Don't Tell Me

Mark Schwieso

Description

This book questions what we’re being taught to believe by schools, universities, and the media, covering topics such as evolution, COVID-19, and the Bible.

Today, we live in a complacent country where only certain answers are acceptable.

In this book, the author dares to go against accepted wisdom, considering questions such as:

• Is the divorce rate really 50%—and if it isn’t, what is it and why should we care?

• Why is the media telling us COVID-19 is so bad?

• Do we really know Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to be true?

• Has the Bible been disproven and debunked?

Other topics include the Big Bang Theory, biological differences between men and women, politics and religion, random mutations, UFOs, and global myths.

The author also explains that the best lies are 99% true—liars practice their craft using the truth to mislead others. Moreover, he notes that no matter what you believe, truth is still true. For instance, even if a person believes they can fly, if they jump off a ten-story building, they will still die upon hitting the ground.

Join the author as he asks questions that the establishment would prefer you keep to yourself by reading Don’t Tell Me.

Sujets

• Christian Living
• Social Issues
• Philosophie et théologie
• Teoría del Big Bang
• Evolution
• Religion
• Big Bang
• Divorce

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 19 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664267862
• Langue: English

Extrait

DON’T TELL ME
 
CRITICAL THINKING: WHAT IS IT AND CAN I BUY IT ONLINE?
 
 
 
 
MARK SCHWIESO
 
 
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2022 Mark Schwieso.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Unless otherwise noted, scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6787-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6788-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6786-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022909990
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 08/04/2022
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Relevant Discussions
Introduction
COVID-19 (CDC, 2021)
Biological Differences in the Sexes and Impacts
Politics and Religion
Statistics
Divorce Rate
Conclusion
Chapter 2 The Big Bang
Introduction
The Big Bang
The Anthropic Principle
In the Beginning
Earth
You Are the Air I Breathe
The Core of the Problem
On the Rocks
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Evolution
Introduction
Descent
Mutations
The Engine Driving Mutations
In the Beginning
Descent with Modification through Natural Selection to Human Beings
Evolution Conclusion
The Intangibles
Chapter 4 The Historicity of the Bible (The Old Testament)
Introduction
Divine Creation
Old Testament Time Lines and Egypt
Jews in Egypt
Other Biblical Synchronisms with Egypt
Conclusion
Chapter 5 The New Testament
Introduction
New Testament Fidelity
The Fidelity of the Message
External Evidence
Archaeological Evidence and Biblical Contradictions
Tackling Jesus
The Crucifixion
Christianity Conclusion
Don’t Tell Me—Conclusion
References

CHAPTER 1
Relevant Discussions
The difference between Opinion and Principle is Conviction.
—Mark Schwieso
I.   Introduction
“How many bottles in a six-pack?” my stepdad asked me all the time.
“I don’t know … Four?” would be my best guess based on my age.
Why did my dad ask me this? His attempt at being funny? Maybe he was getting a kick out of being mean to a four-year-old who couldn’t figure out a self-answering question. No one ever accused him of being kind or even nice for that matter.
“Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” That was another of his riddles I couldn’t figure out. How in the world was a four-year-old supposed to know who was buried in some dumb tomb?
I never did figure out why he used to always ask these questions and others, but I did learn from them. “How many bottles in a six-pack?” That taught me to pay attention to the question, more than just to the obvious though. Eventually, I learned to look for nuance as well as the premise of a question and assumptions that went into the answer.
“Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” That taught me my biggest lesson: Don’t accept every answer, even obviously correct answers, as the complete and absolute truth. Learn the answer, and know it for yourself. You might learn there is so much more to a story.
Ulysses S. Grant was a US president and the general who won the war for the North in the Civil War. He wasn’t buried in Washington, DC, or in Arlington Cemetery, VA, as befitting such an august general who made such an incredible impact on US history. Instead, his tomb overlooks the Hudson River in New York because of the love of a husband for his wife and the love of a wife for her husband. Grant wanted to be buried next to his wife, which did not happen in military cemeteries in Grant’s time as women were not allowed. Also, Grant’s wife wanted to visit her husband, so she wanted him close to her in New York.
It is true that Ulysses Grant is in the tomb, but so is his wife, Julia, and some speculate his dog as well. Also, they were not buried. They were entombed in matching sarcophagi aboveground.
“Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” To be technically correct, no one is buried there.
“Who’s entombed in Grant’s tomb?” Again, being technically correct, Grant and his wife, Julia, and his dog (probably) are entombed in New York because both could not be without the other even in death. To me, this is a much better and more completely true and fulfilling answer than Grant.
Since then, I’ve learned two even greater truths tangential to these two lessons.
1. The best lies are 99% true. A partial truth may be 100% true, but it isn’t 100% of the truth, so it can actually be a lie. So a person can actually tell a lie, using the truth. What? Seriously?
2. Truth is true regardless if you believe it. I can believe all I want that I have the inherent ability to fly, but if I jump off a ten-story building, my belief in my inherent flying ability won’t stop a quick introduction to the concrete sidewalk below.
This is important because today, students as well as the general population of the United States are not taught to learn; they are told what to believe. They are not encouraged to research facts and discover for themselves the truths they are seeking. They are stifled and encouraged not to look into the details; they are even ridiculed if they have the audacity to question what mainstream society and the media tell everyone is true. And as a result, apathy has set in.
And through partial truths and an apathetic population, our nation has been led into a downward spiral becoming as much if not more divided than during the time our famously entombed president lived. And much of our strife comes from having so-called settled truths preached to us about which people cannot have varying opinions or conclusions. And if there is no tolerance for varying opinions or conclusions, why question? Just be apathetic to the truth, accept what mainstream tells everyone, and get along.
The problem with that solution is that our republic then dies a quiet death. Too many people in the US do not understand or care how important and how rare freedom of speech actually is. Without it, speech becomes regulated, and unapproved speech is illegal, punishable by imprisonment (and death in some countries). Currently, unapproved speech is immoral, which is a huge step toward illegal.
I would like to discuss some of these unquestionable and dogmatic beliefs that plague our nation. I want to research the facts, listen to the experts, and pose questions concerning what we are taught versus what we see in the facts. I hope this will drive additional color into your beliefs just as you now have more color on the riddle of Grant’s tomb.
I am going to try to take a devil’s advocate approach. I’ll try to stay strictly to researching the subjects and asking thought-provoking questions. My questions will counter what we are being told. I posed the questions this way so people could see the gap in their knowledge, not to show my personal beliefs. My personal beliefs are irrelevant. My goal is to drive critical thought, not have people believe what I believe. My research for this book taught me things I had had no clue about, and that had an impact on my beliefs. But now, my beliefs have much more substance to them.
Before moving into the topics of the book, I need to ask, Do you think you should question a subject if everyone tells you that it is unquestionable, that it is settled? What if people question your morality or intelligence if you apply critical thought to settled subjects? Would you question then? Should you continue questioning when the mainstream wants to nip your critical thinking in the bud? They say it is fact, and no one can question it. Anyone who questions it is a fool, or worse … evil. Doesn’t that mentality make you want to question their reasoning? Doesn’t that mentality draw into question the rationale behind the reason we cannot question what they have concluded was settled? Does their adamancy indicate a bias?
Unfortunately, in today’s society, the answer to these questions are overwhelmingly no. We have raised a generation that does not pay attention to the questions and apply critical thinking to come to conclusions. They do not even know they need to. We are told what to believe, so there is no need to exert effort to check facts, conclusions, premises, or assumptions. If they are a little bit curious, they click on their favorite social media site, which obligingly regurgitates the mainstream dogma thus reinforcing the narrative being fed them. Little do ma