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Some thoughts I had watching Tim Lahey’s Biography

by AltHippo @ 9:48 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

Right now I’m watching the biography channel’s bio of Tim Lahey, author of the Left-Behind Series.

As I’m learning from watching the show Tim Lahey’s novels were the Genesis of groups like Concerned Women for America, a vocal anti-abortion group.

For that alone, it’s important to keep track of these guys. Think about it, someone writes a series of sensational novels, and that becomes the basis for a conservative religious movement.

I do see a tactic, that I think is important to point out. The basic idea is that you focus on a flaw in some doctrine in the scientific community, and use that to undermine the comunity as a whole. It’s basically the same approach that right-wing sites use to defame legitimate criticism of the Bush administration. The sites that I often link to (NRO, Powerline, Malkin) are great examples of this.

There’s almost nothing in our civilization that can’t be undermined with those of a fallacious turn of mind. That’s why I object to people like Jonah Goldberg, for instance. I believe that he puts a face on idiosyncratic arguments, and I believe we need to say uniformly that it’s not okay for him to do what he does.

All scientific ideas have flaws. There’s not a single idea that I’m aware of, that doesn’t have a counter-argument. I’ve never heard it put this way before, but I’ll put it out there: Science is not an exact science.

I think what Lehay does is particularly reprensible. He takes advantage of our fear of death, and what happens after death, to construct an imaginary world where people who are members of particular sects of Christianity, lord it over the rest of humanity. What his motivations are, I have no idea. I do suspect that he resents the idea that over time, people have developed expertise in various areas, and delights in the idea that he can create his own reality, to use a phrase from Ron Suskind.

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3 Responses to “Some thoughts I had watching Tim Lahey’s Biography”

Bulworth Says:
December 19th, 2006 at 10:46 am
“I think what Lehay does is particularly reprensible. He takes advantage of our fear of death, and what happens after death, to construct an imaginary world where people who are members of particular sects of Christianity, lord it over the rest of humanity. What his motivations are, I have no idea. I do suspect that he resents the idea that over time, people have developed expertise in various areas, and delights in the idea that he can create his own reality, to use a phrase from Ron Suskind.”

Lehay is certainly not alone among christianists in doing this, although he may be the most commercially successful. This fear
of death, and a longing for a future in the next world, and a select, privileged purpose in this one, are the key
power buttons pressed by conservative christianity to control the citizenry. And as traditional religion has lost ground
to democracy, modernism and pluralism, it has become more defensive and hysterical.

As to their motivations; People like Lehay and the men at Concerned Women for America remind me of George Orwell’s depiction
of Oceania’s inner party. He describes them as both directing the system of falsehood and at the same time, the most
incredulous. They believe and don’t believe in the propaganda at the same time. Orwell’s classic case of double-think. They
are both true-believers in what they preach, as well as knowing contributors to the scam. Funny now everything leads me
back to Orwell, or at least everything that emenates from the conservative movement, religious and otherwise.
AltHippo Says:
December 19th, 2006 at 11:41 am
I have this feeling that a young Karl Rove read 1984 and Animal Farm, and decided to use it as a blue print for his political career.
r~ Says:
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
The irony of all this is that Lahey & Bush et al have been deceived by and now follow d’evil. If anyone will be left behind, it will be those that carry the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is easy to spot for anyone that is the least bit enlightened. The mark of the beast is found in those that persecute sinners. The mark of the beast is found in those that do not know the difference between sin and crime.

ItS
r~

December 2006
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95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
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Bulworth Says:
December 19th, 2006 at 10:46 am

“I think what Lehay does is particularly reprensible. He takes advantage of our fear of death, and what happens after death, to construct an imaginary world where people who are members of particular sects of Christianity, lord it over the rest of humanity. What his motivations are, I have no idea. I do suspect that he resents the idea that over time, people have developed expertise in various areas, and delights in the idea that he can create his own reality, to use a phrase from Ron Suskind.”

Lehay is certainly not alone among christianists in doing this, although he may be the most commercially successful. This fear
of death, and a longing for a future in the next world, and a select, privileged purpose in this one, are the key
power buttons pressed by conservative christianity to control the citizenry. And as traditional religion has lost ground
to democracy, modernism and pluralism, it has become more defensive and hysterical.

As to their motivations; People like Lehay and the men at Concerned Women for America remind me of George Orwell’s depiction
of Oceania’s inner party. He describes them as both directing the system of falsehood and at the same time, the most
incredulous. They believe and don’t believe in the propaganda at the same time. Orwell’s classic case of double-think. They
are both true-believers in what they preach, as well as knowing contributors to the scam. Funny now everything leads me
back to Orwell, or at least everything that emenates from the conservative movement, religious and otherwise.

AltHippo Says:
December 19th, 2006 at 11:41 am

I have this feeling that a young Karl Rove read 1984 and Animal Farm, and decided to use it as a blue print for his political career.

r~ Says:
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:38 pm

The irony of all this is that Lahey & Bush et al have been deceived by and now follow d’evil. If anyone will be left behind, it will be those that carry the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is easy to spot for anyone that is the least bit enlightened. The mark of the beast is found in those that persecute sinners. The mark of the beast is found in those that do not know the difference between sin and crime.

ItS
r~

December 18, 2006

3 Responses to “Some thoughts I had watching Tim Lahey’s Biography”

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