A reader writes:
Quote: “Williamson’s present beliefs regarding the fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe are repugnant, the insistent demand that he change them (or else) is also repugnant.”
The above quote betrays a common confusion that you, Andrew, and other believers suffer from. It’s imperative to differentiate the term “belief” from “knowledge.” The fate of the Jews is something to be known or disproved. It is absolutely not a belief. Your relationship with Jesus is based on a belief, not knowledge.
Beliefs can be changed, because they are not based on a means of knowledge by which facts are ascertained.
One doesn’t ask a physicist to change his belief. One challenges his or her conclusions by challenging the facts upon which their conclusions are drawn. This is the way it’s done in the thinking world.
So, the pope, if by some wild flight of the imagination, wants to ask anything of Williamson, he should ask Williamson to present the academic credentials of the source of his facts. Facts don’t change because someone asks them to change.
The Dish 