Posted on 12/22/2001 5:06:17 PM PST by Wife of D28Man
The retirement of Anthony Lewis from the op-ed staff of The New York Times leaves a huge gap.
The paper is down a liberal columnist, leaving it with just seven liberal columnists on staff, though no doubt reinforcements are coming. Otherwise, William Safire might break out of his conservative ghetto and start colonizing the place.
The mullahs who run the Times might present themselves as open-minded, but they are every bit as interested in orthodoxy as the folks who put out Human Events.
While there is no shortage of good liberals to choose from, including some who - unlike Lewis - can actually write, his shoes will be very difficult to fill in one respect: Lewis may be the most arrogant man alive.
This is said with complete awareness that the world is full of dictators, kings, princesses, trust-fund brats, child prodigies, Mensa members, sheep cloners, clairvoyants, movie stars, real estate moguls, and the French.
None holds a candle to Lewis, whose arrogance is so pure and impenetrable that it may qualify as a type of insanity. This is not merely in reference to the fact that the man has basically been writing the same two or three columns for the past 20 years, though that is surely a sign of devout megalomania.
Consider some of Lewis' parting observations, which focussed on one of his primary obsessions: fundamentalism. That of course is a fat enough target - few of us have not fired a few salvoes that way - and indeed Lewis is on solid enough ground when pointing out that "Islamic fundamentalism, rejecting the rational processes of modernity, menaces the peace and security of many societies."
Yet he quickly goes off the rails in order to attack his primary target: "Fundamentalist Christians in America, believing that the Bible's story of creation is the literal truth, question not only Darwin, but the scientific method that has made contemporary civilization possible."
Linking Christian fundamentalists (which in Lewis' mind may be any Christian below the rank of Episcopal bishop) with Islamic fundamentalists, who these days are known for flying planes into buildings, is a touch on the rabid side. The Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell may say some stupid things, and indeed question Darwin (as many scientists do, though that's a story for another day). But comparing them to bin Laden and company is not only doltish but trivializes the horrors that have engulfed us.
Besides that, Lewis is wrong to suggest that "fundamentalist" Christians are uniformly anti-science. The fact is, the foundation of Western science was laid almost exclusively by Christians of a decidedly fundamentalist stripe.
Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest of all scientists, was a devout Christian. His writings on the Bible and theology, says the great historian Daniel Boorstin, were more extensive than his writings on science, coming to 1.3 million words in all.
"Without doubt," Boorstin writes, "Newton took the Prophets seriously, exercising all his linguistic learning to seek a common meaning for the mystical terms used by John, Daniel and Isaiah."
These great scientists were indeed prone to odd beliefs. Historian A. C. Crombie recalls, for instance, that one founder of the Royal Society insisted on counting "being borne through the air by birds and by witches among the recognized methods of human transport." The great Roger Bacon, meanwhile, "held that the awesome comet of July 1264 had been generated under the influence of the planet Mars and had produced an increse of jaundice leading to bad temper, the result of which was the wars and disturbances in England, Spain and Italy at that time and afterwards!"
Lewis tarred the attorney general with the same crude brush in his farewell interview: "Certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and John Ashcroft." The joke here, of course, is that no one believes in their own opinions more than Lewis, who is so arrogant he labels his foes "indecent" and compares them to mass murderers.
Lewis is gone, but he leaves behind a foul odor. His long stay at the Times also reminds us that bigotry and doltishness do have their rewards, so long as they are aimed at the right people.
Editor's Note: Dave Shiflett is author, with Vincent Carroll, of "Christianity on Trial: Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry."
Ditto.
Bump.
You think he's gone - these pinko, moral-equivalantist, one-world, anti-Christian/America/Capitalism (I could go on but its dinner time)never seem to retire/die/go away! His warped, psychotic approach to politics and the human race is sure to surface somewhere else; and soon I'll bet a 6pack on it!
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