Ignorance Growing

Arriving Russian immigrants

My grandfather, the son of Russian immigrants, put himself through college.  When his two sons were old enough, he sent them to college, too.  It didn’t matter that the country was then in the Depression.  My grandfather had a small factory that made cheap shoes, but he knew fully well that he was also responsible to produce contributing members of society.  His sons had to be educated, and his grandchildren, too.

At our house, my three brothers and I never asked if we were going to college. The only question was where.   We all possess at least one college degree.  Three of us have at least two.

These days, however, education seems passe.  We all look around in bewilderment.  What has happened to the emphasis on education that began with the founders of this country? They were completely aware that only educated leaders could preserve a democracy.  As a result, they restricted the vote.

Moreover, this country pioneered public schools.  That opened the door to universal voting.  Our educational system was once the envy of the world.   Now, the U.S. has placed 15^th in reading, math and science, according to research by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).   Our citizens aren’t going to be better educated in the future either.  The United States came in 29^th in the widely recognized study of the best science and math education for 15-year-olds, the OECD reported.

We lag behind such major world powers as Estonia, Poland and Switzerland.  Korea tops the list, followed by Finland, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.

What has happened?

In my grandfather’s day, people who succeeded had to have an education.  There were some who gained success through the dint of their own genius and talent, such as Lincoln, Edison and Carnegie, but they were rare.  Americans have always admired people who succeed on their own merit, but, statistically, only those who got an education usually achieved anything.

Old-time classroom

To help students succeed, education was left to professionals trained to educate. Politicians didn’t interfere, so teachers could teach.  Voters regularly supported education-related bond issues.  Teachers could prepare a lesson knowing they had the support of parents.

None of that is true today.  Politicians left every child behind, while ego-driven parents bedevil schools chronically short of needed funds.

Of course, the world is not the same.  My grandfather lived until age 92 and saw much of the 20^th century, with the influx of computers and high tech.  Today, someone with computer skills can make a great income without much of an education.  There are also enormous opportunities in the fields of entertainment, which is now our biggest industry.  Just ask the Kardashian family about that.

Modern classroom

In addition, schools today commonly  allow students to focus on their chosen area of expertise.   That leads to graduates with meager knowledge outside their own field.    For example, an engineer may know little of history, culture or science.  A pediatrician may learn nothing about nutrition or the arts. 

This change came in the 1970s when studies revealed that young people were going to college to get a job, not for an education.  Prior to that, and for more than 1,000 years, the reverse was true.  You learned the job after you graduated, after your mind was expanded with knowledge.

The results are obvious.  This country is burdened with people who have not been exposed to the realities of science and history.  Just for starters, we are mired in another Vietnam, this time called Iraq and Afghanistan, because those who started those wars ignored history and had no exit strategy.

At the same time, almost half of all Americans deny evolution, the most-proven theory in science.  Even the Roman Catholic Church has given up that fight.

Today's racists on display

We have elected officials trying to change history to fit their uneducated views, like the Texas board of education that approved a history textbook that claimed Africans were not forced here as slaves, but apparently  chose to labor in the cotton fields as some sort of vacation. 

We are watching the rebirth of racism and anti-Semitism, the return of the KKK, voter suppression efforts that marked the Jim Crow era and more.  We are afflicted by a presidential candidate who claims to know everything and demonstrates on a daily basis that he has learned nothing during his decades on Earth.  The few who are widely educated in history recognize in Trumpism the birth throes of a dictatorship endured by the Germans and Italians in the first half of the 20^th century.  They wonder why others can’t see it.

They can’t because they lack the knowledge to challenge pat answers and wild claims.

Trump

My grandfather would understand.  He had one observation, an insult to anyone inside or outside the family who showed signs of ignorance.  He would say with sadness, he/she “has stopped learning.” To him, nothing could be worse.

That’s true for this country, too. The Republicans pushed one ignoramus, George W. Bush, into the White House, where he left both  the economy and our place in the world in shambles.  Eight years later, they have nominated the king of the ignorant for the same post..   

Unfortunately, continued ignorance could result in a painful lesson for all of us.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in communication from Kent State University.  You can reach him at wplazarus@aol.com. 

 He is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative Religion for Dummies.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

In addition, you can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Help to Find a Publisher

I've decided to harness the power of the internet and am asking readers of this blog for some assistance.

Several years ago, I began writing a faith-based novel.  Now, I need to find a publisher.  The book, Revelation, follows Publius Scipio Longus, a decadent Roman aristocrat who finds true faith through the book of Revelation.  As you know from the blog, I'm a religious historian, so the account is accurate for the time and place.

In the book, Longus has to seek safety after his slave disrupts the coronation of the new emperor, Nerva.  He finds refuge with Christians hiding in the catacombs, but is enslaved and sent to a Roman silver mine in Spain.  There, he befriends a Christian slave who has found solace in Revelation.  Freed, Longus finds himself going back to Rome with Christians arrested for their beliefs.  They face death in the Colosseum if they don’t recant their beliefs.  Longus must choose between his own safety and joining them in martyrdom.

Revelation has been professionally edited and runs about 84,000 words.

I have always been interested in how and why people discover faith.  I chose a time period, around the end of the first century, when Christianity was gaining momentum and separating from Judaism.  The pagan faiths were fading, and Romans were turning increasingly to divination and astrology. 

I've had a variety of fiction and nonfiction books published in the past, including Comparative Religion for Dummies (Wiley Press), Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols (Halifax Press) and a comic murder-mystery, Adventures in Bonding (Bold Venture Press.) I am also a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor who has taught writing at various colleges and universities while ghostwriting for clients worldwide via an agent in New York.

This is the first time I’ve written a novel with such religious content.  I thought a publisher focused on that audience might be a better choice, but do not know any.

Do you?

You can write me at wplazarus@aol.com or add a comment to this blog. 

Thanks for any help.

Racism and Trump

The deep and malevolent vein of racism that runs beneath American culture lies exposed.  Angered by having a competent black president, racists have emerged from the shadows on the heels of the presidential campaign.  They are not being coy: “Make America Great Again” is the most racist slogan in American political history.

It easily eclipses the anti-Catholic sentiments that tarnished presidential campaigns in 1884, 1928 and 1960, while sprinting well past the slimy lies endured by Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman in their day, as well as by Edwin Muskie, John Kerry and Al Gore in ours.

Trump

The U.S. is lacking in nothing, from resources to the strongest economy and the best military.  The only thing that Donald Trump and his followers want to make “greater” is to return a white man to the White House.

Such a hateful attitude grew out of a singular event that took place nearly 400 years ago.  In 1619, Virginia tobacco farmers imported slaves to work the fields.  There were free black men in this country, but Virginia moved quickly to curtain the rights of slaves, rapidly ensnaring anyone with darker skin in the process.

Other southern states followed suit, prevent blacks from voting, owning property and, of course, getting an education.

Slavery

Emancipation in the 1860s as a result of the Civil War did nothing to change attitudes.  By then, the idea that a person with darker skin was somehow inferior was deeply ingrained into the American psyche, a concept backed by an 1890s Supreme Court decision creating "separate but equal" guidelines.  That concept is no different than the twisted claims of Nazis that German genes were somehow better than anyone else’s.   This plague of eugenics led to the inevitable Holocaust, and was only destroyed by more-recent scientific research into genetics.

Scientists have proven that all females of any color are descendants of one woman who lived perhaps 150,000 years ago.  All males have the same father.  This isn’t Adam and Eve; our progenitors lived thousands of years apart.

As such, color is merely an adaptation.  Darker skin protects against the fierce African sun.  In the same way, white skin is more beneficial in northern climates. Evolutionary studies have helped to explain the process.

In reality, humans come in multiple colors, the direct result of the mixing of genes across the millennia.   Color has nothing to do with intelligence, athletic ability, creativity, morals, ethics or any aspect that makes us individuals.

O. Henry

Americans and their British counterparts remain almost unique in their fixation on skin color.  I saw that first hand in an Embry-Riddle University classroom, where students in an English class read an old  O. Henry story.  The irony in the 1890s tale was that the protagonist had a black wife and was seeking a white cook.  Readers were naturally supposed to believe the opposite.

None of my international students understood the irony.  Their societies, with natives of all colors, had no concept of racism.  That’s equally true in India and China, countries with the bulk of the world’s population.

I’m not suggesting that all of Trump’s supporters are racists.  Some clearly like the egotistical, narcissistic businessman with multiple failed marriages and bankruptcies who faces thousands of lawsuits because of his business practices.   They want a “strong” leader, just the way Italians initially supported Mussolini, the late fascist whom Trump seems to most resemble.

However, racism remains the key component of his appeal.  After all, Trump is endorsed by the KKK and the American Nazi Party, exemplar homegrown proponents of racism. 

That hate-filled attitude is also an element in the widespread police shootings, too, although the NRA shares some of the blame for its mad effort to arm an entire country.  Under the circumstances, police have no way of knowing if someone they are stopping is carrying a weapon.  They would rather shoot first, which is understandable.  At the same time, however, color is clearly a factor whether or not bullets fly.

Nor can we expect an immediate change.  With almost four centuries of racist propaganda and a political candidate using coded messages to continue the drumbeat, racism will continue to pulse overtly through our country.

Dr. King

Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that someday his children will be judged by their character and not the color of the skin remains merely a hope in a Trump world driven by overt racism.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His most recent book is Passover in Prison, which details abuse of Jewish inmates in American prisons, and The Sands of Time, a look at 100 years of Daytona Beach racing history.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

"Proving" the Bible

Recent dig at a Philistine site

Every now and then, archaeologists stumble over some relic or site that illuminates some aspect of our past.  Such discoveries are not only exciting for the archaeologists, but fascinating for anyone interested in unveiling human history.

One group in particular really pays attention: fundamentalists, who are committed to a belief in the accuracy of the Bible.  Each finding which touches on the biblical time period is greeted with loud enthusiasm and applause as if the new information “proves” biblical accounts.

Their wide-eyed interest started back in the 1800s when the first critical studies of the New Testament revealed that much of the text was laced with mythology.  The German School went so far as to claim that Jesus was basically a myth.  The real Jesus was “sacrificed for Christ,” was the way one researcher described it..

Ancient Jericho

Such claims naturally outraged believers, who promptly began to fund investigations by scholars and archaeologists to scour the Holy Land for proof.  They were inspired by the discovery of Troy in the mid-1800s, a city long thought to be part of a myth.  If it was real, biblical sites must be buried under Israeli dirt.

They were right.  Ancient cities like Jericho were unearthed throughout the country along with graves, buildings and the like. 

Unfortunately for the faithful, however, such discoveries do not prove anything.

Canaanite ruins

Take for example the discovery of ancient Jericho, buried layers below the current city.  It is there.  It is in the Bible.  However, its presence only proves that it existed, not that any of the biblical stories associated with Jericho are true.  We have no way of knowing if Joshua marched his army around the city for seven days, somehow causing the walls to fall down.  In fact, no evidence of walls has been found. 

That’s the limitation of archaeology.  It can demonstrate that something existed, such as a structure, a city, homes, even a culture, since everyone in a community shared cultural traits.  Such findings can be dated through Carbon 14.  But that’s a two-edged sword.  For example, archaeologists found proof of ancient Canaanite settlements, but no evidence of an invasion by escaped slaves from Egypt, as the Bible depicts.

That’s because Canaanite cultural artifacts, such as cloth, ceramics and housing design, were unchanged for millennia. 

Ancient stone with Pilate's name on it

The same limitation touches on New Testament research.  For example, Pontius Pilate, who in the sacred text presides over the trial of Jesus, really lived.  His name is attested in several places.  But that’s not proof of that Jesus was tried before Pilate or, indeed, had the slightest contact with the Roman official. No evidence of a connection, beyond biblical claims, has ever been found.

In fact, the supposed official information about Pilate’s 10 years in office were released by a later Roman emperor, but promptly vanished.  Historians suspect the papers contradicted Christian teachings, but also wonder if the texts were forged by an anti-Christian emperor.

Bible

Regardless, the connection between Jesus and Pilate is tenuous at best.  For starters, no one knows when Jesus lived.  While the New Testament places Jesus in the reign of Pilate, 26 to 36 C.E., it also claims in Luke that Jesus was born during the census of 6 C.E., another real event that took place when the Romans ousted Herod’s successor, but, in Matthew, the nativity took place at the end of the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C.E.  Because of the obvious contradiction, some historians have suggested that the anonymous biblical authors actually plucked the names of prominent Romans and inserted them in the text.

Archaeology will never provide an answer.  That won’t stop archaeologists from digging up all sorts of new information.  However, nothing they find will ever prove a single line of the Bible.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His most recent book is Passover in Prison, which details abuse of Jewish inmates in American prisons.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1