myers or the friendly atheist or, you know,
21:45
King Heathen on YouTube? That was one of the first ones I used to listen to King Heathen. Why do people seek these people out?
21:51
Right. Is it that is it that they're they're they're, well, it's got to weigh out the evidence and then whatever the evidence says, this is that's what
21:59
I'm going to do. I'm going to be either a Christian or I'm going to be an unbeliever like I'm going to weigh out the evidence. No, they they don't do it that.
22:06
That's not what happens. Ask any pastor. Now, I can't say that because there's so many weak pastors out there, but ask most pastors when when a young man comes to them and says, hey, pastor, you know,
22:18
I'm having some doubts about the faith, you know, I mean, you know, this, you know, John says this, and I learned from PZ Myers this and what is what?
22:26
Ask a pastor what's typically going on there. What's typically going on there is that person, that young man has a girlfriend that he wants to sleep with.
22:35
That's what's typically going on there. When someone comes to the Bible and they spend all their time with the doubters, what is happening on the inside?
22:43
Well, we actually don't have to guess because the Bible tells us clearly what happens with people like that.
22:51
Here's what it says. Here's what it says. It says that people that twist the
22:59
Bible, they twist what it says. They're ignorant. They're unstable. They distort the scriptures.
23:07
They distorted Paul just like they distorted the rest of the scriptures. That's from 2 Peter. The Psalms.
23:14
All day long, they twist my words. All their thoughts are on my demise. Here's Jeremiah 23.
23:24
But refer no more to the burden of the Lord, for each man's word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the
23:31
God, the Lord of hosts. This is 2
23:36
Peter 2. Their eyes are full of adultery. Their desire for sin is never satisfied.
23:42
They seduced the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
23:51
The reality is that when people are seeking out P .Z. Myers and Aaron Raw and all those losers, and they're trying to figure out what they have,
24:00
Bible inconsistencies, contradictions, they seek that out not because they're trying to honestly figure out what the
24:07
Bible actually says. They seek that out because they are pagans. They are unbelievers.
24:13
They have a heart of stone, an immoral and wicked heart. They've got adultery on the mind.
24:20
They've got envy on the mind. They've got things that they want to do. They've got people that they want to sleep with, and so they go and they find out that Aaron Raw says that John 3 contradicts with Matt 17, and that's what they do.
24:35
It's a matter of immorality. It's a matter of, of, I'm raging against God.
24:41
I refuse. I refuse to kiss the sun and honor him as God. That's what's going on with those people, and so that has nothing to do with someone who is seeking out non -vaccine materials because the person who's seeking out, you know, hey, let's look at some contradictory evidence to what
25:01
Fauci says, what they're doing typically is saying, you know, Fauci really hasn't been that reliable in this.
25:06
I mean, in the beginning, he said this wasn't a big deal, and then he said no mask, and then he said mask, and he's been kind of inconsistent.
25:12
Now, I don't necessarily think that that means he's evil, or maybe I do think that means he's evil, but there's been some inconsistency here, and so now
25:22
I want to make sure that I'm reading the other side because there might be some further inconsistency, and look, but after all, scientists aren't perfect, right?
25:32
Scientists are, the science sometimes can be changed, and so let me look at some of this other stuff, and so that's what people are, they actually are weighing the evidence when it comes to, you know, the things like the vaccine and stuff like that because things like the vaccine, these are technological advancements, and we understand that technological advancements are only as good as the people that create them.
25:54
There's no orthodoxy with them, and so this actually has nothing to do with doubting the
26:02
Bible. People doubt the Bible because they hate God and want to sin. People doubt the vaccine because they're doing a cost -benefit analysis, and they're not really sure that the benefits are worth the cost.
26:15
I mean, I've said this before, like, if I had cancer and I was going to die in a month and someone came with a radical experimental disease,
26:23
I might consider it because, you know, I'm going to be dead anyway, so let's just take a shot, right? But if I'm probably not going to die and probably going to be okay,
26:33
I'm not going to take that same experimental, if I had like a cancer that was really treatable, right, like a really treatable cancer,
26:39
I wouldn't take that same radical experimental treatment if I didn't need to. Why would
26:44
I do that? That's my cost -benefit analysis, and like that's totally different than doubting the scripture.
26:51
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about this. I hope you have a good long weekend, and I might do a live later.