Summary
Today, Mrs. Slater talks about cognitive dissonance. She begins with discussing an apocalyptic cult of fifty years ago, then goes over her interviews with the mother of a brain-dead then three year old, now being considered for Catholic sainthood.
Discussion
Remember Patrick's essay from a few weeks ago? Here we go again.
First, Mrs. Slater makes it eminently clear her degree is not in history. Isaac Newton did not disown God in favor of science; he died a devout Christian. Christopher Columbus did not prove the world was round; everyone had known that for almost two millennia. Columbus, in fact, concluded that China was reachable from Europe because he underestimated Earth's diameter by a significant amount. He was, at that time, wrong. Fortunately for him, there was something in the way.
Napoleon was not a short man. Back in that time the French had their own system of feet and inches - which was not the same as the English one. British propaganda intentionally failed to convert to British units, leaving the impression Napoleon was short. Further, the Emperor was usually pictured surrounded by the French Imperial Guard, which was a collection of very tall individuals. How many people do you know who wouldn't look short if they were always pictured with NBA stars?
Now that the errors that shouldn't have survived grade school are out of the way, the real problem with this chapter is the author's implicit assumption that Christianity is some kind of defensive response to a theological error. This is actually fairly explicitly stated towards the of the chapter - "remind" rather than "tell" is a pretty clear sign - I'm going to leave aside it being offensive. I'm pretty blunt-spoken myself about such things, from the other side, so I'm not going to attack her for that.
The simple fact of the matter is that it is stupid. The messianic prophesies in Isaiah make it quite clear that the messiah was, to put it mildly, not coming to have a party. Copies of Isaiah antedating 0 exist; there is no possibility of revisionism after the fact. The hypothetical Leon in Mrs. Slater's head evidently made assumptions - rationalizations, perhaps? - rather than doing his homework.
Which leads to the other, massive problem with "Leon's" assertion: the major religion based entirely on rationalizing dissidence isn't Christianity at all. Nor, really, is it Islam or Judaism. Rather, the very foundation of the modern atheist movement is based not on evidence but on a desire to rationalize behaviors not compatible with the moral code of Christianity.
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