Developer Fallacies
I have no problem with Heydon Pickering. He is a great web accessibility expert. I like most of his talks. Personally, I do not care about his life. But when someone makes false statements about the Bible, I feel the urge to rebuke them. I can not do nothing when someone insults my God.
I found his article "Developer Fallacies" when I was doing research about the hypocrisy of web developers. I read his article and right away, I found that this person wrote something wrong about the Bible.
He called the first fallacy "the gospel fallacy." He started with the following statement which has nothing wrong with itself:
I'm going to start on one you've probably heard of already, perhaps under a different name. This is the "we've always done it this way" fallacy.
In web development, this refers to web developers who justify their wrongdoings because they have been doing that for a long time. I have no problem with this. But the following statement is coming from a person who knows nothing about the Bible:
This fallacy is named in honour of The Holy Bible, which is treated as unquestionable by some fundamentalist Christians despite some seriously sketchy advice.
He is an atheist. I understand if he knows nothing about the Bible. He is a great web developer, in my opinion. But when it comes to the Bible, he is ignorant.
First, he named a fallacy in honor of The Holy Bible. This statement has a contradiction. Why did he write "The Holy Bible" and yet it was about fallacy? Was this person saying, "I am honoring this holy book by mocking it"? He did not honor the Bible. He insulted the Bible.
If you do not understand, I give you an example. Let's say you respect someone. This person can be your parents or yourself or anybody you honor. Can I use that person's name for a cockroach? Another example is if I say, "In the honor of your president, this porn actor looks like your president's face." Am I insulting or honoring your president?
Then, he continued writing that the Bible is treated as unquestionable by some fundamentalist Christians. This is false. First, fundamentalist Christians are people who follow the Bible thoroughly without any extra human-made rules. Second, there are no fundamentalist Christians, liberal Christians, or any other types of Christians. Those funny names do not exist in the Bible. A person is a Christian if he follows and worships God only. This means a Christian follows the Bible completely. If a Christian starts accepting LGBTQIA+, this person is not a Christian.
Additionally, we as a Christian learn the Bible with our brains. We can question the Bible. We as a human learn through questions. Then, the Bible has the answer for sure. We do not follow things without understanding.
Moreover, he continued by saying that the Bible has some seriously sketchy advice. He is an atheist. I do not blame him if he thinks some verses are sketchy. Heydon himself is a questionable person to talk about the Bible. He seriously knows nothing about the Bible. Yet he tried to tell people about Christianity. Do you see the hypocrisy?
He quoted only one verse and ignored the rest. Then, he made a stupid claim. He quoted 1 Peter 2:18 as one of the Bible's sketchy advice according to him:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
I am not surprised if an atheist thinks that the verse is sketchy. But Christians understand that this is not about allowing ourselves to be treated unjustly. This verse shows that we should not make the character of our leader to be an excuse to abandon our duties. In slavery era, a slave is a person who has no power and no money. The slave can not fight back. If the slave fights back by being lazy, the slave will be killed. If the slave suffers because the slave has done great work, this slave is a good person.
As an example for nowadays, if you work with a client who is a jerk, as long as the client has paid you, and you have no other choices, you have to do your work. You can still talk with your client to behave. But you can not ignore your duty because of your client's attitude. Another example, if you are a student and your teacher is lazy, your teacher's laziness does not become an excuse for you to be lazy too.
An atheist can not see the wisdom of God, as expected. That is why atheist people believe that they are animals that follow the laws. As long as the laws do not forbid an action, they have no reason for not doing that.
Heydon's words prove the following verse:
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For him, the Bible is a book with some foolishness, which is sketchy. For us, people who believe in God, the cross means the death and the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus. It is a sign of power. Only Jesus can resurrect Himself from the death. Through the Bible, we know God.
Heydon Pickering is a great web developer. He is an atheist. He is an animal. He insulted the Bible and as a Christian, I rebuke him. I do not know him personally. I do not care about him. But if someone insults the Bible, I will wipe the floor with the person.
Give your comments.