Louis XIV once asked Pascal for one single piece of evidence of the existence of God. Pascal replied with four words: "The Jews, your Majesty."

It doesn't take the vision of a prophet to recognize that the continued existence of the Jewish people in a hostile world - "a lamb among seventy wolves" - is a unique puzzle that demands a solution.

THE IVORY TOWER
my ivory tower
turns out to be
a concrete blockhouse.
can I break down the walls
or will I just keep printing
the same old stationery?
The Ivory Tower.
The Ivory Tower.

Cognitive dissonance is a kind of psychological armor that we build up to ward off information that we don't want to hear. According to cognitive dissonance theory, we seek harmony among our beliefs. When there is conflict between belief and behavior, we change something to eliminate the dissonance. We could change our behavior to accord with our beliefs, but usually, we change our attitude to accommodate our behavior. It's much less work.

At 451 degrees Fahrenheit, paper ignites spontaneously.

So wrote Ray Bradbury in his futuristic novel Fahrenheit 451. The novel's main character, Montag, is a "fireman." Unlike the firemen we're used to, however, Montag's job is not to put out fires - it's to start them. Montag's job is to burn books.