Sunday, January 26, 2014

Answering Kirk Hastings: Introduction

While I originally intended to publish the following series of short essays as an ebook, I realized the market for apologetic writing pointing out the flaws of Religion 4 Faith's Kirk Hastings is very, very small. No one is going to pay $0.99 for an book addressing the host of a defunct podcast. As a result of this realization I will post the essays to this blog as I finish them. This has the advantage of giving  Kirk's defenders, should he have any, an opportunity to respond.

First Question for Darwinists
Second Question for Darwinists
Third Question for Darwinists
Fourth Question for Darwinists
Fifth Question for Darwinists
Sixth Question for Darwinists
Seventh Question for Darwinists
Eighth Question for Darwinists
Ninth Question for Darwinists
Tenth Question for Darwinists
Now avaialbe as an Ebook on Amazon.com
Kirk Hastings Sorta Responds

Introduction



I first became aware of Kirk Hastings when he taunted the hosts of the Irreligiosophy podcast with a copy of his self-published Christian apologetic "What Is Truth?: A Handbook for Separating Fact from Fiction in a Propaganda-Filled World" The hosts replied with a multi-episode review of the book, picking apart it’s scientific errors, logical fallacies and overall poor construction.


One of the hosts then posted a review of the book to Amazon.com titled There are intelligent defenses of Christianity. This is not one of them.


Kirk’s response was embarrassing. He ranted and raved about atheist conspiracies and replied to his critics not with a rational debate, but with insults. Eventually he devolved into posting the same reply to multiple reviewers. A few months later, he went back and posted a Biblically themed word soup of divine revenge fantasy to all his critics in the Amazon reviews.


For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools ... For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. ... And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind ... being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-22, 25, 28-32) ... You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? (Matthew 23:33)


Given the overall content of “What is Truth?” his amateur attempt at apologetic writing, this response was not unexpected. Amazon deleted the threats and spam, and Kirk played the victim card.


During all of this Kirk, or people acting upon his behalf, created a series of Facebook pages attacking his critics and defending Kirk. It seemed Kirk had been broken.


What is Truth? - This page is based on the 2009 book by Kirk Hastings called "What Is Truth? A Handbook For Separating Fact From Fiction In A Propaganda-Filled World".


Freedom From Atheistic Scientism - The FFAS seeks to challenge the modern wrongful use of scientific evidence in government, society, and legal public policy.


The Question Irreligiosophy Project - To call into question the tactics, actions, and beliefs of internet atheist hate groups like Irreligiosophy, and Question Creationism.
Atheists shouldn't be allowed in public - The original page, “Atheists Shouldn’t be allowed to Reproduce” was deleted by Facebook, apparently for terms of Service violations. The slightly retitled page was created shortly after the deletion with most of the previous page’s content. The official page description is “Since atheists cause strife and meaninglessness wherever they go, we would be better off as a society if they simply weren't allowed in public!” Kirk seems unaware of the irony of a Christian, a faith with a long tradition of persecution and martyrdom stories, seeking to persecute others on religious grounds.

Evidence 4 Faith -  Facebook page for Kirk’s defunct religion podcast. It didn’t last long after a disastrous episode where the podcast’s hosts went up against the hosts of Irreligiosophy. While technically a “debate” Kirk had to be corrected more than once about his own arguments.


Kirk also has a few fan fiction stories and a fan site about 8th man. He is also a frequent contributor to his church web site.


There was a predictable pattern to the religion themed pages. At first the pages would get a flood of posts from people looking to engage Kirk, or the parties pretending to be him. After a few questions, they would get banned and their posts deleted. Their posts would then be described by the page moderator as having been profane, rude, offensive or some other adjective that would theoretically justify banning the person. The problem was, these insults were directed at just about anyone who posted critical content, regardless what they actually wrote. Eventually the page would consist largely of Kirk’s own comments, replies to posts that had been deleted. To anyone unfamiliar with what was going on, the pages came to resemble a madman talking to himself, posting replies to imaginary people. Given how divorced from reality his depictions of his critics tend to be, such a suspicion would not be far off.


That’s where this series of essays comes in. Kirk’s endless stream of Facebook pages occasionally diverts from insults and hubris into asking or stating something deserving of a response. Since all the people interested in responding to him appear to have been banned from his pages, responding to him requires the conversation be taken elsewhere, someplace where he can’t delete the posts, and where he can’t claim someone was using profanity when they weren’t.


There are online forums where others are doing just that, responding to Kirk and his attacks.

Bearing False Witness - A blog post post about an exchange with Kirk Hastings about Kirk falsely attributing a quote to a scientist.

Irreligiosophy Fan Group -  Fan page for the podcast that started this kerfuffle.

Question Kirk Hastings - A place to respond to the public personality, vanity press "author", attempted podcaster, and admitted liar Kirk Hastings. A criticism and critique page.


The description for the “Question Kirk Hastings” page reads:


At the begining(sic) of September 2012, after sending emails to the podcast "Irreligiosophy" expounding on how great his book was, Kirk Hastings was floored to find out that when reviewed, the hosts of that show found his book to be lacking. An in depth 4 part review exposed many logic problems, contradictions and basic math errors committed on the part of Mr. Hastings. Rather than respond rationally with counter arguments Kirk decided to create a facebook page called "Question Irreligiosophy".


Here he called anyone who didn't like his book part of a hate group. And when the questions didn't favor his point of view he deleted the comments from posters and banned them. Not content with that he would go on to make up stories about what those comments were about and why the poster was banned. He retreated from anything that made him question his world view, and deleted those who would defend their own.

Sick of his dishonesty, comments made by Mister Hastings will be cross copied here for anyone to comment on. Even Kirk Hastings. Without fear of deletion. Because unlike Kirk Hastings, those of us on the other side of this debate, welcome open discussion. 

Continue to the First Question for Darwinists

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