Thursday, September 24, 2015

#1470: David Cloud


David Cloud is, it seems, something of a Jerry-Falwell wannabe. He runs the website Way of Life, which is quite possibly one of the most insane extremist fundamentalist websites on the Internet.

Among other things, Cloud has written extensively (including a couple of books) about music, where he issues stern warnings to his congregation about proper use of such a dangerous tool. In particular, he warns about hidden messages in contemporary music, but as opposed to Jacob Aranza and David Noebel and their ilk, Cloud seems to be mostly concerned with messages “that might be hidden in the lyrics of CCM songs from the influence of the theology of ecumenism, kingdom now, Pentecostalism, Charismaticism, Roman Catholicism” and similar false teachings. Relatedly, in his writings on meditation, Cloud only discusses centered praying – heathen meditators have lost their souls long ago – which he warns against in the strongest possible manner: Meditation is tantamount to actively inviting demons (or worse) to possess you.

Cloud’s other books include the rather clumsily titled Seeing the Non-Existent Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes, which contains not a trace of even the most basic understanding of evolution but instead an impressive array of PRATTs ranging from peppered moths to denying the existence of vestigial organs, natural selection and mutations (yup, Don Quixote, to your horse! There be giants nearby). Mostly, though, it is a giant argument from incredulity: Look at how amazingly well organisms are adapted to their environments – even scientists are sometimes compelled to sometimes use the word “design” – clearly evolution by blind randomness cannot account for this. And no, to emphasize it yet once more, Cloud doesn’t even remotely understand the very basics of the theory. 

Predictably, Cloud has made a number of enemies on the Internet as well, in particular because of his denunciation of KJV extremists such as Peter Ruckman as heretics” (I don’t think reasonable people much care). In fact, Cloud has denounced virtually any conceivable disagreement with him as heresy (and those who disagree with him are consequently engaged in persecution).

Diagnosis: Old-fashioned fire and brimstone sure ain’t dead. Probably ultimately rather harmless in the grand scheme of things, but boy is David Cloud crazy.

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