Unfortunately, I learned a hard lesson: people have no interest in learning what is true or false. No matter how much information I gave, they still chose to believe the book – even while insisting they did NOT believe it. One moment they would say, “I know it’s just a story.” The next minute it was, “We don’t REALLY know what’s true or not, so maybe it MIGHT be true.” It was the strangest example of cognitive dissonance I have ever seen.

I’m attempting to read ‘A & D’ but I’m not very motivated. People seem to not only have no desire to distinguish facts from fiction, but they seem to have no ABILITY to do so.

It’s all part of the ‘You have your truth and I have mine.’ mentality we have in our culture. Regardless of the topic, if people choose to believe something, to them it’s true and no amount of facts that say otherwise will sway them.

Check out this book Catholic Chicago the Evolution of an American Identity 1830-1930.

This is a history of Catholicism as it relates to Chicago specifically but will also give you insights to Catholic History in general. Let me know what you think! The author is Charles Shannabruch of Notre Dame. You might also want to try, Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait