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Doubting Tucker

By "Milbarge" and "Fitz-Hume"

Via Feddie, an odd little anecdote from pundit Tucker Carlson. According to Carlson, he had drifted away from his childhood religion, but was reading a book as a teenager when he heard a voice saying "I exist." Naturally, Carlson assumed the voice came from God (absent any other evidence), and "took him at his word."

Feddie describes this as "how Tucker Carlson found God," but it really seems like it was the other way around. Anyway, this whole thing is off-putting to me. Leave aside the fact that it shows a remarkable lack of critical thinking skills, even for a teenager. In the words of a noted theologian -- no, wait, this one -- it's mighty conveeeenient. God could surely make things on earth a lot easier if he spoke individually (and audibly) the everyone he wanted on his team. One wonders what Carlson must think of the biblical passage referenced in the title of this post, the story of Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-29).

At a minimum, consider these facts: (1) Carlson's epiphany came within a year or two after the release of that other canonical work, Real Genius, and (2) Tucker has many, many Kentian qualities. Therefore, shouldn't his conclusion have been not that God was revealing himself to Tucker, but instead that pranksters had installed a radio receiver in his bow tie? (Skip to about three minutes into this clip for the details.) It would explain so much!

Full post as published by Begging the Question on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).