In my own case, I have long and faulty memories of my youth. The most common thing is to remember an event happening at a younger age than it really did, but even on something like the Pearl Harbor attack, my memory isn't quite right. The way I remember it, we were playing the card game hearts late on the Sunday afternoon of December 7th when news came over the radio that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. When I moved last time, I ran across a theme On the Pearl Harbor attack I had written for school and in that I wrote that I had just come in from playing my favorite game of Kick The Can when my late brother told me the Japanese attached Pearl Harbor. I'm sure we did play Hearts that afternoon and no doubt there was more news on the attack, but my memory was faulty.
So I guess I don't fault Ben Carson for saying he got an offer to go to West Point with a full scholarship. After he was told by a couple of people that they could get him this, and maybe they could, but it wasn't an offer from West Point. Believe me, many are led to think they could get into West Point and few succeed. It happened in my extended family.
For some people, actual life is not exciting enough and they have to embellish it. This was true of Joe Biden, and I am glad he is not running for president again and subject his "faulty" memory to us, yet again
But Carson's "faulty" memory is a key to his success as a candidate because it makes him a great redemption story "I once was lost but now am found." It also could be that Evangelicals view Carson's surgical career to be Christ-like. These aspects give him an edge over another super-Evangelical Mike Huckabee who actually won Iowa in the 2008 Presidential election. St. Paul had the greatest redemption story in that he converted from being a persecutor of Christians to the greatest proponent for Christianity and has at least seven books in the New Testament.**
I'm more concerned by Dr. Carson's "belief" that the pyramids were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain against a seven-year famine he said coming. There is probably reasonable proof that Joseph existed,* and he may well have warned about a coming famine, maybe even that it would last for 7 yrs. But the facts are that the pyramids were built as graves and were not really suitable to store grain.
And this is a problem with so-called Evangelicals. If you believe that Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves of bread and two fishes you can believe anything and the facts be (expletive). What the true meaning of this parable is, is unclear to me, but it appears in four books of the bible. It also seems to be an embellishment of an earlier parable from Elisha in the Old Testament book of Kings who fed 100 men with 20 leaves of bread. Perhaps the meaning is that Jesus was the true representative of God and not Elisha. Incidentally Elisha also is credited with performing 28 miracles, even more than the 14 credited to Elijah.***
We saw what belief can do with George W. Bush who consulted with a "higher power" over going to war with Iraq, though just last night I heard that he had consulted with his father who supported him (in an interview of John Meacham by George W. Bush). It appears from evidence by George H.W. Bush that he did not try to dissuade his son from going to war in Iraq. But this doesn't mean that Dubya didn't consult a "higher power." We were very lucky with Ronald Reagan that he didn't get us into more terrible situations than he did as he also had strange beliefs like we are in the "end times." Thus we have the belief among Evangelicals of such things as we can use the atmosphere as an infinite sewer where we can dump all the pollutants we want with no consequences.
But it remains to be seen whether Ben Carson can bully the press into subjection.
* http://www.slideshare.net/insightgirl/did-joseph-really-exist
** On a journey, St. Paul suffered sun stroke and could not see for three
days, but this was accompanied by an epiphany and conversion to
Christianity. He then promoted Christianity with the fervor that he had
previously used to oppress them. This fervor was of the nature of
"there is no sinner like a converted sinner," but he was very
convincing.
*** http://www.bcbsr.com/survey/eli.html
About Me
- Everett Estes Ford
- Sandhills Area, NC, United States
- Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author is a published poet and author of the monograph "Lead Isotopes." He received a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1960 and a D.Sci. (Honorus causa) from the University of Missouri in 1989. As a scientist, he published more than 100 technical papers in the areas of isotope geology, mineral resources, and environmental concerns. He was involved in the Apollo Program and post Apollo Program in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the National Acid Precipitation Program with the National Park Service in the 1980s. He was the first Western scientist to give the Vernadsky Memorial Lecture in Moscow during detente in 1976. He worked for 34 years for the U.S. Geological Survey in a variety of research and administrative positions, including tours as Chief of the Branch of Isotope Geology and as the Assistant Director of Research. He was president of the Geochemical Society, and, as an amateur tennis player, he served as President of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Golden Racquets Tennis Club for two years.
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