Two kinds of "knowing"..

Listen to this American Christian "preacher" (John Hagee) He claims to "know" about a lot of things; things that are profound, deep and complex, things which I would not dare claim to "know" according to my own definition of the word "know". This man clearly has a definition of "know" which is not the same as mine, by my reckoning his is a far less scrupulous and less honest definition. What I think he really means is that he "believes" these things based on no evidence whatsoever, in his parlance he has "faith" and this faith is utterly shaped by his narrow interests, ethnicity, culture and upbringing rather than the reality of the wider world or the communities of people he claims to "know".

"Knowing" is certainly not the word I would use to describe the kinds of thing that this particular religious man is claiming to know, in fact the word I would use to describe his state of mind is "deluded". How can I be so sure that this is delusion? Well, let's take a look at his claims and see if there's any evidence that would show his faith based assertions to be false...

"Atheism does not paint masterpieces", but atheists have.
"Atheism does not heal the sick", but atheists do.
"Atheism has never dispelled fear", but atheists do.
"Atheism has never given anyone piece of mind", but atheists have.
"Atheism has never dried a tear", but atheists have.
"Atheism has never given an intellectual answer to the creation", but atheists have.

I have to question whether or not this preacher has ever even met an atheist? Not that I suspect this would ever stop Hagee from pretending to be an expert on us. Lying to people about subjects he knows next to nothing about seems to be pretty much what he and most other clergy do for a living.