Diabolical Mimicry is a Bitch

Go read this list by Edwin Kagin of all the gods that predated Jesus that appear to have characteristics just like Jesus. And before you write it off as bunk, go read the earliest church leaders’ writings from Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian and even modern-day C.S. Lewis. They have come up with convoluted “apologies” that these stories were invented and placed into human history from the devil to confuse people. The term given to this phenomenon is “diabolical mimicry” or “plagiarism by anticipation.”

I’ve been studying this phenomenon since college. In History 101, I wrote a paper on Zoroastrianism. It was the first I had heard of stories that predated Jesus, but seemed to use much of the same ideas and terminology that I used at church. At the time, I was confused. I had never heard of such stories.

I remember approaching my professor, Dr. Forstchen after class. I said, “Hey Dr. Forstchen, can you recommend a topic for the paper due next week.”

He scratched his chin, and took a drag on his cigarette. “Have you ever heard of Zoroaster?”

“No,” I said.

“Write it on Zoroaster. Here’s how you spell it Z-O-R …”

It is what it is. Once I stopped believing in the “devil”, diabolical mimicry could be thought of as just another ploy to sell people the invisible. It’s weird. I stopped believing in the devil in high school. My then girlfriend’s mom and I were talking one day. She was cooking and I was standing there talking god talk, and she says to me, “I don’t believe in the devil.” I was completely dumbstruck. I never heard anyone — not one person — say they didn’t believe in the devil. After poking around in literature and the library, I discovered the devil wasn’t all that explicitly described in the bible. I mean, a character exists, but it’s vague and nonsensical. At least to my little mind back then. His reign of terror is all extra-biblical. We have an idea of “him” from oral tradition and from literature. He’s a figment of the bible’s imagination.

But I digress. Back to the demonic plagiarism.

Diabolical mimicry has oozed its ugly head into other forms of Christian thought too. People really think that the “devil” buried the bones of dinosaurs to confuse Christians with evil evolution.

By the way, in case you’ve never seen the usage of “B.C.E” or “C.E.”, it’s how academics refer to B.C. and A.D. It stands for “Before the Common Era” and “Christ Everlasting.”

Honk.

Palahniuk Makes Me Want to Shoot My Face off So I can Write about it

Go ahead. Ask me who my favorite author is. I dare you.

If you guessed that I’d say Tim LaHaye, you’re funny.

Chucky P.

Chuck Palahniuk, the author of “Fight Club” and nine other fiction novels, is my favorite author. His books follow a common theme. They tend to be about a lonely person in the world who is trying to find acceptance in others.

This motif takes the form of the most bizarre stories I’ve ever read.

There are three primary things that draw me into Palahniuk’s books. They are:

1. Esoteric, erudite information that requires me to research whether they are facts or not, because the information is so bizarre. The facts are usually spouted from a character who is loaded with this information. In “Fight Club” (book or movie), you may remember the books in the old house that are written from the perspective of Jack’s body parts. It’s kind of in that vein. In “Invisible Monsters” there’s a character named Oyster who says some of the most interesting facts I’ve ever read, like tumble weeds didn’t exist in America until the late 1800s when Russian’s brought sheep to America and they carried the seeds in their wool.

Guess Who Said This?

“Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”

Answer below the fold.

Evolution in Action by AMNH (Science Bulletins)

Guess Who Said This?

“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom… Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”

Who said this quote? Come on you know you want to know. Click below if you’re ready to be thrilled!