a glimpse into the darkness

[miriam_e]

I made the mistake of emailing a fundamentalist christian recently, to point out some errors in his thinking. He seemed like a basically nice person, but his lack of connection with reality was startling and appalling. He views everything through the broken glass of the bible. He would say one thing, then in the same breath say the opposite without any notion of how irreconcilable the two statements were.

It was so strange and sad, like watching an enormous, lumbering, blinded animal struggling to find its way. You want to help. But there is nothing you can do. You just hope it can heal and doesn't hurt itself or anyone else.

And then he posted this scary piece of lunacy:

...it's amazing that everything in the Bible is in fact fulfilling itself before your very eyes and the eyes of the world and people don't belive what the Scriptures say. These things MUST happen before the return of Jesus to establish his kingdom on the Earth. The only time world peace will be accomplished is when teh Antichrist comes and he will make war with peace. He will establish a covenant with many Daniel 9:27 and then break it and show favor to those who broke it and persecute the Jews and Christians. Isn't it funny that Jews and Christians are always the most presecuted religiously throughout the world? Radical Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews and as long as God is in heaven Israel will never be wiped off of the map. THey shall never retreat a piece of land to the Palestinians because they have no claim to the land, may sound narrow minded but that is the truth

Pit this against some of the hateful things I've heard from some of the nuttier Muslims. The lunatic fringe on both sides want to destroy much of the planet. They just don't care about anybody else. Many even welcome armageddon with open arms!

It is time that religion got pushed back into the closet like smoking. If people want religion, then fine, they can do it to themselves, but polluting other people, especially children with it should be viewed with disgust. It is the 21st Century, for goodness' sake! We should have left superstition behind centuries ago. We don't need savages destroying what remains of this jewel of a planet.

Cenk Uygur said it well. Strongly worded, but it needs to be said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/if-youre-a-christian-mu_b_9349.html

Comments

[gillen.livejournal.com]

damn skippy! Bookmarked.

[beyondfake-0.livejournal.com]

Sounds like that guy has a bad case of hypocrisy. I prescribe public floggings until the infection goes away. This must start immediately.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:)
I can't help feeling sorry for him, but also rather scared... He honestly doesn't realise how sick and deluded this stuff is. He really believes that a loving god would destroy millions of people for not believing in an illogical fable... that this god shows its love for humanity by indulging in mass murder. This is insane... truly, truly crazy.

Religion was always an illness, but it has now become an epidemic that threatens all life on Earth. We should be working to undo its damage.

The problem is, what can be done? The religion meme is incredibly dangerous and will destroy anything, including its host (e.g. suicide bomber), in its attempt to survive. Repressing it doesn't work -- it thrives on adversity by using that as "proof" that it is right. Yet allowing it to burn itself out hasn't worked either as it uses its dominance as "proof" that it is right too.

I think we need to use Oscar Wilde's reasoning about war here:

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
      -- Oscar Wilde

We need to pity people afflicted with religion. It needs to be regarded as a rather unfortunate, disgusting and embarrassing disease. And we need to be careful that they don't infect children with it.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Wow. The fallacy of those arguments (not to mention the bad grammar which means that some sentences aren't really understandable...) are so blatant that it amazes me he can believe anything he says. Unfortunately views like that are too common.

I personally don't disagree with religion. I disagree with people using it as an excuse to not think for themselves and with forms of religion so extreme some people don't even realise they aren't thinking for themselves. I also disagree with anyone who says religious texts don't need to be taken with a grain of salt (or a whole freaking shaker of it, depending on what part). People need to remember that the Bible, Torah, Koran and etcetera were written by people and even if you believe in God and that the people who wrote these religious texts were spoken to by God you need to remember that they are still people and therefor fallible. People misinterpret, misremember and outright make things up whether for good or bad.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I should have posted his weirdly self-contradictory earlier comment.
I had pointed him to my story Grace (http://miriam-english.org/stories/grace2.html) as an example of how any god would be embarrassed by religion. I don't think he actually read it (how could he possibly think it illustrated how god would be unhappy with atheism?)... anyway he posted this:

That was a great story however, God is above and beyond our comprehension. I also want to say that it is an interesting illustration of how God allows us free choice but is not glad about atheism dominating his creation. Also, re: Israel, prayer did not get us into this mess, it is not religion that got us into this. It is spiritual warfare above all Eph 6. Most of the population of the Middle East want Israel and the Jews wiped out and all Christians killed in their borders along with them. It is not something 'religion' got us into, it's spiritual warfare and the fact that Satan wants to destroy Jews and Christians along side them.

Notice how he says that we can't understand god's motivation, but then tells me what god is feeling. Then he goes on to say that the middle-east war is not about religion, but names the key antagonists by their religion.

:) Unlike you, I do disagree strongly with religion -- all religion. I would never tell someone they can't do it. They are free to pollute their mind. Just not around me. :)
Same as smoking cigarettes.

I think we need to start saying "No" more often. Just letting it be hasn't worked. Religion is now actively trying to bring about armageddon. That is inexcusable.

I know people will say "that isn't religion, that's just some nuts who have taken religion to extremes", but that's what religion really is. Christianity's books glorify mass murder in the name of god. Islam's books promote the same thing. Moderate people say you can have religion without that. But can you really? To be moderate and tolerant and religious you need to ignore large parts of the religion. Why not simply ignore the whole illogical mess and just live a good, tolerant life simply because it is the logical thing to do. Religion doesn't seem to add anything except trouble as far as I can see.