Comparative literature.
From that Jehovah’s Witness tract I told you about the other day:
CAN WE REALLY BELIEVE WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS?
Yes, for at least two reasons:
• God has the ability to fulfill the promise. In the Bible, Jehovah God alone is called “the Almighty,” for he has unlimited power. (Revelation 15:3) So he is fully able to keep his promise to change our world for the better. As the Bible says, “with God all things are possible.”—Matthew 19:26.
• God has the desire to fulfill the promise. For example, Jehovah has a longing to restore life to people who have died.—Job 14:14, 15.
From the encyclical Veritatis Splendor, John Paul 2, 1993:
2. No one can escape from the fundamental questions: What must I do? How do I distinguish good from evil? The answer is only possible thanks to the splendour of the truth which shines forth deep within the human spirit, as the Psalmist bears witness: “There are many who say: ‘O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord’ ” (Ps 4:6).
The light of God’s face shines in all its beauty on the countenance of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), the “reflection of God’s glory” (Heb 1:3), “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). Consequently the decisive answer to every one of man’s questions, his religious and moral questions in particular, is given by Jesus Christ, or rather is Jesus Christ himself, as the Second Vatican Council recalls: “In fact,it is only in the mystery of the Word incarnate that light is shed on the mystery of man. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of the future man, namely, of Christ the Lord. It is Christ, the last Adam, who fully discloses man to himself and unfolds his noble calling by revealing the mystery of the Father and the Father’s love”.
The Vatican is better at sonority, but it’s still basically the same thing. There’s a book. It says things.
And it operates pretty much on the same intellectual level as was parodied in the classic Kissing Hank’s Ass
We all know Hitch’s famous dictum, “That which is asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.” I like to call it “Hitchens’ Hatchet”.
Hmmm I don’t actually think that particular dictum is the most relevant for this particular kind of silliness.
Well that’s good news for anyone with an essay due or a test coming up (also all quiz show contestants, witnesses testifying in court, applicants in job interviews, etc, etc).
If I fail some exam using this strategy, could I claim religious persecution?