The Mormon Baptism of Anne Frank
It seems counterintuitive that Anne Frank, the well known Jewish Holocaust victim and author of a best-selling diary, be baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). And yet, it has happened, multiple times.
Violating a 2010 pact between Jewish Leaders and the Mormon Church, which stated that the church would prevent proxy baptism requests for victims of the Holocaust, a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic did what it wasn’t supposed to do, and baptized Frank. If searched up on a Mormon-exclusive database that is used for genealogy and to submit a deceased person’s name for the chance of a proxy baptism, Frank’s name will show up with the word “completed” next to the words “Baptism” and “Confirmation”. This all seems outlandish, but it isn’t the first time to have happened.
From 1989 to 1999, Mormons have given Anne Frank’s name over a dozen times to be included in proxy rites, with the ritual actually being carried out at least nine times.
Mormons posthumous proxy baptisms for Holocost victims and Jews who are not directly related to them have persisted, even after Mormon and Jewish leaders came to an agreement in 1995 for the church to stop these types of baptisms, with only if the victim or Jew in question was a direct ancestor of the submitter being allowed. This makes Frank’s baptism even more shocking, as she was an unmarried teenager with no descendants. Another similar incident involved Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Even though she is still a living Holocaust survivor who helped campaign for the 2010 pact, she was recently submitted to the database as “ready” for the posthumous proxy baptism.
All that the Mormon Church had to say about the matter was that it keeps its word and that there is a firm commitment not to accept the names of the victims for proxy baptism. Only time will tell if this statement is true.
The Counterintuitive Nature of Armored Planes and The World
It seems counterintuitive that planes be armored only in the places where there weren’t any bullet holes after a dangerous mission. And yet, once looked into, it makes perfect sense.
Common thinking would be that the areas where the planes were penetrated by bullets would be where to put the new armor. Clearly, those are the places that attracted the most fire, and therefore needing the most protecting. This is fairly obvious, but also quite wrong.
If a plane makes it back to its base safely, even with bullet holes in certain areas, then there is the proof that those damaged sections are not very dangerous to the pilot. If the wings are filled with bullet holes, but still operate well enough for the plane to land, then they do not need to be armored up.
This leaves the places in need of armor as the ones that barely or don’t have any bullet holes. These are the places that are exposed and can cause a greater threat if damaged. Planes with bullet holes in these places never come back.
Armored planes, however, are not the only examples of counterintuitivity in our world. Take a situation with an Air Force flight instructor and his two students. The one students who performed brilliantly the maneuver the first time, was statistically shown to have performed has well the second go round. However, the second student, who was yelled at after screwing up the initial maneuver, was shown to perform the second maneuver much better.
Likewise, people tend to go to the doctor only when their illness has gotten really bad. Once over with the appointment, they feel much better. It isn’t always because the doctor did something, however. Sometimes it is a natural psychological consequence that people experience due to the appointment.
A final example has to do with how weak people are at calculating how much variance there is to the things that take place during the day. Not every natural variance in life has a reason for it, but people still enjoy making up reasons anyways. It’s in our counterintuitive nature.
The Mundane Death… By Shower
It seems counterintuitive that a death by shower can be more important than a death by gunman. And yet the truth has a tendency to appear this way.
As Americans, we always obsess over the wrong happenings, failing to watch for the real dangers in the process. We exaggerate the risks of events that are beyond our control and that will cause our deaths in spectacular fashion- gunman, plane crash, genetically modified crops, etc.- while underestimating any of the risks that may come from events that we have total control over.
A common cause of death in older individuals is falling , whether in a shower, down steps, or from a ledge. Another death is caused by the falling of a dead tree over a tent housing campers. Even though the campers knew that the tree was dead, they decided to take their chances and set up camp right under. This type of careless behavior leads to the deaths of many people.
It is better for people to let themselves experience “constructive paranoia”, which is the hypervigilant attitude toward any repeated low risks. Many individuals who have already adopted this mindset do so after witnessing the deaths of others due to carelessness.
Don’t let the hypervigilance limit your life. Take part in dangerous activities, and live life to the fullest. Just try to make sure that you are paying attention to the little things that could cause some type of serious accident.
Rowan Counterintuitive 