Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

A Sylvan Learning Center

Stupid, Capitalism and Education


part 2

Those who administer the international tests to students at about the age of 15, say that the freedom to choose a school and the act of schools governing themselves, matters more than the people who run those schools. It is increasingly obvious that the freedom for parents to choose and the freedom for schools to create the type of school they want is more important than the ability to create a uniformed, “lock step” type society within schools which produce more and more inferior educational results. Since 1989 Belgium and France have shown marked differences with divergent types of schools on each side of the country. The kids on the Flemish side of the country do remarkably better in the international tests  than the French side, and they have a greater autonomy. 

Better for the Disadvantaged?

The Public School officials will tell the public that the school system levels the playing field.  According to them, the poor and minorities are given better opportunities to succeed. It’s a load of hogwash. Public schools are regularly more segregated than private schools. Studies have shown that 54% of public school students were in classrooms that were 90% white or more than 90% minority. Only around 40% of private school students had the same experience.*

*Education Myths, Jay Green

These statistics are the result of the wealthy being able to move near good schools, and the poor being stuck with what they can get. Washington DC has a school called, Ballou High; a place where teachers often don’t even show up. And why should they since they can’t be fired? The kids have no where to go, hanging in the hallways, they know they are stuck and it seems no one cares. Of course, she and her parents could try to pretend that they live in another school district, but then the school zone border patrol might exercise their right to control trespassers. 

Where Liberals Run Wild and Free

Even in California, “the left coast”, school detectives go around making sure kids in schools of the Freemont district actually live where they say they do. Freemont schools are markedly better than the surrounding schools in the area, and kids and parents who want better have to become clandestine to do so. One grandmother who created a room and address for her grandson was “caught” as she tried to give her grand kid a better education. Big Brother saw to it that a better education was denied as they “corrected” the situation. Can you say, “Papers please!” 

I can remember my own high school experience of being forced into a remedial reading class my freshman year, all of us were, even the kids who were in the “A” class. So pervasive is the poor education that is being produced, that even the “brains” have to be screened. One might think that all is the fault of the kids themselves, their parents, or maybe the media influence upon them. You would be right, of course, to claim that parents who read to their kids create better readers. Parents who take an interest in the school work of their kids, make better students for teachers, and the teacher’s job is much less insurmountable. Many parents however, have no option but to send their kids to these horrific schools created by the government system.

Ah, well... someone has to work for the Government

The U. S Department of Education says that  25% of American high school students can’t read at a basic level. They tell the kids to just go home and read on their own, the kid plays video games instead, and the system passes them to the next level anyway. Some of these kids were taken by a private investigative party to the Sylvan Learning Center and in 72 hours of instruction the reading comprehension jumped two grade levels. The government system loves to have meetings with parents and throw around all sorts of high sounding words and existentialist philosophy, then deny the reality of kids who graduate from their schools that still cannot read, but the final statistics show that private institutions succeed in teaching kids even the basics of reading at an alarmingly more efficient rate over the long term.

Is there an answer?

Sylvan learning centers are an example of accountability. They have to do what they say they will do, if not: no business, no income. A Sylvan program may cost upwards of about $3,000 dollars, the government spends about $10,000 on a child’s education. Why not just fund the parents for going to private instruction? Perhaps the bloated costs are not all they have to be. 

Supposedly, the public schools have no money. Just study the abject failure of “No Child Left Behind”, an exercise in government excess at the planning stage with no execution afterward, due to “lack of funding”. When one asks school officials if more money would be the answer, they always reply in the affirmative. More money would indeed fix the problem. How much you ask? Millions. They tell you millions would fix the school system.

Right now they spend about 10,000 per student. In a class of 25 that’s $250,000, and that’s per classroom. That’s all operating money, not capital expense. The surrounding infrastructure are all paid for. With $250,000  a lot can be done to make the student experience radically different than it is at this point.

The stats don’t lie though, America spends more on education that it does on the military, and we still score lower than most countries that spend less. It makes one wonder if the education system isn’t just a store front for another kind of organization in the shadows.  Spending billions on “country clubbing” up the schools has only made the education system results worse. 

Spending from 1971 to 2001 went from $4,479 per student to $8,996 per student. High school graduation rates from ‘71 to ‘01 went from 75.6% to 72.2% during the same duration. The facts are irrefutable, one can give the American school system all the money it wants, and things just don’t get better. 

And yet, all that money goes ..... somewhere....

All over the country there are schools that outperform the government public schools. In South Carolina, there is a school where kids jump from their chairs to answer math questions in a “math game” exercise. They play relay math. They play bingo. They play “phonics around the world”. 

This school, called “Middleton” charges about $3,000 per student, less than half of the money the government gives to the public schools in the surrounding area. Students there do better there with less money spent. Parents pay for the extra, despite the fact that they already are taxed and paying for the surrounding public schools; because their kids are fundamentally superior students.

more on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

Students of the Wildly Successful European School System

Stupid, Capitalism and Education

When one looks at the histories of nations in the last 2,000 years or so, there is a definite dichotomy of progress that is readily observable. Some may point out a racial divergence as the source of this progress, but they would be over simplifying cause and effect. The bottom line is that when we consider the countries of Western Europe, we see a progress that the rest of the world still has not been blessed with.

One can observe the histories of African nations, Samoan nations, and even the Middle East, and there is a consistency of action among these nations that has held them at bay from the beneficial onset of Western European type progress, which is more than skin deep. Britain, France, Spain, Italy and surrounding nations in the late 18th century and beyond all competed for the larger piece of the “world pie”.

The Real Tool of Motivation

 

Competition was the name of the game, and its fanatical use was instrumental in the changing of the face of the world, for better or for worse. The evidence of the benefits of competition is undeniable. Evidence of the lack of it, in the nations that have stayed behind, living in the former centuries even today, is also ubiquitous.

This has also worked toward the benefit of mankind in the smaller arena of business and entertainment. How many creative ideas have come from the imaginary stage of Hollywood, searching for the next big money draw, only to end up as a similar reality in the world of business. My grandfather would be amazed at our society wide use of hand held devices whereby one can even chat live with another person face to face, much like the old Dick Tracy wrist watches. This is not the only part of the result of competition, but inclusive is also the speed at which innovation is taking place. Those who have passed away only in the last 25 years or so, say in the ‘80’s, knew nothing of the internet, cell phones, electric cars, artificial limbs that respond to brain waves, and any number of innovations brought about by invention in just the recent years of mankind’s history. An yet how many of us fondly remember the 80’s as though it were yesterday?

Sadly, much can be said about the lack of competition and it’s stifling effects when it comes to education and our schools. Much like those anachronistic nations I have mentioned, our schools have not just floundered, but they have fallen behind and deteriorated. Hijacked by those with business and sociological agendas, our kids have become intellectual anathema in the scholastic realm.

Stupid is a hard word. It carries with it certain judgements and requirements for plausibility that may or may not have real world applications. It is also relative, as many of our popular beliefs will lead you to believe that we, today, are OF COURSE, intellectually superior than any group of people who has ever lived.

We're Smarter, but closer to annihilation

I recently saw the movie Thor, and they even mention this type of thinking in relation to Norse mythology. The statement is made that primitive people such as the Vikings would have worshiped Thor as a god, clearly implying that we today are way too smart for that sort of thing. Yet, how ignorant can this concept be when we consider the gross dilapidation of our educational system. Vikings may have not discovered the atom, but they were far from stupid cave dwelling types. In fact, over history, nobody was a stupid cave man type. Stupid people die quickly, they don’t survive to make more stupid. They just didn’t have the educational progress that we today supposedly have, although much of what we are taught in school is now subject to scrutiny as revisionist in compliance with industrial agendas of the past.

Science must be observable, unless it happened millions of years ago

An example of this would be carbon-14 dating. Wholly believed to be evidence that substantiates such things as a Paleolithic period by droves of students who attend grade schools and on into college, little is mentioned, if ever, of the intrinsic need for atmospheric conditions to be conducive to the rate of carbon-14 atom creation. Simply because there is a certain amount of carbon-14 in a dinosaur bone, an imaginary extrapolation about the term of age of said bone is produced and then expanded in to “what must have been”, based upon the “evidence”. However, had the environment been such that carbon-14 production was inhibited until radical atmospheric change took place, then the rate of carbon-14 in ANYTHING is a result of that change and not a result of great age. But you never hear this from grade school history books.

For a better explanation on carbon-14 dating problems please see this link: http://contenderministries.org/evolution/carbon14.php

You would, however, hear about this sort of thing if there were competition over money and power involved. So why the intellectual political slant? Why are out of date “truths” taught to our kids despite the updated advances in our knowledge about such things as carbon-14 dating, which we owe to the progress of competition?

Monopolies. Basically, our education system has gone nowhere fast due to the death grip of monopolies. The monopoly in education is the government itself. If you concede my examples of entire nations throughout history as an example, then you understand the prescriptive point toward the results our education is reeling beneath. A pejorative word for both stupid and union-dominated monopolies that run our school system would be redundant in its essence.

Unionized monopolies create ossified, bloated bureaucracies that do little to help the people they are supposed to serve. One may move from the grass hut to the adobe home, but you’ll never see a skyscraper.

Competition, however, made Europe great. It has made our technology better in leaps and bounds, thanks mostly to Microsoft and Apple. And yes, I have to give credits to the movie industry for blazing a trail of innovation in contributing to technological advances.

We're number two, we try harder

When there is a battle for the almighty dollar, those in competition have to try harder. It often seems that all one needs in advertising is a pretty girl in a bikini. No real need for all the advertising research that is done, since everyone has a firm grip on what sells an audience. But if all advertising was only focused on sex, then where do you go next? Therefore, advertisers must try harder.

Take also as an example of this: the U.S. Postal service. The stigma of lousy service due to ineffectual government employees has remained with them despite their best efforts to compete with private industry such as UPS and FedEx. Today we do have a better postal service than our grandfathers had, but they are still not better than UPS and FedEX. They are still government.

Cell phone companies offer tons of different plans in the hopes of covering an entire market of needs. Education should be doing the same. If people get to choose their kids school then the options would be endless. There would be schools everywhere, for the general to the specific. You could have Wal-Mart type schools, sports schools, music schools, and all of it right at home on the computer. In fact, we have lots of this sort of thing happening already. But not with the public school system.
 

Mark of the Best? hmmm...

Kids from around the world, scratching their heads in disbelief

 
Belgian kids and New Jersey kids were given the same test in one experiment. The Belgian kids thought that the test was easy and believed that the American kids given the same test would have no trouble. Not so. The schools the kids came from were comparable in their performance, but the Belgian kids scored 30% higher in the test scores. The American kids were shocked at the rate of advancement of those Belgian kids.

At the age of ten, students from twenty five countries take the same test and kids in America place eighth in ranking. (Singapore. Guess who is number one? Finland.) But by the time they reach fifteen, American kids are in the bottom of the chart at 25th place. The longer American kids stay in school, the worse they do in international competition. Poorer countries like Korea and Poland score much higher and spend less on education.

But government education in America is a monopoly. Families who send kids to public school must take what they are given. Is your school terrible? Do the teachers get moved around from school to school no matter how bad they are? Tough. Taxes pay for it, that’s what you get, government employed teachers. Just like the post office, teachers in government employ become a part of the substandard system. And why not? They can’t be fired.

The government often fails to live up to the market need in many facets of life. Instead of being a regulator of private industry (God help us!) or a delegate to private industry, it attempts to offer the “yellow box” product  or service to the public. Government airlines and automobiles like the “Trabant” are prime examples of this grade C type of production.

Can anyone remember the government phone company? Every phone was black, and an answering machine was an “illegal device”. Once the monopoly was broken up and competition was introduced, the phone market took off. Just take a look at old phones and compare the usage we have today since the introduction of competition. That is only in a little over 60 years and it won’t be long at this rate before “Star Trek” type communication is considered quaint in the face of the new technological reality.

Other countries have government run schools, but the money from the government is given to the kids and their parents so that they may choose where they want to go.  Schools are forced to innovate in order to appeal to parents so that business comes their way, even if that business brings in the government’s own money. The funding comes from the customer, so to speak, not from an office in City Hall and the like.                  

   
More on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Konig's Fire

Konig’s Fire


by Marc Schooley


They Called Me Nebuchadnezzar

The Nazis have established a torture center in a mine at the heart of a Romanian forest. Here they interrogate prisoners and, sometimes, throw them into the furnace at the heart of the mine.

Only now, the primeval forest is rising against them, unleashing a preternatural army to besiege the great iron gate of the mine. The fearsome guards become terrified prisoners and the furnace itself burns with hungry anger against them.

Sascha König, a man they called Nebuchadnezzar, is their only hope. He is master of the furnace. All along, he has been Hitler’s ardent servant. But now...König is wrestling with demons of his own, and the Master of all fires is calling him to Himself through the haunting eyes of a little gypsy girl König did not save.

Philosophical depth and Transcendent hope

Marc Schooley is one of those authors who reminds me of King Solomon, as he projects an ability and writer’s sense that transcends much of the rest of what is offered in the novelist world. He makes one think that perhaps the world itself misses out on truly great talent when it ignores something in the vein of this book, which is wholly Christian themed.

A rich, descriptive narrative that reveals a complex and talented imagination, Konig’s Fire can be a tough read. The reader may have a problem getting around reading a novel about Nazis also, and in the first half or so of the book, Mr. Schooley takes some rather long and intensive paragraphs to describe the surrounding environment and situational complexities of the characters involved. This happens to such an extent that it leads one to believe that perhaps there are dozens and dozens of conceptual drawings somewhere that helped the author to literally inject himself into the subject at hand, in an uncomfortably realistic way. I couldn’t help but wonder why there weren’t a few illustrations within the book, as I would have loved to see some of this creation, but I suppose that the author prefers to keep the incredible narrative descriptions within the readers imagination.   

There are fanciful and fantastic images and also “antagonists” in the vein of venue from the best of “Johnny Quest” style imaginings. The plant men, giant gorilla like creatures and glowing orbs that float through the air, will bring an impression of the “childlike fantastic” to bear.  The action sequences, with machine gun battles against giant sentient vines and scrappy giant roaches, are also in the best vein of “guy movie” literation, without ignoring the more human aspects of what is really, on its surface, a rather ridiculous situation that leads to important revelations that can impact the reader in a personal way.

However, the themes covered in the narrative are both deeply considered and realistically rendered. It is perhaps the desire of the author to write a book on these deeper themes of mankind without creating a dusty tome for the college library philosophy and religion department. And indeed his delivery of this desire is championed in an unabashed and principled way. Though the book may entertain with action and fanciful creatures from the surrounding forest, the deeper aspects of the narrative’s purpose are never sublimated for the benefit of mere energetic entertainment. 

The second half of the book begins to loosen up a bit with the description of the surrounding forest, the mine and the characters within the claustrophobic prison of their unintended captivity, and begins to move at a pace that keeps one turning pages. Mr. Schooley has a talent for this, as I have seen in another of his books, therefore, if one can “trudge through” the thicket of his narrative in the first half, you’ll be rewarded with the spry and quickened pace of the second half. 

This is, of course a Christian themed novel, and therefore promotes those concepts and ideas of Christianity established by the Bible.  The only difficult thing that you may have a problem with is reading the book in a public place. The chapters are emblemed with the iron cross of Germany circa World War II. The cover also has the “fittingly” Nazi look in keeping with the subject matter. If reading on the bus or in the library, you may not get the chance to explain to passers by that the story  is about redemption and the role of evil in the everyday mind of mankind, and not some type of “union manifesto”. But, of course, this is a personal thing for each reader to decide for himself.  Regardless, I recommend this novel for any one who can handle a mix of the fantastic and the transcendent that deals with God, Mankind and the results of evil. 

Marc Schooley is a Texan, which may be empirically verified if you ever hear him speak. He is a Christian philosopher, theologian, Bible teacher, speaker, musician, and nascent Christian fiction writer. 

http://www.marcschooley.com/about.php

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Thor

THOR


Genre: Drama, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Synopsis: The epic adventure THOR spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the mystical realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. 
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr. 55 min.
Distributor:Paramount Pictures
Directed By: Kenneth Branagh
Written By: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne




Chris Hemsworth  • Thor
Tom Hiddleston  • Loki 
Natalie Portman • Jane Foster
Anthony Hopkins  • Odin 
Stellan Skarsgård • Professor Andrews 
Jaimie Alexander • Sif 
Colm Feore • Laufey
Joshua Dallas • Fandral 
Ray Stevenson  • Volstagg
Tadanobu Asano • Hogun 
Idris Elba • Heimdall
Kat Dennings • Darcy 
Clark Gregg • Agent Coulson
Rene Russo • Frigga 
Adriana Barraza • Isabela Alvarez
Maximiliano Hernandez • Agent Sitwell 
Richard Cetrone • Frost Giant Captain

A movie Walter Mitty would have loved. Shakespearean drama trades back and forth with pedestrian modern day Earth “soap style” theatrics. Although I was glad to see the creation of Asgaard high in the heavens, due to the early trailers not including much else besides a look at Natalie Portman, I did wish that the movie did a little more of something on at least one side of the universe. Because there are two stories, we only get a sort of “fill in” from both camps. We don’t really know astrophysicist (one time nurse) Jane Foster any more than we do Anthony Hopkin’s Odin the all father. We just know what they do and what they don’t do. I suppose that this is mainly to time constraints on both sides. But that sort of thing is typical of what goes on here writing wise. Thor’s not stupid, he’s a battle tested veteran and knows his way around hand to hand combat, with frost giants and also Navy SEALS. But if you ask him how he knows Shield Agent Colson is an ally protecting the innocent general public, or even how Jane Foster, an astrophysicist who studies space phenomenon, (and she isn’t something like a missionary who is saving starving children in Africa); manages to imbue him with mature altruism, I doubt that Thor himself could tell you. Certainly the story doesn’t. But those explanations will have to float off into comic movie oblivion as they are the only real complaints I have for this rip roaring block buster.     

Chris Helmsworth is well worth the ticket for a Thor public and fits the role nicely, he’s big enough, buff enough and has a certain charm I know the ladies who go for the Norwegian blonde type will just love. His brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddleson to great effect, vies with Thor despite himself for his father’s approval. Hiddleson gives us subtle shades of Loki I had never seen in the comic book as we see his inner struggle between himself, and the life he has grown up with. That is to say, he has become disillusioned by his place in life, and can’t quite decide what is more important; the status quo or his own shocked resentment. A nice change from cackling super villains. 

Anthony Hopkins plays father Odin, as only HE can, and we believe in Odin’s character, we just never really get to know him. A real shame. Odin casts Thor out of the Kingdom and down to Earth for his impetuousness, though he seems not to know the why and where that Thor got the “bee in his bonnet” in the first place that brings him to his actions. Curious, because supposedly Odin can see all things. Ah, well. 

Portman’s Jane Foster would have made more sense to me in her effects on Thor had they left her as a nurse as she is in the comics, or if as I have said, she was a missionary who broke Thor’s heart with her self sacrificing work for those who can’t help themselves. Ooo! Boy would that have killed! But instead she is a scientist, who no doubt, from the way things work out, will team up with Tony Stark in the future for the next chapter in considerations of Thor’s place in the grand scheme of Marvel movie directives. She only lacks funding and the science magic of Stark himself. Portman is everywhere today, and one thing she is definitely doing is leaving a legacy of malleability only rivaled by Johnny Depp. Unlike say, William Shatner or Tony Randal, you never see her the same way twice. That’s accomplishment! 

Other secondary characters who make a splash are, Jaimie Alexander as the female warrior,  Sif who is actually Thor’s lady love in the comics. (One classic comic story is where Thor must save Sif from Dracula, natch!) Alexander is great and really looks the part of the character, though she is NOT part of the team other than here in this movie. Idris Elba as Heimdall the protector of the rainbow bridge,  is also chillingly effective and commanding, even in his secondary role.   

Others have said they didn’t like the computer generation of Asgaard, but I can’t agree. Other worlds in other dimensions of space have never been so amazingly rendered. For me, it was money well spent, and I loved the care and detail and sweeping majesty of the kingdom. I also loved the traveling through the vastness of space, which no one from Asgaard or the Frost Giant realm seem at all in awe of. The power that Thor wields, just in the ability to transverse worlds, puts him in a league all his own. I would say that the Hulk has his hands full in tussling with Thor, and remember, the Hulk was throwing around automobiles like frisbees in his last outing.  

Thor is a funny movie at times in the populist predictability of movie making these days, and the fact that a Simpson’s writer is involved added lots of familiar touch to the comedic moments. It does however, undercut the potential serious drama that could have made the movie a real gut checker, being about disgrace, justice and redemption; especially if it had been coupled with a missionary female lead.   

Thor’s fight scenes are truly great stuff, that hammer of his makes wimps of some of the most potentially horrific monsters and enemies that we have come to see in modern movies. But for Thor, he hardly flinches in the face of something like the “Cracken” from another movie. The fact that Loki proves to be a physical if not a tactical match for Thor, is portentous for the upcoming Avengers movie, of which Loki is one of the main bad guys, so I have heard. But Thor need not worry, with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and the Hulk backing him up, Loki will have his hands full. It’s the Avengers movie itself that may overheat and explode all over the audience if not handled properly. It will take special care to pull off so many ridiculous improbabilities in one movie.

Good stuff here folks. It’s hard to make it a 4 of 5, because it seems so presentational, so I give it 3.5 out of 5. But on a personal level, I liked it better than that. 

3.5/5 stars - oh what the hell, go see it. 

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Historicity of the Old Testament Part 5

 

Historicity 

of the Old Testament

part 5

One of the things discussed in my post about the Historicity of the NEW TESTAMENT was the continuing witness of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper by early Christians as having been a linchpin to which scripture was accepted by these churches as being authentic when copies of scripture were presented to them years after the initial events. These two ordinances were established by Christ himself and then adopted by new believers as they became part of new churches and then spread out into the surrounding society. Had this not been the case, the New Testament, which describes the establishment of the ordinances, would never have been received as genuine in the first years of the church. They would have instead been rejected out right as false, due to the fact that the establishment was already in force and also had been relayed as being from other sources, and not Christ himself; if indeed these ordinances were in force at all. And if they had not even existed, then the rejection of scripture would have been even more of a non-event. But that is NOT what happened.

The Passover ceremony reflects in many ways the same sort of witness when it comes to the Old Testament. Higher critics attribute these books to other writers and priests hundreds of years after the life of Moses. The implication flatly stating that Moses existence is in dispute.

The book of Exodus describes in great detail the directions of God concerning the Passover celebration and its yearly observance. It delineates the events of the first Passover and Israel’s miraculous delivery from Egypt, which is commanded to be remembered by the children of Israel every year.

But suppose NONE of this had really happened. In supposed fact, let’s say a group of priests who lived about 700 A.D. got together to promote a formalized system of worship they had created in order to solidify their control over the populace of its day. They then developed a body of religious literature, with the help of various sources, in particular cementing their own position of religious power.  They then attributed the authority of scripture to the writing of Moses for the “name dropper” effect of credibility.

But, this would have been immediately rejected by those for whom the writing was intended as soon as the Passover feast was presented, for such a thing had NEVER been established, and the people would have known how phony the whole thing was. The response of course, would be that the documents which ordered the Passover observance had been lost in antiquity and therefore the feast was unfortunately forgotten with time. Many hard headed Israelites would have been reticent to ignore this decree as the documents describe an expensive and demanding priestly rule and restriction. They would have demanded firm proof of the authorship of Moses before ever coming under the “totalitarian” demands of scripture. Kings and rulers would have been especially dismissive as the books relay a rule by God over the people and not my a monarchy, as the governmental structure of the nation. The priests presenting these papers to the people would have been condemning themselves as the documents describe the necessity of the priesthood as the keepers of the religious institutions of Israel and were therefore no longer trustworthy.

The documents also describe the creation of other institutions such as, the Tabernacle, perpetual offerings, annual feasts and also the Levitical priesthood themselves. In fact, the priesthood was NOT to own land, as their inheritance comes from God, and this would have put a crimp in the power mongers for sure. None of these could have been instituted on the basis of rediscovery of ancient text, as they often punish the presenters themselves.

But let’s say that all these institutions had sprung up on their own with no help from Moses. Then the priesthood itself decided to crystallize them all with the creation of scriptures. In real life, effects require causes, and believability asserts that it is more likely that Moses delivered these decrees to the nation of Israel than it is that such “anit-egocentric” writing was easily accepted as truth. Due to the nature of the story line involved, the facts of the story are central to the existence of Israel itself, and therefore the institutions would have to have happened, and or been written about, but in any case established, immediately after the formation of the nation. 

However if the histories really took place, if Moses was actually the great leader and lawgiver that scripture indicates, then the institution of the Passover and the other articles of practice would never have been accepted by the people unless they corresponded with what they already knew to be true without great evidential proof of Moses’ authorship.

The writers could have been the most clever deceivers and charlatans ever known to mankind. They somehow made it all up! The creation, Earth’s history, the moving lives of the patriarchs, thrilling stories of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and then wandering in the desert for forty years, everyone dying in the desert and never seeing the promised land, the Ten Commandments and their impossible moral code which only points toward mankind’s complete inability to place himself in good standing before God. For thousands of years now, the world has been duped!

It is higher critics who have really been exposed here. Can anyone who reasons in such a way really be an honest man? Our neighbor’s true nature is plain to see for each of us and any tome which was “made up” that does not speak to the ego of man in some way, but instead to his pathetic fallen existence before God, would have been long forgotten.

The Old and New Testament stand! The testimony of the Passover. The unanimous acceptance of scripture by the early Christian church and their Jewish counterparts. The careful studies of Bible scholars. The penetrating discoveries of scientific archeology. The impact of the Old Testament on all of world history. The testimony of Christ himself.  All these thing unite in a message that the Old Testament, and in fact the Bible itself, is undeniably true.