The Washington Post

A Privilege Gone to far: An opinion on "In The Eyes Of Man" By Edmond Alfradi

Editorial by Mark Cahill

Thank God is how I should begin. The banning of this book is the most needed moral compass that the united states has allowed within literature in so long. Every aspect of life has become so left that we forget to right by what is right and what is said by those who are right winged. We begin with the contradictory misuse of the cover. Alfradi allows for whatever authority that he seems to have of his preconception of who or what God is. The insolence of comparing that which is sacred to one another shows that he hold no respect for God himself. The first poem of the book says "In the beginning, there was contemplation, and within this contemplation man there became self awareness, and within that self awareness man accepted god." - Parable 1 pg 2. This quote while may seem philosophical and with the intent to achieve a deeper understanding, merely shows how arrogant this man is. He puts man in the light of God, as if we have discovered enough things to fully understand what god is. He practically calls us God. That we are the supreme rulers and creators of our own selves. However as an author of books that contemplate faith, I feel the need to say "HOW DARE HE?!" How dare he make the claim that he has the right to tell people what a contemplation is? We are reflected in God's image and the way we pay homage to him is with gratitude and humility, this however expresses none of that. Another Issue that I have with this is his reference to the people of the book. The cover shows us his thoughts on how different religions have fulfilled and mimicked one another parts, and shows how similar their philosophies truly are even refers to them as sister religions, and the phrase "People of the book" is shown throughout the novela. This again is a showing of his ignorance and insensitivity to those who value god in the highest regard. As a christian I show my dedication to christ in the upmost riveting and influential way possible not only in my writing of contemplative literature addressing science and God, but I leave it at what I know, Christianity. I have never tried to speak on the life of a muslim, because our lives are in no way similar. There are no means to live out our every day lives which collide besides the same history. The Quran is clearly a passage with a violent perception of how one is too love their god while christianity isn't. I also wish to debunk the theoretical concept of Cartesian Dualism here and how the concept within itself is completely contradictory. The idea of doubt is the opposite of faith and they do not belong under the same roof. My even larger anger and frustration with this book is that it was written to mostly address the American concept of God and how we use him in the political sense. However in my latest interview with Mr Bill O'reily he had agreed with me on my opinions of this book and remarked " This is the reason why this generation sees so much of a rebellion amongst our children. There is no authoritative stance especially with the internet to address what is morally right and wrong." Mr. O'reily continues to go on and remark on the age of Alfradi, and how there is too much in his life that he has yet to see. In this day and age young people believe that anything shiny with buttons can give them a true spiritual meaning, which is simply and devastatingly untrue. If this book was not banned as it is now, I would hope that my fellow christians would take to the streets! Uproar in protest and anger at how shamefully and pitifully we have been disregarded and that which is sacred taken away from us. This is the only time that I will bless the internet with having sense. People have flooded twitter with understandings of the necessities of why this book needed to be banned. There is no right way to say this besides how fed up I have become with these people diluting and polluting our good wholesome culture and respect for a higher power, with so called "Contemplation". It is a truly a new found terrorism.