[identity profile] sophia-sadek.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
Catholic biblical scholar John Meier denigrated the notion that modern thinkers do not believe in miracles. He cited statistics on the number of people who professed to believe in miracles toward the end of the previous century. To claim that modern thinkers do not believe in miracles is to ignore such statistics. Or is it? Perhaps the statistics demonstrate the inadequacy of modern thought to penetrate the depths of medieval thinking extant in a supposedly modern society.

Children are indoctrinated into a mental prison by institutions that achieved their peak power in the centuries between Constantine and Copernicus. These people have extraordinary difficulty making the transition to freedom of conscience. They can hardly be considered to be part of modernity. These people blame the tribulations of our time on a fall from medieval ideals rather than on their own confined way of approaching the world.

One of the key phrases used by these medieval prisoners is "the kingdom of God." What do they mean by this? Is it a return to the way things were done before the coming of Copernicus? Does it imply putting people to death for denying the Truth of the Party line? Does it mean brutally treating those with knowledge of herbal remedies? Perhaps not explicitly.

One of the difficulties that these prisoners face is the use of the word "God." It is not spelled the same way as the more generic word "god" because it is considered to be unique. Anything that challenges uniqueness must be rejected as diabolical. Perhaps the true diabolism resides in the rejection of challenge. Perhaps that rejection constitutes the mental bondage that these folks endure.

This is a serious political problem because these prisoners continually seek to outlaw modernity. They seek to entrap the children of free thinkers into their own confined way of seeing life. They went so far as to outlaw the Communist Party and place the name of their medieval deity in a declaration of political loyalty to be chanted by all children in public school. As beleaguered human beings these folks deserve political representation, but not a monopoly on political representation.

There is validity to the notion that medieval religious institutions serve to intoxicate a significant portion of the populace. That intoxication is not merely a benign placation into the acceptance of despotic governance. When the intoxicated have their way, it becomes the source of despotic governance.

What do you suppose can be done to solve the problem of medieval mental incarceration?

John Meier criticizes academic approaches to Christian literature. Lee Canipe on the loyalty oath for kids.
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May 2025

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