Operation AXIOM: 9/11

Eighteen years ago to the day, 11 September 2001, the "day of fire," a nightmare that had been previously unimaginable became stark reality. Since that great & terrible day, life has been both much the same as before & never again been the same.

This morning, one of my kith sent me a very disturbing text message:

There are many people that doubt the story of what happened on 9/11. I find some of their points to be credible in supporting their position. 1) There was no plane found at the crash site in PA. 2) There was no luggage or lage plane parts (like engines) found at the Pentagon. 3) There is video evidence to show successive explosions down one of the World Trade towers as it fell. I'm not interested in unproductive conspiracy theories. I am only looking at the evidence (Mysterious World style) & saying the facts do not support the story. What is your perspective on this?

I replied (proud of my own self-restraint, because I was livid):

Atheists say, "If God is real, why doesn't He make Himself obvious? Appear in the sky in an undeniable way?" In the parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus [Luke, 16:19-31], Christ makes clear that no evidence is sufficient for the ardent skeptic. When Christ comes again @ the end of time, some will still scoff @ Him, before they go off to Perdition.

Don't approach the world through a hermeneutic of skepticism. Conspiracy theories about 9/11 are rampant, because in a world without faith, a world gone mad, conspiracy theories are a way to impose an order on the chaos.

I watched 9/11 live on television. Later, I read the 9/11 Commission's Report.

If you want a Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World-style examination, ask Jimmy Akin. Me, I've had too many encounters with ardently skeptical "Truthers" to tolerate 9/11 doubts or "alternate" theories.

To be clear, I am all in favor of inquiry. I am all in favor of poking & prodding & asking questions, because we've all been deceived by those in authority over us: our parents, public-school teachers, journalists & politicians, & even clergy. But when we embrace skepticism as an absolute, as a default assumption, we are lost. There is a healthy skepticism, so as not to be gullbile, but there is also an unhealthy skepticism, in which nothing is certain & everything is up for grabs. In such a world, the center cannot hold.

In these United States, for the first time in decades, average life expectancy is in decline. Not because the elderly aren't living longer & longer, they still are, but because of rising suicide & drug overdose rates among the young. This sad reality is the bitter fruit of our culture of skepticism. The center cannot hold. In a world wherein there is no truth, wherein no one & nothing can be trusted, despair is the only logical conclusion & self-annihilation—suicide—is a logical response to despair.

We all know what happened on 9/11. Most of us remember 9/11 only too well. Do not allow the merchants of skepticism, the conspiracy theorists who clean themselves up & disguise the crazy glint in their eyes with reasonable-sounding voiceover narration to confuse you, to darken your reason & cloud your heart. We dare not look at the world through the hermeneutic of skepticism or, in the often mocked & unfairly dismissed words, "The terrorists have won."

11 September 2001: 19 jihadist terrorists of al-Qaeda murder 2,977 innocents by hijacking four airliners, three of which were crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City & the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; the fight back began with the passengers & crew of the fourth airliner, leading to that plane's crash in a Pennsylvania field, instead of into the suspect target, the Capitol in Washington, D.C., eighteen years ago today.

The Wayback Machine Tour of 9/11
Patriot Day '18 / Patriot Day '17 / Patriot Day '15 / Patriot Day '13 / Patriot Day '11

Bonus! Song o' Patriot Day
The Abyssinian Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from The Civil War: Original Soundtrack Recording (Mike Papa Whiskey)