“Buy the truth, and sell it not” -Pro. 23:23
Myth or fact? A woman swallows about 6 pounds of lipstick in a lifetime. Myth or fact? A junior high school student won a science fair contest by circulating a report about the dangers of “dihydrogen monoxide” (water). As part of the blessings of our internet age, we are regularly bombarded by newsy items that often fall into the category of “urban legends.” It has led to the development of websites such as snopes.com whose main purpose is to help sort out truth from fiction.
While the above items do not have much bearing on our lives one way or another (unless you despise eating lipstick), here is one that colors the way we view knowledge, science, and technology. Myth or fact? Scientific knowledge is the only reliable form of public knowledge. If you answered “fact,” you would be at odds with a new book by Steven Shapin entitled, Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as If It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority. While it might be interpreted at first glance as some fundamentalist Christian’s attack on the credibility of science, it is helpful to know that Shapin is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard; hardly a bastion of Christian thought.
What Never Pure attempts to point out is that our modern cultural assumption that scientific knowledge is “real” knowledge because it is supposedly free of the biases and prejudices of flawed human beings is more myth than fact. While not an enemy of science per se, Shapin desires to lower the rhetoric that surrounds scientific knowledge and “bring some realism and humility to the very human practice of science.” Much of the god-like reverence to modern science we see today stems from a book written in 1874 by William Draper entitled, History of the Conflict Between Christianity and Science. In lofty tones, Draper declared that “science and religion were necessarily at war; the one representing the expansive force of the human intellect, the other obscurantism and dogmatism.” While many today are not quite as optimistic about the ever expanding beneficence of modern science, it still is assumed by governments, education, and social institutions that scientific knowledge is the only true and verifiable form of knowledge accepted without question in the public forum. What this myth overlooks is that science is still a very human undertaking and prone to all the passions and foibles of mankind. Even after “laboratory tests prove…”, the scientist must still establish the credibility of his claims and in so doing he calls upon the whole gamut of human expression and argumentation.
Modern man has also attributed a certain degree of infallibility to the scientific method. Shapin rightly points out that there is no one scientific method. Scientists do not even know how to quantify and define with wide agreement any singular method. Some use induction; others deduction. It seems that there is much more interest in and reverence for THE scientific method among artists, social scientists, and historians than in the field of the natural sciences.
In a week where we celebrate the mysteries and the power of science, it is well to remember that it yet bears the stain of human reasoning. It can still be twisted and manipulated for ideological ends and bent to serve our selfish interests. If nothing else, modern science has amply demonstrated its need for containment and direction by the soft sciences of philosophy, history, and theology lest it prove itself a destructive Mr. Hyde that comes out raging well beyond the control of its kind hearted host, Dr. Jekyll.
By the way, women do not consume anywhere near 6 lbs of lipstick in a lifetime. And yes, Nathan Zohner (14) of Idaho Falls did win a science contest by proving how many became alarmed at the dangers of water when cloaked in scientific terminology.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Warning About Curious Wonder
“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.” - Pro. 8:12
In the late 1600’s, a privileged young boy named Peter Mikhailovich lived a carefree life in the Russian countryside largely free to explore, learn, and play as he chose. Of royal birth, his immediate family was sidelined by a reigning regent who pushed them and the young heir out of the affairs of court and away from the seat of power. A restless and inquisitive youth, Peter, by virtue of his royal rank did away with his formal tutors and threw himself into a world of his own making. He gathered other youths as his playmates who took to the field to play army like any pre-teen is prone to do. The only difference was that he had access to the royal armory and could order up real muskets, cannon, and a steady supply of gunpowder. His war games grew to involve hundreds of youth and also a few hundred soldiers on loan for temporary duty. It was a boy’s dream life that was to prove immensely practical in his later days when he inherited the reigns to the entire Russian army.
A war in the Crimea interrupted his play as he turned 16. His soldiers and equipment all left suddenly to fight in a real war. Ever curious, the young Czar apparent turned to other interests as he had an insatiable appetite to see how things worked and to watch craftsmen create and build. Even at the age of 12, he had ordered a carpenter’s bench and mastered the use of woodworking tools of every kind. He became a master at the lathe and the hobby followed him all his life. He became a stonemason and a blacksmith. He learned how type was set and books were bound. Then, in 1688, he became fascinated with the sextant and soon obtained one that came all the way from France. Marveling how the sextant could measure distance to far away objects, he finally found a use for math, geometry, and ballistics which was a challenge for someone who could barely subtract and divide. A study of geography soon followed in which he saw the outline of his native country measured against the global world.
In this constant thirst for knowledge, he soon realized that the best tutors were from outside Russia where the west had far outstripped Russia in the arts and sciences. He found in a graying Dutch merchant named Franz Timmerman a ready companion and teacher. So it was that Peter and Timmerman spent some summer days poking around a rural royal estate and discovered an old storehouse. Ordering it to be opened, Peter discovered an old decrepit boat stored upside down. It was unlike the typical Russian river barge, and Peter was completely fascinated at Timmerman’s claim that it could sail with the wind and even against the wind. Ordering up a craftsman, they found another Dutchman who was skilled in boat building. The small lifeboat-like craft was soon sailing up and down the river Yauza with the future Czar of all the Russias at its helm.
So began Peter the Great’s lifetime obsession with access to the sea for his landlocked nation and his thirst for Western science and technology to lift backward Russia into the 17th century. Peter eventually called that small boat “the grandfather of the Russian Navy” which today is the proud possession of the Russian Naval Museum in St. Petersburg. Peter was to move heaven and earth and fight a protracted war with Sweden to win access to the sea and build his namesake, St. Petersburg, on top of a swamp on the Baltic. He knew that no country could achieve greatness without foreign trade which meant access to the sea which meant a modern navy.
Never underestimate the curiosity of a child. Feed it and you might be soon amazed where it ends up. We trust that this next week will be filled with curious wonder for you and your student as you depart from your regular assigned studies to follow your heart. Good sailing; even into the wind!
In the late 1600’s, a privileged young boy named Peter Mikhailovich lived a carefree life in the Russian countryside largely free to explore, learn, and play as he chose. Of royal birth, his immediate family was sidelined by a reigning regent who pushed them and the young heir out of the affairs of court and away from the seat of power. A restless and inquisitive youth, Peter, by virtue of his royal rank did away with his formal tutors and threw himself into a world of his own making. He gathered other youths as his playmates who took to the field to play army like any pre-teen is prone to do. The only difference was that he had access to the royal armory and could order up real muskets, cannon, and a steady supply of gunpowder. His war games grew to involve hundreds of youth and also a few hundred soldiers on loan for temporary duty. It was a boy’s dream life that was to prove immensely practical in his later days when he inherited the reigns to the entire Russian army.
A war in the Crimea interrupted his play as he turned 16. His soldiers and equipment all left suddenly to fight in a real war. Ever curious, the young Czar apparent turned to other interests as he had an insatiable appetite to see how things worked and to watch craftsmen create and build. Even at the age of 12, he had ordered a carpenter’s bench and mastered the use of woodworking tools of every kind. He became a master at the lathe and the hobby followed him all his life. He became a stonemason and a blacksmith. He learned how type was set and books were bound. Then, in 1688, he became fascinated with the sextant and soon obtained one that came all the way from France. Marveling how the sextant could measure distance to far away objects, he finally found a use for math, geometry, and ballistics which was a challenge for someone who could barely subtract and divide. A study of geography soon followed in which he saw the outline of his native country measured against the global world.
In this constant thirst for knowledge, he soon realized that the best tutors were from outside Russia where the west had far outstripped Russia in the arts and sciences. He found in a graying Dutch merchant named Franz Timmerman a ready companion and teacher. So it was that Peter and Timmerman spent some summer days poking around a rural royal estate and discovered an old storehouse. Ordering it to be opened, Peter discovered an old decrepit boat stored upside down. It was unlike the typical Russian river barge, and Peter was completely fascinated at Timmerman’s claim that it could sail with the wind and even against the wind. Ordering up a craftsman, they found another Dutchman who was skilled in boat building. The small lifeboat-like craft was soon sailing up and down the river Yauza with the future Czar of all the Russias at its helm.
So began Peter the Great’s lifetime obsession with access to the sea for his landlocked nation and his thirst for Western science and technology to lift backward Russia into the 17th century. Peter eventually called that small boat “the grandfather of the Russian Navy” which today is the proud possession of the Russian Naval Museum in St. Petersburg. Peter was to move heaven and earth and fight a protracted war with Sweden to win access to the sea and build his namesake, St. Petersburg, on top of a swamp on the Baltic. He knew that no country could achieve greatness without foreign trade which meant access to the sea which meant a modern navy.
Never underestimate the curiosity of a child. Feed it and you might be soon amazed where it ends up. We trust that this next week will be filled with curious wonder for you and your student as you depart from your regular assigned studies to follow your heart. Good sailing; even into the wind!
Boring School Policy
(part 4 of a 4 part series on literature)
Pity for a few moments your local neighborhood Christian school administrator who must preside over a curriculum which honors God but also prepares students for further academic pursuits with a first rate education that includes exposure to some of the “greats” of the literary world. It is a thin line which he must walk. Over the past few years as our school has entered the nether world of secondary education, quite a number of voices have made themselves heard over our literature choices for the high school classes. It has been an education in and of itself. Choices were made and defended. Choices were made and regretted. Through it all, several guidelines have emerged which are leading us through this literary minefield.
First of all, there must flow some general edifying theme that should lift up the human spirit to higher virtues or the heroic. It is certainly acknowledged that moral virtues can be taught through stories of the negative. Scripture records many such stories in which bad examples warn us of paths not to follow. A good Christian literature teacher can take just about any literary work and use it to teach virtue simply from bad characters following bad choices. This, however, places us in a very teacher-dependent mode. Not all of us are so trained or so inclined to search out positives in a jumble of negatives. There are enough literature choices out there that do include heroic themes or where virtue is discussed or portrayed in positive terms. This will rule out those works that are dark, severely depressing, or end in meaninglessness where life has no purpose. Modern literature especially is rife with such examples.
Secondly, it must not be full of gratuitous (unwarranted, unnecessary, unessential) violence or vulgarity which masquerades as realism. Much of modern literature goes out of its way to shock or describe in detail that which only serves to titillate the unsanctified parts of our imaginations. While acknowledging that some “acclaimed” literature does contain the vulgar or profane, it is not our part to drag our students through material that is plainly over the top with salacious scenes or vocabulary. We leave such highly controversial decisions in the hands of parents alone to make those choices.
Thirdly, there are literature choices that are commonly made for high school course work that demand a high level of literary criticism to understand the redemptive qualities of a particular work. We prefer to leave such study to a college level curriculum, again because this places high demands upon all involved to be able to delve into them and separate the wheat from the chaff. Highly teacher-dependent coursework at RECA leads to frustrated parents who must then operate in the dark guessing at direction and purpose.
Fourthly, we do wish to adequately prepare students for college by not avoiding some truly standard literature selections just because they contain some objectionable vocabulary or because certain adult themes are treated therein. They must first pass all the criteria above and be suitable for the age level of our students. Principle #3 of our Guidelines for difficult or controversial topics says it best: (students) are to become increasingly proficient in distinguishing between good and evil and increasingly inclined to reject the evil in favor of the good by learning to evaluate all with which they come into contact by the standards and examples contained in the Word of God. By doing so, they will develop the ability to reach others without sacrificing those habits of thought, attitude, and conduct which are distinctively Christian and necessary for true obedience to the Lord. (RECA Policy Manual, pp. 48-49)
In reading this portion of our policy manual again, I was impressed. You may want to do so as well.
Pity for a few moments your local neighborhood Christian school administrator who must preside over a curriculum which honors God but also prepares students for further academic pursuits with a first rate education that includes exposure to some of the “greats” of the literary world. It is a thin line which he must walk. Over the past few years as our school has entered the nether world of secondary education, quite a number of voices have made themselves heard over our literature choices for the high school classes. It has been an education in and of itself. Choices were made and defended. Choices were made and regretted. Through it all, several guidelines have emerged which are leading us through this literary minefield.
First of all, there must flow some general edifying theme that should lift up the human spirit to higher virtues or the heroic. It is certainly acknowledged that moral virtues can be taught through stories of the negative. Scripture records many such stories in which bad examples warn us of paths not to follow. A good Christian literature teacher can take just about any literary work and use it to teach virtue simply from bad characters following bad choices. This, however, places us in a very teacher-dependent mode. Not all of us are so trained or so inclined to search out positives in a jumble of negatives. There are enough literature choices out there that do include heroic themes or where virtue is discussed or portrayed in positive terms. This will rule out those works that are dark, severely depressing, or end in meaninglessness where life has no purpose. Modern literature especially is rife with such examples.
Secondly, it must not be full of gratuitous (unwarranted, unnecessary, unessential) violence or vulgarity which masquerades as realism. Much of modern literature goes out of its way to shock or describe in detail that which only serves to titillate the unsanctified parts of our imaginations. While acknowledging that some “acclaimed” literature does contain the vulgar or profane, it is not our part to drag our students through material that is plainly over the top with salacious scenes or vocabulary. We leave such highly controversial decisions in the hands of parents alone to make those choices.
Thirdly, there are literature choices that are commonly made for high school course work that demand a high level of literary criticism to understand the redemptive qualities of a particular work. We prefer to leave such study to a college level curriculum, again because this places high demands upon all involved to be able to delve into them and separate the wheat from the chaff. Highly teacher-dependent coursework at RECA leads to frustrated parents who must then operate in the dark guessing at direction and purpose.
Fourthly, we do wish to adequately prepare students for college by not avoiding some truly standard literature selections just because they contain some objectionable vocabulary or because certain adult themes are treated therein. They must first pass all the criteria above and be suitable for the age level of our students. Principle #3 of our Guidelines for difficult or controversial topics says it best: (students) are to become increasingly proficient in distinguishing between good and evil and increasingly inclined to reject the evil in favor of the good by learning to evaluate all with which they come into contact by the standards and examples contained in the Word of God. By doing so, they will develop the ability to reach others without sacrificing those habits of thought, attitude, and conduct which are distinctively Christian and necessary for true obedience to the Lord. (RECA Policy Manual, pp. 48-49)
In reading this portion of our policy manual again, I was impressed. You may want to do so as well.
Wading in Polluted Streams
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world,” - John 17:11
One of the lesser known credentials in my resume is the fact that I was once a state certified, grade 1, wastewater treatment plant operator. For close to 15 years I tended the small sewage treatment plant at my work among other duties as a chemical laboratory analyst. I became quite familiar with contamination in the biological realm as well as with toxic chemicals in the laboratory. Safe and sanitary practices were crucial in handling any of this material. So it is as Christians that we must learn to deal with the morally toxic materials in the world in which we live.
I wish it were not so, that we could live in a toxic free zone where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day. Unfortunately, we must live out our lives here on earth behind enemy lines where the prince of this world attempts to reign supreme with all the filthy and vile essence that he can possibly manufacture. As believers, we have renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil and seek the narrow path leading to salvation. Holiness is our goal. In the first few centuries after Christ, there were serious multitudes of individuals who fled to desert caves and the wilderness in an attempt to live apart from the temptations of the world. Some of these holy hermits became famous for their simple lifestyles and then had to cope with the adulation of the world they had attempted to shun. Others discovered soon enough that wherever the human heart is, there sin still stubbornly dwells and must be put to death daily.
To those who love literature, this is especially challenging today. How do we walk in a way honoring to God and still dwell with both feet on this earth, eyes and ears wide open? One thing should be clear from the outset. We should never expose ourselves to that which is not in the least edifying nor for which no good reason exists for us to do so. Good laboratory workers never go out of their way to risk exposure to deadly situations just for the thrill of it or to show off for their friends. It defies all sense.
Yet I was called to daily interact with serious biological agents and deadly chemicals all as part of my job which had enormous benefits to many, many people. I had a good reason to expose myself to these perils. But in so doing, I had received training in the proper and safe way to deal with them and was provided with the proper equipment to protect myself. Dealing with the less-than-wholesome that the world records in its literature is much the same. Whether it be exposure to the profane or the mind-twisting deviousness of godless philosophies which we must navigate, we need proper training and protections built into our lives in order to emerge unscathed on the other side. Parents and teachers should fulfill this primary role.
Paul took words from the memorials pagans had erected to open doors into their world and preach the gospel. If we are to be in this world and be salt and light, we must likewise be somewhat knowledgeable of the world around us if we are to be effective witnesses. This will periodically take us out of our own comfort zones to build a bridge to unbelievers. But having a good guide is crucial. I would never advocate learning about existentialism by jumping in and reading existentialist literature. Why reinvent the wheel? Others have spent lifetimes studying it and need to be listened to as trusted mentors before sampling these polluted streams for oneself.
Living in this world is risky. Some things are to be avoided at all costs. Other dangers we must learn to live with on a daily basis. Wisdom is to know one from the other and to learn the skills of coping with the latter.
One of the lesser known credentials in my resume is the fact that I was once a state certified, grade 1, wastewater treatment plant operator. For close to 15 years I tended the small sewage treatment plant at my work among other duties as a chemical laboratory analyst. I became quite familiar with contamination in the biological realm as well as with toxic chemicals in the laboratory. Safe and sanitary practices were crucial in handling any of this material. So it is as Christians that we must learn to deal with the morally toxic materials in the world in which we live.
I wish it were not so, that we could live in a toxic free zone where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day. Unfortunately, we must live out our lives here on earth behind enemy lines where the prince of this world attempts to reign supreme with all the filthy and vile essence that he can possibly manufacture. As believers, we have renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil and seek the narrow path leading to salvation. Holiness is our goal. In the first few centuries after Christ, there were serious multitudes of individuals who fled to desert caves and the wilderness in an attempt to live apart from the temptations of the world. Some of these holy hermits became famous for their simple lifestyles and then had to cope with the adulation of the world they had attempted to shun. Others discovered soon enough that wherever the human heart is, there sin still stubbornly dwells and must be put to death daily.
To those who love literature, this is especially challenging today. How do we walk in a way honoring to God and still dwell with both feet on this earth, eyes and ears wide open? One thing should be clear from the outset. We should never expose ourselves to that which is not in the least edifying nor for which no good reason exists for us to do so. Good laboratory workers never go out of their way to risk exposure to deadly situations just for the thrill of it or to show off for their friends. It defies all sense.
Yet I was called to daily interact with serious biological agents and deadly chemicals all as part of my job which had enormous benefits to many, many people. I had a good reason to expose myself to these perils. But in so doing, I had received training in the proper and safe way to deal with them and was provided with the proper equipment to protect myself. Dealing with the less-than-wholesome that the world records in its literature is much the same. Whether it be exposure to the profane or the mind-twisting deviousness of godless philosophies which we must navigate, we need proper training and protections built into our lives in order to emerge unscathed on the other side. Parents and teachers should fulfill this primary role.
Paul took words from the memorials pagans had erected to open doors into their world and preach the gospel. If we are to be in this world and be salt and light, we must likewise be somewhat knowledgeable of the world around us if we are to be effective witnesses. This will periodically take us out of our own comfort zones to build a bridge to unbelievers. But having a good guide is crucial. I would never advocate learning about existentialism by jumping in and reading existentialist literature. Why reinvent the wheel? Others have spent lifetimes studying it and need to be listened to as trusted mentors before sampling these polluted streams for oneself.
Living in this world is risky. Some things are to be avoided at all costs. Other dangers we must learn to live with on a daily basis. Wisdom is to know one from the other and to learn the skills of coping with the latter.
So what is real?
“Shall vain words have an end?” -Job 16:3
Some lawyers spoke up the other week in New York state’s highest court and argued that dancers at a local strip club should be entitled to the same tax benefits as the Bolshoi Ballet or any other “artistic” group. Given the prevailing moral fog surrounding “artistic expression” and what constitutes pornography, they will probably win. Thus far at River’s Edge, we enjoy a much simpler set of rules that are uncluttered by the delicate discernments of elite legal minds. We still manage to know evil pretty much when we see it.
Yet there is a strong groundswell movement particularly in literature that began back in the 19th century and has vexed Christians for some time and still continues to be a source of debate, even here at RECA. It is simply called “realism.” It began as a reaction in the art world to the romantic idealization or dramatization of the previous era. Soon spilling over into the literary world, it focused on portraying “objective reality” of life as it really was even if it was sordid or ugly. Thus, we soon saw portrayals of the evils of industrialization and could read about the lives of common people be they high or low. It was as natural as night follows day that profanity and vulgarity of every kind should eventually find its way into artistic works of even the highest order.
It doesn’t take too much of a literary scholar to recognize that the wheels have come off this buggy of “realism” that we have been riding proving once again the old adage that what one generation tolerates in moderation the next will indulge to excess. If one wants to write “realistically” today, all you have to do is lace your manuscript with a rich assortment of profanities and vulgarities. It is your proof or prima facie evidence that you have been faithful to real life. Anything less than this is obviously a sanitized Hallmark-channel piece of fluff that merits no serious respect. This is nothing but flawed logic at several levels.
Modern portrayals of army life, especially, require navigating some of the most profane passages known to man; a steady barrage of expletives that continues with machine-gun rapidity. But I was in the army once; with real soldiers, real people. Shocking as it may seem, many did not talk like that. In fact, those whose vocabulary seldom included words of five letters or more were in the minority. So what is really real?
False also is the notion that one cannot write “realistically” without being offensive. The Bible contains some of the most realistic narratives ever put to paper. Biblical heroes are never perfect. There is always that mixture of ecstasy and agony such as is common to man. In fact, we see villains converted, the saintly fall, and plenty of just average people called to live out extraordinary lives in spite of themselves. Yet the Bible does not stoop to rubbing our noses in graphic detail we would just as soon not know. The scriptural authors all understood that our nature can be titillated by evil as well as repulsed by it and attempt to strike a wholesome balance.
If one wishes real “realism,” go to the book of Job to hear him cry out in the midst of his pain, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust him.” Go to Shakespeare where his distraught Hamlet broods, “now could I drink hot blood, and do such bitter business, as the day would quake to look on.” Go to Melville as he takes you inside the mind and heart of the ever vengeful Ahab who “sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.” By contrast, these reveal much of the coarse literature of our day to be mere collections of the cheap, the tawdry, and the gratuitous; the lipstick of pseudo realism upon the pig of shallow thinking and writing.
Some lawyers spoke up the other week in New York state’s highest court and argued that dancers at a local strip club should be entitled to the same tax benefits as the Bolshoi Ballet or any other “artistic” group. Given the prevailing moral fog surrounding “artistic expression” and what constitutes pornography, they will probably win. Thus far at River’s Edge, we enjoy a much simpler set of rules that are uncluttered by the delicate discernments of elite legal minds. We still manage to know evil pretty much when we see it.
Yet there is a strong groundswell movement particularly in literature that began back in the 19th century and has vexed Christians for some time and still continues to be a source of debate, even here at RECA. It is simply called “realism.” It began as a reaction in the art world to the romantic idealization or dramatization of the previous era. Soon spilling over into the literary world, it focused on portraying “objective reality” of life as it really was even if it was sordid or ugly. Thus, we soon saw portrayals of the evils of industrialization and could read about the lives of common people be they high or low. It was as natural as night follows day that profanity and vulgarity of every kind should eventually find its way into artistic works of even the highest order.
It doesn’t take too much of a literary scholar to recognize that the wheels have come off this buggy of “realism” that we have been riding proving once again the old adage that what one generation tolerates in moderation the next will indulge to excess. If one wants to write “realistically” today, all you have to do is lace your manuscript with a rich assortment of profanities and vulgarities. It is your proof or prima facie evidence that you have been faithful to real life. Anything less than this is obviously a sanitized Hallmark-channel piece of fluff that merits no serious respect. This is nothing but flawed logic at several levels.
Modern portrayals of army life, especially, require navigating some of the most profane passages known to man; a steady barrage of expletives that continues with machine-gun rapidity. But I was in the army once; with real soldiers, real people. Shocking as it may seem, many did not talk like that. In fact, those whose vocabulary seldom included words of five letters or more were in the minority. So what is really real?
False also is the notion that one cannot write “realistically” without being offensive. The Bible contains some of the most realistic narratives ever put to paper. Biblical heroes are never perfect. There is always that mixture of ecstasy and agony such as is common to man. In fact, we see villains converted, the saintly fall, and plenty of just average people called to live out extraordinary lives in spite of themselves. Yet the Bible does not stoop to rubbing our noses in graphic detail we would just as soon not know. The scriptural authors all understood that our nature can be titillated by evil as well as repulsed by it and attempt to strike a wholesome balance.
If one wishes real “realism,” go to the book of Job to hear him cry out in the midst of his pain, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust him.” Go to Shakespeare where his distraught Hamlet broods, “now could I drink hot blood, and do such bitter business, as the day would quake to look on.” Go to Melville as he takes you inside the mind and heart of the ever vengeful Ahab who “sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.” By contrast, these reveal much of the coarse literature of our day to be mere collections of the cheap, the tawdry, and the gratuitous; the lipstick of pseudo realism upon the pig of shallow thinking and writing.
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