Extra Credit Questions

[Rob Wick]

David,

One of your biggest weaknesses is your seemingly obsessive view of each of the trees, resulting in your failure to see the forest. Focusing on individual chapters of Lincoln's life may, as Roger pointed out earlier with his illustration of Lincoln being kicked in the head, be helpful in discussing his path, but in most instances, they only reveal a false premise. Just because Lincoln turned down the territorial governorship that didn't lead to his becoming president, just as if he had accepted it that wouldn't have precluded it.

There is a Latin saying that most lawyers learn very quickly, i.e., post hoc ergo propter hoc, which means “after this, therefore because of this.” According to the Cornell University Law School, "The phrase expresses the logical fallacy of assuming that one thing caused another merely because the first thing preceded the other. In other words, it is the fallacy of inferring a causal relationship from a temporal one."

Just because Lincoln followed a path that resulted in his election as president, that does not preclude other paths that could have led to the same result.

Roger, as for your question, I don't know how much it would have affected Lincoln's plans. It seems to me that people who knew him in New Salem knew of his skepticism where religion was concerned, yet he never had much trouble being reelected to the Illinois state legislature. I have never accepted that he overcame his deep skepticism for organized religion, although he certainly held a strong individual faith. Plus, his battle with Peter Carmichael didn't seem to affect his political fortunes. That said, it's one thing for a local community to look past someone's so-called "shortcomings" but quite another to translate that to a national audience, especially given the prominence of religion in most people's lives. Besides, the only thing keeping us from knowing if an atheist or agnostic ever served as president is their willingness to lie about it.

Best
Rob