My Pentecostalist mother, who I love dearly, periodically falls victim to internet hoaxes--especially those that tend to confirm her religious beliefs.
Just this evening, she forwarded me an email, complete with pictures, which describes how the skeletons of giants have been unearthed in the Holy Land, and how this is yet more evidence of the literal truth of the Bible. (The Book of Numbers talks about how Joshua's spies reported that there were giants in Canaan)
"This is really something," she wrote. "They were even bigger than I would have imagined."
I checked snopes.com, and sure enough, this is a variation on yet another internet hoax.
My first impulse was to simply send her the link to snopes in reply.
Then, I hesitated.
On the one hand: I don't like the idea of someone making a fool out of my mother.
On the other hand: it seems...disrespectful, somehow, to just contradict her like that. This is my mother we're talking about, not some pseudonymous nobody on the internet.
On the third hand: I am angry with her for being so credulous, and with myself for being so cowardly. Why can't she think to check these things herself?
On the fourth hand: isn't it better she hears this from me, than from someone else?
She never learns. I remember looking at one of her religious magazines, years ago, and reading an article which reproduced a photo of the face of Satan appearing in the smoke over the burning Branch Davidian compund in Waco, Texas. The same photo, in fact, that had appeared in the Weekly World News--except in colour.
By coincidence, I was sitting in a family restaurant recently, and overheard a father talking to his son. He wanted his son to watch a DVD that showed how archaeological discoveries are confirming what's written in the Old Testament, but irreligious liberal academics (i.e. people like me) are conspiring to hush this up.
The young guy just sat there quietly, didn't argue with his dad, just said, sure, I'll watch it.
I know how he felt.
What do you think I should I do?
EDIT: For now, I'm just going to sleep on it.
Just this evening, she forwarded me an email, complete with pictures, which describes how the skeletons of giants have been unearthed in the Holy Land, and how this is yet more evidence of the literal truth of the Bible. (The Book of Numbers talks about how Joshua's spies reported that there were giants in Canaan)
"This is really something," she wrote. "They were even bigger than I would have imagined."
I checked snopes.com, and sure enough, this is a variation on yet another internet hoax.
My first impulse was to simply send her the link to snopes in reply.
Then, I hesitated.
On the one hand: I don't like the idea of someone making a fool out of my mother.
On the other hand: it seems...disrespectful, somehow, to just contradict her like that. This is my mother we're talking about, not some pseudonymous nobody on the internet.
On the third hand: I am angry with her for being so credulous, and with myself for being so cowardly. Why can't she think to check these things herself?
On the fourth hand: isn't it better she hears this from me, than from someone else?
She never learns. I remember looking at one of her religious magazines, years ago, and reading an article which reproduced a photo of the face of Satan appearing in the smoke over the burning Branch Davidian compund in Waco, Texas. The same photo, in fact, that had appeared in the Weekly World News--except in colour.
By coincidence, I was sitting in a family restaurant recently, and overheard a father talking to his son. He wanted his son to watch a DVD that showed how archaeological discoveries are confirming what's written in the Old Testament, but irreligious liberal academics (i.e. people like me) are conspiring to hush this up.
The young guy just sat there quietly, didn't argue with his dad, just said, sure, I'll watch it.
I know how he felt.
What do you think I should I do?
EDIT: For now, I'm just going to sleep on it.
You just have to be nice about it. And if she wants to go on believing, there's really nothing more you can do; it's her life.
Arguing with her isn't worth the trouble.
