Resurrection

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception: How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation." In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information. They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1. Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2. Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs. Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3. Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp. Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4. When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5. Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source: Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

Update: September 22, 2023: This is more important now than ever. Be vigilant and speak in your own way. Love Wins.

Update:  McQuade, Barbara, "Attack From Within," 2024.  New York Times best seller.

The word has a markedly religious undertone. I am not as familiar with the words usage in other religious traditions, but I am somewhat familiar with the word and how it is used in the Christian religious tradition.

The religion’s prophet, a man known as Jesus was tortured to death for speaking out against the establishment religious so called holy men of his day. As the story goes, he proposed a way of living where each individual person had a direct pipeline to God. No need for an intermediary. Just you and God. No need to pay your way into the unknown but desired afterlife.

As you can imagine, the high priests of the Jewish temple did not take kindly to this young upstart who was starting to undermine their credibility and opulent lifestyles . People were listening to him and they liked what he had to say. The things he said were lived and later taught by his followers, or apostles. They were written down much later, in fact centuries later into a series of letters and stories attributed to the Apostles Mathew, Mark, Luke and John and assembled in what we know as the New Testament section of Christian Bible.

It is called the New Testament for a reason. It was written to replace the Old Testament and separate Judaism from the new religion of Christianity.

Of course it wasn’t that simple. The message of Jesus got manipulated, twisted, melted and bent into something that more represented the very things that inspired Jesus to leave his birth faith and teach a new way of doing things.

Poor guy. He wasn’t destined to live a long life and he didn’t. He was beaten and nailed to a cross and hung out to die, which he did, at the age of 32. End of story right?

Wrong. As the story goes, his lifeless body was taken off the cross and put in a cave that was made seemingly inaccessible by a large boulder that couldn’t possibly be moved. But, miraculously, it was and when his followers came back the next day, the body was gone.

It’s hard to know what happened to Jesus, but according to Christian teachings, Jesus was risen from the dead so that his followers would be granted everlasting life. There was no need to pay your way into the good lodgings of the afterlife. Your way was already payed. All you had to do was believe in the teachings of Jesus.

I wish that it was that easy, but even the most basic, believable, human ideals can be mangled by human-kind. I used to be a Christian. I still embrace the belief that there is a force greater than the forces of the physical world and I doubt that that will ever leave me.

The story of the resurrected Christ is symbolism of the strongest human kind. The idea that even when your body uses the last of it’s material energy, your spirit lives on forever. Not for a thousand years, a million years, 4.5 Billion years or 120 Light years, but for all time.

Which gets me finally to the point that I have been formulating as I write. Death is temporary. And that is important as we as Americans, Humans and Earthlings try to resurrect freedom, justice, hope and human kindness from the brink of death on the steps of the Temple erected out of tribute to the seekers of wealth and power.

It’s the same today as it was in the time of Jesus. Except that today, the religion named after Jesus no longer resembles the institution of Humanity that he envisioned those thousands of years ago.

As we emerge from the Christian high holy day of Easter, the story of the resurrected Christ, whether you believe his story or not, it is not a huge stretch to see us as the collective modern day Jesus being resurrected from the dead and sending the message to the rich and powerful that they are no more powerful than we are.

In fact, we are collectively more powerful than they will ever be. May Donald Trump be happy; May Donald Trump be healthy and strong; May Donald Trump be at ease; May Donald Trump be at peace.

Even as I sometimes curse his name. I believe that.

Enjoy nature’s version of resurrection. It’s called Spring!