Thus Spake Wheelie

Have y'all ever read Mr. W. Lindsay Wheeler's babblings over at Vox Popoli? For those who've missed out, let me give a brief summation of his shtick:

1. There's a Jew in every woodpile, and he spends an inordinate amount of time sullying it.

2. Protestants are stupid.

3. Christianity owes as much (if not more) to Hellenism as it does to a timeless, sovereign God's influence and inspiration.

4. One should offer slavish, fawning devotion to human rulers, if the philosopher-kings-in-question fit certain "leadership" criteria--determined, of course, by Wheelie himself.

Now, who could argue with such impeccable reasoning?

Here's a recent Wheelie quote:


Protestants are such simple-minded peasants.

For instance The Flood--that covered "the whole world". Now Protestants think this means today's concept of an earth. Notice the word "concept" that I used. Reading other ancient texts, one comes across a saying of Sargon the Great, and he exclaims, "I have conquerod the """Whole"""" world".

Did he really?

The concept that the earth is a globe, that is round and huge is a MODERN concept due to technology.

The ANCIENT concept is from "horizon to horizon". The ancient peoples had NO concept of a globe of a Pacific Ocean and huge bodies of waters. Their concept of the World was of their eyesight from horizon to horizon. That the Flood was a huge event that covered their world.

And this is why Protestants are such simple-minded fools, and they bring true religion into disrepute, because they are NOT sophisticated enough to understand cultural context, don't make an effort to understand ancient peoples and take things for face value. Applying MODERN concepts to ancient phrases that NEVER had that meaning.


WLindsayWheeler Homepage 03.02.08 - 10:03 am


This entire critique seems based on a false assumption: namely, that scripture is a product of the human mind, not that of God. First, all Protestants don't hold unanimous views on the biblical Deluge; some take the Bible at its word, while others "spiritualize" the text. So his blanket criticism of Protestants is silly and demonstrably inaccurate.

Second, the relevant biblical passages on the Flood indicate a world-wide event, if taken at face-value. Rather than rehash this detailed argument, here, I'll point interested parties to, "A Worldwide Flood?," wherein I discuss the matter at length.

Third, due to the element of divine inspiration, for a Christian to compare the words of Sargon to the words of God seems a somewhat bizarre tactic in making one's point. Sargon was a mere man, and was either ignorant, exaggerating for effect, or perpetrating a deceit. His expressions of hubris or cluelessness shouldn't serve as interpreters of God's message to Mankind.

Fourth, that Earth is a globe is not "a modern concept due to technology." If Wheelie spent more time reading his Bible, and less drooling over the spoutings of long-dead Mesopotamian kings, he might grasp that scripture specifically addresses this topic:

Isaiah 40:22: It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. . .

Outside scriptural confines, the ancient Greeks and Indians understood that Earth was a round ball, not a flat plane supported on the backs of four gigantic turtles, or a piece of flotsam swirling in a celestial toilet bowl, or a Burroughsian raft floating in a lake of fire, or whatever.

Fifth, the "horizon to horizon" myth may have infected some ancient peoples, but not all, for conquering armies and wanderers had travelled farther than the far horizons--many times over, in some cases. They knew that the world encompassed more than what lay within their eyesight, though they couldn't see or experience it by walking outside and looking around. Technological inferiority doesn't equal irredeemable stupidity and ignorance.

And of course, what better method of ending an arrogant, condescending tirade than with a little good old-fashioned name-calling? That hits the spot. Right, Wheelie?