The Leaning Tower of Pisa Metaphor

[deacon blues]

I have a rotating screen saver that showed a picture of Leaning Tower of Pisa this morning. I'm just not smart enough to get it on this post. Oh, there it goes, can you see it?











The photo is a view looking straight up from right next to the Tower.With that perspective it looks perfectly straight. I was impressed/inspired with the thought that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is like the Church. From inside or standing next to it it looks straight, and only if one steps back and and views it from a distance with a perspective that includes the larger view can we see that it is leaning. In a similar matter one has to view the Church from a distance to see its problems and possibly correct them. Sadly, Church leaders discourage members from stepping back, even using fear to keep them "in the fold." "So called intellectuals" who criticize leaders of the Church are demonized for stepping back and taking a broader view of the Church.

This kind of makes me wish I could give a talk in Church.

[jfro18]

I like it!

Funny how you can avoid seeing things like that if you only look at something a certain way... and we all have done it throughout our lives and those around us still do.

[Hagoth]

That moment when you realize it ain't what you thought it was:

[alas]

I have a rotating screen saver that showed a picture of Leaning Tower of Pisa this morning. I'm just not smart enough to get it on this post. Oh, there it goes, can you see it?











The photo is a view looking straight up from right next to the Tower.With that perspective it looks perfectly straight. I was impressed/inspired with the thought that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is like the Church. From inside or standing next to it it looks straight, and only if one steps back and and views it from a distance with a perspective that includes the larger view can we see that it is leaning. In a similar matter one has to view the Church from a distance to see its problems and possibly correct them. Sadly, Church leaders discourage members from stepping back, even using fear to keep them "in the fold." "So called intellectuals" who criticize leaders of the Church are demonized for stepping back and taking a broader view of the Church.

This kind of makes me wish I could give a talk in Church.

The thing with the leaning tower of Pisa, is that when you are inside of it, it looks normal, but “feels” off. Like the old tilt room in the fun house at Lagoon (for you old Utahans) Your eyes say the walls and floor all agree with each other, but your sense of balance says that the room is wrong. And those arches...they have no railings, those are not windows, but open doors, so you really could start to slide and go off the edge. It is a scary feeling. My youngest child was too terrified to go up it.

My experience with the church was that way. Everything looked OK and logical, but something always felt “off”. As if something you can’t see is off kilter. Take the atonement. After all the Sunday school answers about why it was necessary, it still comes back to “why does God need somebody to be punished?” If you dig past the obvious, on any church topic, you can find the sort of thing that is just “off”.

But inside the church, or the tower, all the floors and walls line up, And seem straight. They are “right” when compared to each other inside the building. But if you look out at the horizon or at other buildings nearby, you can see that the tower doesn’t line up with the other buildings.

You have to trust your instincts that something is “off” enough to look beyond the building you are in.

Having experienced the tower at Pisa, not just a picture of the tower, I like your analogy.

Trivia: Galileo looked at the Chandeliers in the Cathedral at Pisa and it gave him an idea. What was the idea?

Yeah, I am a jaded tourist and have been to Pisa, Rome, Florence.....lots of Europe.

[Hagoth]

But inside the church, or the tower, all the floors and walls line up, And seem straight. They are “right” when compared to each other inside the building. But if you look out at the horizon or at other buildings nearby, you can see that the tower doesn’t line up with the other buildings.

You have to trust your instincts that something is “off” enough to look beyond the building you are in.

Trivia: Galileo looked at the Chandeliers in the Cathedral at Pisa and it gave him an idea. What was the idea?

I'm gonna guess it's that a pendulum of X length and weight swings at the same frequency regardless of the amplitude of the swing. Or something like that. I believe he tried to get really calm and use his own pulse as a timing mechanism.

[alas]

But inside the church, or the tower, all the floors and walls line up, And seem straight. They are “right” when compared to each other inside the building. But if you look out at the horizon or at other buildings nearby, you can see that the tower doesn’t line up with the other buildings.

You have to trust your instincts that something is “off” enough to look beyond the building you are in.

Trivia: Galileo looked at the Chandeliers in the Cathedral at Pisa and it gave him an idea. What was the idea?

I'm gonna guess it's that a pendulum of X length and weight swings at the same frequency regardless of the amplitude of the swing. Or something like that. I believe he tried to get really calm and use his own pulse as a timing mechanism.

Actually, i don’t think it was that complicated. What caused them to move at all? And he concluded that the earth has to be moving in order to cause them to start to sway. Mostly I remember one of my kids not wanting to leave the Cathedral because she was watching to see if they swayed and it was so slight, but we dang near missed our bus.