My Response to The Free Press Debate: DOES THE WEST NEED A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL?

The side that said 'we don't need religion' won the debate, not because they were right, but because people no longer know what it means to be a Christian.

WARNING! This is a tough one! It’s a REFLECTIONS FOR A SUNDAY, but that would have made too long of a title.

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I am slowly regaining my voice! I am so frustrated! Here is the best I could do, an introduction to this essay that is so important to me. You can hear what my voice sounds like:

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” ~ Galileo Galilei

Paula White-Cain, 58, pastor, author, and televangelist from Tupelo, Mississippi, is known for her role as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump and other celebrities.

The Free Press just conducted a debate Does the West Need a Religious Revival?

According to The Free Press:

At the beginning of the debate, a whopping 73 percent of the live audience voted in favor of religious revival.

As Douthat stated in his opening statement: “The convergence of secularization with political derangement and cultural despair is not a coincidence.”

But, later in the discussion, Carolla countered that point: “I think the uptick of despair is more physical. We were meant to go out and work and be on our feet and be in nature. And in the last 10 minutes, we took everyone and put them in a cubicle and blasted air-conditioning at them and told them to do data entry on a computer and we started eating our own brains.”

By the end of the debate, Shermer and Carolla were able to convince 12 percent of the audience to switch to their side—that religion is not the answer—changing more minds than their opponents and winning the night.

I would argue that the side for religion simply needed better debaters. Whether a person is “religious” or not, doesn’t change the fact that humans instinctively know there is a God. There is a Master Designer. All of this didn’t happen by chance.

In his opening statement, Michael Shermer argues against Christianity, saying before it, there were many civilizations that did great things, the Christian West didn’t have a monopoly on great art or good deeds. But how is this an argument against religion? All of those civilizations were religious too. They all believed in a God or gods, they all knew, just as we do, that there is a higher power that created us, we didn’t happen by chance.

He then goes on to say that, in fact, Christian and Muslim nations came along and tried to erase the evidence of those civilizations. But again, they still all believed in God. So, the problem isn’t with the Creator, it’s with “religion.” This is the basic problem of making the debate about religion. There is no doubt that religion has been the cause of the greatest bloodshed down through history. But religions are manmade institutions that try to mold God into their idea of what God should be, in order to attain power for themselves.

As a Christian, I can only argue that, no, we do not need a religious revival, we need to return to what it actually means to be a Christian. That’s why I now call myself a “follower of Jesus,” because Christianity has been perverted by those in power.

In her opening statement, Aayan Hirsi Ali quoted Thomas Jefferson:

“The teaching of Jesus offers the most sublime and benevolent code of morals ever offered to man.”

This is indisputable. Read the Sermon on the Mount, you will not find anything as simple, as beautiful, as perfectly telling us how we should live our lives. Let me just quote Matthew 5:1-16

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

But who actually lives by these morals. How can we blame people for turning away from Christianity when Christian pastors and priests behave in such immoral ways? Show me a prominent Christian leader that lives as Jesus did.

If religion means President Trump’s new “White House faith office” headed by Florida “prosperity preacher” Paula White, I don’t blame people for leaving religion. This is exactly what I’ve been warning about in my series on Christian Nationalism (links at the bottom of this essay), and it’s disappointing that Trump is listening to those who promote it. But that’s because Trump is ignorant of what it means to be a Christian, and even if he knew what it meant, he wouldn’t like it because to be a Christian is the antithesis of the material success he worships.

Here’s Pastor White, the spiritual advisor Trump consults when seeking spiritual advice:

I’m sorry but, this is not Christianity. This is not following Jesus. Again, this is why in the past year or so I now say I am a follower of Jesus because my faith has nothing to do with what these tele-evangelists promote.

These multi-millionaires like Paula White, Kenneth Copland and Benny Hinn—the prosperity preacher White is alleged to have had an affair with, and well, they were filmed coming out of a hotel in Rome holding hands—are not followers of Jesus.

Jesus said:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” ~ Matthew 16:24

When Jesus called his disciples, Matthew 4:20 says, “And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.”

Jesus didn’t say, follow me and you will get rich and have over a million followers on X. He said to leave everything.

I can tell you, if my dad, Dave Hunt, was alive today and had been in that Free Press debate, he would have won it, hands down. Hey, I could have won that debate. I am 68 years old, not a brand-new Christian, I have a history of struggling with the truth, of denying it and then returning after years of searching, having been raised by parents who taught me the clear principles of the Bible. Thank God for that foundation because I fear it is going by the wayside.

If you want to understand how we got to this point of complete lack of understanding of what it means to be a Christian, listen to my father in this powerful talk:

The Christianity we have in most churches today is far removed from what Jesus taught. This is why people are leaving churches, not because what Jesus taught isn’t true.

Of course, the side debating against religion will win if they say that the despair so many are feeling is “more physical.” Taking away the spiritual, making everything about our feelings, is exactly how the powers-that-be have sold us on needing to ingest their pills, buy their products, live in their virtual worlds so we will be “happy.” If we aren’t “happy” there is something wrong with us.

Except that the more we are told there is no God, we are not spiritual beings, it’s all physical, and, in fact, we can be God by connecting to machines, the more we fall into despair.

Yes, we are absolutely “meant to go out and work and be on our feet and be in nature.” We are not meant to be stuck in a “cubicle” with “blasted air-conditioning…told… to do data entry on a computer,” resulting in us “eating our own brains.”

But how is this an argument against God?

All down through history (except for the last “ten minutes” as the anti-religion side said) when we were out in nature, that’s WHEN WE BELIEVED IN GOD. It’s only since we became couch potatoes, addicted to entertainment and eventually locking ourselves inside virtual worlds where we avoid the real world 24/7 that we stopped believing in God.

So, to say all we need to do is to get “back to nature” and we won’t need God anymore is just about the worst argument anti-religion debaters could come up with. That’s why I say the pro-religion side needed better debaters.

I prefer hiking in the mountains to going to church. I prefer looking up at the starry sky in the desert than sitting in a chair surrounded by four walls, even if it’s the most beautiful cathedral in the world. Nothing that man creates can ever rival God’s creation.

It is when we are in nature that we must acknowledge God because we see his handiwork everywhere.

Anti-religious folks seem to think science and the advent of AI have done away with God. But let’s look at what men of science said throughout history, before we were ever stuck in cubicles:

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” ~ Albert Einstein

“The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. Science brings men nearer to God.” ~ Louis Pasteur

Even Charles Darwin acknowledged the existence of God:

“The impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God.”

And who can dispute the powerful words of Frank Tipler:

“When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.”

I could quote many more.

The Free Press debate might have convinced 12 percent of the audience to turn against religion, but the fact is, people know there is a God who created us.

In Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses:

“I Am That I Am … Thus, shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”

When I read those words, I know they are true. Every civilization down through history has recognized this.

We are the first that has tried to kill God:

We made up all sorts of alternative theories and then tried to prove them. But come on, it takes more faith to believe that the universe is the result of a Big Bang, and we all evolved out of a primordial soup than it takes to believe that a Master Designer created us.

Instead of killing God, we have a new religion of AI. Because despite what the anti-religion side argued, humans cannot live without faith. If we stray from God, we make up some other reason for existence to fill the void.

Anti-Aging Billionaire Bryan Johnson Launches ‘Don’t Die’ as a New Religion of AI to “Save the Human Race.”

In a series of posts on X, this tech guru outlines what he calls the fastest growing ideology in history:

Dear humanity, I am building a religion. Wait a second, I know what you’re going to say. Hold that knee-jerk reaction and let me explain. First, here’s what’s going to happen:

• Don’t Die becomes history's fastest-growing ideology.

• It saves the human race.

• And ushers in an existence more spectacular than we can imagine. It is inevitable. The only question is: will you be an early or late adopter?

Why is it inevitable? Four fundamental shifts are happening right now:

1) We are giving birth to superintelligence (AI).

2) No existing ideology solves AI alignment.

3) With AI, our species’ survival is not guaranteed.

4) With AI, individual biological death is no longer inevitable. We are at risk of extinction without a unifying framework to solve human alignment and AI alignment.

What does Don’t Die even mean, he asks. Here are his findings:

On a personal level, for years I’ve tried to eat, sleep and breathe Don’t Die, literally. To embody it in every one of my 35 trillion cells. Practically this means:

• going to bed on time, exercising daily, and eating nutritiously

• measuring and improving every organ in my body

• eliminating toxins, lowering stress, being with family and friends

  As a result, I now have the slowest aging speed in recorded history. Science, measurement, and protocols work. The same methodical approach can scale to earth, AI and the human species.

Johnson spends approximately $2 million a year on his body, trying to escape death. As your guru, he wants you to give him all your money so you can escape death, too.

He is just another type of tele-evangelist, scamming people for money. Nobody needs a guru to tell them that the best thing they can do for their body is to go to bed on time, exercise daily, and eat nutritiously.

The tech gods with their new AI religion think we can live forever if we connect with the machines they are creating. They are tinkering with God’s creation and the consequences will be dire.

We do not even understand our own brains, yet we want to hand them over to artificial intelligence, a flawed human creation that is already known to lie to us because, well, it is made by greedy, lying humans.

If I was in that debate, I would have argued for God, not religion. I would have argued for God’s perfect design.

Let’s just look at the human brain.

The human brain is the most complex known structure in the universe (Dolan, 2007). The numbers are indeed staggering: Ingenious research methods that examined the almost 1,000 brain regions, and extrapolated the expected density from small samples, estimated the total number of nerve cells—or neurons—in the brain at 86 billion (Azevedo et al., 2009).

On top of this, there are another 85 billion cells that serve various functions in the brain. Even more incredible is that each one of these neurons on average connects to thousands of other neurons, resulting in an estimated 100 trillion connections (Caruso, 2023; Zimmer, 2011).

These connections allow signals to travel between neurons and can function as logic gates, giving it a computing power of one exaflop—that is one quintillion mathematical operations per second (Madhavan, 2023)—that is a billion times a billion or 1 followed by 18 zeros.

And it does all of this in an incredibly efficient way, using only 20 watts of power. In comparison, one of the most advanced supercomputers in the world requires a million times more power (20 megawatts) to reach anything near a similar computing capacity (Madhavan, 2023).

The total length of this complex fiber network is estimated to be around 500,000km or over 310,000 miles long (Science Daily, 2017). Signals inside this network can reach traveling speeds of 431 kmh or 268 mph (Ross, 2011).

And now, all these tech gods and their companies, such as Neuralink, Synchron, BlackRock, want to invade your brain, allow flawed artificial intelligence to live there, influencing your thoughts, “enhancing” your life, so they say.

This is just one more false religion.

Saddest of all, it should be obvious to every Christian that all of these variations of religion are trying to sway us from the one Truth in the Bible, written in such simplicity so that everyone can understand:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” ~ John 3:16

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” ~ Philippians 4:8

We can run away, we can try to deny it, we can be fools like Bryan Johnson and create a new religion, we can insist that we know better than anyone else because we worship God in a certain way, in a certain type of building, praying a certain way, washing our hands a certain way, wearing certain types of clothes, but this is all manmade extraneous stuff that has nothing to do with the God of the Universe and the teachings of Jesus.

NO. The West DOES NOT need a religious revival. As Christians, we need to return to the fundamentals of what it means to follow Jesus. He didn’t say send me a hundred dollars and it will “manifest” a thousand for you. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

No one should be foolish enough to follow a preacher who stands on a stage and promises you prosperity on earth and a seat in the Kingdom of Heaven if you send them your money. No one should follow a health guru who promises if you join his new religion, and you send him your money he’ll teach how to “not die.” No one should believe a tech god who promises if you pay for his brain-computer interface, connecting your brain to his artificial intelligence, you will become God.

This is the same lie that the Serpent promised in the Garden of Eden, just disobey God and “surely, thou shalt not die.” In fact, you can become God.

Religion will always be with us, for good or for bad, because people know in their heart of hearts that God exists. Until we come back to God, and as a Christian, until we return to Jesus’s teachings, that despair Carolla talked about in the debate will never go away, it will only increase.

These are just some of the points I would have raised if I had debated “Does the West Need a Religious Revival?”

Here are a few of my essays on the dangers of fascism and the rise of Christian Nationalism:

Fascism and the Rise of Christian Nationalism

The Demonization of Jews

The Perfect Storm, Part I

Christian Nationalism and Christ is King: The Perfect Storm, Part II