Show him a Bible verse he has not studied before,
And watch the common man rush to assume
That it’s true meaning must not be far
From what he thinks he already understands.

There is for him no universe in which it could
Possibly mean something new and different
And worthy of stopping the presses,
For his very religion rests not
In learning the material,
But in the presupposition that
He has got it learned, more or less, already.

And this he does while missing the grand irony
That he himself often recites the saying that
God’s ways are higher than his own ways, and
God’s thoughts are higher than his own thoughts.

Yet when you show him some thing
He has not considered before,
He assumes the grasping of it
A simple matter.