Portrait of Francis Bacon, 1617. Paul van Somer I, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for his National Basketball Association team, the Philadelphia Warriors, as part of a 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks. Supposedly, one of Wilt’s teammates told a reporter after the game, “Tonight will be remembered for all of history as the night that Wilt and I combined to score 102 points.”
The quote is made up; none of Chamberlain’s teammates scored exactly two points in the game. But maybe partly because the Knicks are again in the news—albeit this time for their winning ways—the phony quote has been echoing around in my head of late as a great illustration of the ways we can misattribute the magnitude of the various causes that have a significant impact.
Access to the full article is restricted to PASTCF members. Please log in below, or go here to sign up or renew your membership.
Mark Douglas is an ordained teaching elder in the PC(USA) and Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. He teaches a wide variety of classes, including ethics, theology, and, with colleagues in astrophysics and evolutionary biology, science and religion. He also directs the Masters of Theology degree program. Mark holds degrees from Colorado College (B.A. with honors in biology), Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M.), and The University of Virginia (Ph.D.). His most recent book, Christian Pacifism for an Environmental Age (Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-1108476485) was published in June 2019.
