Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Rational Egoism in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead by Craig Biddle
Expelled Gets an F by ARI Media
Heidi Moore's Argument from Intimidation by Craig Biddle
Announcing AtlasShrugged.com by ARI Media
The Originality of 'Atlas Shrugged' by ARI Media
Atlas Shrugged and Today's Healthcare Controversy by ARI Media
Should Businessmen Go on Strike? by ARI Media
Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged by Alex Epstein by ARI Media
A Foreign-Aid Controversy . . . Reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged by ARI Media
Dianne Durante's New Blog by Alan Germani
Stop! by Craig Biddle
God's Word Cast in Plastic by Alan Germani

Monday, April 28, 2008

Rational Egoism in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

Posted by Craig Biddle at 7:52 PM

Who: Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A talk and Q & A examining The Fountainhead and explaining Ayn Rand's morality of rational egoism

Where: University of Maryland, Arts Building, Room 2309, College Park, MD

When: May 1, 2008, at 8 pm

Admission is FREE and open to the public.

Hosted by: the Terrapin Objectivists
Club Contact: anyborgh@umd.edu

Description: In The Fountainhead, novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand fully dramatizes the moral theory of rational egoism—the theory which holds that it is each person's responsibility to choose his goals and values by use of his independent reasoning mind; and that it is his right to pursue these goals in quest of his own selfish, personal happiness. Put another way, conscientious adherence to one's best rational judgment is the only appropriate means by which to live a fully human life—and success, creative achievement and personal happiness are its proper goals and ends. The theme of the novel is the virtue of independence in thought and action: the crucial importance of deriving your values and standards by the exercise of your own best judgment, as opposed to blindly following the judgment of others; and then pursuing these values consistently and indefatigably, as opposed to betraying or compromising them in practice. Dr. Bernstein explores how the plot and conflict of The Fountainhead convey this theme, including a detailed, in-depth analysis of the five major characters in the story—Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Dominique Francon, and the hero Howard Roark.

Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a visiting professor of philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 2004) and formerly at Pace University and at Marymount College (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 1995). Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in such newspapers as The San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily News and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and Anthem. He also authored Penguin's Teacher's Guide to "The Fountainhead," and The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.

### ### ###

Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213

For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org.

For more information on this event and on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985 the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI.

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Events, The Arts

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Expelled Gets an F

Posted by ARI Media at 10:15 AM

Irvine, CA—Today Ben Stein's anti-evolution documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens in theaters. The film claims that advocates of "intelligent design"—the view that life is so complex it must be the product of a "higher intelligence"—are the persecuted victims of a "scientific establishment" dogmatically committed to evolution.

"The premise of Expelled is that proponents of 'intelligent design' have been shunned, denied tenure, and even fired because of a conspiracy to quash the scientific evidence supporting their theory," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "But the truth is: there is no evidence supporting their theory. Intelligent design is completely devoid of any positive scientific content, and consists of nothing more than a religiously motivated attack on evolution. To the extent intelligent design advocates are facing obstacles in academia it is because they are not doing real science: they haven't been 'expelled' they have flunked out of the scientific community, just as a faith healer would flunk out of medical school.

"Observe that intelligent design advocates have pumped millions into publicity-seeking, rather than appealing to scientists with facts and logical arguments. They have spent more time at Christian 'apologetics seminars' than scientific conferences, and have attempted to use the courts to force schools to teach their ideas. Now they are hoping to dupe the movie-going public with a film that misrepresents Darwin's theory and the array of facts that support it—just as the makers of Expelled misrepresented the nature of the film in order to bamboozle respected evolutionary scientists into participating in it.

"Intelligent design advocates will do anything to advance their views—except science.

"The reason for that is simple: doing science has never been their goal. Their goal is to make biblical creationism appear scientific in order to skirt the constitutional ban on religion in public schools. Contrary to the film's claims, the real dogmatists are not the defenders of Darwin, but the religiously motivated advocates of intelligent design."

### ### ###

Dr. Lockitch has a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). He writes and edits for ARI and is a professor in the Objectivist Academic Center, where he teaches undergraduate writing and a graduate course on the history of physics. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Orange County Register and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dr. Keith Lockitch is available for interviews. To book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson: 800-365-6552 ext. 213 (office) 949-838-5137 (cell) larryb@aynrand.org

For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Labels: Religion, Science and Technology, The Arts

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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Heidi Moore's Argument from Intimidation

Posted by Craig Biddle at 4:25 PM

On the website of the Wall Street Journal, under the heading “Capitalism Shrugged: Should Ayn Rand Be Required Reading?”—and after stating a few uncontroversial facts, several inaccuracies, and some inconsequential fluff—Heidi Moore gets to her point:

Rand has a bit of a reputation problem among those who have not drunk the Kool-Aid. . . . Deal Journal readers, we put the question to you: Should there be more Ayn Rand to instruct young, impressionable minds? Or is the problem with capitalism today too much Rand already?

Gosh, Ms. Moore, since you put it that way, how could readers of the Wall Street Journal possibly answer in the affirmative? How could self-respecting, independent thinkers bear the prospect of being regarded as Kool-Aid–drinking cultists for holding that reality, reason, self-interest, individual rights, freedom, and the like deserve the attention of college students?

I’ve said enough here and here about the absurdity of the ongoing attacks against John Allison and BB&T for taking a rationally principled approach to educational grants, so I won’t address that issue again here. But I cannot resist pointing out that if Heidi Moore had read and understood Ayn Rand’s works, she might have thought twice about so brazenly and publicly engaging in one of the irrational tactics identified by Ayn Rand: The Argument from Intimidation.

The Argument from Intimidation is the attempt to substitute psychological pressure for rational argument. In Rand’s words:

It is a method of bypassing logic by means of psychological pressure . . . [It] consists of threatening to impeach an opponent’s character by means of his argument, thus impeaching the argument without debate. Example: “Only the immoral can fail to see that Candidate X’s argument is false.” . . . The falsehood of his argument is asserted arbitrarily and offered as proof of his immorality.

In today’s epistemological jungle, [this] method is used more frequently than any other type of irrational argument. It should be classified as a logical fallacy and may be designated as “The Argument from Intimidation.”

The essential characteristic of the Argument from Intimidation is its appeal to moral self-doubt and its reliance on the fear, guilt or ignorance of the victim. It is used in the form of an ultimatum demanding that the victim renounce a given idea without discussion, under threat of being considered morally unworthy. The pattern is always: “Only those who are evil (dishonest, heartless, insensitive, ignorant, etc.) can hold such an idea.”

God forbid that college students encounter such ideas; they might commit suicide and catch a comet.

If Ms. Moore has a rational argument against Rand’s ideas—whether against the importance of recognizing facts, or against the principle that reason is man’s means of knowledge, or against the principle that acting in one’s best interest is in one’s best interest, or against the principle that initiating force or committing fraud is immoral, or against the principle that freedom is a requirement of a proper human life, or against the principle that one should think for oneself—Ms. Moore should set forth her argument. If not, she should consider actually reading and understanding Ayn Rand. Philosophic education is more fruitful, and less embarrassing, than journalistic intimidation.

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Philosophy, The Arts

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Announcing AtlasShrugged.com

Posted by ARI Media at 11:09 PM

The Ayn Rand Institute is very pleased to announce AtlasShrugged.com, a major new Web site dedicated to Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's great novel about the mysterious disappearance of the world's greatest innovators and industrialists.

AtlasShrugged.com has been created to be the Web's most comprehensive and insightful companion site to the novel. For new readers, it offers an introduction to the book and its themes; and for those already familiar with Atlas Shrugged, the site offers an unprecedented wealth of analysis and commentary to help them understand the book better, along with background information about Ayn Rand and her life.

Now in print for more than fifty years, Atlas Shrugged today sells well over 125,000 copies each year, even more than it sold at the peak of its initial publication run when it was a best-seller. More and more people are reporting the book's profound influence on their lives. Visit atlasshrugged.com to see why!

Browse AtlasShrugged.com.

Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, The Arts

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Friday, March 28, 2008

The Originality of 'Atlas Shrugged'

Posted by ARI Media at 12:45 AM

What: A talk analyzing the theme and content of "Atlas Shrugged." A Q&A will follow.

Who: Tore Boeckmann, speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute

Where: Tufts University, Barnum Hall, Room 104, Medford, MA

When: Monday, March 31, 2008, at 8 pm

Admission is FREE.

Description: Ayn Rand said that "creating a new, original abstraction and translating it through new, original means" is "my kind of fiction writing." Tore Boeckmann tests the originality of "Atlas Shrugged" in regard to both abstract theme and concrete means by comparing the character of Francisco and the event of the tunnel disaster with similar concretes from Friedrich Schiller's plays ("Fiesco" and "Mary Stuart"). The comparison highlights non-obvious ways in which "Atlas Shrugged" concretizes its theme.

Bio: Tore Boeckmann's mystery short stories have been published and anthologized in several languages. He edited Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction," and has lectured at Objectivist conferences in America and Europe. Recent publications include " 'The Fountainhead' as a Romantic Novel" and "What Might Be and Ought to Be: Aristotle's 'Poetics' and 'The Fountainhead' " in "Essays on Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead,' " edited by Robert Mayhew.

For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org

### ### ###

Tore Boeckmann is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213

For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at http://www.aynrand.org/site/R?i=Uz8MXSJNZ6-mFClefvkVyA... Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Events, The Arts

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Atlas Shrugged and Today's Healthcare Controversy

Posted by ARI Media at 5:07 PM

Irvine, CA—This month is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's novel about a group of high achievers who rebel against a society that shackles and condemns them. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, heralded the book's relevance to today's cultural-political debate. "While Atlas is 50 years old, it contains many timeless truths that are just as relevant today as they were when it was first published.

"Take the realm of health care. Most Republicans and Democrats are proposing forms of socialized medicine—under euphemisms like 'universal health care,' 'national health insurance,' etc. Everyone talks about how to protect patient's 'right' to health care—but no one talks about the rights of the doctors that create this value. This is a deadly evasion that one of the characters in Ayn Rand's novel, Dr. Thomas Hendricks, an eminent surgeon who quits the field, eloquently explains in describing his decision:

'Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything—except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the "welfare" of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only "to serve." . . . I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands?'

"Countless outstanding doctors have already fled the field because of the sort of government coercion Dr. Hendricks describes," said Dr. Brook. "Anyone who truly cares about the state of American medicine should learn from Ayn Rand's character: we must liberate the providers of medical services and protect their right to practice medicine on their own terms and as they judge best."

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Healthcare, The Arts

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Should Businessmen Go on Strike?

Posted by ARI Media at 4:37 PM

Irvine, CA—In a week characterized by important labor stoppages, Chrysler workers went out on strike in Michigan, British postal workers returned to work while threatening further walkouts, and registered nurses started a 48-hour strike in Northern California.

"Job actions by employees are commonplace, yet we never see similar protests by the individuals who create jobs in the first place," said Thomas Bowden, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "In her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, published 50 years ago this week, Rand's fictional hero, John Galt, gave voice to the undeserved suffering of businessmen when he said:

"There is only one kind of men who have never been on strike in human history. Every other kind and class have stopped, when they so wished, and have presented demands to the world, claiming to be indispensable—except the men who have carried the world on their shoulders, have kept it alive, have endured torture as sole payment, but have never walked out on the human race."

"John Galt was defending the businessmen who create and operate the companies that generate steel, oil, medicine, computers, and all the other goods and services on which our lives and happiness depend,"

Bowden said. "The entrepreneurs, the executives, the investors and bankers, the top-level managers—these are truly indispensable men and women on whose creativity all other workers depend for their jobs."

"Why," Bowden asked, "do so many of these capitalist heroes continue to toil away, creating jobs for a society that morally condemns their desire for personal profit as selfish and materialistic, and subjects them to government control as if they were beasts of burden? What keeps those individuals from going on strike? In Atlas Shrugged, Rand answers these questions, showing why nothing less than a moral revolution is needed to set businessmen free from the shackles of unearned guilt."

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged by Alex Epstein

Posted by ARI Media at 5:20 PM

If you ask any hundred successful businessmen chosen at random to name the book that has most inspired them, you will undoubtedly hear one title repeated over and over: Atlas Shrugged—Ayn Rand's epic novel, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Why do businessmen love Atlas Shrugged?

Because, in the form of a thrilling novel with inspiring heroes, it does something no other book has ever done: it presents the pursuit of profit, the essence of business, as a profoundly moral activity.

Observe that while profit-seeking is widely recognized as economically indispensable, it is also widely regarded as morally tainted, if not outright immoral. This applies, not just to attempts to "profit" via theft or fraud, but to the pursuit of profit as such. For example, pharmaceutical companies who successfully develop and sell life-saving drugs, oil companies who explore the ends of the earth to extract a vital resource, and financiers who efficiently invest wealth through our dynamic financial markets are all routinely castigated for their high profits. And those who defend profit-seeking do so, not on moral grounds, but as an amoral means to a noble end: the "public good"—i.e., the good of everyone besides businessmen themselves.

To the extent honest, productive businessmen absorb this view of their profession—and most do, to some extent—they experience unearned guilt over their work, and are unable to morally challenge the ever-increasing taxes and regulations foisted on them for the "public good." Atlas Shrugged rocks their world.

The heroes of Atlas Shrugged are a group of great achievers, mostly businessmen, who, like businessmen today, live in a world that damns, shackles, and drains them. But these achievers refuse to accept this treatment; they fight back. They go on strike, refusing to work in a society that at once depends on their achievements but brands them immoral for seeking to profit from those achievements. They let the world see what happens when their "immorality" is removed. "We are evil, according to your morality," the leader of the strike, John Galt, tells the world in a radio address, "We have chosen not to harm you any longer. . . . We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear the shackles any longer."

Without the great, profit-seeking industrialists, what remains is, as Galt puts it, "a world without mind"—a world without the thinker-creators who forge steel by the megaton, direct intricate transcontinental train networks, and bring new inventions to the masses—a world that quickly spirals downward into poverty and destruction.

As readers witness how the world treats the Atlases who carry it on their shoulders, and what happens when Atlas shrugs, they gain a new appreciation for these "dollar chasers," and begin to question the premise that the profit motive is immoral. Readers are joined in this moral-intellectual journey by one of the leading characters in the story, metal magnate Hank Rearden, who is one of the last to learn about the strike.

We meet Rearden at the triumphant culmination of his 10-year-quest to revolutionize the industrial world with Rearden Metal: an alloy far lighter, stronger, and cheaper than steel. When he succeeds, he expects to profit handsomely from sales to grateful customers eager to buy his magnificent new product. Instead, he is punished for his efforts—first by slander and denunciation from a society that damns Rearden Metal as a fraud ("a lethal product of greed")—then by the destruction of his profits by regulations that dictate, in the name of the "public good," how much he can produce and whom he must sell to—and finally by outright nationalization of his product. As his business is destroyed, the world suffers destruction with him—yet his critics still mindlessly damn his pursuit of profit, and demand "wider powers" for the government to curb it.

As Rearden suffers through all this for the sin of trying to make money by creating incredible value, he is led, with the help of the strike's leaders, to a profound moral realization. The selfish pursuit of profit that he so excels at—pursuing his own well-being by his own independent thought, production, and trade—is the essence of what human life requires, and therefore, the highest of moral virtues. "They had known," says Galt of Rearden and the other strikers, "that theirs was the power. I taught them that theirs was the glory."

Armed with, as Galt puts it, "the knowledge of [his] own moral value," Rearden is able to defend himself from government predations like never before. In response to accusations that he "works for nothing but his own profit," Rearden responds defiantly, "I work for nothing but my own profit—which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. . . . I do not sacrifice my interests to them nor do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals by mutual consent to mutual advantage—and I am proud of every penny that I have earned in this manner. . . . I refuse to apologize for my ability—I refuse to apologize for my success—I refuse to apologize for my money."

Unfortunately, while Rearden experiences a lifelong moral transformation from the story of Atlas, most of the readers of Atlas Shrugged do not. While many businessmen derive lasting inspiration from Atlas, they do not attain or pursue an enduring understanding of the moral virtue of profit—and certainly do not proudly defend their right to practice it freely. Thus, many of Atlas Shrugged's most vocal admirers at once proclaim adoration for the novel, while simultaneously attempting to justify their existence by appealing to some "higher cause" ("the environment," "diversity," "the community")—and certainly do not proudly stand up for their right to pursue profit in a free market. They engage in the same tried-and-failed tactics of behind-the-scenes lobbying and appeals to the "public good" that have led to the shrinking of economic freedom in the last 50 years, just as they did in the 50 years before Atlas Shrugged.

On the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged, businessmen should make a point of rereading the novel. But this time, in addition to being inspired to greatness by its heroes, they should pay special attention to the book's radical moral philosophy—a philosophy that has the potential to truly change how they look at their lives and enable them to fight successfully for their freedom.

Alex Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts

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A Foreign-Aid Controversy . . . Reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged

Posted by ARI Media at 1:11 PM

Irvine, CA—What does Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged have to do with a current debate over U.S. foreign aid? More than you might think.

The New York Times reports about the latest dispute over how U.S. foreign aid should be spent. One faction claims that, because the rising cost of food reduces how much can be bought, the government should reserve some money in a "safe box" designated to feed people facing chronic hunger—while others insist that U.S. aid money remain liquid enough to enable us to respond quickly to food emergencies.

But there's one crucial question that no one is asking: While there's much debate over the means of providing aid and while some critics fault our government's aid agency for inefficiencies—no one challenges the basic goal of doling out billions in foreign aid. The notion that Americans have a moral duty to sacrifice their hard-earned wealth to fund such a global welfare schemes is taken as self-evident.

But Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged levels a fundamental challenge to that widely accepted moral premise.

The startling view dramatized in her book is that welfare schemes such as foreign aid are profoundly unjust—and that we have no duty to sacrifice our wealth to feed and clothe the poor, regardless of whether they live across the globe or across the street. On the contrary, on Rand's view as projected in her novel and nonfiction works, those who earn their prosperity by production and trade have an absolute moral right to every penny of their income. Her revolutionary conception of morality holds that self-sacrifice is a vice and that pursuing one's rational self-interest is a virtue.

As for the 'have-nots' in Africa and across the world, their plight is a result of not having freedom and individualism; they are miserably poor because of their bloody tribalism and superstition—ideas that kept the Western world dirt poor for centuries. If Westerners were truly interested in helping them, they would teach them to embrace reason, individualism and capitalism—precisely the values responsible for the West's prosperity, but which are today being eroded through endless altruist policies.

It is high time Americans learned to question not merely the means, but the very goal of foreign aid—and understand the truly destructive nature of the altruist morality that justifies it.

Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Foreign Policy and War, The Arts

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Dianne Durante's New Blog

Posted by Alan Germani at 8:04 PM

TOS contributor Dianne Durante has started a new author's blog for her forthcoming book, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan. From her first post:

For the next two months (through February 2007) I plan to post a paragraph or two every day about one of the OMOM essays: what's covered in [essay sections] "About the Sculpture" and "About the Subject," why I chose those particular topics, what I found most surprising when doing the research, and/or what I most regretted deleting. Eventually (in March?) I'll upload out-takes, bibliographical references, and intriguing snippets of research that never even made it into an early draft.

If you have enjoyed Mrs. Durante's TOS articles, "Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love" and "19th-Century French Painting and Philosophy," or have an interest in representational sculpture, or simply appreciate good art analysis, the blog (which includes great photography) is well worth visiting.

Labels: Announcements, The Arts

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

Stop!

Posted by Craig Biddle at 4:22 AM

Don't do it. There's no need to purchase that expensive Jackson Pollock painting. You can make your own for free—and it will be just as good.

Labels: The Arts

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Monday, July 17, 2006

God's Word Cast in Plastic

Posted by Alan Germani at 4:42 PM

If you want a good laugh—at the expense of a bad book—check out the work of Brendan Powell Smith at www.thebricktestament.com. Smith explains the project and its beginnings in the introduction to his first book, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis:

There I was enjoying a leisurely lunch one evening at the local Taco Bell when suddenly my bean burrito burst into flames and I heard the unmistakable voice of God. "Brendan," it said, "from this day forth you will illustrate for me my most holy of books, The Bible, completely in LEGO®."

"Surely there is someone more qualified than I for this task," I humbly replied. "For I am but a simple man with no special talent for building with plastic bricks."

"Who are you to question the will of God?" the angered voice boomed back. "Was it not I who created the world from nothing and whose hands control the destiny of mankind?

"But I'm an atheist," I protested.

"Then you are especially unqualified to question me!" came the response. "Now get to work!"

Smith has indeed gotten to work. Since his religious experience at Taco Bell, he has published three books and built an extensive website, using hundreds of photographs of cleverly arranged LEGO® bricks and characters to depict—and parody—biblical tales and teachings. In each Brick Testament installment, a straight, unembellished translation of the Bible lets the irrationality of the book speak for itself, while Smith's ingenious LEGO® depictions serve to visually concretize the absurdity and evil that fill its pages.

This is expertly executed humor: While Smith's project illustrates the havoc that religious beliefs wreak on human life and happiness, his treatment appropriately mocks religion, showing it to be what it fundamentally is: metaphysically impotent and utterly laughable.

The three Brick Testament books—Stories from the Book of Genesis, The Ten Commandments, and The Story of Christmas—make great gifts or coffee-table décor and can be purchased here. The vast website contains dozens of additional Bible stories and can consume hours of your time in what seem to be minutes. For a sampling of the hilarious world of The Brick Testament, see two of my favorite sections, The Teachings of Jesus: On Love and The Law: False Prophets.

Note: Due to the nature of the Bible, The Brick Testament contains images of violence and sexual acts.

Labels: Religion, The Arts

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