superstition, fundamentalism, faux science, and Chesterton's "maniac"

a really nice essay by an old buddy, Michael Munger, dealing with religious fundies on the Right and on the Left...

two passages come to mind:

1.) Jesus in Jn 9:3 on contemporary confusion about cause/effect with the blind man

2.) Ezekiel 18:2-4 (a sadly obscure passage) on the misinterpretation of the famous passage in the 10 Commandments about "the sins of the fathers"-- seeing it as a law of the universe, rather than as a general principle

see also: Chesterton's "Maniac" in Orthodoxy