Taking the leap of faith
Jesus understood people pretty well. When the devil, probably a scientist, asked Jesus to 'throw himself down' from a roof to prove he was a god, Jesus refused to leap off the roof because he knew this secret: if I can get them to believe in me with no evidence - take the Leap of Faith - I can get them to believe anything. Belief unsupported by evidence leads to all kinds of mayhem and will continue to do so until humans figure out themselves.
For the best written and informative book about human gullibility, read Lawrence Wright's Remembering Satan. In the emergency room in the 80s and 90s I must have seen a dozen people who thought they were victims of satanic ritual abuse. Maybe a few folks in our community decided to start a church that worshipped satan rather than christ. I don't know for sure, but I never saw any evidence of harm to any of them, other than the psychological confusion, fear and anxiety. In Wright's book he examines the Thurston County, Washington, case in which a sheriff and others confessed to sexual abuse of children and in some cases, satanic ritual abuse. No physical evidence was ever found. As the case proceeded forward there were more and more unsubstantiated horrors such as the ritual killing of babies. The sheriff, who was the center of the trial, and his family which included the two daughters who brought charges against him, were members of a Pentecostal church that promoted the idea that satan was real and present in the world. If you belief one thing based on pure faith, you are doomed to believe others. The sheriff went to jail after confessing to a variety of crazy accusations, having convinced himself he must have done these things since he was accused of them. Wright's book used this as an example of the fallibility of memory. People read, imagine, listen and fuse all these inputs into their own view of reality. Sometimes the results are way beyond the world of everyday experience and come out as untrue memories. Recent research on eyewitness accounts of crimes and traumatic events, have shown a great deal of unreliability in the accuracy of memory. The term 'recovered memories' is given to these false memories. This phenomenon has been know for decades and is the reason that testimony of hypnotized people is not admitted into court as evidence. The memories are often manufactured by the subject in response to the questions asked by the hypnotist.
Today, I read about another sheriff in Florida who was photographed with Vice President Pence, while wearing a QAnon symbol on his sheriff's uniform, which, by the way, looked like a swat team outfit. Just what we need, heavily armed men who believe in conspiracy theories strongly enough to advertise them on their kevlar vests. The current QAnon conspiracy theory is connected to the Pizzagate fiasco. Edgar Welch, armed with a AR-14 rifle which he fired three times in the restaurant, should get some credit. He wanted some evidence that sex-slaves were being held in the Comet Pizza, so he went there to see for himself. Guess what? No sex slaves. No evidence. What a joke on Edgar Welch. He just didn't have enough faith. He needed evidence and in return, he was labelled a 'deep state' undercover agent by the true believers, sent to disprove their claims.
When I was in high school, the best student in our class was a girl I admired. We were friends but not romantically involved. One day, over coffee, she told me that she was Mormon and proceeded to tell me the Mormon story. When she finished, I was awe-struck. How could anyone so smart believe anything so ridiculous? Well, lots of people do. It is part of human nature. It was also part of human nature to believe the world was flat because it looks flat, until you look really carefully, and start thinking about other phenomenon in the world that clearly prove it is round.
Actions speak louder than words. For those of you who use the bible as your main source on information, maybe you should look more carefully at the message Jesus was really sending when he refused that one of the three temptations of Christ: don't take the leap! If Jesus had leapt he would have broken his leg; if you leap you break your tie to the reality of observable world around you and enter the world of imagination. Not so bad if your a novelist but not so good if your an engineer.
For the best written and informative book about human gullibility, read Lawrence Wright's Remembering Satan. In the emergency room in the 80s and 90s I must have seen a dozen people who thought they were victims of satanic ritual abuse. Maybe a few folks in our community decided to start a church that worshipped satan rather than christ. I don't know for sure, but I never saw any evidence of harm to any of them, other than the psychological confusion, fear and anxiety. In Wright's book he examines the Thurston County, Washington, case in which a sheriff and others confessed to sexual abuse of children and in some cases, satanic ritual abuse. No physical evidence was ever found. As the case proceeded forward there were more and more unsubstantiated horrors such as the ritual killing of babies. The sheriff, who was the center of the trial, and his family which included the two daughters who brought charges against him, were members of a Pentecostal church that promoted the idea that satan was real and present in the world. If you belief one thing based on pure faith, you are doomed to believe others. The sheriff went to jail after confessing to a variety of crazy accusations, having convinced himself he must have done these things since he was accused of them. Wright's book used this as an example of the fallibility of memory. People read, imagine, listen and fuse all these inputs into their own view of reality. Sometimes the results are way beyond the world of everyday experience and come out as untrue memories. Recent research on eyewitness accounts of crimes and traumatic events, have shown a great deal of unreliability in the accuracy of memory. The term 'recovered memories' is given to these false memories. This phenomenon has been know for decades and is the reason that testimony of hypnotized people is not admitted into court as evidence. The memories are often manufactured by the subject in response to the questions asked by the hypnotist.
Today, I read about another sheriff in Florida who was photographed with Vice President Pence, while wearing a QAnon symbol on his sheriff's uniform, which, by the way, looked like a swat team outfit. Just what we need, heavily armed men who believe in conspiracy theories strongly enough to advertise them on their kevlar vests. The current QAnon conspiracy theory is connected to the Pizzagate fiasco. Edgar Welch, armed with a AR-14 rifle which he fired three times in the restaurant, should get some credit. He wanted some evidence that sex-slaves were being held in the Comet Pizza, so he went there to see for himself. Guess what? No sex slaves. No evidence. What a joke on Edgar Welch. He just didn't have enough faith. He needed evidence and in return, he was labelled a 'deep state' undercover agent by the true believers, sent to disprove their claims.
When I was in high school, the best student in our class was a girl I admired. We were friends but not romantically involved. One day, over coffee, she told me that she was Mormon and proceeded to tell me the Mormon story. When she finished, I was awe-struck. How could anyone so smart believe anything so ridiculous? Well, lots of people do. It is part of human nature. It was also part of human nature to believe the world was flat because it looks flat, until you look really carefully, and start thinking about other phenomenon in the world that clearly prove it is round.
Actions speak louder than words. For those of you who use the bible as your main source on information, maybe you should look more carefully at the message Jesus was really sending when he refused that one of the three temptations of Christ: don't take the leap! If Jesus had leapt he would have broken his leg; if you leap you break your tie to the reality of observable world around you and enter the world of imagination. Not so bad if your a novelist but not so good if your an engineer.
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