The new Wheel of Time television show has a scene where an Aiel woman totally smashes a half a dozen male soldiers with her skilled usage of her spears (this deployment of spears comes from the books, where the Aiel women do fight). The scene was well done overall, and some pathos was added by the fact that she was in labor (this is from the book too). But watching it I couldn’t help but think of this piece, Male and Female Athletic Performance: Worlds Apart. Here’s a relevant chart:
Here are the ones that jumped out to me re: male strength advantage:
– Grip strength, 57%
– Total upper strength, 90%
– Punch power, 162%
It’s a fantasy TV show. But I really hope that people aren’t taking the wrong lessons from this. I remember here some idiotic Late Night TV show host asking Scarlett Johansson how she fought so well, and ScarJo laughed it off and said “they make me seem tough,” as she found the question ludicrous.
Many years ago I had a friend who was from a Southern Baptist background, but who became an atheist as an adult. We were discussing religion and rationality, and he mentioned offhand that “of course Mormonism is more irrational than traditional Christianity.” This assertion reflected the fact that my friend grew up in a traditional Christian household, and continued to carry over some of his presuppositions even as he abandoned his old religion.
When people who didn’t grow up with, or as, Latter-Day Saints, are told God has a physical body and he lives on the planet Kolob in our universe, and that he has intercourse with the Heavenly Mother, they think this is insane. My friend, an atheist, certainly did.
But if you are an atheist is the idea of God as a superhuman creature, perhaps like Q from Star Trek the Next Generation, more insane than the God of Trinitarian Christianity? After all, the “real presence” of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, the God of Christianity, is a pretty insane concept. But billions of people believe in it. Even though my friend never believed in the real presence, he would probably find it less bizarre than the fact that the Mormon God has a physical body and lives in our material universe.
As I dug into the issue my friend admitted that his initial view that Mormonism was less plausible and more irrational than traditional Christianity was not thought-out, but a reflex, and he changed his view. As an atheist of course he thought the religion of the Latter-Day Saints and traditional Christianity were not fundamentally true, but he had to admit that the rejection of Greek philosophy by some Mormon theologians makes it more intelligible and comprehensible as a system of thought if you are a materialist. Mormons might find this offensive, but their conception of God ends up striking many atheists as if he’s a virtuous superhero with incredible powers. In contrast, traditional Christianity (and Islam and Judaism) tends to project an almost incomprehensible and inscrutable Lord on High (one reason Christianity argues for the necessity of the incarnation of God into a man).
This general tendency is not limited to religion. Rather, because religion is explicitly talked about we see these dynamics more clearly. It’s present all around us. Khan’s second law of culture: “any institution not explicitly pagan sooner or later becomes Christian.” Many people embedded within the regnant ideologies of the contemporary West dissent from new orthodoxies promulgated from on high. But sooner or later it becomes clear they have internalized the logic of that which they disagree, to the point that they are co-opted, slowly but imperceptibly. The question is not if they will profess the new faith, but when. This just seems to be what is happening to many people I know, even if they do not realize it.
The real presence is insane. It is against logic, against nature, against your deepest intuitions. But once you accept it as not insane, you open the possibility to its truth, and you will be received in the end. Even in your silence the believers will know you deny God, and they will demand confession and profession. You will do so.
