The Truth Quest Podcast

Regular listeners know that I attempt to record a Christian apologetic-related topic in every once in awhile. Today I compare and contrast the three major monotheistic world religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism. They have a lot in common, which may be eye-opening to many. However, it is their divergences that really matter. The bottom line is if one of them is true, the other two cannot be. It's great food for thought. I hope this episode prompts you to dig a little deeper in your faith or lack thereof. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there is an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "The World Needs More Jesus" shirt partially inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/the-world-needs-more-jesus

The news is filled with stories about millennials and their student loans. We are told that, because of student loans, they are waiting longer to move out of their parents' home, get married, buy their first house and start families. We are told it is a generation crushed by debt. Unfortunately, very little time is spent analyzing why this is the case. Why are college costs so much higher than they were in the past? What is the truth about student loan debt and the cost of college?

In this episode we examine the historical record of the national Democratic Party and then fast-forward to present day and uncover the real motivations behind their radical agenda. Why do they take such hard line positions on policies like abortion, illegal immigration, welfare, gay marriage, socialized medicine, guns control, climate change, minimum wage and higher taxes? Why do they advocate for socialism? None of these policies have the support of the majority of Americans yet they are all a prominent fixture in the platform that the national Democratic Party.

In Episodes #31 and #32, I covered the truth about socialism. In this episode we are going to discuss the validity of the demonization of the rich. One of the claims made is that their very existence is immoral. It is claimed that they hoard their money; that they are freeloaders. But when you examine the facts; when you examine the benefits betrothed to society by the work of billionaires and the taxes they have already paid (and continue to pay), you quickly realize that this is just another installment of the multi-decades-long effort to divide and conquer the electorate with jealousy, envy and resentment.

As most of you probably remember from your middle school civics' class, the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. What you probably do NOT know is those amendments only apply to the federal government. They were included in the Constitution as a way to insure the states that this newly created federal government would be limited in power. They would not be able to infringe upon the people's freedom of speech or their right to bear arms; they would not be able to quarter their soldiers in our homes, perform unreasonable search and seizures without probable cause, prosecute us without a speedy jury trial or impose excessive fines. But most importantly, the Tenth Amendment specifically states that any powers not granted to the federal government (mostly in Article I, Section 8) is left to the states. Fast-forward a few decades later as the Civil War ended and the slaves were freed. Congress passed and the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment in order to permanently codify the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which essentially insured that the newly freed slaves were treated equally under the law. It contained a few familiar phrases like, "privileges or immunities", "due process", and "equal protection". Unfortunately for all of us, over the ensuing 150 years the Supreme Court, as it is apt to do, has perverted the Constitution (rather than protect and defend it) and found ways to apply the Bill of Rights to the states. This is known as the Incorporation Doctrine. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "Few and defined; Numerous and indefinite" shirt partially inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/few-and-defined -----------------------------------------

The call for the elimination of the Electoral College by liberals, progressives and Democrats continues to swell. After all, they rationalize, Bush got less votes than Gore and Trump got less votes than Clinton so why should they be President? Fortunately for the rest of America, the Founding Fathers had enough foresight to include the Electoral College process in the Constitution to protect the country as a whole from the tyranny of the majority. In this episode, I give a brief history lesson on the Electoral College and explain why the, now underway, National Popular Vote movement, with the goal of eliminating the Electoral College, is both dangerous to the country and, of course, unconstitutional.

In Episode #2 – The Truth About Abortion, I introduced the question “What about the baby?” I suggested that you ask that question anytime you are in a conversation with a pro-abortion advocate. We also discussed fetus development and addressed common arguments put forward by these same advocates. This episode has evolved into a cornucopia of abortion outtakes, contradictions, absurdities, and the disclosure of evil measures taken by pro-abortionists. Much of this was covered in my book, Pritical Thinking. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?" or the "PRO-LIFE" shirts inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/what-about-the-baby-1 http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/pro-life

Today's episode continues our examination of socialism that we started in Episode #31. We will discuss a series of "Questions for Skeptics" that you can use to engage those who believe socialism is a viable social and economic option. We also examine so-called socialism in Scandinavian countries. Then we look at socialism and religion followed by a brief look at the solution to socialism - free market capitalism.

When I first started studying Christian apologetics someone gave me a copy of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler. If you read just one book this year and you are curious about Christianity or looking to bolster your current faith or, for that matter, you are a skeptic of Christianity, I cannot encourage you enough to read this book. One of the most profound insights I ever got into Christianity came from Chapters 9-12, which covers the historical reliability of the New Testament. Much of what I discuss in today’s episode comes from these three chapters. I hope you find it as profound as I did. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there is an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "The World Needs More Jesus" shirt partially inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/the-world-needs-more-jesus

In this episode we discuss the lack of socialist society success stories, the immorality of socialism, Democratic Socialism, socialistic incrementalism in America, and we examine how socialism violates both economic and natural laws.

I recently watched a John Stossel report on Reason TV that caught my attention. It was essentially a defense of the e-cigarette industry. Prior to seeing that report, my general perception of e-cigarettes and vaping was negative. It wasn’t based on anything tangible, just a compilation of whatever news coverage I had consumed up to that point. With Stossel’s gentle prodding, I read up on e-cigarettes and I started seeing some recurring themes that we often discuss on the Truth Quest Podcast – namely unconstitutional federal government involvement in the free markets and media bias. I had to get to the bottom of the smear campaign against e-cigarettes and vaping. Tune in to see what I found.

In the previous episode, #27 The Truth About the Federal Reserve – An Introduction, I laid the groundwork for this episode. So now that you know what the Fed is, why it was created and how it creates money, let’s look at the results of the last 100+ years since this monstrosity was created. We will discuss the constitutionality of the Fed, how it creates inflation, its impact on savers and people on fixed incomes, malinvestment, bailouts, how it funds the welfare and warfare state, the gold standard, and I conclude the episode with a side-by-side comparison of the current monetary system dominated by the Fed with one without it. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "END THE FED" shirt inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/end-the-fed

I read and hear a lot about how bad the Federal Reserve is for America. The cries for “Audit the Fed” continue to grow louder. Inherently I understand that government intervention always causes market distortions but trying to explain how the Federal Reserve detrimentally impacts the economy at a level that the average person can understand has proved daunting. But I am going to give it a shot in this episode and the next one. In this episode I am going to introduce you to the Federal Reserve – explain what it is, why and how it was created and explain how it creates money. Episode #28 will be spent looking at the Fed's record over the 100+ years of its existence and argue why it should be abolished. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "END THE FED?" shirt inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/end-the-fed

Another fiscal year has come and gone and another spending resolution deadline is looming. It seems like every year we go through the same exercise with the political class arguing and casting blame on each other over who is going to cause the latest, pending government shutdown. Well guess what? It is largely inconsequential. The amount of federal spending that Congress actually controls is around 14% of the budget. So we are supposed to tie ourselves in knots over a minuscule part of the budget while the federal government continues its ever-expanding march into unconstitutional areas of American's lives. It's all an unnecessary distraction from the real problems that plague our nation and it is a distraction from Congress' abdication of most of their constitutional duties.

As I thought ahead to the publication of this week’s episode, I noticed that it would fall on the week of Christmas. I glanced up at my bookshelf and pulled down my copy of In Defense of Faith by David Brog and I realized the message Brog presents in that book was a perfect foundation from which to base this week’s episode on. Brog describes his book’s purpose as a rebuttal to the claim that people of faith are responsible for our greatest sorrows, bloodshed, war, hatred. His primary message is the Judeo-Christian tradition has been an overwhelming force for good throughout history with its message of equality and sanctity of all humans combined with the call to love one another. It’s the idea that all humans are made in the image of God and, therefore, are worthy of respect. When you look at the atrocities committed in the world over time, you will notice that most of them were perpetrated with a purposeful rejection of the Judeo-Christian tradition. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there is an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "The World Needs More Jesus" shirt partially inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/the-world-needs-more-jesus

We are told that protective tariffs are necessary to save jobs. We are told that high-wage countries like the United States cannot compete with low-wage countries like Vietnam and China. We are told that the dumping of products needs to be addressed with protective tariffs. But we are never told the whole truth. Politicians and mainstream news outlets never really evaluate the whole picture when it comes to tariffs. They never explain who really pays. They never ask the question: What about the consumer? Listen to learn the truth about tariffs?

The federal government is not supposed to be this gargantuan entity that is involved in virtually every aspect of our lives. The states created the federal government via the Constitution. They granted the federal government a few powers while all others were left to the states. Unfortunately, modern America's political system is a far cry from the Founder's vision of limited power at the federal level. Fortunately there is a method whereby the power that the federal government tries to wield can be checked. That method is called nullification. Nullification is the practice whereby states resist federal actions that they deem unconstitutional. In this episode, I introduce you to the concept, dispel quite a few inaccurate assumptions made by mainstream news outlets and so-called historians and provide you with several examples of nullification efforts currently going on today. I owe a debt of gratitude to Tom Woods and The Tenth Amendment Center who have written extensively on this subject. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "Nullification: The Rightful Remedy" shirt inspired by this episode. https://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/nullification-the-rightful-remedy -----------------------------------------

For those of you who are fans of Rush Limbaugh, you know that every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving he read an excerpt from his 1993 best-seller, See I Told You So. It was his way of setting the record straight about the holiday we are about to celebrate. In this episode, I read this excerpt as my way of trying to get to the truth about Thanksgiving. RIP Rush. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there will be an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast!

Do you ever question the amount of time and energy spent fretting about the politics coming out of Washington D.C.? The Founding Fathers never thought that the average American would spend much time pondering the goings-on in D.C. After all, the federal government's power was constitutionally restricted. In this brief episode, I suggest an alternative to our seemingly unending focus on all things D.C.

President Trump recently stirred up a hornets nest when he mentioned that he was considering signing an executive order ending birthright citizenship. As you might expect progressives went crazy, while Democrats and establishment Republicans denounced and/or, in the case of Senator Tim Scott (SC) or outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, politely “disagreed” with the President. Either way, this provides us with an opportunity to examine the Constitution and, being the constitutional geek that I am, I cannot resist.

Gun control is one of the most contentious issues in American politics. The pro-Second Amendment, pro-gun arguments are so much more persuasive and based on facts, common sense, and logic that gun control advocates should be embarrassed to even engage in an argument. Successfully arguing this issue really only requires you to repeat the words of gun control advocates back to them with a little commentary. The illogical nature of their arguments and the place of ignorance from which they often argue is quite easy to identify and dismantle for any intellectually honest person.

The reason the American healthcare system is in such a mess is because of decades of government intervention and the third-party payer system. If we reduce government involvement and bring back capitalistic, free market principles, conditions will improve; it’s almost guaranteed. In a nutshell, real healthcare reform can be accomplished by encouraging a patient-centered, market-based system that eliminates or, at least, minimizes government involvement in the system. True to the title of this episode, I will walk you through some concrete examples of how the American healthcare system can be reformed.

Welcome to the inaugural Truth Quest Podcast month in review. In this short episode, we walk through the biggest news items from last month, September 2019.

When you really think about it, how bad can a guy be who pissed off BOTH the establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats to the point where they BOTH want him in prison? Perhaps there is more to the story than the casual, headline-reader might see? The message sent from the powers-that-be is very clear – no government critic is above the law! Do not blow the whistle on our illegal and immoral activities. Do not expose our lies and corruption. Do not question our numbers, our integrity, or our honesty. If you do, you might be assanged!

This is the fourth episode focusing on a Christian apologetic topic. In Episode #5 we talked about The Truth About the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Episode #10, we covered The Truth About God and Evil and in Episode #15 we talked about The Truth About Prayer. What I want to talk to you about today is the remarkable (and dare I say, miraculous) story of a carpenter named Jesus from a map dot in the middle of the Middle East who lived over 2,000 years ago and the truth about the impact He left on the world. I’ve heard Jesus Christ called a lot of things but the most accurate word is “radical”. Let me know if you agree after listening to this episode. ----------------------------------------- Grab your Truth Quest Merchandise at The Truth Quest Shirt Factory: www.TruthQuestShirtFactory.com With each shirt design there is an explanation of what to expect from those inquisitive or brave enough to ask you about it. In most cases there are links to podcast episodes that will further deepen your understanding of the importance of each phrase. We hope you take the challenge of wearing these shirts in public and to family gatherings. Don't worry! You will be equipped with the rhetorical tools to engage in conversation and/or debate. Good luck! And thanks for supporting the Truth Quest Podcast! Check out the "The World Needs More Jesus" shirt partially inspired by this episode. http://www.truthquestshirtfactory.com/shop/p/the-world-needs-more-jesus