Saturday, February 12, 2005
Two Creations Stories, So Which ONE is Lying?
The topic of the first critical essay that I assigned this semester involved comparing and contrasting a story from the Torah with another ancient Near Eastern account. Most students focused on the deluge accounts of Gilgamesh XI and Genesis 6-9, or on the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 as well as the Enuma Elish, Creation by Atum, or the Theology of Memphis. A large number of students unfortunately argued that Genesis was accurate, while the Mesopotamian/Egyptian versions were false. The main reason for this, according to them, was that Genesis is about the true God, while the others are polytheistic, and therefore silly, or worse, blatantly deceiving their readers. It seems every day our culture becomes more and more binary. At least the students are not being nihilistic, but it is frustrating for me to see such a lack of objective critical thinking in the future leaders of the world. I think I need to spend more time with the paper help section of my website. Or probably more accurately, I need to motivate the students to read what is already there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Sometimes when my dislexia kicks in things are funnier. I read the title as which one is SO lying!
We need to talk. I do a thing with Genesis and Enuma Elish too. I've got to make sure you know what you're talking about.
Mark
Dyslexia
Mark
Parts of what follows below were actually painful to write. However, because of the ongoing misinformation campaigns launched by Dr. Michael Homan and his apparatchiks, I feel it is my duty to write this. So let's begin, quite properly, with a brief look at the historical development of the problem, of its attempted solutions, and of the eternal argument about it. It's truly a tragedy that his goal in life is apparently to call for a return to that which wasn't particularly good in the first place. Here, I use the word "tragedy" as the philosopher Whitehead used it. Whitehead stated that "the essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things," which I interpret as saying that Dr. Homan maintains that there is an international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. This is hardly the case. Rather, there is growing evidence that says, to the contrary, that I am utterly shocked and angered by his unbridled improprieties. Such shameful conduct should never be repeated.
Here's an eye-opener for you: If you look back over some of my older letters, you'll see that I predicted that Dr. Homan would humiliate, subjugate, and eventually, eliminate everyone who wants to empower the oppressed to control their own lives. And, as I predicted, he did. But you know, that was not a difficult prediction to make. Anyone who has bothered to learn even a little about Dr. Homan could have made the same prediction. I am tired of hearing or reading that the most valuable skill one can have is to be able to lie convincingly. You know that that is simply not true.
While some information provided by Dr. Homan's trained seals may be factual, other material is unsubstantiated rumor or harebrained publicity stunts. It's quite a feat of hypocrisy for Dr. Homan to deny he wants to slander those who are most systematically undervalued, underpaid, underemployed, underfinanced, underinsured, underrated, and otherwise underserved and undermined as undeserving and underclass after so recently doing exactly that. To be more pedantic about it, his idiotic claim that what I call chthonic deviants are easily housebroken is just that, an idiotic claim. Sorry for babbling so much, but Dr. Michael Homan's utterances obfuscate any attempt to locate responsibility for the consequential decisions of those who have access to the means of power.
Over the past few weeks, I've learned to look past Dr. Michael Homan's doctrinaire jokes. I've learned to look past some of the mindless things Dr. Homan has said. I've even learned to look past his attempts to leave behind a wake of worthless reaction. But I cannot stay silent about Dr. Homan's incomprehensible and unforgivable audacity regarding a specific event that recently occurred. To get right down to it, there is still hope for our society, real hope -- not the false sense of hope that comes from the mouths of gutless galoots, but the hope that makes you eager to provide people the wherewithal to name and shame his buddies for their boisterous acts of voyeurism. To those unregenerate serpents who think that every word that leaves Dr. Homan's mouth is teeming with useful information, know this: Ancient Greek dramatists discerned a peculiar virtue in being tragic. Dr. Homan would do well to realize that they never discerned any virtue in being delusional. Since most people oppose his moonstruck recommendations, Dr. Homan has had to foment disorderly forms of political tyranny using every self-absorbed, despicable means imaginable. Lastly, I lost all respect for Dr. Michael Homan when I heard he plans to introduce, cultivate, and encourage moral rot.
The above comment was generated via:
https://www.pakin.org/complaint
Post a Comment