Response to The God Delusion-chapter 4

I was actually looking forward to Chapter four, because Dawkins kept promising that he would show the economy of Natural Selection and that it was not a matter of luck.  I took economy to mean that it was efficient and conserved effort.  Not being a “matter of luck,” I assumed avoided randomness.  I was disappointed.  If the word economy even occurred in chapter four, I missed it.  Certainly, it did not comprise a major part of the discussion.

Dawkins claims to annihilate the concept of Irreducible Complexity in this chapter.  I am not going to attempt to refute this (although I do tend to believe in Irreducible Complexity), because the amount of information he gives is not sufficient for me to be sure of my argument.  I am not criticizing him for this, because to have given a thorough explanation would be beyond the scope of the book.  I have not read the papers he says support his viewpoint.  He is totally within his rights leaving out more detail.  I have done the same in saying that I can’t deal with everything in this blog….in my response to the last chapter, I skipped over his criticism of the scriptures as contradictory and mythological.

I do have some overarching criticisms of this chapter, however.

1.        Why Natural Selection represents economy is never explained.  He does spend a lot of time on why it is consciousness raising, that being a pretty vague concept.  I wonder if he will later in the book get around to explaining the origin of consciousness from a purely naturalistic perspective.

2.       He describes Design by a Creator as leaping from the base of a mountain to the top, while Natural Selection inches up the backside of the mountain step by step.  Since Natural Selection is not a conscious entity, how does it know enough to advance step by step?  Why doesn’t it go in endless circles around the mountain or sit at the bottom making a campfire?  If it is advancing, then every single baby-step has to be advantageous in some way, or the whole notion breaks down.

3.       He never explains why the next step isn’t random or luck of the draw.  Decades ago, I read an article in the Smithsonian, which always espouses an evolutionary viewpoint.  In the article (which I think was about pine cones) the author made reference to the design being directed by Mother Nature.  I chuckled to myself.   Huh?  Anthropomorphizing Mother Nature?  How did that get by the editors?  The author must have subconsciously been thinking that the “evolution” of the pine cone wasn’t random.  Someone was in charge.  Couldn’t be God, so it must be Mother Nature.

4.       While many very complex goals can be achieved by taking one small step at a time, others cannot.  Somewhere along the way there is an impossible step.  For example, given enough time I could walk from my home in upstate New York to New York City, but I could not walk to London, England, no matter how much time I had.  I cannot walk on water….well, short of a miracle occurring.  Breaking things down into very small increments doesn’t always achieve the goal.

5.       He criticizes those who believe in Creation for believing in a God of the gaps.  But he does essentially the same thing with the Anthropic Principle.  If Natural Selection can’t explain some very improbable occurrence, then he throws the Anthropic Principle at it.  Yes…it is unlikely, but we are here, so it must have happened!

6.       He says that if there was a Creator, He would have to be very complex.  I totally agree with that.  However, he seems to believe himself and to think that theologians believe that the “first cause” must be simple.  There may be some theologians who believe that, but certainly not all. 

“To suggest that the original prime mover was complicated enough to indulge in intelligent design, to say nothing of mindreading millions of humans simultaneously, is tantamount to dealing yourself a perfect hand at bridge.”

Exactly!  Dawkins wants us to believe that the unlikely is possible through the Anthropic Principle (we are here so it must have happened), but not believe the unlikeliness of a complex, infinite, omniscient and omnipotent creator.  Believing either looks a lot like FAITH to me.

Dawkins raises the “who designed the Designer?” argument.  Of course, he doesn’t believe what the Bible says, so this won’t convince him, but it is an explanation of why those of us who believe the Bible aren’t concerned with this argument.  God is eternally existent.  Can we really comprehend that?  No…the human mind cannot really wrap itself around either infinity or eternity.  As previously stated, we are stuck in one-dimensional, one-directional time.  But God says that His name is “I Am.”  (Exodus 3:13-14).  No other explanation is needed.  I picture him roaring “I Am!”

By the way, Dawkins can feel free to ask me the questions, he claims aren’t asked in polite society.

Do I believe in miracles?  Yes

Do I believe in the virgin birth?  Yes

Do I believe in the resurrection?  Yes

He claims, regarding educated loyal Christians, that answering these questions, “embarrasses them because their rational minds know it is absurd, so they would much rather not be asked.”

I am educated.  The vast majority of people who know me would say that I am rational.  I am not embarrassed.  I am just willing to admit that there are things that my mind is incapable of comprehending.  Miracles, the virgin birth and the resurrection are not absurd.  They are beyond the capacity of my mind.

I know that Richard Dawkins as a naturalist cannot accept anything that cannot be comprehended with the human mind.

But…

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Response to The God Delusion-chapter 3

One of Dawkins first assertions in Chapter 3 involves the belief that God is omniscient and omnipotent.  “..it has not escaped the notice of logicians that omniscience and omnipotence are mutually incompatible.  If God is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence.  But that means he can’t change his mind about this intervention, which means, he is not omnipotent.”  This is ignorant of the very nature of God.  He exists outside of time…He encompasses time, so the cute little poem Dawkins then quotes about the future is irrelevant.  We humans are stuck in one dimensional time that only travels in one direction, although the possibility of multiple dimensions of time has been discussed.  God does not share our limitations.

Dawkins dismisses the notion that the need for absolutes is a proof of God’s existence.  He doesn’t use the word absolutes.  He talks about a standard for perfection.  He ridiculously says that if this is so, then “there must exist a pre-eminently peerless stinker, and we call him God.” However, the absolute standards that are attributed to God are not related to physical qualities, such as odor.  He is the standard for love, goodness, truth and the like.

He tries to shoot holes in the notion that if man can think it, it must exist.  So, since we can think of God, He must be there.  I don’t mind the holes shot in that, as long as they also go through his idea from the last chapter that somewhere there are aliens with such advanced technology that we would view it as almost supernatural.  Just because he can think it, doesn’t make it so.

The Argument from Personal Experience—Dawkins completely ignores the most relevant aspect of this.  He focuses totally on seeing visions and hearing voices, which the vast majority of people of faith do not claim.  The real argument from personal experience should be the evidence of a changed life, which is overwhelmingly experienced as a result of faith.  Last week, I read the book “Unbroken” which is the biography of Louis Zamperini.  I have not seen the movie that came out recently, but I have read that it stops short of the time when Zamperini went to a Billy Graham crusade. Zamperini came back from his experience as a POW with PTSD.  He was alcoholic and experienced nightmares and flashbacks.  His marriage was barely holding together.  At the Billy Graham crusade, he accepted Christ as his personal Savior.  He went home and threw out his alcohol and cigarettes.  The biography says he never again experienced a flashback or nightmare about those horrible experiences he had had.  That is the personal experience of a changed life, because one has met the living God.  I’m sorry that Dawkins has never had this experience, but it doesn’t mean that it and the God who brings it about don’t exist.

The Argument from Scripture---It would take an entire book to deal with the claims Dawkins makes in these few pages.  I will just say that I have read the Bible from cover to cover numerous times, and do not see the inconsistencies he tries to assert are present.  However, I totally accept that the Bible can’t be used to prove God’s existence, if you don’t believe it to start with.

The Argument from Admired Religious Scientists---at least he admits that there are some and names some of them.  However, he then says that they are a minority in scientific societies.  This should not be surprising.  If a person makes his beliefs known, he is probably less likely to me elected to such a society.  As to the study of Mensa members purporting to show an inverse correlation between IQ and religious faith, I doubt that people of religious faith are inclined to join Mensa.  Having consistently scored in the 98^th and 99^th percentiles on various tests in high school and college, I considered joining Mensa about 40 years ago.  In the end, I couldn’t see any reason to do it other than to have something about which to gloat.  This is not compatible with my faith, so I never applied.  I expect this is a common attitude among believers.  Dawkins takes a little swipe at Wheaton College in this chapter.  Shortly after I graduated, so it was probably in the 1970s, I saw an article in Time magazine that said Wheaton had more valedictorians and National Merit Scholars as a percentage of the student body than any of the Ivy League schools.  Intelligence and belief are not mutually exclusive.  I suppose it would drive Dawkins wild as a naturalist, that when I took my Graduate Record Exams in 1968, I scored off the top of scale on the Natural Sciences portion of the test….that was over 99^th percentile even on the boy’s scale…AND…I was and am a believer in God.

Pascal’s Wager—Dawkins believes that Blaise Pascal’s argument that you stand to lose an awful lot if you don’t believe and turn out to be wrong, so play the odds and believe, is strange. He says “believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of policy.”  Tellingly, he then says, “at least, it is not something I can decide to do as an act of the will.”  But of course, that is the whole point.  Accepting Christ as a personal Savior is exactly an act of the will.  It is a decision….and God does know if it is genuine or empty words said thinking that one can avoid hell fires.  Dawkins asks, “Why…do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do if you want to please God is believe in him?  What’s so special about believing?”  Well, of course, for those of us who believe the Bible, that is what it says we must do….if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  Romans 10:9-10

Dawkins thinks God would value honest skepticism over dishonest belief.  I don’t think either of those is going to cut it.  God is looking for a sincere heart.  In dismissing Pascal’s argument, he fails to mention some other things Pascal said:

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

 “Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.”

Too bad Blaise Pascal isn’t around to debate with Richard Dawkins…..although in truth, no one is argued into belief.  It actually is by an act of the will.

Near the end of this chapter, Dawkins disparages faith.  “I have challenged religious but otherwise intelligent scientists to justify their belief, given their admission that there is no evidence; ‘I admit that there’s no evidence.  There’s a reason why it’s called faith’ (this last sentence uttered with almost truculent conviction, and no hint of apology or defensiveness).”

That’s right…no apology.  Now faith means putting full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see….and it is after all only by faith that our minds accept as fact that the whole scheme of time and space was created by God’s command…that the world which we can see has come into being through principles which are invisible. Hebrews 11:1-3 (New Testament in Modern English, Phillips translation)

Richard Dawkins finds this revolting, insane, unscientific foolishness, but there you have it, in the Bible thousands of years before Dawkins was around to argue about it.

I’m so sorry, Richard.  I wish you could see it.  I wish you could find it in yourself to make a conscious decision to believe.

But as Blaise Pascal also said….

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.”

Response to The God Delusion-chapter 2

Dawkins begins the second chapter of “The God Delusion" with this statement.  “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:  jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential,megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

If I were to respond to every one of these terms, I would have no room for comments on the remainder of the chapter, so let me just hit a few:

“character in all fiction”  Dawkins has not yet proved that God is fictional.  He expects to do that eventually in this book, but this tirade near the beginning assumes it before “proven.”

“jealous and proud of it”  If there really is a God who is the creator and sustainer of everything in the Universe, if He really understands all of it, and operates outside of time so that He see the beginning and the end, He has every right to insist that we honor and reverence Him.  In fact, it is to our benefit to do so.  I remember saying to one of my daughters once, “I am going to win this argument, because it is in your best interests for me to do so.”  This was not motivated by unreasonable demands and arrogance on my part, but on my knowledge that I did actually know what was best for her in this particular circumstance.  If God is God, He does know best and has the right to expect us to yield to Him.

As to all those terms that involve killing of various people….such activities were one reason that God wanted His people to be separate from neighboring tribes and religions who did, for example, practice infanticide.  They have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.  They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal….something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. Jeremiah 19:4-5

“unjust, unforgiving control freak”  Perhaps Dawkins is unfamiliar with the book of Jonah.  Jonah is sent to prophesy against Nineveh, but the city actually repents, so God forgives and does not destroy it.  This makes Jonah angry.  I guess he thinks it makes him seem foolish, because the destruction he prophesied will not now happen.  Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry….is this not what I said when I was still at home?  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.   …the Lord said…Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left….should I not be concerned about that great city?  God has always been compassionate on those who repent.  He has at various times dealt a severe blow against those who do not.

Dawkins attempts to categorize Christianity as a polytheistic religion because of the concept of the trinity.  He insists on seeing this as three separate Gods.  Those who believe in the trinity see this as one God who manifests Himself in three different ways.  He never really addresses this explanation of the trinity, but goes on about the saints in Catholicism, seeing these as additional proof of the polytheistic nature of Christianity.  Although I am not Catholic and do not pray to saints, I resent the nasty little bit of sarcasm he employs in this discussion.  Sarcasm is another sign that one’s argument is weak and must be bolstered by nasty jabs.

“I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.”  Good….now we know exactly where he stands.

In his section on Monotheism, Dawkins quotes Gore Vidal….”God is the Omnipotent Father…hence the loathing of women for 2000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly males delegates.”  This is a great misinterpretation of Christianity which clearly puts men and women on equal footing before God.  Individuals or sects may have difficulty dealing with this, but Christ had female disciples and appeared to women first after the resurrection.  Christianity does not support loathing of women.

Dawkins states the Christianity was founded by Paul.  I don’t know of anyone within Christianity who would adhere to this view.  There may be some within Catholicism who believe it was founded by Peter.  Some may say it was founded by the disciples in general.  I would argue it was founded by Christ Himself.  Following His resurrection (which Dawkins, of course, doesn’t believe in), Christ said to his disciples, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20 This is the establishment of the Christian church and its purpose.

In his discussion of Deism, Dawkins refers to God as a psychotic delinquent.  Once again….name calling is a sign of a weak argument.

Chapter 2 does contain a totally reasonable explanation of the spectrum of belief to unbelief with agnosticism in the middle.  This is a good analysis.

In his discussion of agnosticism, he relates the thoughts of a friend who “regards God as no more probable than the tooth fairy.  You can’t disprove either hypothesis, and both are equally improbable.”  Seriously?  We all know the tooth fairy doesn’t actually exist, and we can come as close to proving it as any other scientific fact.  We all know who the tooth fairy really is.  We can’t definitely prove that no tooth fairy exists anywhere, but we can prove innumerable cases where the tooth is slid out from under the pillow by a parent and a coin put in its place.  Given hundreds of thousands of such incidents, it is as safe to say there is no tooth fairy as it is to say the earth revolves around the sun.  Making God analogous to the tooth fairy just doesn’t fly.

“What matters is not whether God is disprovable (he isn’t) but whether his existence is probable.”  Dawkins expects to make him improbable later in the book.  I don’t’ expect him to be successful.

“…a universe with a creative superintendent would be a very different kind of universe from one without.”  I agree.  I believe in a creative superintendent!

Now Dawkins gets nasty regarding theologians.  He criticizes his fellow scientists (some whom he names are even atheists) who are willing to let theologians weigh in on God’s existence.  “What expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?  Why are scientists so cravenly respectful towards the ambitions of theologians, over questions that theologians are certainly no more qualified to answer than scientists themselves?  Unlike my astronomer friends, I don’t think we should even throw them a sop.”  Dawkins seems to like to criticize others for “overweening arrogance,” but I’m afraid that in this, he exhibits it himself.  He does not want to believe that fellow evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould meant what he said in his book Rock of Ages.  I wonder if it is okay if we don’t believe what Dawkins is saying in The God Delusion.

Chapter 2 also contains a discussion of a “prayer experiment.”  He points out that the results did not show any impact from prayer, so those who believe in prayer are quick to point out the flaws of such a study.  If there had been a positive correlation, he believes many religious groups would be trumpeting the results.  He is probably….and sadly…right about this.  However, I am sure that there were those who understand the genuine nature of prayer, who would have questioned the study from the outset.  Christ Himself tells us that it is not appropriate to put God to the test.  God is not a monkey who performs acts at our bidding.  The purpose of prayer is to conform our mind and will to the mind and will of God.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Matthew 6:10

And then, he says, apparently with a straight face, “Whether we ever get to know about them or not, there are very probably alien civilizations that are superhuman, to the point of being god-like in ways that exceed anything a theologian could possibly imagine.  Their technical achievements would seem as supernatural to us as ours would seem to a Dark Age peasant transported to the twenty-first century.”  Oh, dear, Dr. Dawkins….this is not science.  How can you be so sure of this and at the same time so sure there isn’t an actual God lurking out there.  It would be laughable, if it wasn’t sad.

Response to The God Delusion--Preface & Chaper 1

Dear Dr. Dawkins,

I have been wanting to read your book “The God Delusion” for several years.  Having recently broken my shoulder, I find time on my hands.  In the past two weeks, I have read 10 books, 2 Greek plays, a number of articles in Time and Smithsonian magazines, and oh yes, some A. W. Tozer devotionals online.  I have also continued with my habit of daily Bible reading.

I have wanted to read your book since meeting the father of a young man who committed suicide after reading it.  The young man’s college professor had ridiculed his faith and suggested he read your book.  I have no idea why he allowed it to destroy him rather than discussing the book with someone less likely to be devastated by your attacks.  I did not know him and only met his father briefly.

I thought after reading The God Delusion, I would write one blog, but I have found so much to react to in the first few chapters, that I realize I need to reign myself in or I will be writing a book myself.  Others, more capable than I, have already written rebuttals, which I am sure you dismiss.

But….here are my thoughts.

Preface

“..to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one.”  Why is it brave and splendid?  It can’t be so just because you declare it to be so.  Is it always brave to stand up to opposition or are there some situations in which it is just plain fool-hardy.  Exactly what does splendid mean?  One of its synonyms is glorious.  Since you are a naturalist, I hope you aren’t being inconsistent by suggesting something so exquisite that it causes a feeling of transcendence.

“Imagine…a world with no religion.”  You then list all sorts of negative things produced by religion.  This is only justifiable if you also list all of the positive things produced by religion.  I could find numerous examples of positive social change brought about by “religious” groups, and of individuals who have laid down their lives in the service of others.  I do not want to imagine a world completely without religion, although I recognize that some awful things have been done in its name.  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 (NIV)

“Far from pointing to a designer, the illusion of design in the living world is explained with far greater economy and with devastating elegance by Darwinian natural selection.”  You promise to explain this is chapter four.  I have not read it yet, but I am wondering how natural selection, which is sort of trial and error with fittest surviving, can be more “economical” than directed design by someone intelligent who has the blueprint.

“There is no such thing as a Christian child.”  “…children are too young to know where they stand on such issues.”   WRONG!!  I accepted Christ as my personal Savior at the age of 7, quite apart from parental influence.  My parents had only come to the understanding of their need about 6 months before I did, and had never explained to me what they had done.  I did watch my Dad throw out his cigarettes and pour all his beer down the toilet, but I didn’t know why.  I came to Christ because I understood that I was powerless to be “good” on my own.  I marched down the aisle at the end of a service where the evangelist yelled and screamed and jumped on the front pew….all of which was a huge turn-off to me at the time.  But, I knew if I went forward someone would explain to me one-on-one how I could get rid of the weight of sin and its accompanying guilt which I already understood was on my shoulders. It was not placed there by that evangelist.  I had been praying for weeks before that in the quiet of my bed at night, that God would help me to find Him. I have reassessed and repeated that commitment at a number of points in my life, as I matured in my understanding.  But, don’t try to tell me that I didn’t know what I was doing on November 2, 1952.  It changed the whole direction of my life.

In the preface, you equate religion with insanity.  I suppose this makes those of us who practice religion “insane,” and yet a very large percentage of us are fully functional, productive people.  This kind of name calling is usually put forth by someone who knows his/her argument is weak.  It is not a fair method of debate.

Chapter 1

You quote Carl Sagan in a way that indicates that religious people don’t have the same admiration for the wonders of the Universe that scientists have.  To which I say:  The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Psalm 19:1  When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  Psalm 8:3-4

I do agree with your definition of God, which you say is “the way people have generally understood it: to denote a supernatural creator that is ‘appropriate for us to worship’.” At least, we go into this with one term defined in the same way.  To be fully descriptive I would add some adjectives such as omnipotent and omniscient, but that isn’t necessary at this point.

You accuse society of having an “overweening respect for religion.”  The illustration you cite is that conscientious objector status is more easily achieved through religious objection to war than by other means.  I wonder if you can support this claim with data.  One of my uncles was a conscientious objector in World War II.  I never questioned my uncle about this, but knowing that he was an admirer of humanist and pacifist Aldous Huxley, I doubt that he pleaded religion to support his views.  He felt he could not carry a gun, and so he served on a hospital ship in the Pacific.  I would like to see statistical support for your illustration.  Perhaps this has changed in the years since this book was written, but I don’t see “overweening respect for religion” in today’s society.

I totally agree with you regarding the illustration of the boy’s T-shirt as “hate speech.”  It should not be defended on either the grounds of free speech or freedom of religion.  It does not help a thing and only leads to animosity.

You end chapter one talking about the deference which is given to the Islamic religion.  This is not universal to all religions.  Christianity and Judaism are not currently receiving the same deference.  For some reason, it has become politically incorrect to criticize Islam.  I, therefore, object to you setting the rest of the book in this context, since later you admit to taking on Christianity, because it is the religion with which you are most familiar.

Chapter 2

And….do you ever take Christianity and Judaism on!  This chapter begins with an absolute tirade against the God of the Old Testament whom you say is “…arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:  jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Wow!

I hope you feel better having that off your chest.  This blog is getting too long, so I will respond to that in the next one.

Get Your Child Immunized against Measles!

Not getting your child immunized against measles is stupid and inconsiderate!

Yes, yes….I know there are lots of folks out there who vehemently declare the dangers of vaccinations.  Some of their arguments have a bit of merit and others are just lunatic fringe stuff.  They tout their rights as parents to do what they believe is best for their children, but what about other people’s children?

We live in a society, and we interact with each other regularly.  We have an obligation to protect each other.  I would not have considered avoiding immunization.  If parents want to tinker with some of the timing and not throw too much at a child’s immune system all at once, I give them some lee-way with that.  But, not to immunize at all???  I have no sympathy.

And it has nothing to do with statistics and logic.  On this issue, I have raw emotion.

I was born prior to measles immunizations being available.  I had measles.  I remember the agonizing boredom of spending days in bed in a darkened room with nothing much to do.  I was not allowed to use my eyes, because of concerns about damage to them.  More importantly, even though I was a preschooler, I remember the palpable anxiety in my mother.  I sensed she was in great fear for me, although she did not express this to me verbally.

As I grew older, I came to understand the reason.  I heard the stories of my mother’s baby sister and how thrilled my grandfather was to have another girl.  I heard how she became very ill with measles when she was less than a year old.  My great-aunt talked about accompanying my grandmother to take the baby to the doctor.  They had no car and had to go to the doctor’s office on the streetcar.  The baby had measles with complications, and the doctor could do nothing to save her.  They traveled home on the streetcar with a dying baby.  I visited her grave with my grandfather.  Decades had passed, but he still carefully tended the flowers he planted there each year.  My mother told me of her brother Chuck’s grief.  He was older and in school.  He brought the measles home from school and felt he was responsible for his baby sister’s death.

The baby’s name was Ruth Ellen.  I was given my name in memory of her.

I am an admirer of clear thinking and logic.  I believe in parental rights. 

But, on this issue?

I have seen the far-reaching consequences of measles prior to the availability of immunization.  Don’t give me any argument.  I won’t listen.  Just go get your kid immunized!

Orestes by Euripides

At the end of the Trojan War, King Agamemnon returned home having been gone 10 years.  During his absence his wife Clytemnestra had taken a lover, so when he returned, she and her lover killed him.  His son Orestes and daughter Electra then entered into a plot to kill her and avenge their father.  This play opens about six days later.  Orestes has been driven mad with guilt even though he believes he was ordered by the gods to slay his mother.  Also, the people of the kingdom are about to vote on an appropriate punishment for him.  He and Electra expect to be stoned to death for the murder.

Menelaus returns home from the war and asks to see Orestes.  The cause of the Trojan War was that Menelaus’ wife Helen had run off with Paris of Troy.  Agamemnon had agreed with Menelaus that they were bound by their honor to go retrieve her.  The ten years of war had resulted in many deaths, and the war became increasingly unpopular.  (Apparently long wars always have been unpopular.)  Menelaus has secretly gotten Helen back into the city, because he fears the anger of the populace against her.

Menelaus is uncle to Orestes.  Orestes expects him to understand why he had to kill Clytemnestra and to attempt to sway the people in his favor and spare his life.  While they are talking, Tyndareus arrives.  He was Clytemnestra’s father and so is grandfather to Orestes.  However, he has no sympathy for Orestes and argues with Orestes and Menelaus.  Menelaus is torn, and after much discussion, he does not agree to help Orestes.  He is taking a wait-and-see approach.

Pylades then arrives on the scene.  He is a young man of the same age as Orestes and is one of his good friends.  He is betrothed to Electra and was in on the whole scheme against Clytemnestra.  He is from a neighboring kingdom and has been exiled by his father for his part in the murder, but at least his life was spared.  He declares that he will not abandon Orestes and is prepared to die with him.  He assists Orestes in getting to the court where his case is being heard.  They return knowing that the death sentence has been pronounced, but that Orestes and Electra are to be given the option of suicide.

The three friends (Orestes, Electra and Pylades) then come up with another plot.  They will kill Helen and take Hermione, daughter of Helen and Menelaus, hostage.  When Menelaus learns his wife is dead and his daughter’s life is on the line, they believe he will give in and help them.  They carry out this plan, but when they think Helen is dead, she suddenly disappears…spirited away by the gods.  (Keep in mind Helen is supposedly half god and half mortal.)  Menelaus arrives at the palace and seems willing to let Hermione die.  Pylades and Electra are ready to torch the palace, and Orestes is about to kill Hermione, when the god Apollo appears in the clouds with Helen by his side.

He pronounces that:

*Helen is to become immortal and stay with the gods.

*The lives of Orestes, Pylades and Electra are to be spared.

*Orestes is to marry Hermione, at whose throat he is presently holding a sword.

*Pylades is to marry Electra.

*Menelaus is to leave Argos to be ruled by Orestes, and he is to go to Sparta and rule there.

*No one is to blame anyone for the Trojan War.  The gods set it all up to decrease the population.

*Everyone is to make peace with everyone else and play nicely.

And….just like that, all loose ends are tied up and everyone obeys Apollo.  This is just too tidy an end to suit me.  The play and the problems build for 17 pages and then POOF, Apollo appears and everything is resolved in half a page.  This is worse than some TV dramas.  At least in those you can look back and see the beginning threads of the resolution.  This ending comes out of nowhere!

Interesting quotes:

             Menelaus:  What ails thee?  What is thy deadly sickness?

             Orestes:  My conscience; I know that I am guilty of an awful crime.

Orestes:  For such friends as desert us in the hour of adversity, are friends in name but not in reality.

Chorus:  His is an enviable lot, who is blest in his children, and does not find himself brought into evil notoriety.

             Menelaus:  …how can you win a great cause by small efforts?

Orestes:  I will cease praising thee, for there is something wearisome even in being praised to excess.

Apollo:  …for the gods by means of Helen’s loveliness embroiled Troy and Hellas, causing death thereby, that they might lighten mother Earth of the outrage done her by man’s excessive population.

The Phoenician Maidens by Euripides

There is a great deal of overlap in the stories told by the Greek playwrights, so most of the characters in this play have been met before.  The play should have perhaps been named the unending grief of Oedipus.  The Phoenician maidens only serve as the chorus in the play and are not really party to the action.

After Oedipus learned that his wife Jocasta was actually his mother, he gouged out his own eyes.  He lives in blindness in isolated quarters in the castle, and the land of Thebes is ruled by his son Eteocles.  An agreement was made that Eteocles and his brother Polynices would share the throne by ruling alternate years.  Eteocles, however, has refused to surrender the throne to Polynices at the end of his year and has forced Polynices into exile.

Polynices went to a neighboring country and married well.  He has now returned to Thebes with an army, intending to take by force what was promised to him.  Jocasta, mother of the two boys, sees it as her role to try to bring about an agreement.  Both sons agree to a temporary truce in order to discuss what is to happen.  Polynices is determined to have his turn at ruling, which seems perfectly fair since it was promised.  Eteocles is absolutely defiant.  He has tasted power, and he is not about to give it up.  Shall I become his slave, when I can be his master?  He also makes accusations against Polynices for the affront of coming against his own native city with an army.

Jocasta does her best to mediate.  Art thou so set on ambition, that worst of deities?  Better far, my son, prize equality that ever linketh friend to friend…and allies to each other; for equality is man’s natural law.  Her efforts are to no avail.

Meanwhile, Creon, brother of Jocasta, has sought the counsel of the prophet Teiresias, who says that the only hope for the city is if Creon sacrifices his son Menoeceus.  Creon intends to send Menoeceus away before someone overhears this and demands his life.  Menoeceus agrees to run away, but never intends to do so.  His plan is to sacrifice himself to the gods to save the city.  He follows through with this to Creon’s grief.

Polynices attacks the city gates with his army.  Eteocles has stationed men at each gate and they repel the army of Polynices even though it is larger.  Both sons survive this initial onslaught.  They then agree to avoid further bloodshed by meeting in individual combat.  One of them must die.

Jocasta calls Antigone, her daughter, to go with her to try and stop the duel between her sons, but she arrives too late.  They are both dead.  Jocasta grabs one of the swords and kills herself.

 

The bodies of Eteocles, Polynices and Jocasta are brought into the palace.  Creon now declares that Oedipus will be banished to remove the curse from Thebes and that Eteocles will be given proper burial, but Polynices will be thrown outside the city for the dogs and birds.  Antigone swears that she will bury her brother Polynices.  Creon declares she will be killed if she does, and that she must on the next day marry his son Haemon.  Antigone declares that if forced to do so, she will murder Haemon on the wedding night.  She plans to leave the city with her father Oedipus and help him in his blindness and exile.  Oedipus and Antigone leave as Oedipus declares, Weak mortal as I am, I must endure the fate that God decrees.

Interesting quotes:

Euripides seems to need to get in at least one nasty jab toward women in all of his plays.  The Old Retainer says, Now the race of women by nature loves scandal; and if they get some slight handle for their gossip they exaggerate it, for they seem to take a pleasure in saying everything bad of one another. 

Jocasta:  This is a slave’s lot that thou describest, to refrain from uttering what one thinks.

                Stay a moment; haste never carries justice with it.

                …lay aside your violence; two men’s follies, once they meet, result in very deadly mischief.

Menoeceus:  …if each were to take and expend all the good within his power, contributing it to his country’s weal, our states would experience fewer troubles and would for the future prosper.