Some Ideas Are So Dumb They Can Only Be Believed By Religious People

Since religion according to dictionary.com is "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe," I suppose we are all religious in some sense. But what I am more specifically talking about is the need for some people to justify themselves through religion. Some have the ability to put their brain into neutral, and believe what tickles their fancy or their ego. One such religious belief is British Israelism:

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

British Israelism is data mining at its "finest." While data mining is a legitimate term, I am using it to describe a very human process of selectively harvesting data that, with a little tweaking, can "support" a preconceived notion. In terms of the Bible a related term is "proof-texting." 

Let me give you an example. The British Israel advocate may start out with two true statements: 1. The word "brit" in Hebrew means "covenant." 2.The word "ish" in Hebrew means man. So what conclusion is drawn? The English word British therefore means "covenant man."

Argh. 

People do this all the time. The health field is particularly suspect. You find the health study that says what you want, and suddenly it is the most important study ever. But the way such studies work is that you can often find studies that say the opposite. I am not saying that better health is unknowable, but to be careful which dumb religious health idea you buy into. 

What makes me smile about British Israelism is that it is in one sense true. Since we are all related to each other, there are very few people alive today that do not have "Jewish" blood. Hitler would not be pleased. And of course the "De" in my last name means that I am a descendant of royalty and nobility. That, and 14 rubles, will allow me to ride the bus anywhere here in Murom, Russia. 

This video presents this idea well, and provides the additional information that I have one billion atoms that used to be in the body of the bard, William Shakespeare. That no doubt explains the excellent quality of this blog.