As I've said numerous times before, the age of social media has brought with it a range of advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: Anyone can share the truth with a very large audience, at the click of a button. Disadvantage: Any numpty with a smart phone can say whatever they want, and reach a large audience, at the click of a button.
A shining example of this is the video platform TikTok. TikTok is a platform where users can post short videos, usually doing daft things like the Plank Challenge, or singing some strange song. But like all media platforms, TikTok has attracted its fair share of vocal atheists who think they know it all.
But TikTok seems different. Because the videos generally have to be short and sweet, when atheists post, they tend to unload huge amounts of nonsense in 30-60 seconds, and blimey do they look smug when they do it. Some of them even conclude with statements like this gem: "So way to prove to me that you are even more Biblically illiterate. Sit down, you are out of your league."
The problem is, you can do this with anything. I'm not going to actually make this TikTok because it's been quite some time since I was active on the app, and I'm quite content to keep it that way, but imagine if I stood in front of a camera and arrogantly stated the following:
So my neighbor spotted me drinking a can of coke yesterday, and she's like "oh, that's unhealthy, you should drink more water". Like, seriously Karen, you're the one who's unhealthy. You talk about how my processed drinks are unhealthy, but did you know your water is processed too? Go to Africa where the water is actually natural, you'll see that it's actually brown, like my coke. Meanwhile, if you look at the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Like, what do you want with bear arms? The bear needs them more than you do. This is the same country that manufactures your water, so if you think I'm unhealthy because I drink coke, imagine what's going on in your stomach right now. Don't test me Karen, I'm willing to give you the smack down any day.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "How dare you make me read that with my own two eyes?" But this is exactly how Christians feel when we watch these twenty second tirades against our faith. Telling us we're Biblically illiterate because we celebrate birthdays, which are nowhere condemned in the Bible, for example, is nothing short of cringeworthy. And that is one of the tame examples.
Of course, I'm not blaming TikTok for this phenomenon. For as long as atheists have had internet access, they have made muppets of themselves on it. But now, just as it has always been, the key to spiritual and intellectual growth is due diligence. If you're reading the Bible looking for ways to laugh at it like a chimp, you're doing it wrong. If you're quoting the Bible out of context with the intention of "proving" it wrong, you're being dishonest. All for the sake of little virtual hearts from plonkers more ignorant than yourself.
In the modern world, suppression of reason by force of law has been replaced by a more powerful method: Drown it out. Historically speaking, if you said something true that offended the dominant culture, they could punish you for it. Now, they just spread falsehoods by the dozen before you can even open your gob. Thus, reason dies a death by a thousand cuts. Cut down not by swords of iron, but by poorly folded origami ninja stars. My friends, this is what it looks like when kids rule the world.