Ideas

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Da Vinci story flunks truth test

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By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com G.K. Chesterton once said, "The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice." A well-positioned sliver of truth can grant legitimacy to a lie. A little evidence can make an implausible theory appear sound.

In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown employs historical half-truths as well as outright fallacies to dispute the central tenet of Christianity – that Christ was the Son of God who came to earth to redeem mankind through his death and resurrection. The premise of Brown’s book and movie, which he asserts is true, alleges that the church has cynically conspired over the past two millennia to deify an ordinary man, all to amass and retain power.

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This Easter, Remember the Carpenter

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(John Andrews in the Denver Post, April 16) For irony, it’s hard to beat the bumper sticker: “My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter.” Some carpenter Jesus was, his hands not pounding the nails but pinned by them, his only remembered woodwork the criminal’s cross he died on. Nor was this sawdust preacher well-born; the Jews have been cruelly marginalized for ages. Who boasts of their boss anyway? Bossing others is much preferred. Being your own boss is better still. But that’s the Christians for you. They believe life is about serving, not ruling, and the one they follow on the path of service is that rejected rabbi whose death and rising Easter commemorates.

Even the verb on the bumper sticker has a twist. Christians worship Jesus as their king who “is” alive today and seated at God’s right hand, not just a great moral teacher who “was” important long ago. How un-modern of them. How stubborn and strange.

Adam Smith & the Rock of Ages

By Dave Crater crater@wilberforcecenter.org

    Editor's Note: March 1 has been observed as Adam Smith Day here in Backbone Colorado USA each year since the early 1990s, at the instigation of John Andrews and the Independence Institute's Dave Kopel. Dave Crater evidently approves.

How delightful to learn that Andrews and Kopel have set up an Ebenezer stone (explanation to follow) with their annual tribute to Scottish, Western, and economics great Adam Smith. I suspect this March 1 observance is not merely a public reminder to Colorado of the roots of American economic order and the giant who put those roots in the ground. I suspect it also has Ebenezer value to them as a personal reminder of many years laboring together in the American West for what prior generations liked to call, and what a few Coloradans are still fond of calling, the Permanent Things.

Santa Blog delivers, finally

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com Christmas 2005 was a very good one. Santa Claus made an appearance at my parents’ house, and treated me pretty well. The best gifts of all were spending time with family and friends, and eating plenty of home-c0oked food that I’ll have to work off in the New Year. Learned a lot of neat things from other family members that I’ll report in my next post. And now, here are a few belated gifts I wanted to give Backbone readers:

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