TALKING THROUGH MY HAT: How Ahmadinejad Made Me a Believer
[The following is the text of the First Episode of Roger L. Simon's "Talking Through My Hat" series for PJTV. You can see it here.]
I have never been much of a believer.
The very night of my bar mitzvah – back in that early Paleolithic Age known as the 1950s – I went to see “Inherent the Wind” the play about the Scopes Monkey Trial with Paul Muni as the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, upending some Tennessee yokels who wouldn’t allow teaching Darwin in the schools. Just the ticket for a wannabe smarty-pants New York boy
I returned to ask my parents, who were then in bed: “Do you believe in God?” Before they had a chance to answer – they were liberals and looking for a “measured” response – I blurted out proudly “Well, I don’t.”
Never mind that the theory of evolution has little to do, probatively, with a belief in God. Teenage rebellion coupled with some precocious reading of Bertrand Russell – he was cool and smoked a pipe – had taken over. From then on in I proclaimed myself an atheist or… or more specifically… an agnostic. I mean – who knew, right?
In fact, lo these decades later, I still don’t know. I usually joke with those few who are interested that the existence of God – as someone else said on a related matter – was “above my grade.” And, of course, in a literal sense, it is. St. Thomas, St. Anselm or Maimonides…. I am not. Far from it. In fact, to be blunt, I went along in my life mostly ignoring the big issue, lost in the Big Bang, as it were.
Sometimes I would explain, if pressed, that in a universe of, according to some Australian astronomer, 70 sextillion stars – that’s 22 zeros – it was hard to conceive of a deity interested in daily affairs on our speck of a planet: less than one grain of sand on all the beaches of the world combined, by comparison.
And then there was the matter of the Holocaust. How could a beneficent God… or any God worth worshipping… have permitted that? I still have trouble with that one.
So I remained unmoved as an agnostic… even if my wife and I did send our daughter to a Chabad Sunday school for a couple of years… Hey, whoever said I was consistent?
Meanwhile, however, I was going through a political transformation of a sort, which I won’t detail here, but describe in my memoir Blacklisting Myself. But during a CSPAN interview on the book, Armstrong Williams did challenge me on my religious beliefs.
Suffice it to say, that although I moved ideologically rightward on a number of issues, that didn’t include social ones. I was still the good old agnostic I always was.
Until I went to Geneva, Switzerland a couple of weeks ago. I was there to cover Durban II, aka the Durban Review Conference – an attempt by the United Nations to ratify the results of its 2001 human rights conclave in Durban, South Africa.
Actually that original conference was an orgy of anti-Semitism from which Israel and the US walked out.It was nothing worth ratifying unless you were racist. I was in Geneva with others to monitor the situation.
But I didn’t realize the man who turned out to be the conference’s key speaker – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran – would be staying in my hotel. I learned that surprising fact from some Swiss security people only minutes before I saw the Iranian president face to face.
Standing in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, we were suddenly told to put our cameras away.We were not allowed to take pictures and indeed had to keep our cell phones in our pockets, lest they be construed as a weapon.
But you knew he was who he was before you saw him. When I saw Muhammed Atta, several months before 9/11, I did not know who he was. And yet I had a similarly physical reaction, would not say nausea, more like squeamishness. Maybe he was under the influence? Does not have to be drugs, could be just his thoughts.
Roger, have you ever had the sensation that someone was watching you from behind? Even in school, as a child?
Or ever had a sense of impending doom…something is “lurking”?
People have been recounting such tales for centuries. We have an encoded sense of danger built into our systems…when faced with a predator. We simply have turned it off…our “stranger danger” present sense impressions that we might otherwise take in from our “sixth” sense.
More “primitive” souls from years ago, embraced this…paid heed to it.
Modern man, tries to “outsmart” it.
Modern man, has grown the intellect to ask questions. And because he can’t answer them, he dismisses all prior answers. In fact, they are to be ridiculed.
Primitive man accepted his instincts and attributed them to a more powerful force…and as a gift that saved them from harm. He didn’t know that such a thought was nonsense, foolishness…he simply believed…he had faith.
The former waits for the end, knowing….absolutely knowing…that nobody is coming to help him. The latter lives to his final breath, believing the opposite.
When it comes time to draw my last breath, I know which line I would rather be in, because if I’m going to be called arrogant and feeble-minded, …I would prefer it was by my lessers in this weigh station, than by my betters in the next one.
A nuclear weapons policy premised upon mutual assured destruction is useless when dealing with Ahmadinejad. He has every intention of eradicating Israel—even at the cost of his own homeland. The Israeli government would do well to bomb Iran’s nuclear installations as soon as possible regardless of the desires of Barack Obama.
Adolph Hitler was willing to sacrifice the lives of Germans simply to increase the opportunity of murdering Jews. The Fuhrer ordered trains diverted from the war effort to send victims to the concentration camp. There is little doubt but that his decision cost the lives of many allegedly pure Aryans. This is especially true at the end of the war when Germany’s situation was obviously desperate. Jew killing turned out to be Hitler’s number one priority. Ahmadinejad likely embraces the same mindset.
It’s funny that persons attempting to leave a comment are cautioned that it’s ok to disagree, but not ad hominem, when all that the article held was emotional appeal and seem to be the basis for most of these comments as well! Mr. Simon has been living too deeply in his scripts that he crafts for Hollywood, i.e. he’s bought his own lies that the Spin Machine instructs him to create. The Zionist lobby has so carefully and completely built up the bogus case of the “danger” that Israel faces, that even avowed agnostics feel the threat. it’s been well documented that Mr. AN never used the term “wiped off the map” as the typical translation states, but rather that the Zionist government of Israel should be removed, not it’s presumably Jewish population. Americans need to read and watch something other than FoXX News to understand what is going on in other nations. Just look at the record, at history; Iran has never attacked another nation state in modern times. Israel cannot say the same. Iran gave asylum to non-Iranian Jews during WWII and even now has probably the largest Middle eastern Jewish community outside of Israel, allowed it’s own private religious school system and parliament representative. Mr. AN did not say the Holocaust did not exist, but that the attack on European Jews was done by other Europeans, so why are Palestinians suffering the blame for it and taking the resultant damages?
I wonder if the overwhelming feeling of facing Evil was what the villages of Sabra and Shatilla experienced before Ariel Sharon ordered them to be destroyed in a (1982)massacre? That story never really made it big in the western papers, though. I guess if it never gets reported by mainstream media, it must not have happened. What about the totally paved and plowed over town of Jenin (2002)that used to be full of homes, schools and business before helicopters with mounted guns swept through, killing hundreds? When UN investigators came in with dogs to check out the reports of massacre (there’s that word again), all they met was concrete. I guess even dogs can’t smell dead bodies through concrete. Of course evidence of almost the same thing is still laying around the beseiged city of Gaza.
And the big enchilada–Iran doesn’t have the N bomb, but Israel does and no matter how democratically-minded they are portrayed to be, they have attacked their neighbors in very recent history. They haven’t used their nukes on anyone yet, but they do rain down white phosphorous these days in Gaza. The US has Nuclear bombs and they’ve actually used them. Please explain to me how the standards got so twisted? How is it that the one who doesn’t have WMD “yet” (as you pundits claim the inevitability) is the villain, but the ones who already do have them and who’ve already used them or gets away, literally, with murder are called the victims….????
The real life facts are too numerous to list in this space. Intelligent readers will check them out and consider that maybe, just maybe, Israel should be called to task for its crimes, just for once.
Mr. Simon, thank you for sharing your visceral response to evil. It is instructive for us all, irrespective of our religious affiliations, or lack thereof. In some sense it is good to know that a good man would have that immediate reaction. I cannot know whether I would be shocked into numbness, or bare my teeth.
Very interesting response, Roger Simon. I’m sure you haven’t completely digested the experience. But if it was as you envisioned meeting Hitler, did you also envision letting Hitler go on his merry way to do whatever he wished? Or, perhaps there is some other response short of violence that could stop the Hitlers of this world in their tracks? That possibility would seem to warrant some serious thinking time, about as much as going to see a play or reading Russell. I look forward to reading more about this. I hope you write more about this.
so IF there is a god, you, as a jew, have only one predetermined path to him, right? it’s obviously a no-brainer for you.
Powerful stuff.
as a writer you are excellent, a “word merchant”… i suggest you READ Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Isrealistine by Bill Solis, keep up with todays news and your belief will grow. Coach
“My lessers in this weigh station” is a blogworthy curiosity, if nothin’ else.
Happy daze.
Wonderfully vivid stuff, Roger and I appreciate all your efforts. As a literary man you’ll appreciate what another writer, Joseph Conrad had to say on the subject of God and Evil in his great novel Under Western Eyes.:
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
“Never mind that the theory of evolution has little to do, probatively, with a belief in God.”
Why, Mr. Simon? On the contrary, the theory of evolution is totally in accordance with Divine law. However, your sources and mind frame are outdated and not workable.
Why oppose Darwin’s theory or material evolution with the evolution of the Spirit? Both complement each other perfectly when you accept that while there is an outward material evolution, which is clearly discernible scientifically and follow genetics and other prescribed patterns, there is also an inward spiritual evolution.
But for that one must believe in some form of metempsychosis or reincarnation, and break away from the childish claims of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) of one life, one soul, and then the simpleton story of heaven and hell (even eternal hell, a negation of the love of God).
The outward material evolution is secondary to the spiritual one, the latter driving the process. But the ignorant only sees the outward movement. As life was immanent in the material, later Nature evolved mind out of life with the creation of the human species, and that is the stage we have been for a long time, without being able to affect final change. But…is man final? Or is there is mind something immanent waiting to manifest? I rather go for the latter possibility.
Great post Roger, thank you. What fun it would be to have the millions of liberal moonbats out there also experience such an epiphany and visceral experience.
kill the second experience…with encounter.
Brilliant and beautifully written Roger. I think your post reflects the existential side of philosopher Alvin Planinga’s argument for the existence of God based on the existence of evil. His writing is a bit too technical for me in places, but if I remember the gist of his writing, he essentially used an aristotelian framework to argue that “God” and “Evil” are in the same categories: immaterial, abstractions we “see” in the world around us. To argue that there is no God based on the existence of evil is akin to arguing that there is no dog based on the existence of cats. But when one admits the existence of one one has to admit the probability of not just the other, but any others in the same category.
The next question of course is, can a centaur exists if cats exist? I mean, it too, would be a mammal and in the same category as cat…
You might also like the writings of French scientist Bernard D’Espagnat who argues for the rationality of belief in God. I posted on him here: http://rebelsk8.blogspot.com/2009/03/god-bless-french.html
great post. thanks!
I’ve been listening to the new Jakob Dylan CD. Evil is Alive and Well is a great song and could be the theme song of your essay.
Evil is alive and well
Maybe in a palace it may be in the streets
May be here among us on a crowded beach
May be asleep in a roadside motel
But evil is alive and well
Begin with the Torah, do not stop there but continue with the writings and the prophets but do not stop there… for salvation comes (came) from the Jews, get into the Christian Bible and read the first book, Matthew and then continue on to the end. It may surprise you.
Regards
Mr. Simon, you’ve experienced evil. You really can’t go back after this.
You need to start thinking about the good, and beginning a relationship with it.
How can God exist if suffering by evil like Ahmedinejad or Buchenwald also exist?
That question was answered millenia ago, Simon, and you, as a Jew, should know it well.
The Book of Job.
I had a similar creepy experience in the presence of a Special Republican Guard officer captured in Kuwait in ’91. It was a relief when Kuwaiti authorities took him off our hands to try him for war crimes. I assume he was hanged – I sure hope so.
I agree with Tim O’Reilly and others – grab that Gideons Bible and start reading.
Welcome to, not *irrational* behavior, but completely rational. If what you experienced is real (and I think it is), then it is entirely rational to want to escape it to its diametric opposite. That’s real too.
Blessings to you in your journey. TimO, BB, Bruce and OS are with you in this. Keep walking (from the prophet Micah).
Excellent article. Evil is real. Fortunately, this world is not God’s finished product and all of this evil will be eventually dealt with. Those who deny its existence will suffer the consequences with it. (Source: The New Testament of the Bible)
I just finished reading a book that you may be interested in. It is “The End of Reason” by Ravi Zacharias who was an avowed atheist who became a Christian. The book addresses the philosophical weaknesses in the arguments of notable atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. The book is only 128 pages long and it one of the best intellectual and philosophical discussions about atheism that I have read in a while.
Your encounter with Ahmadinejad was no accident. I believe that God wanted to get your attention and obviously He did.
Also, if you question the validity of the bible and the deity of Christ, you may be interested in another book named “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. Lee Strobel was a Chicago investigative reporter who was an atheist and agnostic. By the time he finished doing his own investigation into the facts (traveling all over the place interviewing scholars), he became a Christian. Strobel has written many other books, too, including “The Case for a Creator: The Scientific Evidence that Points Toward God.”
Jews who are dismissive of Judaism usually know nothing of the teachings. All these questions we have were answered hundreds if not thousands of years before our births. We continue to incompetently reinvent the wheel when giants invented it long ago. Take Rabbi Hillel’s advice “Go study.”
Roger -
I appreciate your honesty and humility in disucssing this topic. One question:
“Sometimes I would explain, if pressed, that in a universe of, according to some Australian astronomer, 70 sextillion stars – that’s 22 zeros – it was hard to conceive of a deity interested in daily affairs on our speck of a planet…”
Why? Exactly what size of universe would compel you to think there is a God that cares about our affairs?
I think modern humans tend to not fully appreciate or understand the myriad subtle ways we are wired up to the universe. Our scientific orientation and obsession with explanation leave out or disavow whole realms of human experience.
It is probably not possible to fully understand your overwhelming physiological reaction to the Madhi obsessed cretin.
We periodically hear that A’jad has fallen out of favor with Ayatollah Khamenei. Khamenei will likely determine the outcome of the June 12 election, as he and his immediate circle ultimately determine everything that happens inside Iran. A’jad’s main opponent Mousavi has been highly critical of him and in public, so I have a glimmer of hope (possibly futile) that the Spidery One will no longer be Iran’s representative to the world.
Very revealing event indeed. To be directly confronted by the presence of such evil can be a shocking experience, rendering one nauseous and breathless. Devoid of the senses to enter the realm of the unseen, mortals can merely shiver and cower in the presence of satanic powers. The remedy is to cloak yourself in the shimmering righeousness of Jesus Christ and it will be the demons and their earthly emissaries who cower in YOUR presence. Seek, and you will find hope and rest, Mr Simon. God Bless.
There is a sense of a man who has been living on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, intelligent, perceptive, well read, congenial – in every manner a man who has vigorously examined every item that has floated by, and has swum after that which he has laid his eyes on and that has evoked curiousity. Then, in a startling moment, he has found himself not swimming, but arrested in a vertical position, and has touched not what he can see with his eyes and discuss with his mind, but has felt deep below him in his spirit. Pursue that which is eternal. The depths of God are astounding. He is, as others hint above, really and actually good.
Honest, thoughtful article. Keep searching.
Roger, I read your first mention of this experience when you were posting from the conference and I wondered about it at the time and related it to a friend. I have never had a reaction like that to anyone – repulsion to the point of nausea. After reading your post today, I believe that you have reached the right conclusion. I also believe that God is in this. Please let us know how things go.
Might I suggest Deism to you Mr. Simon? It’s my “salvation” if you will in this world full of unanswered questions and inexplicable evil.
I’m on the Onion, right? This post cannot be real! What a cartoonish stereotype of the paranoid wingnut this post is. The writer needs to be a little less heavy handed with the “I was in the presence of pure Evil” passages. Nobody above the age of 12 would write something so cheesy.
THat said, however, this satire does manage to capture the chickenhawk’s pathological need to puff himsulf up into a real tough-guy warrior persona to cover for the fact that he’s never actually done anything brave, like, say, Daniel Pearl, who had the cojones to meet with and interview terrorists and other shady characters away from the safety of a Swiss hotel.
SO I give this piece a B+. Just turn down the tweenage girl hyperbole and it might be worthy of an A.
Spacepussy, interviewed a lot of evil people face to face have you? I bet you have.
Great post. An atheist friend asked me once “Why do people need religion?” and I said I think (because I am not of any certain faith myself and do not really know), I think it’s because it gives them hope of something better.
Maybe if you’ve never directly experienced what some of us intuitively feel as “evil” then you really can’t conceive it. Sidebar example, recently my husband and I parked at a garage where we had to pay on the way out. When we arrived at the station to pay I had this sudden sense of evil about the attendant. I don’t know why as I couldn’t even really see her very well being the passenger. Anyway, my husband gave her a $20 – I clearly saw him get it from his wallet and knew he had only $20′s because I had given the money to him earlier. She gave him change for a $5 then promptly denied she had just taken the $20. We took her name and phone number of the company to report her and went onward, writing off the $15. But as we drove away my husband said “You know it’s weird but I had this sense when I drove up that something bad was about to happen.”
It would be one thing if we often felt this sense of “bad” or “evil” but we don’t.
You’re not irrational, and I hope you continue to explore it. ‘Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen.’ I’m in a supremely rational business (science), and yet, know there are questions and subjects not addressable through my typical means of exploring questions. Good luck (or rather, God bless)!
“The writer needs to be a little less heavy handed with the “I was in the presence of pure Evil” passages.”
I’ve never had this experience. My wife has a couple of times met people that she describes in this way–not mentally ill, or damage, or confused, but exuding evil in a way that was scary–and in one case, before she could even see the person. Not people that anyone had ever heard of, either.
An acquaintance used to work at a prison in Alaska. There were inmates there for all sorts of violent crimes (murder, rape, child molestation)–but there were a very few that he described as “bent” with rather similar sensations–people that were just evil.
I never took her feelings or my friend’s feelings completely seriously–but when someone with a very secular worldview comes to that same weird feeling, it’s rather interesting, isn’t it?
Being rather shallow, I don’t get it. Obviously there must be evil if good is to exist; they’re opposite sides of the same coin. They need each other; neither can exist absent the presence of its opposite. (If there’s no evil then there’s no reference point for good, is there?) In the universe we live in, it’s necessary that evil exists.
On the plus side our existence isn’t boring. One would think that god could alleviate boredom and allow free will without resorting to good/evil; that’s a bit binary and inelegant for the likes of a god, thus unlikely.
Ockham’s razor suggests instead that we’re still animals but with the ability to destroy the planet. We aren’t smart enough collectively to grasp much beyond binary concepts like good/evil. Apparently we need to boost the average IQ or else. If we blow ourselves up, is it really evil or mere stupidity?
Evil exists so that humans can see and hopefully choose Good.
God is Love.
Great piece–love your honesty and how you walk us through your mind and heart. Clearly you’re a good man judging by your repulsion and honest analysis. Amazingly, many people resonate intellectually or are taken and even impressed by the power surge they feel from these types. That I find worrisome. But in today’s well-groomed culture, so many are easily transfixed by any display of power and “fame”, never mind random violence and outright weirdness. They think it’s cool, and “politically correct”. Chaos and rebellion against anything sacred or foundational is “in”.
Good vs evil is the only way to understand what is happening today. It usually tries to stay hidden and do its dirty work in secret so few will notice, perverting and twisting things without you realizing what’s happening and you start to see God in it and wake up to what it’s doing. Evil doesn’t like that (hence the hate for the churches and religion). Today it’s the ultimate power grab–it and its minions can smell blood–they spent a lot of time setting the stage and victory is near it thinks–so it’s pulling out the stops.
It’s clearly alive in this lying administration–I’m repulsed every time I hear another lying hollow platitude from this deceiving picture of arrogance and pride. He’s a committed emissary–he will no doubt appear more bold and forceful and Stalin-esque as he grows into the role he feels he needs to fulfill and starts to “command” things even more blatantly. What he’s not prepared for is how OUT of his own control he too will be. Such is the way of all would-be despots. How can a living human being possibly justify not just nasty “re-eduction” camps, but mass murders and incarceration and genocide? Yet that’s where these regimes have ultimately led. Ahmadenijad is just such a tool. And O apparently thinks he’s cool like his other pals.
Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
We get daily insults about what’s wrong with us and our attitude and history and system, almost all honest press has been neutered, our economy deliberately trashed, our Godly constitution double-crossed, our military and security dismantled, his cold, calculating self-aggrandizing personality, the intimidation and blacklisting of industries and even individual citizens, and his deceitful, phony lying rhetoric, a daily affront to our dignity.—and all while the people seemingly adore him and cheer–now that’s one big whopper of a lie!
Jesus told the false, exploitative leaders of his time: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Pretty explicit.
By the way, CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters may be something that would appeal to you at this juncture.
Thanks again, great piece.
I am thrilled that Mr. Simon did not become “religious.” Religion (like Islam) is killing people. However, I do hope that since he now knows there is a being (who has given us free will)to choose whose voice we want to listen to. He is Eloheim in the Torah, God to the Gentiles. He does not want to establish a religion-based relationship with the children of His creation, but rather He longs for a personal relationship with those children who choose to establish one with Him. He says if you “seek” Him, you will find Him. Mr. Simon, you are part of a people whom God called the “apple of His eye.” He said that the land of Israel would become fruitful. The Jewish people are the only people group who lost a language and had it restored again. The day is coming and coming soon when God himself will destroy all of Israel’s enemies. I pray that you seek Him. You will never be the same.
Roger
There as those who will mock me for what I am about to say. Let them say what they want, I have to speak out.
I like you have experienced evil. Not in any person like Hitler or Ahmadinejad, but directly. I’ve never seen anything, but the feeling is unmistakable. Absolute confusion. A fear for ones very existence. Hope disappears. Its as if the very life, spiritually, mentally, and physically, are being sucked from you. Physical, mental and spiritual pain are common. Those who have not experienced it cannot understand. I have never been a drinking man and have never done any drugs. It is not a delusion of my mind. It is very, very real. I have had nights where I was literally terrified to go to sleep because of what might come in the night (and many times did). There was only one thing that could dispel this terror. His presence is also unmistakable. The room gets very quiet. And there is absolute calm. A feeling of love and joy that cannot be described in words overwhelms you. It’s as if a warm blanket has been wrapped around you. Peace comes to your mind and reassurance of safety. This is also very, very real. I am a religious man, but I have my faults. Many of those faults got me into the situation I described above. Evil desires only one thing. Our absolute and utter destruction. It will use whatever means or puppets it can to bring that to pass. It has tried many times. It cannot be bargained with. You cannot make deals with it. You cannot appeal to its better nature for it has none. Whether you believe in a devil or hell matters not. We have to acknowledge that evil is real and it must be crushed or it will crush us.
There, I’ve said my peace.
Great post. It was especially interesting to hear your experiences/struggles with Judaism.
Someone once told me the most Jewish thing you can do is become a follower of Jesus Christ…
The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, who speak to you, am he.”
OK I’m not sure if this got through or not so I’m sending it again
Roger
There as those who will mock me for what I am about to say. Let them say what they want, I have to speak out.
I like you have experienced evil. Not in any person like Hitler or Ahmadinejad, but directly. I’ve never seen anything, but the feeling is unmistakable. Absolute confusion. A fear for ones very existence. Hope disappears. Its as if the very life, spiritually, mentally, and physically, are being sucked from you. Physical, mental and spiritual pain are common. Those who have not experienced it cannot understand. I have never been a drinking man and have never done any drugs. It is not a delusion of my mind. It is very, very real. I have had nights where I was literally terrified to go to sleep because of what might come in the night (and many times did). There was only one thing that could dispel this terror. His presence is also unmistakable. The room gets very quiet. And there is absolute calm. A feeling of love and joy that cannot be described in words overwhelms you. It’s as if a warm blanket has been wrapped around you. Peace comes to your mind and reassurance of safety. This is also very, very real. I am a religious man, but I have my faults. Many of those faults got me into the situation I described above. Evil desires only one thing. Our absolute and utter destruction. It will use whatever means or puppets it can to bring that to pass. It has tried many times. It cannot be bargained with. You cannot make deals with it. You cannot appeal to its better nature for it has none. Whether you believe in a devil or hell matters not. We have to acknowledge that evil is real and it must be crushed or it will crush us.
There, I’ve said my peace.
Thank you for your rant, Roger.
I remember reading a long time ago about this one airline worker who was checking in certain men who were boarding a plane from Maine into Logan Airport. She (or he – I forgot the gender for sure) saw the face of one of them, and even his eyes: her blood froze cold. Her instincts told her to tell someone about this and not allow those men inside that plane, but Political Correctness had already conditioned her “not to judge”; so, she let them in. Hours later, two planes that left Logan Airport some time later were hijacked and were slammed against the Twin Towers. The airline worker, to this day, has never forgiven him/herself.
I’m glad you saw it and talked about it, Roger. Many see the same thing and decide not to act. For fear of their lives? Maybe.
This goes into the same plane as talking about the existence of Hell. (“If God was a God of love, why did He create Hell?”, and so on.) That was something I stumbled into a couple of months after 9/11/01, as I was driving some co-workers of mine to a restaurant in Corpus Christi for lunch. One of them, a lady who attended the big megachurch in town, was very critical of the pastor of another church who gave a whole week’s worth of sermons on the Flames of Hell a year before. She said that the whole thing gave her daughter nightmares, and that she was crying that she would not see her family again if she went there. Needless to say, they took the girl – and themselves – out of that church and hooked on to the megachurch. (She said that all the activities there made her daughter feel “much better”.) She was adamant in insisting that Hell is too scary of a topic for anyone to contemplate. But I told her otherwise: it is precisely because it is “scary” that it must be discussed. There should never be a reason to deny its existence and purpose. And then, I told her these words, that still resonate in me: “Otherwise, where would those a-holes who blew up the Twin Towers be right now?”
(Besides, has anyone taken a good look at Mohammed Atta’s face – in particular, his eyes? “The window to the soul is in the eye”, said Jesus. What do those eyes tell us, people?)
Just as there is Evil, so there should be something called Good and Justice – to overcome it.
There’s human evil. Does that mean there has to be divine good? Or was Ahmedinejad’s evil something beyond human?
I’d like to know, Roger, if you’ve gone further and seen that the good you now believe in will triumph ultimately — or even not so ultimately? That you believe in earthly justice? As an agnostic, I have to be content to live on hope, not faith, and I could use some hope now.
Sorry for the duplicates guys. Guess I’m a little too impatient.
Mr. Simon:
“I was in the presence of pure Evil.
Now that’s a big word and I have spent my life reluctant to use it. But there it was – popping up out of my mouth within seconds of the Iranian leaders disappearance into the hotel elevator. For once, “psychopath” or “sociopath” did not feel remotely appropriate. Only the E-word would suffice.”
Perhaps this hasn’t occurred to you, but you were very lucky to at least have had the religious training necessary to properly frame and identify the phenomenon you experienced.
Imagine what this encounter with the devil that walks in the noonday sun might have been like had you not been fore-armed by the teachings of Judaism?
I second D-Wah’s recommendation of CS Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters”.
This sounds like the feeling often described by individuals exposed to Dick Cheney.
Your gut reaction does not depend on divine intervention. A faith so superficial would be preposterous (and is).
Peace.
DS
I think you’re onto something. You’ve got me in tears of recognition. A moment of silence. Amen.
David S
This sounds like the feeling often described by individuals exposed to Dick Cheney.
Oh yes, to a loon like David, Bush is Hitler and Cheney is Ahmadinejad even if the reality is that these great Americans are the polar opposite of these evil men.
Peace (of shit you are, David)
The more I think about it, the more I appreciate Mr. Simon’s opening his heart like he has. It really is a very intimate look inside that he’s trusted us with. I just hope and pray he can find the sure knowledge that there IS a loving God that will always handle his heart with the utmost love and care. Life’s harsh experiences often seems to teach otherwise. As you said Margie, the best way to understand God is to know God is Love. And Love is the Answer. The questions, of course, are the complicated part—ha! Fear not, we’re all weak in faith. Take heart, “Though we are faithless, yet He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.” Pretty cool, eh?
No shortage of advice, eh Mr. Simon? It could be because the folks commenting have been able to fathom evil, and this was your first time. It’s a serious problem indeed, so be thoughtful, careful, don’t forget the experience, and don’t listen to anyone else. It’s your experience, and there’s a solution only you can figure out in your particular way. I would just say, take that moment very seriously, and do not forget, that is, each day should now be different from the days before meeting him. If you fall back into your previous self-described lethargy, then you’ve let Hitler walk away free and clear. That would be a bad idea to allow that.
To #50 David S.
Preposterous
In my experience a gut reaction is pure physical. It does not have the force or power behind it like divine intervention. Divine intervention hits every aspect of ones being. Mental, spiritual and physical.
Nicely done, Roger.
@55. Dave Hansen:
Hilarious.
Divine intervention, if indeed such a thing existed, could by definition come in any form. Any pretensions that you may have to understanding the mysteries of the universe are, in your own words:
“In my experience” is the least convincing sort of argument.
Peace.
DS
I was in a courtroom years ago when a murder trial was going on. The moment I stepped into that room, the evil was evident and I was unable to stay long because it seemed viral.
The current illegal resident of the White House in Washington DC gives me the same unease as that courtroom with a murderer (later convicted) in it. I find myself unable to look at photos of the illegal affirmative action/foreign student fraud in chief. Likewise, I am revolted by photos of Timmy, Rhambut, Axel-the-rod, Janet Nappies and the other freaks in this circus side show.
This morning Drudge has a piece written by Professor Paglia that shows how this illegal POTUS got where he is: she uses these adjectives to describe the Kenyan/Indonesian: young(he is middle aged); leader (he’s a puppet); independent minded (he’s a puppet); fresh new breeze (shines and stinks like a dead mackerel). She then goes on to say truth: he is passive (true) and uncertain about how a POTUS should act (also true). However, the mindless liberals who read (mostly passively watch tv) would never get to the true part of her rant.
Condolences on your recent trauma, Roger. I’m sorry to learn that the hard earned money I contributed to PJM and hastening the demise of the NYT is being wasted on fancy hotels. PJM’s resources and your psyche would benefit from cheaper digs. Stay at the best hotel in a prosperous European Gommorah like Geneva, you’re bound to run into some exceedingly creepy creatures and hear a bump or two in the night.
FYI, belief in existential evil offends the moral foundation of choice which is at the heart of the Jewish faith. In Judaism man is not born in sin nor bears moral responsibility until the age of thirteen when he becomes bar Mizvah, ceremony or no. The Devil, Heaven and Hell are extra-Biblical and non-Jewish.
The book of Genesis is not a children’s story and the serpent (not a seducing Satan or Lucifer) does what he does by choice, as does Eve, as does Adam. All three pay for their sins as do their offspring ever after. Hitler was not seduced by the Devil. Hitler made moral choices like you or I. Were it not so, we could not hold Hitler responsible for his sins. Likewise Hitler wannabe, Ahdmadinejad.
Living as you do in a blessed earthly Paradise like Palo Alto might naturally incline you to investigate the nature of the divine, Roger. But theology is not a subject to which Jews are ordinarily inclined. Obsession with theology is a byproduct of complex, internally contradictory Trinitarian Monotheism. You may have discovered religious faith by tumbling to existential evil but it isn’t the the faith of Abraham.
Point is, Roger,your entire approach to the subject is naturally informed by the overwhelmingly Christian culture in which you were raised. Before you go making assumptions, ask a genuinely learned, non-Chabad, Rabbi why Jews don’t get exercised about Darwinism.
(I’m sorry that Chabad was your only choice for a Jewish education for your kid. Chabad is a laudable organization and a critical Jewish resource in places where Hebrews are few and far between. But intellectually, Chabad and Chassidism in general, is inch-deep and mile-wide.)
In addition to “thirding” the C. S. Lewis recommendations, let me also recommend works
by the late Malachi Martin.
A former Jesuit, he remained both a priest and a practicing excorcist. I heard him
on late-night radio on a few occasions and
was impressed (in spite of myself).
Roger’s reaction was very, very similar to what Father Martin had both witnessed and personally experienced. And which he eloquently described both on the air and in print.
His works are certainly worth the read.
A beautiful column. Thank you.
Moving, deep.
Allow me:
HalleluJah !
Praise the Lord !
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Dave H—Dave S and the kind are flatlanders–they didn’t experience it therefore you couldn’t have. Hence their indignant adherence to man-made authoritarianism. Serious inquiry into the Divine could ruin everything they’ve invested in. They talk “peace” but war against the truth is in their hearts.
He said himself “divine intervention can come in any form”–you bet, baby. Wait till it’s your turn–although you are free to ignore or psychologically deny anything you want. Nice little gift that “majesty of choice” we have, eh? Wonder Who engineered that? And wonder why your type likes to limit it?
Are you ready to see/experience something bigger than you? Could you handle it, big Dave S? Be careful what you belittle and tear down–you might be in for a little awakening. Your very intolerance should be a big clue you’re on the wrong track–but such is the blinding effect of self-righteousness. Just lay off trying to invalidate another’s experience to mollify your lack of one.
To #57 David S.
Perhaps you have a point. What I should have said was in millions of peoples experience. I am not the only one to have such experiences. As for pretensions that I have an understanding to the mysteries of the universe, I do not. All I know is what I’ve experienced. My experience’s may be of no value to you, but they are of value to me.
As for divine intervention, it cannot come in many forms. Such would cause utter confusion. It can be personalized I believe to the individual, but it’s method of reception cannot be changed. If such were the case how could a person know if it were divine intervention? How could you trust a being who wasn’t consistent?
Roger – Unlike some posters on here, I never once sensed hyperbole in your article. I have to agree with #2 cfbleachers: I think we’re hardwired to recognize danger and evil when we’re in its presence. Rational thought, however, has suppressed some of our most basic instincts.
Your reaction to Ahmadinejad was similar to my reaction to Obama. My first exposure to him was through a newspaper article, which had a three paragraph quote by Obama. Up to that point, I hadn’t even seen a picture of him, nor had I heard him speak. This was in March, 2007.
Although I didn’t feel nauseated, dizzy, or threatened by what I was reading, I did feel something similar to the confusion one write above mentioned. I read and re-read his quote and finally concluded that the entire thing was deceptive – every word in the quote was a lie. I had a sense of creepiness and that something was way off balance. Maybe Obama isn’t “pure evil” but I have no doubt that my gut instinct that day was right on target.
I think once one’s “evil radar” is activated, it becomes more and more sensitive to the bad vibrations that seem to taint every aspect of a bad person: their eyes, what they say, their voice, their words.
By the way, I’m not some mystic shaman who seeks energy in stones… I am an ordinary Christian with heightened discernment skills.
Manifestations of evil can present themselves as “angels of light” to deceive the ungrounded and foolish. This is precisely why over 50 million Americans voted for a smiling, smooth-talking charaltan whose presence in the White House disgraces this country’s history and heritage. When I look upon images of Obama I see a spirit brother of Ah-jad, and in both, the active presence of the “Father of All Lies”. God help us.
#60 David Levavi
This thread is about Roger’s experience, but I’m just putting it out there that I disagree with your interpretation of Judaism, and thus there is room for a long discussion which we won’t have here. But if Roger is interested in exploring the differences we have, that is a reasonable option and it is his choice. And neither of us is essential to that exploration. I hear there are mavens in LA.
Oriana Fallaci took to calling herself a “Christian Atheist” as a way of acknowledging that she was a daughter of a certain civilization that stood in stark contrast to the assertive Islam that was being accommodated by a retiring Italy. I suppose one can identify with the religion of their culture without renouncing the rational conclusion that things without sensory evidence, e.g God, do not exist.
Well, I guess I’ll be the contrariwise voice and say that I was left feeling quite disappointed with this writing. It strikes me as a curious sort of one hand clapping in an echo chamber exercise that you’ve engaged in here, as you explain how your soul’s evil radar went into high gear in the presence of Ahmadinejad. I imagine that you’ve actually been in the presence of evil people before now. Was this the first time your “spidey sense” as it were, sort of really kicked in?
Forgive my scoffing. Despite Moogie’s ardent defense, Its hyperbole aimed at a figure whose views and rantings you despise and revile. I don’t know if the man qualifies as “evil” or not, which ought not to be confused with my understanding that he’s problematic to US interests. Other posters have related a similar reaction to Obama. Its all as overdone as the Left’s caterwauling about Bush or Limbaugh. A lot of heat, but very little light.
Naftali:
I hadn’t seen the video before commenting and I missed Roger’s levity. I thought I was hearing a secular Jew tell me he was drawn to the Lord by a late night encounter with minions of the Devil.
If Roger is a happy atheist I have no quarrel with him. A Jew who believes in existential evil brings out the righteous Pharisee in me.
#69 David:
I hadn’t seen the video either. But my view is that the Torah is telling us that there is an evil well beyond the conception of normal people. Roger encountered that, had his normal conception completely blown apart, albeit in the most benign way possible, as opposed to those imprisoned in the camps. And, either unfortunately or fortunately, it’s our job to deal with it. For anyone wondering what Chosen means, it means Chosen to do that. And what fun it’s been. Nevertheless, you can’t turn away from the task no matter who you are–except for those with the heart of an ostrich instead of the heart of a lion.
I don’t want to get into a religious haggle but nowhere in the Torah will you find “an evil well beyond the conception of normal people.”
If you think otherwise cite the verse. Show me where the word “evil” appears in Hebrew. Find Lucifer, Heaven or Hell.
I’m sorry, Tal, but you’re confusing Christianity with Judaism.
#72 David:
Now see, Roger’s getting our free spiritual labor. Here’s what you do. Actually, there’s a few things, but this will work. Get a book of Gematrias of the Torah. You do the math of the words, and you will find numerous places where the word ‘evil’ is placed (it will list chapter and verse), along with all of its derivatives, as well as the word ‘wicked’, which ain’t just on Broadway.
#63 D-wah: “flatlanders–they didn’t experience it therefore you couldn’t have.”
Exactly. That’s why some prefer to call it “hyperbole.” Until they have this experience, they will not only deny that others could have it, but they are incapable of understanding the personal ramifications of it.
There are some experiences in our lives that are truly beyond our capability to describe in words. We do the best we can with the verbiage at our command. And I’ll bet, even after writing this article, Mr. Simon felt that it still didn’t do justice to what he felt.
“The fool hath said in his heart “There is no God…”.
Welcome out of the allegorical “Cave”. I’m truly afraid he much worse then Hitler. He is EVIL with a much larger “E”. Some people just want to see the world burn.
Roger, I am glad you got up close with the devil so you can tell about the experience. Now you know how I felt working among them as a spy, I felt the noose around my neck everyday but there was a happy ending (So far) and just like Steve McQueen in the movie “Papillon” I can shout: You SOBs, I am still alive.
Naftali:
The first time I heard the word Gematria was in Rabbi Rhysberg’s class in fourth grade. I Knew Gematria was bullshit then and know it better today.
If Kabbala and numerology are your bag, you’re talking to the wrong guy. Lay your spiel on Roger. Maybe he’ll buy it.
Mr. Simon, thank you for your honesty and the great writing. I am a career prosecutor. Over the last 19 years I have handled every type of felony case there is, and seen all that humans are capable doing to one another. For the last 8 years I have handled capital murder cases. I have seen things no sane person wants to see. Things I felt guilty about exposing jurors to in order to try the case. Most violent defendants are garden variety mean or just stupid. A handful have fit into the category of truly evil and I can tell you that everyone knows it. Bailiffs, clerks, court reporters and yes, even their attorneys. We talk about it amongst ourselves. It is unmistakable. Just like you have described so eloquently.
I encourage you. What you experienced is real and you have identified it correctly. It can only be understood with the type of knowledge that you are beginning to seek.
I pity Dave S – so sure and yet so blind. Got to your local courthouse from time to time Dave. It will probably not take you long to learn how wrong you are.
In Dante’s Inferno 33:109-147, we find wicked souls suffering in hell whose bodies were still alive, animated by demons, and going about doing evil on earth. It’s one of the creepiest concepts Dante imagined.
I’m just sayin’.
Roger, thank you so much.
Spend time with the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel and the Psalms.
Trust me.
Prayers up for all on this thread, whether they believe… or not.
#79 Andrew M.
“I encourage you. What you experienced is real and you have identified it correctly. It can only be understood with the type of knowledge that you are beginning to seek.”
Yes, but warn him also, these are not matters to be engaged lightly, for the forces involved are far too powerful and subtle for the uninitiated to bandy with.
The Old Testament is quite clear and explicit about banning conversations with the dead and engaging in witchcraft, and in the New Testament, even the Christ did not try to debate Satan.
Best that you learn to recognize them for what they are and then keep your distance from them.
Roger, excellent article. I am glad that God in some way revealed Himself to you. That is how God appears, by the way. In some cryptic form, when you least expect it. Our walks are unique.
I offer you “PROOF OF GOD.” I often wondered how somebody could definitively prove God, without an evangelical discourse. We often lose that battle. I’d like somebody to prove this wrong. http://theblacksphere.blogspot.com/2008/11/proof-of-god.html
Genesis 6:4, Numbers 13:33, Deuteronomy 2:11, 2:20, 3:11,3:13, are good examples of evil. They are the Nephilim. When they die, as in the Food of Noe, their spirits wander the earth doing evil. There is arguement some can indwell humans like Hitler, Stalin, and the mad man in Iran.
Perhaps, getting close to evil like that, would make one feel very sick.
Hello David L.
Human wisdom is foolishness to G-d.
38. G Alston:
“Ockham’s razor suggests instead that we’re still animals but with the ability to destroy the planet. We aren’t smart enough collectively to grasp much beyond binary concepts like good/evil. Apparently we need to boost the average IQ or else. If we blow ourselves up, is it really evil or mere stupidity?”
You are totally correct, however, it is not a matter of smartness or its opposite, for ultimately the mind is not an organ of real knowledge. As someone else said, it can only work by graspinfg opposites, at its best. Boosting IQ will not solve the problem, we could get a good titan ubermensch that way too, and we have seen recently what happened.
If we blow ourselves up, which apparently is bound to happen literally or allegorically (environmental disaster brought by overpopulation), evil triumphs, and yes we are stupid.
AVIDYA, Ignorance, is the PERCEPTION OF THE NONEXISTENT, AND THE NON-PERCEPTION OF THE EXISTENCE.
Only by going above and beyond humanity we stand a chance.
59. Suzy:
“The current illegal resident of the White House in Washington DC gives me the same unease as that courtroom with a murderer (later convicted) in it. I find myself unable to look at photos of the illegal affirmative action/foreign student fraud in chief. Likewise, I am revolted by photos of Timmy, Rhambut, Axel-the-rod, Janet Nappies and the other freaks in this circus side show.”
Wow, nice, I enjoyed your verbiage. I just wanted to say I get a similar feeling of uneasiness when I watch this POTUS. I have cut down big time TV to avoid him.
Seriously, Roger? Well, good luck and don’t stop looking.
Suzy @ 59 and MiamaMan @ 86: I agree. Obama is creepy to watch and listen to. I switch channels when he begins spewing his lies on TV. How do I know he’s lying? It’s obvious, he’s a Democrat and his lips are moving.
This whole piece can be summed up thusly: the existence of a devil proves the existence of a God.
OK, Here”s what I think. Roger, you are a Jew, maybe not a religious one or a faithful one but a Jew. Because you read a lot and study a lot you know exactly what Ahmadinejad and his minions would do to you if they had the chance. He’s said so many times and his actions back up his words. It’s not irrational to be at the very least uneasy in the presence of someone who would kill you just because you are a Jew. This is not a rational thing for someone want to do. When I was in the military I encountered a raving racist, anti Catholic, anti Semite, loon. It was at the least unpleasant, he tried to co-opt those around him into his little world of Jew, Black, Catholic conspiracies to enslave and destroy his world. If you are a reasonable person people like this puzzle you and confuse you. You look around and see the benefits to society of working together and making the best of everyones abilities. And when someone like Ahmadinejad gains power and you realize that a really big percentage of Muslims agree with him about killing Jews just because they are Jews it frightens you. Because you are a Jew, and because you are a person of principle.
For several years, I shared an office with a friend who was detained in one of Herr Hitler’s concentration camps, pretty much for the duration of the war, starting in about ’37. After having been liberated, he became cook in Patton’s Army. Then he immigrated to Israel in ’48 and fought in the battle for Jerusalem. He was a Lithuanian Jew. I was a kid, and had read about the holocaust ( it wasn’t called that then), but had never had any direct contact with it. It didn’t take me a long to realize that I was in the presence of history, and that if I listened carefully to my friend, I might learn something. For that reason, I feel the same way you do about Ahmadinejad. I have heard him speak, and his personal philosophy is geared to justifying genocide. He’s quite clever, and clings to a barely sane philosophy. But Hannah Arendt would have characterized his behavior by citing the ‘banality of evil.’ The holocaust was implemented by a pack of trivial, inconsequential little men whose collective behavior begat a monstrosity. Israel needs to do something about these folks now. I agree with David Thompson, MAD won’t work here.
#78 David:
I’m not sure what you are inferring. You asked me to cite places in the Torah where the concept of evil is mentioned. There are plenty of places, I mentioned Gematria as shortcut. There’s a book of Gematrias of every word in the Torah. So, just do the math, look up the number, and there will be all of the references chapter and verse. It’s a time saver. It’s like an index. Nothing mystical about an index.
Dear Roger L. Simon,
I get the same, skin-crawling, gut-wrenching feeling of revulsion when I see Ahmadinejad in still photos or on television so I can only imagine the sickening feeling in my gut I would feel if I was in his presence him in person as you have been. There is pure hatred that seems to emanate from every fibre of his being and especially from his eyes [the windows to the soul].
As others have mentioned here, I get that [evil] feeling from 0bama as well, but he hides it better beneath a creepy, overly-smiley/giggly/jokey facade (even though, every once in a while his mask drops and you see that tell-tale hatred in his hollow eyes). There is something very unsettling about someone so hell-bent on turning our country upside-down whilst laughing all the way to the banks he’s taking control of. *shiver*
My wife is from Japan,so she was unfamiliar with many of the American political leaders. She also has an amazing ability to sense goodness in people. The first time she saw Hillary on TV, she looked at me, and said, “there is something about her that make me feel very uncomfortable”. This was completely out of the blue. Then there are guys like Steve who think Dick Chaney is evil. One of the nicest men in public office, and Libs think he is evil. What a bazzaro world we live in.
As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door… (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away
89. Self-hating Boomer:
“This whole piece can be summed up thusly: the existence of a devil proves the existence of a God.”
Come on Boomer, Isn’t that Manicheism at its best? I know this religion was started in Iran. May be better say that God uses the devil to kick us ahead.
94. Doc:
Come on Doc, you composed that poem? Seriously, mein gott, purrty good, and seems to apply to a certain POTUS.
I am sure that Mr. Simon, having experienced a genuine epiphany, which has changed his perspective without converting him, will disregard all the religious counsel poured upon him in this thread. My greatest surprise is to learn from a Jewish scholar, that his faith does not believe in existential evil.
Mr. Simon certainly has been ware of the existence of evil, citing Hitler and Manson. But has he had never before experienced the rising of acute physical revulsion, an extreme case of what I consider to be atavistic, a sense of deep foreboding or the “rising of the airs on the back of your neck”. Never a week passes but we learn on TV of the occurrence of some act of evil so vile that the details are not revealed. We brush them aside, as beyond our ability to do anything about. But awareness of the existence of deep evil persists. Many a time I have reacted strongly, beyond mere dislike, to a person or group that I encountered, even tough they were not threatening. It is not reaction based on moral principles, religious or secular. They haven’t done anything – yet, but I want out of here. It is a “gut feeling”, an extrasensory triggering of fear, of being at risk.
While no on the scale of Mr. Simon’s reaction, I have a sense of terrible foreboding, of approaching disaster, with the Obama administration. My hackles rose early on his campaign when it became apparent they were deliberately concealing his background. My alarm increased as they adopted thuggish means of preventing any scrutiny of his record and engaged in outright lying and gutter-style attacks on opponents. And it peaked into true horror at the election: the realization that a dedicated, lifelong Radical Socialist, with an agenda for the destruction of our Constitution and our free enterprise system – had been placed in the highest office of our Republic – without anyone voting for Socialism.
Where is the outrage? Where is the sense of revulsion, the fear of the reality of Doctrinaire Statism being imposed on our Nation by a tawdry
hicago cabal, fronted by a weak, totally unqualified charlatan? Why the effort to be “fair-minded” and “give a chance” to a vile cadre that have no interest in improving the economy, no concern for our form of government, impugn our history and traditions of faith, integrity, generosity and willingness to help others, calculatedly reduce our defense capabilities, and openly embrace Communistic tyrants and religious fanatics who have pledged to exterminate us?
While our elitist academic punditry fuss about “Is he a pragmatist?” or “What is the significance of his screwing stockholders while kissing the ass of the unions responsible for the failure?” But please do not adopt his tactics and call him bad names, like “Alinkyist”. Just use “leftist”.
It is to be hoped that some force will emerge that has experienced the same deep physical and emotional revulsion that changed the former socialist, Roger Simon. Maybe he will be part of it.
91. wGraves:
Thanks for the post. A comment. I also had a friend here, German-Canadian, that was in the RAF and was shut down over Germany barely being 17. The wreck and explosion left him badly injured, unconscious and almost naked (one sock only). Because many people were shut down around him, both Germans and allies, and he was brought up by his German family in Canada, he was delirious and saying “mutti, mutti” (mummy in German). The Germans took him for one of them and to a military hospital what saved his life. However, not sure enough, they returned to interrogate him, he could not talk, but they offer him a cigarette, which he handled the German way (between thumb and fingers, inside the hand), so one German guy said, “Er ist Deutsch” and then left him alone. They returned again and even though his German was flawless, they finally caught up with his lie, and right then and there, all bandaged up, they threw him in a POW camp. His family found out through the red cross, and somehow managed to tell an uncle who was a Wehrmacht officer and visited him once and brought him goods, which proved almost fatal as his fellow POWs were convinced he was a plant, and wanted to kill him. Luckily, he could explain himself out. BTW, to get in the Canadian RAF, he had falsified his age and a birth certificate, and even though he was decorated and testified in a famous trial in Germany, they still gave him a fine when he returned to Canada.
However, I disagree with Hannah Arent’s banality of evil. She was mistaken, there is nothing banal about it. Hannah was a German Jew that attended the Eichmann trial, and was dismissive of Ashkenazim Jews big time.
98. stuart Williamson:
Your post makes me shiver, for it is so true.
It is the country that have changed big time. The miasma from the swamp has emerged and elected one of them for the first time. Sincerely, how could anyone with a little common sense vote for Obama? But there he is, and as that famous French diplomat Monsieur DeMaistre cynically wrote: “each country has the government it deserves.”
Amen, Stuart Williamson. We are in free fall and know our landing will not be soft. I pray morning and evening that (I can’t say his name) will have an epiphany and change from the hideous darkness in which he is enveloped.
#79 Bilgeman. You misunderstand my point. The knowledge I was speaking of is the knowledge of Christ, of who He is. However, you are right about cautioning Mr. Simon from being too fascinated with evil. It is unhealthy and dangerous. I do not get that at all from this post by Mr. Simon though.
Great article Roger. You said something that needed to be said. All of us need to trust those feelings because I know that they are real. I hope the rest of the world listens to you. I believe every word you said. After watching Ahmadinejad’s performance at Columbia I could see it in his eyes. The camera couldn’t filter it out. There is like a wall behind them. No feeling at all.
I still feel a sense of heavy foreboding about Obama as well. There is something very closed off in his eyes as well. Has nothing to do with politics.
Sorry for using the word “feeling” so much. No other word worked for me.
#99 MiamaMan:
Let’s not be too hasty in dismissing Arendt. The overall point of this entire article and thread is to come to some better understanding of evil.
Arendt was talking specifically of the German experience, where factories were built for the sole purpose of killing millions of people. The why they were built was clothed in the boredom of bureaucracy–that they were using too many bullets trying to kill Jews, the cost of bullets could be lowered, the triggermen were going home at night and committing suicide, and so in order to save the officers who ordered mass executions, in order to shield them from their own emotions, and impersonal way of killing needed to be devised.
In the early 1960s Stanley Milgram showed those impulses existed in the educated population of Palo Alto. And we saw it in the movie Judgment at Nuremburg, where Maximillian Schell logically recreates the ‘truths’ leading up to the Holocaust before everyone’s eyes–but no one sees it until Burt Lancaster’s speech.
Evil is both horrifying enough to provoke Roger Simon’s response, but it is also boring enough to insinuate itself into our own consciousness without us even knowing.
The irony is that, according to the Torah, besides it being incomprehensible to normal people, it is also surprisingly weak. It’s impossible to speak of evil without speaking of astounding paradoxes.
spend thousands of years,surviving in a very inhospitable place.that will grow some ‘hard bark’on a people,living in those kinds of conditions.
that much is evident.
you think a-jad is evil?imagine what the mullahs pulling his strings are like.
Dear Mr. Simon,
Thank you for sharing your experiences, and approaching them with a distinct thoughtfulness. We human being are spiritual creatures, with an existance that extends beyond the material world, as–to a limited extent–do our senses. Our spirits recognize supernatural malevolence surrounding people–for which there are many, many examples here in this thread and other places, but these persons such as you experienced have chosen to invite such evil. They are not, themselves, evil and CAN repent and turn away, even if that is an unlikely choice.
They are permitted to persist on earth for a little while because that choice remains open to them–they might still turn toward God, and He is unwilling that any souls be lost. But eventually His patience runs out and those who do evil are cut off, to serve as an example for others.
I, like others, urge you to sit down and thoughtfully (prayerfully) seek answers to who and what God is. Start with the books Moses recorded and the prophets, you will find a consistency of character in the simultaneous mercy (love), justice, and sovreignty of God. If you wish to pursue good research on the authenticity of the Bible (and therefore the Torah and books of the prophets), let me second Lee Strobel’s writing and research for the Case for Christ and subsequent books.
God has chosen, in his interaction with man for most of recorded history, to hide his face and require that we–despite our frail failings–exercise *faith* to conclude that He is who He says he is, and that His promises are solid. You, like anyone, make a decision based on your personal experiences and the evidence presented by others. Faith is just the last step.
The search is worth it.
–JC
Excellent and courageous piece Roger. Keep searching, there’s a lot more to find.
Mr. Simon,
I was very moved by your sharing the recollection of your personal introduction to the reality of evil in the person of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.I too feel this ” aura” if you will, coming from his person. He is not one to be taken lightly as many have. The devil has his own, this gnome of a man is his; mind, body and soul. This is clearly apparent in his extreme hatred of the Jews.
I was happy for you that although it took your coming face to face with evil to recognize that it’s alternative,good (God) is even more real. It is He ho has kept evil “in check” to a great degree. This will not always be the case.
It is my prayer for you that you seek the Lord our God, just as He is seeking a personal relationship with you and your family. While He may be found of you.
Like the person above me said? I too urge you to sit down and thoughtfully (prayerfully) seek answers to who and what God is to you personally. He is clearly seen in the pages of His Word. And in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, our Messiah.
Yes– Knowing Him is worth more than all the silver and gold this world has to offer. Nothing can equate with the love of God. I pray you diligently seek Him– He is right there at the door of your heart, knocking. Waiting for you to invite Him in.
Was there really a need to invoke all that God stuff? All I got out of this was carefully placed religious propaganda and that Ahmad is evil.
Ever since reading Allan Bloom years ago, I have been blaming the west’s Tellietubbie-like innocence about evil on Rousseau’s viral blatherings. And Platinga’s argument for God from the existence of evil is not just sophistry – I too lived an epiphanal experience as an atheist kid in the 70′s experimenting with the occult and altered states of consciousness (a la Carlos Casteneda) and confronted with a true evil presence. I immediately stopped doing what led many in those days into psychosis. Shortly after I picked up a New Testament and found in the person of Jesus something that seemed the total antithesis to the pervasive evil I sensed engulfing the world in the 60′s and 70′s. Hitlers and Ahmadinijeds could not exist without a supernatural impulse and inspiration. The age-old hatred for the jews, jesus, and Israel seem to be all tied up into this great story of evil vs. good, and there is only one Book that makes sense of it all.
newton (above) remembered the ticket agent in Maine who came face to face with Atta and his accomplice, and them sold them tickets anyway despite a flood of misgivings. I remember seeing the same agent (a man, actually) being interviewed, and your recollection seems off to me in one respect. You wrote that he had never forgiven himself. As I understood his telling, the ticket agent had actually returned to his former p.c. interpretation and forgiven himself any wrong-doing in letting those two pass. Having lived in Maine for many years where political correctness is so rampant I finally had to leave, I remember a sick feeling in my own stomach when I realized from his specific language that the agent had undergone the customary alteration via some therapeutic narrative or other and come away on top, so to speak. The evening before he sold that ticket, Atta had visited a Borders bookstore at the Portland Mall. An erstwhile friend of mine had briefly helped him with something or other, and was soon-after telling a few of us that his blood had curdled in the presence of the man’s strangeness. I was in Europe at the time and couldn’t make the argument effective enough to him that he should report the incident to the FBI. The friend and his colleagues at that bookstore felt that they were above that sort of thing, and so Atta’s itinerary in Portland is incomplete for that arrogance. The store tapes have long been erased. Both the airline worker and my erstwhile friend have forgiven themselves. Not that either of them are evil – not in the least, not by a longshot. But for my money it’s just as Blake said: “The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
There is another explanation for your illness when near Ahmadinejad: you felt the malevolent spirits that surround him and which to a large extent, probably possess considerable territory within his very limited mind. This mouthpiece for evil has been so immersed in it and so revels in being an instrument for the possible extermination of millions of human beings, that the door to his mind and soul have been thrown open to that which may best be described as demonic. I submit that demons are now his, quite literal, internal and external retinue.
My perspective on this, of course, is Christian. And, while that faith is under considerable fire from the ‘learned’ folks responding to your article, it is this theology that best explains what you felt.
Let me attempt to reinforce my argument by asking you to reflect on these questions:
1.) Haven’t you ever run into someone you didn’t know where you felt on a certain, basic level of perception that you would be better served by not being around this person? I am not talking about an obvious felon or person that is an obvious threat, I am talking about someone who makes you exceedingly uncomfortable for no apparent reason.
2.) Have you ever met an individual that seemed to ‘glow’ in countenance? (The glow isn’t
physical but you still sense it.)
The second situation is the flip-side of your experience with Ahmadinejad. And, while I won’t say that you should feel such an individual is accompanied by angels, there is nevertheless a strong, almost undeniable sense that such a person is favored and special in ways that go beyond simple physical perception. ‘Blessed’ might be the best word for this.
If you have not experienced the second situation, let me point you to select Christian missionaries and a few ministers– and I am not necessarily pointing you towards evangelicals. I will also hasten to add that there is a sliding scale here and that you won’t always ‘see’/feel what I am suggesting as a strong sense of the intuitive on every or even very many occasions. However, one particular meeting stands out in my mind where my meter pegged at the far end of the scale:
I recall meeting a soon-to-be, Christian missionary in college and after exiting his dorm room I turned to the person that had joined me there and I recall asking something to the effect, ‘didn’t he seem to glow?’. And, this person agreed and added that he had observed that aspect of the individual in several prior encounters.
I can think of only perhaps two others I have met that had this same ‘glow’. Both were devout Christians but were not, as you might assume, a Reverend Billy Graham or someone well-known.
Let me suggest where you might test your sense of the unseen: a Renaissance Fair. I can tell you that I have been around more than a few practitioners of Wicca and have felt on several occasions that while we were the only persons standing there having a conversation, my intuition was off-the-scale certain, that we were not alone. And, like your experience with Ahmadinejad, I was more than pleased to be away from the individuals that made me feel that way. Putting distance between myself and those folks brought discernable relief of the sort you feel when you know that you are no longer being surreptitiously observed.
I am no evangelical, I am Presbyterian and I happen to enjoy Renaissance Fairs. I am also not anti-Wiccan– though I do feel it is profoundly dangerous. Christian theology states these dangers on no uncertain terms.
While I don’t dwell on what I have just shared, my experience is that there is a reality that can be sensed at an intuitive level where people have opened doors to entities that often accompany them and provide the very reaction you had to Ahmadinejad. Some writings about Hitler’s interest in the occult suggest that you might well have felt the same way had you met him.
I suggest that you were indeed in the presense of Evil in the hotel lobby and it was probably only minimally the dupe and willing pawn in the Member’s Only jacket that brought on your distress.
BMoon: Significantly enough, hard-core Nazis
were into the occult big time.
In North Africa in WWII, they (but not the generality of the Afika Corps) were bosom buddies with the very worst of the Muslims.
And a lot of professed communist-type atheists had the same tendencies as well as the same unholy alliances.
Additionally, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge often acted as if they were possessed and perhaps they were. Ditto for the worst of the Jap
occupation forces in various places.
It may well be that while all people are capable of very bad behavior, that which sustains and perpetuates such behavior comes from “Down Below”.
Oh yes. I agree with you that if you are feeling hopelessly outnumbered, that Jewish Carpenter can always be counted on to come to your aid.
104. naftali:
I agree with your assessment of Hannah Arendt. I also think she correctly assessed the philosophical differences of the American and French Revolutions and their very different outcomes.
Great article. And to you Roger, I say you are most certainly not religous. Religion is man made and interpreted by it’s higher ups in such a way to garner power. To those who are of a seeking bent, it brings much comfort-so I do not condemn it, or them. It brings some sort of structure to the chaotic human experience.
One night I was driving home on a busy highway in the pouring rain. I do not see well at night and I am a telecommuter-don’t drive much. In ordinary circumstances this would have been a terrifying experience. However, I can only describe it as this: I became aware that that I was no longer driving the car. My physical body felt non-existent. I wasn’t ‘out of my body’ looking down on me or on anything. In fact what I noted was that there was no separation between myself and anything else. I was aware that this was an unusual state, but was not in the least afraid. There was a sense of peace and calm that I had never experienced up to that point in my life. I wanted it to last forever. I was able relax into it and let it continue. There was no fear-in fact a sense of joy to which I had never been a party to. When I eventually got home, I called a friend to tell her about it. Her response? Wow, cool. Shortly after turning off the light to go to sleep, the light turned itself back on. Something that had never happened in this particular apartment before.
Of course I attempted to reason out what had happened and interpret the meaning. Through much study and practice I have come up with this. The Universe is of perfect order, it supports itself and regenerates itself to perfection. The trees bloom, then they die, then bloom again. If they don’t bloom they don’t cry, perhaps they don’t even die but go on to serve another purpose. The purpose of our life is to experience joy. The Universe is only love.
Such the same with humans. Our experience is but an illusion. Our essence is that of the trees. We can relax into it, or we can fight and try to control our environment and others around us. If we choose to relax, the Universe will perfectly support us-it has an underlying power that can be tapped into. What we need to see and understand will be placed in front of us. The power is there for all to partake. The trick is to be relaxed enough to see-to want to see. One can ‘pray’, or ask to be shown. There are methods to use that make it ewasier to be directed. Prayer is a big one, but our thoughts are just as powerful-monitor them.
I at times choose to call this power God. When one turns to face religion (Islamic radicals) and use it as their weapon, interpret it using only our very limited human minds, then we see Evil. And yes, in order to experience the opposite, Evil apparently must exist, or rather is is part of an overall plan.
At any rate, it all gives much comfort and meaning to our experience. It is ‘the fourth dimension’ if you will and is as tangible and real as this keyboard.
May you all experience the joy.
“Inherit the Wind” surely?
Naftali:
If I want to look up the occurrence of a word in the bible, I open a concordance, the fine invention of a Catholic priest, and find every instance where the word appears.
Assigning numbers to alphabetical characters as in Roman numerals –v=5 and x=10– works fine in a limited way. Any symbol you assign a numerical value works equally well. But to imagine that the Hebrew Bible is numerical code is nonsense.
The fantasy that the Bible as a book full of secrets to be unlocked by cryptographers is medieval in origin. It reflects the awed view of dusty handwritten religious texts by a serf forbidden literacy by conspiracy of church and crown. When literacy is a power and a privilege reserved for priests and royalty, books take on a secretive and superstitious significance to the poor and illiterate.
Add to this suspicion of letters the use of codes for private communication at a time when letters were hand carried by strangers for months and years before arriving at their destination. Fanciful and often grotesque illustration of initial caps and book margins by artists and a tendency toward acrostics by poets and liturgists added to the view that books were more than mere literary communications. The Papal index and other forms of religious censorship further fed popular suspicion of books.
That modern literate readers could take such nonsense seriously amazes me. The obsession with obscuranta is fundamentally ant-intellectual and superstitious. But then most people aren’t worthy of the intellect they were blessed with and tend to idolatry and superstition. Witness a number of the comments above delighted that Roger Simon has experienced a religious epiphany and discovered the Devil incarnate. Break out the tambourines and sing Hosannas.
The lingering
To “feel” uneasy or ill in the presence of danger is simply intelligent. Maybe Roger (and the rest of those still conscious) are in tune with that ancient and invaluable survival instinct, “The Bad Feeling” about someone or something. Our ancestors had it, that’s why we are here. Don’t EVER ignore it! Do you think your dog has the ability to recognize a threatening person? Wrong! You do. Your dog just has the doggy ability to read your verbal and non-verbal cues. When Roger wrote about his epiphany, he did have a religious experience. I have no clue about anything concerning “God”. I’m just not smart enough. But I do know that God gave me some gifts…for a reason.
#110 Daniel:
“Was there really a need to invoke all that God stuff? All I got out of this was carefully placed religious propaganda and that Ahmad is evil.”
Without “all the God stuff”, the very concept of evil is absurd. Whether you realize it or not, you are contextualizing the phenomena in a religious framework.
And there are few things that compel one to ponder the existence of the Divine like meeting Evil face to face.
Another is facing the supreme hostile indifference of nature to human existence.
Sail a beat-down old rust-bucket on the north Atlantic in winter and you’ll understand.
What I find sad reading this is the fact that you actually had to come face to face with Evil just to be able to recognize it, most intelligent, educated people already know what & whom Evil is without having to wait to “meet it”. Your tale is a sad reminder of New York Elitism; the pervasive ignorance that comes from acadeamia’s Liberal agenda throughout our education system is bringing forth others like you, sadly though, most of those won’t have an opportunity to “meet” Evil in its human forms & will continue to blissfully plunge this country into Hell.
Photos of Ahmadinejad promotes a visceral feeling of revulsion for me, his wife also. To think that his face represents the many faces of those who would follow him and carry out the evil deeds he promotes is very disheartening. I often look at people like him and think that there is something (or someone?) behind them because it seems to me impossible that one small minded man could influence such tragedies in our history.
I am not sure what this piece means except perhaps in seeing pure evil, the opposite thought occurs that there must be pure good. I really don’t think that is such a good way to approach faith especially when we have learned that the Christian tradition speaks to approaching faith as a child.
I wonder if Mr. Simon experienced the vision of pure good at one time enabling him to recognize evil. That would make sense to me.
Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Modern secularism is the triumph of empiricism; that is, reality is limited to what I can perceive with my 5 senses.
According to physicists, however, physical reality differs substantially from what we imagine; multiple universes may even exist. Why can’t at least one universe be transcendently beautiful and apprehensible by something in our souls?
Secular “reality” (Nabokov once said it’s the only word in the dictionary that should always be surrounded by quotes) is icy, nihilistic and utilitarian; it really resembles hell more than anything else.
Hilarious, especiallly,
“Then I screwed up some courage, threw my feet over the side and stumbled groggily to the peephole.
No one was there.
Had it just been some drunk banging on the wrong door? Or my perfervid imagination? I didn’t know. But I did know I didn’t want any more to do with Evil. I had had enough. I took another pill and went off to a drugged-out sleep.”
The irony is delicious. Bravo! Bravo!!
In fact what I noted was that there was no separation between myself and anything else. I was aware that this was an unusual state, but was not in the least afraid. There was a sense of peace and calm that I had never experienced up to that point in my life. I wanted it to last forever. I was able relax into it and let it continue. There was no fear-in fact a sense of joy to which I had never been a party to…Our experience is but an illusion. Our essence is that of the trees. We can relax into it, or we can fight and try to control our environment and others around us. If we choose to relax, the Universe will perfectly support us-it has an underlying power that can be tapped into. What we need to see and understand will be placed in front of us. The power is there for all to partake. The trick is to be relaxed enough to see-to want to see.
I had a similar experience while standing in a courtyard of the county zoo on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was like being struck by a force, most amazingly the experience of “no separation” between myself and everything around me, the water, the people, the animals, the air, everything.
Almost 3 decades ago now, it set me on the path of knowing that what I think I know is actually a very limited version of it, the all and everything
As ahem mentions, I, as well, put “reality” in quotes.
As for an attempt to understand such phenomena (post Castenada), I read a lot of people, esp. Joel Goldsmith and Walter Russell, The Secret of Light. I studied the Kabbalah, fascinating, read The Mind of God, Paul Davies, even dabbled in the book of Urantia.
I appreciate you writing that, Nosinin. It’s that trick of relaxation of our chattering minds that is not easy to achieve, especially in these chattering times when it seems like some smiling, arrogant people, from A’jad to…this President…are trying to impose their own very distinctly unpleasant versions of “reality” onto humanity.
I’m always nonplused over folks who don’t accept the existence of God. God is. Period. First cause and all that.
And since he IS he would have contacted us. Take your pick. I like Moses and the Messiah. The best deal around.
It gets me up each morning and keeps me away from suicide. Without faith this life stinks to high heaven.
Stuart Williamson, Suzy & MiamaMan,
Obama was elected by Americans who no longer have “eyes to see and ears to hear” the dangers that face nations that stray from a loving and protecting Almighty God. I believe America is no longer under God’s protection and will be in grave danger when Obama forsakes Israel and sides with her (And America’s) sworn enemies. It is my opinion that Obama is neither naive nor without agenda. He is merely obeying his masters, worldly and otherwise, by dismantling the military, constitutional, political and moral foundations that have rendered America different from other nations. A heartless, soul-less and Godless America would never extend protection to Israel, a nation who in the future will find its sole defender to be God.
A good article.
Intersting to me because my family had a similar experience. My parents were both nominal Jews who knew or cared next to nothing about religion. My dad was a military man and his war experiences in Vietnam did not affect his beliefs at all. It was only after he visited the concentration camp in Dachau while staioned in Germany that he turned to religion, eventually becoming Orthodox.
I suppose war is “tragic”, “horrible” and many other things, but not inherently Evil. Evil exists apart from the comprehensible. It cannot be described, yet it can be known and experienced. Thus the mind is opened by the encounter.
Perhaps in this way, (Kabbala and Chabad have been mentioned here) evil too has its function. It cannot escape the fact that despite its intentions, it cannot escape giving off divine sparks, which exist in all of creation, and illuminating the paths of righteousness along the way.
Spindok
#118 David–
We probably need to talk, but we’ll probably never meet. My understanding of Gematria is that it is a mnemonic device that makes it easier to remember certain concepts and things associated with those concepts. Remember, so much of Jewish scholarship developed before the invention of the printing press. When studying the sages, I’m just amazed at how much information they had at their fingertips, coupled with an astounding ability to cross-reference (and given many of the comments on this thread, I say cross-reference as a library term only
).
Nevertheless, back to our original point. Regardless of how you choose to index it, the Torah has plenty to say both about the nature of evil and what to do about it. That’s the good news. The tough news is that eradicating it is much tougher than we would like, and that it takes so much longer than we would like, but you’ll never be wanting for more knowledge and insight on the problem.
Thanks #125 tanstaafl for taking the time to share your experience of ‘oneness’ I have not met another person who has volunteered the experience and I tend to surround myself with seekers, however primitive we are at it! I have read of many others having that same experience, over and over actually. The description of it in the literature is strikingly similar. Ekhart Tolle I believe was able to stay in it for months, or was it years? At any rate, our human concerns, and yes the endless chatter is what keeps us from achieving it for the most part. I recoil at my own fear of what is happening now in the world and yes with our current admin. I will look up the books that you mention-have not read them and am always looking for more. Try the Power or Now, (I recommend the tapes-the read is tedious) Power of Myth-Joseph Campbell, Love without Condition, reflections of the Christ Mind, Sermon on the Mount by Emmett Fox. In my search and reading, I discard the terms that might block or taint my vision-for me any of which I associate with religion. To illustrate my bent-I don’t know what to think, or how to feel about Jesus-so in Love w/o Conditions-Christ Mind, I simply omit the Christ/Jesus word and and make the mind just A mind. Could be my mind, or any mind… Rambling but it’s all very exciting to me!
Bilgeman:
…few things that compel one to ponder the existence of the Divine like meeting Evil face to face…
I think you mean “death face to face,” Sailor. Or Death, if you prefer. Some people need to contextualize, visualize, iconize.
As to the “…supreme hostile indifference of nature to human existence….”
The attribution of intent, hostility in this case, to an abstraction like nature suggests that you are referring to a deity. If you are a monotheist, there can be only one deity. AKA the Creator. “Nature” is a secularist rendering of “creation. “
This leaves “the supreme …indifference of nature to human existence…” which is entirely consonant with the Book of Genesis. Jack London treats this subject exquisitely in “To Build A Fire.”
Evil, the Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Hades and Hell do not exist. Their veneration and worship, on the other hand, is both popular and widespread.
Naftali:
You sound like a good fellow and I don’t want to belabor the point. I am not a scholar. Gematria is the attribution of significance to words in the Bible based on the sum of their characters. If
A (Aleph, Alpha) = 1
B (Bet, Beta) = 2
G (Gimmel, Gamma) = 3
The sum of the word bag would be 6. Like, wow. Way cool, right? Know what else? The words bag and gab have the same numerical value. Does this or does this not blow you away?
And you know how many times “bag” and “gab” appear in the Bible? Sixty hundred and sixty-six. And that’s the sign of you know who. The Evil Eminence who knocked on Roger Simon’s door in Geneva in the dead of night.
If Roger were thinking like a proper mystery-writer, the door-knocker would have been converted to a statuesque Swiss, abducted by white slavers, escaped from their slimy, rat-faced Iranian client three floors above and hammering desperately on his door. “Save me, Mr. simon,” she pleads. “Please. Hide me in your bed.” But Roger, groggy from an active night fighting the good fight, hears nothing and goes back to sleep. The beautiful Swiss is found on the cobbles in front of the hotel the following morning, an apparent suicide.
Roger, welcome to the real world. What took you so long?
I can relate to what you said:
>
I experienced the same thing years ago when I was backstage with my friend at the New Barbarians concert featuring Keith Richards and Ronnie Woods (both from the Rolling Stones). They had pulled the tour bus inside the back of the Rosemont and invited my friend and me in to sit at the table in the back of the bus and do lines of cocaine with them. It took me I don’t know how long to finally get in that bus! I suddenly got sick to my stomach, felt dizzy, etc. I really felt like I was going to pass out, and I was so bummed! How uncool was I? I felt awful, my knees were even knocking! I only realized later that what I was feeling was also being in the presence of some type of evil. I finally “overcame” some of the feeling, but when we were at the table (I didn’t do any of the drugs) it was all I could do to stop myself from shaking and getting up and hightailing it out of there. They had a TV above the table which was switching from surveillance camera to camera which were mounted on the outside of the bus. It was really spooky. And this type of stuff was just all in a day’s events for them=normal. Yikes!
I am praying for you. God is letting you know — yes, there are evil beings, very evil — but, now you must find Me — the epitome of love and good. I hope you seek Him with all your heart. You will NEVER regret it. (Jeremiah 29:13-14)
You experienced fear and loathing. If you want to know how evil Ahmediejad is just send him to me and I’ll put him in perspective for you.
Once you can speak the name of the demon it cannot harm you.
Evil does not exist unless you know it exists. In other words for evil to exist one would have to know good exists and the differance between the two.
The knowledge of good and evil. LOL
The curse of mankind.
#131 David Levavi:
“I think you mean “death face to face,” Sailor.”
No, that’s not at all what I mean. I’ve experienced both, and they are vastly different subjectively.
Evil displays a hostile intent, indifference is just indifference, but is hazardous to human life all the same.
If you haven’t had the benefit of the winter North Atlantic, the closest thing I can come that you might be able to realte it to is landing or taking off in a jet in bad weather.
If this or that goes wrong, you fall to the ground in an aluminum tube half full of flammable liquid an you die…and there’s not much of anything you can do about it.
It’s not personal, there is no intent, it is just the indifferent hostility to human life of being on the wrong side of some column of physical mathematical equations…or some shoddy maintenance practices, (which puts you in the same place).
On a jet, that situation may last a few minutes, at sea, it can last for weeks…which gives one a bit more time to ruminate upon one’s situation.
“Jack London treats this subject exquisitely in “To Build A Fire.””
Yes he does, another wordy seafaring bastard.
“Evil, the Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Hades and Hell do not exist. Their veneration and worship, on the other hand, is both popular and widespread.”
No, I disagree. They do exist, although what we call them and how we perceive them may be (and probably are),flawed, but they can best be observed by their effects.
I work with 6600 volt generators and switchgear…I’d have a hard time convincing you that electrical current exists, too.
Unless I was willing to let you be killed.
So absolute and undeniable subjective proof of the existence of the phenomenon would do YOU no good at all,(and wouldn’t do me all that much either, since I’m already a believer).
#131 David–
I agree, we don’t want to belabor this. But sometimes folks put quite a bit more significance on very simple things, so much so that they can’t understand the simple things. The reverse is also true, that people understand some genuinely complex things and overly simplify them.
If all of this was so easy, we would have achieved paradise long ago.
But here we are talking about Roger Simon confronting the latest incarnation of Hitler. Now, whether Hitler emitted this nausea creating vibe of evil, I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter does it? I know that we both agree that the Hitlers of the world, and unfortunately, plural fits, need to be stopped. We are both standing on that square, right?
David L.,
The Talmud,(Tractate Baua Basra 15a-b), maintains the Book of Job was written by Moses. Satan is in the book of Job.
Ezekiel 14:14 states Job existed.
You state Lucifer, aka Satan does not exist. How is that?
Thanks.
I believe in God. I always have. I am not a church goer or a joiner myself, but I have seen the light of heaven in my dying Grandmother’s face and I swear it was real.
And if Good is real, then so is Evil.
I mean Evil with a capitol E. I don’t mean politicians we do not like, or even murderers..I mean Evil that inhabits the spirit and makes it its own.
I think there is always a war, a struggle between Good and Evil and I also believe that we understand it on some elemental level. That is why the hair stands up on the back of your neck, or your stomach turns, or your head feels woozy. You know it, but you don’t how to name it.
“in a universe of, according to some Australian astronomer, 70 sextillion stars – that’s 22 zeros – it was hard to conceive of a deity interested in daily affairs on our speck of a planet: less than one grain of sand on all the beaches of the world combined, by comparison.”
How could such a deity, if He exists, prove to you that He loves you, more than evil hates you?
My suggestion is GK Chesterton’s “The Catholic Church and Conversion”. And the Gospel of John.
Roger:
The CS Lewis Space Trilogy is great as well for describing evil.
Ahmadinejad reminds me of this description of evil in the bible;
“Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.” Dan, 7:11
It is difficult to get past the deception that is permeating the Earth today because Satan is prowling about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan has been released from his restraints for a short time to see if can deceive the very elect of God not to mention everybody else. Satan had been restrained from deceiving the Christian nations (not individuals) from 33 AD to about 1948. Christianity is experiencing a falling away right now, the battle is on. The Anti Christian, Anti Jew religion is growing everywhere. Read the Bible for the end of this drama.
Please don’t forget God hates religion, if you can accept it, this will set you free. Jesus berated the most religious persons of the Jews (his own people) calling them whitewashed sepulchers.
God is much more scientific in His ways than we can imagine; when He speaks you can hear words but He is also speaking in numbers. When He speaks you hear mysteries that may take a lifetime of seeking to solve or you’ll instantly know what He means;
For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though man may not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
to preserve his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
From Job.
Once again, we are living in the days of the lazy church, so if you listen you will hear Him knocking, if you open the door He will come in…
Leatherneck:
Hello again. I don’t know which rabbi in Baba Basra makes this claim he’s wrong. In asking me to prove that Satan or Lucifer don’t exist you’re, asking me to prove a negative.
Talk again soon.
Naftali:
Agreed. But we need to do more than post comments. If you have college age children point them toward ROTC. If your kid’s high school has a college night for parents to meet university recruiters, make sure recruiters from the various branches of the armed forces are present as well. If your kids have graduated and aren’t sure what career they want to pursue, tell them to explore opportunities at DOD.
The time for talking is past. We’re called to war. And as members of the previous administration forthrightly warned, this will be a long struggle.
No, you’re not talking through your hat. If “evil” exists other than as a construct of our minds, then so does goodness. So must sin and so must virtue.
Suggest you read a little monograph called “the Abolition of Man” by CS Lewis. No, it’s *not* christian apologetics or an argument for the existence of God. It’s just a convincingly argued case for the existence of “good” and “evil” as something that objectively exists, independent of the human mind.
lefroy,
May God bless you.
BTW, Satan is not a name; it’s a title. It means adversary, and Lucifer holds the title because he is the adversary of mankind, seeking our destruction.
As an Australian protestant, not a creationist, somewhere around C.S.Lewis territory: I would like to thank Mr Simon for confirming at close quarters what I have long inferred from a distance. Ahmadinejad is evil. Not misguided, not psychotic, purely evil. Churchill in his memoirs recounted how Hitler had some uncanny evil power to mesmerise people, a verdict supported by Rommel from his own experience. Ahmadinejad has done the same thing for Iran. What paltry, banal figures Ahmadinejad and Adolf represent, yet what evil they can carry and unload on the world. And of course it is God’s ancient people the Jews who are targeted by this evil once again. Inasmuch as any human can explain the Holocaust, this evil in the heart of a Hitler is the cause of it. Christendom has all too often been guilty of such antisemitism too, and it is a matter of extreme and deep regret to me. So I will refrain from much preaching and just leave a couple of comments. The film Inherit The Wind which you mention is thoroughly unreliable, as various writers like S J Gould and Gregg Easterbrook have documented. And I as a scientist do not have any problem in believing that a God can care for us even in so vast a cosmos. If He can care about one soul like you or I among billions on earth, He can likewise care about one little blue planet among a myriad of stars.
Myth Buster:
Correct re the noun, Satan. The preposition is “l’hastin,” to accuse or to prosecute.
Lucifer is extra-Biblical and doesn’t exist. Men make choices. Their sins are not come by through seduction by a Devil. Their sins cannot be forgiven by a priest. Their sins cannot be washed away by the blood or ashes of Jews.
David Levavi:
Then Jesus of Nazareth was a lying huckster who convinced at least 125 disciples/eye witnesses to risk, and often accept, death telling the world the Gospel. I’ll discount you and your opinion and go with St. Paul and the rest.
Scott:
I won’t ask how you come by the number 125. But I wasn’t there and you seem very sure of yourself regarding Jewish history so I’ll accept your number for sake of Christian-Jewish amity.
Unlike these 125 disciples/eyewitnesses, Paul (Saul of Tarsus or Shaul m’Tarshish), wasn’t.
Those 125 disciples/eyewitnesses are known by Christians as the Jerusalem Church. I have always why Christians take no interest in what what these Jews believed. These disciples/eyewitnesses lived ate and slept with Joshua the Galilean in the cities and in the countryside. They heard His preaching from His own mouth. So how comes it, good Scott, you’re so quick to follow Saul “and the rest”? Who are these,”the rest” and how did they come by their knowledge?
I didn’t say Jesus was a Liar and a huckster. Perish the thought. But I fear, noble Scott, that like most Christians, you conflate Joshua and Saul. They were two very different personalities.
David. The number , 125, is given in Acts. Paul did not encounter The Galilean until after he had risen from the dead but he did encounter him. And his entire life changed. He sacrificed everything for the sake of The Kingdom and the Gospel of same.
If you want to understand the information is readily available. The history was not made up out of whole cloth. It happened and it has had a much greater impact on the world than everything Moses and all his successors up and unto The Messiah’s birth. If all I had to go on was the Anti-nicene Fathers writings I would be a Christian as it is the finest and most complete repository of The Truth ever given to man. But I have much more than that. And so does anyone else who wishes to know The Truth.
Moses told the Jews to look for That Prophet. Was Moses wrong? Did God expect the Jews to wait over 3000 years?
Thanks for the anecdote. Chilling experience, I have no doubt.
I think it’s important to remember that evil and good aren’t quite equivalent “things” or realities; (I’m not up on the ‘categories’ argument)anymore than “light” and “darkness” or “heat” and “cold” are equivalent. The latters are not “things”, but cold and dark are the absences of the “thing.” In that sense, evil isn’t substantive as is good; I think that means, wonderfully, it won’t last forever.
Another thought: More and more it seems to me powerfully true that if God didn’t exist, there is little reason to think that humans ever would have conceived the idea. If all development is random, from the bottom up, we would never wonder about it, anymore than an ant wonders about dogs, or dogs would conceive of humans without first being fed.
PS: (plugged in now) The fact that humans seem to be haunted by the idea of God, as well as myriad experiences of God, is a hard pill to swallow as a psychological fact if God does not exist. The idea does not appear to be a construct of human intelligence (what a conspiracy that would be) but some pure, unbounded human experience that flies in the face of most of the rest of our experience.
On the smell/aura of evil; it’s weird, ain’t it.
Part of another hard to explain fact of human existence, I say: malice.
We all know it, a little too intimately: a pleasure in and a reflexive tendency to do bad to another, instead of good. For no reason, often, than, well, malice. Where did THAT come from?
Poe wrote about the “Imp of the Perverse,” sort of the same thing.
Hard to explain if the material world was all there was.
PS2: I think it was Albert Speer wrote of a strange incident when he first and proudly introduced his parents to Hitler. Speer’s father, as I remember the story, could not control his trembling and fearful anxiety and soon had to excuse himself. I think Speer himself seemed to think his father was overcome with some kind of intuitive revulsion and antipathy and fear of some spirit he sensed in Hitler… I think this was in the mid-1930s….far before much of the publicly known bad stuff.
Fascinating experience. Reminds me of when I similar experience, but fortunately for me it was a feeling the presence of God and goodness. Saw Pope John Paul II in Philly. He drove by slowly, pre-”Popemobile” and was blessing the crowd. I really felt a kind of trembling just in the seconds it took for him to pass by.
In my 40 years of medicine, I’ve seen some terrible things but only once have I had a similar experience.
That was in an interview with an African politician.
Most people do bad things from weakness or ignorance, but there are a few who I truly feel make a pact with the devil…
Oh yes: And if you live long enough you will met those who exude goodness. we call them saints.I’ve met one or two of them too.
I don’t need to belong to any religion or believe in god to know what is evil. Reason has taught me to recognize evil (the lack of reason) for what it is. I prefer to worship in the halls of reason, and my knees willingly bow down to none.
Scott:
Believe as you like, Scott. I merely find it odd that you would prefer to follow the teachings of Joshua as interpreted by Saul who never met Him and you aren’t even curious about the tradition of those 125 earliest Christians who knew Joshua intimately and lived by His example.
What would Jesus do? is an oft heard contemporary response to a moral question. How do you know what Jesus would, do, Scott, if you prefer the witness of Paul who insists he saw Jesus risen from the dead to His family, friends and disciples who were close to Him for long periods of time whilst He yet lived?
The next time you’re wandering those purple heathered hills, Scott, give a thought to what your ancestors were doing two thousand years ago. What were their politics like? What was their religion?
How is it you know more about Jewish history than about the history of the Scots, Scott? From whence springs your arrogant presumption that you know the history of the Hebrews better than the Hebrews?
There was a Scottish Messiah once, Scott. He was betrayed by a Scottish Judas and given over to his enemies by Scottish Pharisees. Judas had a noble Scottish name and the Pharisees called themselves Lairds but the story of the Scottish Christ and the story of the Jewish Christ are much the same.
The English put a crown of thorns on the head of the Scottish Christ and drew and quartered him. The bloodthirsty mob jeered the Christ who thought to make himself king of the Scots and urged the British executioners on.
Do you imagine that when they slit him open and spread his entrails in the dirt and covered them with burning coals that the Passion of the Scottish Christ was less than that of the Jewish Christ on a Roman cross? Slill less when the shoveled entrails and coals back into his open body cavity? When they finally tied his legs each to a separate horse and tore him in two, was his Passion still less, Scott?
The English who put the crown of thorns on your Scottish Christ’s head, plainly understood the Passion Play unfolding and readily took their part. Greatly amused, no doubt, as were the Romans regarding the Galilean who imagined he was king of the Jews.
The single detail where the two stories differ radically is in the nature of the mob. The mob gleefully attending the Passion of the Scottish Christ were English. A Scottish crowd would have rent their garments and wept to see it. Unlike the Jewish mob s who happily cheered and jeered to see one of their own nailed to a Roman cross. But then the Jews are uniquely evil.
I have a suggestion, Scott. Find your myths closer to home. Wash your sins away in the blood of your own Christ. Stop fantasizing about sacrificing Jews, drinking their blood and eating their flesh. That ugly fantasy has cost the lives of millions of innocent Jews.
#120 “Without “all the God stuff”, the very concept of evil is absurd. Whether you realize it or not, you are contextualizing the phenomena in a religious framework.”
Yeah the good old point about how we poor pitiful creatures which won’t know the difference between wrong and right if big daddy wasn’t there to tell us.
I could care less about getting in a debate about God, not that it would be much of a debate, but all I pointed out was that this article was some well placed propaganda. God’s existence had nothing to do with what I said.
I never met or expect to meet this “evil” person (I hope I do not) but I’ll take your word for it Roger. Having read just some of the things he has said publicly I have no doubt about your experience.
Did people feel the same way about Hitler? If so why wasn’t he stopped before he was responsible for millions of deaths including the 6 million Jews exterminated and the many other millions put to death and starved to death in his prisons? Millions more died in the war as a result of the world’s letting this evil person rise to power and stay in it until he became powerful enough to attack and overpower neighboring countries.
But it was unimaginable in Hitler’s time to think someone like him could be so evil. Even as the stories started coming out of the camps of the horror people had trouble believing they were true.
We don’t have that excuse post-Hitler. We know what mankind can be capable of and the evil that is in the hearts of a few truly evil men. Why is the world sitting here watching this evil person, who has made no secret of his ambitions, continue to grow in power and influence? Why? I think that is a question that we will be asking ourselves for many years to come once his evil has been unleashed, just like many questioned “why” after Hitler’s deeds were discovered.
121. C.O. IN Pa:
most intelligent, educated people already know what & whom Evil is without having to wait to “meet it”.
~~~~
Not in my experience. I have dealt with too many “educated” (both religous and atheist) people who think evil doesn’t exist (outside of Hitler and pol pot) – their liberal professors told them so. I have dealt with too many “religious” people, who were taught evil exists, but want everything to be peachy keen and wonderful and *deny* the reality, let alone existence, of evil.
There are many who may have read an “intellectual” description of evil, but have never “been there”. to them, it’s all meaningless (reactionary) words. There is a big difference between a written description, a photograph, and BEING there.
Ah David, Its a terrible thing to be made jealous by a people who were not called by His name…. and yet THEY seize hold of the Kingdom ahead of you. Perhaps if your people had not murdered the prophets, actually listened to and heeded them, you and yours would not be in this mess. Well when it all comes down, look up. For your redemption draweth neigh. EVERY knee shall bow.
However. YOU are the natural branch and I simply a grafted in branch. I shall be lesser in the Kingdom than you …. given you repent at His appearance and finally say “blessed is He that comes in the name of The Lord.” Daniel and the Prophets have have revealed all. You don’t even have to read Paul or any of the ‘bad’ ‘New Testament’ heretics.
I’m sorry Christians have motivated you to hate. We really have taken nothing from you. We simply believed the message. I will gladly bow to you in The coming Kingdom as my elder brother and true heir to The Promise.
Roger, there is only one way to know there is a God – to experience Him personally in our lives. A lot of “religion” is stuff made up to enrich that religion’s priestly class, but there’s a core there that can only be known by experience. I don’t doubt your experience. The only way you can get the answers to your questions about Good and Evil is to ask the One that knows all the answers, and to listen quietly for them. He’s never disappointed me, even though many of the answers weren’t what I wanted to hear.
As for God being capable of dealing with us personally, a God that can create this marvelous Universe we live in, Who can create not only the physical universe but the laws that govern it, is marvelous enough to deal with His creations (us among them) on a One-on-one basis. If you’re willing to listen, He’s willing to talk. Enjoy!
I get the same sick feeling when I see Obama…
…Its a terrible thing to be made jealous by a people who were not called by His name…. and yet THEY seize hold of the Kingdom ahead of you…
First you suggest that I’m calling Jesus a liar and a con artist. Then you suggest that I’m jealous and hateful. None of this is true, Scott. I’m being flip and provocative—gratuitously perhaps—but your criticism is baseless.
I like Joshua the Galilean. I think he was a fine and upstanding Jew who preached righteousness to his Jewish brethren. I merely question what any of this has to do with you, Scott.
You say I’m jealous. Of what, I wonder and on what evidence? Do Jews claim they are the new Scots? That they are new scotch poured into old casks? Do my Rabbis get themselves up in plaids and kilts and play the bagpipes? Do Jews claim ancient Scottish religion and culture for their own?
No, Scott. You claim to be the new Israel while your priests turn themselves out in the linen, the miter, the ephod and tribal stones of out Levite priests. You claim our Bible and our liturgy for your own. You mimic our way in your every religious ceremony. You enter the world to the Jewish ceremony of Baptism and leave it to recitations from the Jewish psalms. In between you mark every life’s turning by our tradition. You claim our religion, our culture, our ancestry itself.
Are we imitating you, Scott, or are you imitating us? So who is jealous of whom, Scott?
And what kingdom do you imagine you have seized from us, Scott? The kingdom of heaven? You’re welcome to it. As I already explained, Scott, we Jews do not believe in heaven and hell. Nor in existential good or evil. We are monotheists.
I don’t hate you Scott. But belief in existential evil and the Devil leads to persecution and murder. And Jews are not its only victims. At the height of the European witch craze, over 100,000 people were tortured burned and hanged. Most were women. Most were elderly. None were witches. None were evil or in league with the Devil.
If you insist on following St. Paul, Scott, dropping those scales from your eyes might be a good start.
It’s not ‘your’s’ David. YOU were created to pass on the blessings described to Abraham unto all the world. YOU were to spread the blessing to the gentile world. All nations to be blessed. A people as the sands of the sea. It’s not too late to start David. Do that which your people were called to do. Forsake the father of lies. Be God’s messenger on earth. Seek the light and show it unto all men.
And in answer to your question: The Kingdom is God’s and it is here on earth. See Isaiah et al. However God’s Word doesn’t seem to mean much to you. Personally I don’t believe secular Jews are Jews. Genetically maybe but then Ishmael carries the same.
Oh, and David,
I do not accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of Replacement Theology. Heresy actually. The promisers are yours and yours alone. We gentiles are only riding your coat tails. We shall not usurp you nor replace you. We just get to share. Can we have that much David? Please.
I apologize for all the evils done to the Jews in the name of christianity (with a small c). We modern Evangelical Orthodox fundamentalists are trying very hard to make it up to you. I know you don’t believe it but really this has nothing to do with hurrying up the Second Coming (as if that were in any way possible). We are simply obeying the Word of God and honoring His People that are called by His name. We do not want to be cursed. We want to do the right thing before God.
In my visits to Israel I was at first surprised to encounter your kind of hatred of Evangelicals. It never occurred to most of us that our existence was an affront to Jews. It was a surprise to us that many Jews viewed our efforts as a continuation of the Holocaust. That if a Jew were to accept that The Nazarene was in fact The Messiah said Jew would die to Judaism as if he had been burned in Hitler’s ovens. This is a surprise to us because Jesus was a Jew. The Twelve were Jews. The first converts were Jews and none of them ever saw themselves a ceasing to be Jews. It is only you and yours who have taken their jewishness from them. It is you who have cast your own into the ovens.
Scott:
Deepest apologies. I mistook you for a Catholic. I don’t hate Catholics but the outrageous presumption of people calling themselves “Roman” or the “New Israel” offends me.
A roman patriot hated Christianity, small c or cap, and did everything he could to stamp it out. The Roman dictators, including Constantine, along with the legions, remained Helios worshipers until the fall of the empire. The Old Israel and the New Israel are one and the same.
I’m sorry if you encountered hostility in Israel. I am technically a Palestinian born under the British Mandate and my birth certificate so states. My mother’s is an old Jerusalem family.
In the mid nineteenth century, British Evangelicals imposed on Lord Peel to dispatch a sub-Viceroy to the court of the Grand Turk. The British emissary’s specific mission was to persuade the Pasha to protect his Jewish subjects in Turkish Palestine from murderous Muslim pogroms.
I may well owe my existence to the Turkish troops the British Evangelicals arranged to protect my ancestors.
Evangelical Christians hark back to the very earliest Gentile Christians. Here in the United States, they are the modern branch of the Puritan Pilgrim root whose ethic Jews share and which continues to profoundly inform American culture and makes this country so familiar and comfortable a home for Jews.
Evangelicals are the only American Christians whose per capita charitable giving compares with that of American Jews. Evangelicals are Bible literate in an environment where most Christians and Jews can’t quote three consecutive lines from the Bible, Old Testament or New. Evangelicals are the only Christians who recognize the Hebrew Bible for the history of the Jews and robustly support Zionism. They are the only Christians who may be relied upon to hold the line against the Muslim invasion.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, Scott. I’m only as secular as you want to imagine me.
I have had that same experience only once. Moonlighting at a Psych Hospital as the admitting physician about 14 years ago. I had worked there about 8 years. This particular night a man was brought in who was supposedly schizophrenic. Having seen many schizophrenics I was unprepared for what I encountered. This person made the hair on my neck stand up with the first words he uttered. “I know you”. I became short of breath in the same room with him. I broke into a sweat. The nurse with me had the same vibe. The voice appeared to not be human. We discussed whether our jobs would be in jeopardy if we called an exorcist. Seeing as how we would likely be fired if we did anything other than protocol we gave the man some haldol and ativan and snowed him for the night. I was relieved he was gone the next week. I could not sleep for days.
I assume that a demon sensed I was of Christian faith. Thus the “I know you”. Take heart Mr. Simon, the fact you were struck with such profound physical symptoms implies God’s presence within you. Otherwise there could be no such reaction. I am a feeble humble Christian. I make the above statement through no boast of my own. Just my perception of things beyond what our modern scientific minds comprehend.
Many people do not comprehend evil. They look at it from a relative morality, not an absolute morality. Most would think you truly crazy to comprehend demons, and perhaps Lucifer himself. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the presence of Satan? Would you suspect it would be any different than your experience?
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To be a believer, the first element is to honesty, if you are honest to others, people will believe you gradully, and then you should know more to back up your opinion.