Your Fucking Stupid And Superstitious Press

[filkertom]

Okay, you guys know I went full-blown atheist over the past couple of years. But I've got a number of close friends who are very religious, not to mention my mom -- and, hey: Religion got her singing again, after a twenty-year hiatus, and she sounds great, and it fills her life. So I try, I really try, to coexist with religion, as long as it doesn't stomp on my friends' wombs or stuff like that. You know what I mean. I really do try not to step on anyone's toes, unless it seems to me they're just brain-damaged about it.

Like this:

ZAHN (voice-over): As rockets rain down, bringing random death and destruction, families seek refuge deep underground. How do they survive the weeks of stress and the nightmare of a war with no end in sight?

Plus, with shockwaves of violence spreading through the Middle East, is the erupting warfare a prophecy of Armageddon? What ominous signs convince these people that the end of the world is upon us?

[...]

ZAHN: And we're back. One of the most disturbing and mysterious books of the Bible is Revelation. For centuries, Christians have read its visions of wars, plagues, and the end of the world and asked themselves if they were living in the so-called end times. Well tonight a lot of Christians are convinced that the apocalypse may be coming soon. Take a look at the Rapture Index on the World Wide Web. It assigns numerical values to wars, earthquakes and disasters. And tonight, it's at 156, which is in the "fasten your seat belt" category. So are we really at the end of the world? We asked faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher to do some checking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They say the end of the world is coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as I can tell, we are at the very end and we need to prepare ourselves for that according to the world of God.

GALLAGHER: The Israeli Hezbollah conflict they say is a sign that the Bible's final chapter, the Book of Revelation is unfolding before our eyes.

One of the Bible's most widely debated books, Revelation is filled with vivid and frightening imagery: Satan, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the mark of the beast. It all depicts a great world apocalyptic battle for Israel, Armageddon, that ushers in the return of Jesus Christ and the beginning of a thousand-year period of peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four...

GALLAGHER: At this pentecoastal church in Dallas, Pastor Craig Treadwell (ph) tells his congregation that their salvation is tied to events happening 6,000 miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we in World War III right now? It certainly looks like we are.

GALLAGHER: Events he says that were predicted 2,000 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bible prophetized that two billion people will die. There is a massive nuclear holocaust just ahead.

GALLAGHER: Scary stuff coming from a popular local posture, but he's not alone. Well known reverend Jerry Falwell updated his Fallwell Confidential column last week to say "it is apparent, in light of the rebirth of the state of Israel, that the present day events in the holy land may very well serve as a prelude of forerunner to the future battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ."

In recent times some Christians have looked for signs that the apocalypse is near. Some have even tried to carry out its prophecies, and over 62 million have bought these fictional books, the "Left Behind" series, describing the inevitability of the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we will read straight from the bible. GALLAGHER: And pastor Treadwill's radio show that he co-hosts with Pastor Ervin Baxter, the talk is of end time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got one-third of mankind killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got two billion dead, Israel will survive but will suffer a lot, and then finally relations between Israel and the international community will go south, the world community invades, Armageddon.

GALLAGHER: Treadwell and Baxter say we're in or near the final seven years leading up to Armageddon. They say just look to Revelation chapter 9 if you have doubts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This war will emanate from the River Euphrates. Did you know most of the Euphrates river is in the nation of Iraq?

GALLAGHER: The pastor says there's a correlation between almost every image in the bible and current events.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bible talks about tsunamis, it talks about the waves in the sea roaring. It talks about a dramatic increase in earthquakes.

THE REV. KEVIN BEAN, ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHURCH: There's a fiction being created here, like a Steven King horror movie.

GALLAGHER: Reverend Kevin Bean of St. Bartholomew's Church of New York City says Revelation is not meant to be read so literally and he says, it's irresponsible and dangerous to misinterpret the text.

BEAN: It's a part of our church, it's a part of our tradition, but we don't read it the way a lot of people do, which is to make that false correlation with present day events. That is a crock.

GALLAGHER: According to a Harris Interactive Poll of 1,000 people 59 percent say they believe the events described in Revelation will occur at some point in the future and 17 percent say that it will happen during their lifetime. So the question remains, how was Revelation meant to be read?

BEAN: Apocalyptic is about encouraging and consoling a people that are facing calamitous and catastrophic times. To say that, in spite of all of this, there is a God at work in this terrible world and a God that will vindicate.

GALLAGHER: And back at North City's Church in Dallas plans are being made.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look to the book of Revelations as indicators for what's going to happen.

GALLAGHER: For what they believe may be the end of the world as we know it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER: And the question of what just is going to happen is hotly debated amongst Christians who have very different interpretations of this cryptic book of their scripture.

ZAHN: Delia, stand by. Because when we come back, we're going to bring in a panel of religious experts to debate just that, whether we covering the start of an even bigger story than we thought, is Armageddon really coming or is the literal interpretation a crock, as we just heard a priest in Delia's piece say? We're going to take a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: You've just seen how some Christians are convinced that the latest explosive events in the Middle East fulfill a clear biblical prophecy, that Armageddon, the end of the world is on the way. Let's go to our top story panel tonight. Faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher, who's report you just saw, Jason Christy, editor of "The Church Report," a monthly magazine for Christian clergy, and Bruce Filer, a writer and photographer, whose books include "Walking The Bible." All right, I'm going to steal the words of the priest we just heard from in your piece. Is this little translation of Revelation a crock?

JASON CHRISTY, EDITOR, "THE CHURCH REPORT": It scares me. We did a poll last week because there was a lot of chatter both through the phones, on TV, and online and what we came up with in one day, 160,000 viewers, 88 percent of my viewers on my website said no, we're not buying into this. It looks --

ZAHN: They may not be, but an awful lot of people are.

GALLAGHER: Well, and the question is what are they not buying into? Because there are those who say these particular events in the Middle East are not the forerunner of Armageddon, we are not seeing Armageddon now, but that Christians hold that Armageddon will at some point in the future happen is the question. Because this is part of their scripture, and it's something which needs to be interpreted in some way and many of them go for the literal interpretation as they go for the literal interpretation of the gospels on other things.

BRUCE FEILER, AUTHOR, "WALKING THE BIBLE": I think the larger question here, Paula, is who gets to speak for God, and you have this battle going on in the world today between the extremists and those who view the world as a different creation, as being a more moderate open issue, and I think that what's problematic about this view is not that people believe it, it's that it is an interpretation that we are headed for some conflict, some sort of ultimate end of time.

ZAHN: All right so how do Jews view this?

FEILER: I think with Jews, I think as a contrast to that do believe there's going to be a Messianic Age, but I think that Judaism is far less focused on an end that ultimate kind of end game, where God swoops down and has this fight with the devil, as they're focused on what we can do on this earth, and I think that that is, for those of us who love the bible, are troubled by this. Is that what the bible is is God and humans trying to work together to create a more righteous world. And I think that anything that gets the focus off this world and toward the idea, a hastening, we want this somehow, World War III, there's this idea, you mix it with politics, it's very dangerous.

ZAHN: I don't understand, the evangelical support for Israel and what that is rooted in and why we need to pay attention to it.

GALLAGHER: Well, that's part of this. It's wrapped up in it. Obviously if you feel that the second coming is going to happen in Israel, then you want to see that Israel is going to be a secure and safe place for that to come, and there are a number of sort of different things which they believe have to be fulfilled in order for that to happen.

CHRISTY: It's very scary though. I think back to the late 80s, '89 in fact, there was a movement in the Christian evangelical movement that said this is it, 1989 is going to be the end, and a lot of new Christians were brought in to the church and there was this tremendous feeling of rapture and then nothing happened, and there was a feeling of oh, I just sold out to the chicken little theology. And people had a real bad taste about that in their mouth.

FEILER: There is no literal interpretation of something that is not literal.

ZAHN: Give us context here, Bruce, because you're the guy that studies this. This is written in the first century A.D. at a time when Christians were ...

FEILER: Were small and vulnerable and felt that they were being persecuted by Rome. And think that there has been this big question of who is the persecutor. At times it was the Catholic Church, at times it was the Soviet Union. Recently it has been Islam. That's why it's catching hold today because there is this fear, particularly in this country, that Christianity is being persecuted today and this kind of plays into that, but, again, I think the problem is you take the lesson of the prophets.

My new experience has been retracing the prophets, and the lesson of the prophets is God's not going to take care of it, you are responsible, you redeem yourself, you make the world a better place and it's keeping the focus on you and this is taking the focus of what we can do to make the world better and saying it's all part of God's plan.

ZAHN: So I assume you have plans above and beyond the next seven years, Bruce?

(CROSSTALK)

FEILER: I'm not going to predict who's going to win the U.S. Open, or, you know, when the next hurricane is going to come.

ZAHN: Thank you, expert panel, always good to see you. Bruce Feiler, Jason Christy and Delia Gallagher. And you can see more of Delia's reporting on "AMERICAN MORNING" every weekday at 6:00 a.m.

They actually filled prime time with this. Not on CBN, but CNN. At least they did a little debunking of it. But the fact that the crazies get coverage at all shows where we are as a society.

As was pointed out in comments on the Israeli-Hizbollah cease-fire thread yesterday, there are a lot of people out there who are looking forward to Armageddon, the Rapture, whatever you want to call it, because they will be going home to Jesus. And, are those folks, then, really the ones you want in power?

So much of this irrational shared psychosis is being instituted in the halls of power in this country and around the world that I genuinely fear for the future of civilization -- not at some vague, abstract point down the line, but right now. The Middle East is a powderkeg right now. (Just love all the coverage of how the Middle East has been in turmoil for over two weeks, as if the ongoing war in Iraq hasn't been happening for almost three and a half years.)

Religion is supposed to be a good thing. But it gets increasingly hard for me to see that. And I don't want my life, the lives of my friends and family, the lives of my fellow citizens, the survival of my species, determined by a bunch of superstitious assholes who believe the delusional rantings of three-thousand-year-old goatherders are lining up like dominoes waiting to fall.

Unfortunately, that's exactly who's running the show.

Comments

[kosaginolegion.livejournal.com]

The sad part is that I don't think they really believe anything of it. They're catering to a demographic, as they always do. Notice how many of the so-called learning channels have been focusing on biblical themes?

Course, what the heavy duty religous types who believe in this don't realize is that it makes them look all the more silly to those who don't agree with their beliefs.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mind learning about religion (which is NOT the same as a "religious education") -- in fact, I've always thought it would be a really really good thing to start teaching comparative religion in high school. The beliefs that shape the lives of billions of people are of paramount importance in understanding them.

But treating the Bible, and especially Revelations, as if it's a program book for an upcoming monster truck rally is just nuckin' futz.

And the worst part about the heavy duty religious types can be summed up by, of all people, Weird Al Yankovic (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/amishparadise.html):

A local boy kicked me in the butt last week
I just smiled at him and turned the other cheek
I really don't care, in fact I wish him well
'Cause I'll be laughing my head off when he's burning in hell

What I wonder about

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

Is why a war between a Jewish state and a Shi'ite muslim group is being portraied with christian scripture/dogma.

As for WWIII, let us remember that WWI and WWII killed people numbering in the millions and was fought in areas all over the world. This conflict (or at least this round of it) has a death toll that is probably still under 500 people and is taking place in an area you could drive across in less than 8 hours (If you could drive from Gaza to the northern tip of Lebanon).

Re: What I wonder about

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that this is hardly the biggest conflict there's ever been in the middle east. Also, if you're referencing the historical location of Armaggedon the fields of Meggido. Hello, fighting isn't anywhere near that part of a very small country.

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think that the Fundie Right will ever acknowledge the debt they owe to the PC movement. Before PC, when treating all viewpoints as vaild was not quite the dogma that it is now, you could just say, "You don't believe in evolution? You're an idiot." or "You think the Rapture is going to happen JUST LIKE in the Book of Revelations? Well, say "Hi" to the tooth fairy for me, next time you see her."

Don't get me wrong. Respecting other people's points of view is entirely right and proper, nine times out of ten. It's that tenth time that sticks in my craw. And I get just as annoyed with the Loony Left as I do the Raving Right.

I MUST purchase a Flying Spaghetti Monster t-shirt.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I understand what you're saying, and I believe we're on precisely the same page. But what sticks in my craw is that the "Loony Left" is called that by the superstitious yahoos on the Right for insisting on, y'know, proof of stuff. With evidence and all that.

It all comes back to: The world is a difficult and complex enough place as it is, without having to obey the contradictory whims of an invisible sky cop who we can't prove even exists.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

THE REV. KEVIN BEAN, ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHURCH: It's a part of our church, it's a part of our tradition, but we don't read it the way a lot of people do, which is to make that false correlation with present day events. That is a crock.

At least there's someone with a brain in there..

headdesk headdesk headdesk

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's still a part of their church, a part of their tradition. If it's tied to past events, then it's a crock because, well, the world's still here, and their church and tradition are wrong. If it's happening in the future, then they're buying into it the same as the other folks, just tweaking the timeline.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I think it's time to start going through the southern states and carpetbagging them. "Do you know the rapture is coming? Cast off your material possessions, for the rich man may not enter the kingdom of heaven. I'll buy your real estate at..."

[venusinblue.livejournal.com]

It's not just the southern states, dear. Utah, Idaho, and other rural states are full of fundies, too.

At least 40% of Mississippi voted for Kerry.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I remember a neighbor who was a Fundie. She was convinced way back during one of the Israeli conflicts it was the End of Days. That we would find her house empty when the Revelation came as she would be going bodily into Heaven.

My thoughts were "Cool. Free stuff".

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Oops.. meant "RAPTURE" not "REVELATION".

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

I think it's on a par with that "most popular news show" bit they do -- to which my response is, "Who the hell CARES if it's POPULAR -- is it SOMETHING WE NEED TO KNOW?" Essentially pandering to the audience so as to deliver them to the advertisers. Infotainment has always been a slut, and simplistic religion has always been...well...popular.

What they never figure out is that the world is ending all the time. And beginning all the time. Because they're living in a storybook and have intensely mixed feelings about getting to what's supposed to be the last chapter -- unaware that it's actually a series, one of many, in a proprietary universe (also one of many). One thing about explosions, though -- they sure do drown out ambivalence and nuance so ya don't have ta *think* about all that crap, Pilgrim.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

In a lot of ways, it's the flip side to what I said earlier in the thread about the invisible sky cop. I understand that life is difficult, but I have never figured out why "the next life" is supposed to be so much better, and what is so very wrong with this life that we can't enjoy the millions of wonders around us all the time.

Heck, without moving from the desk yet this morning, I've had a lovely talk with my mom, fragged some 'bots in Quake 3 Arena, worked on a song, and got comedy music, excellent DVDs, entertaining e-mail, all the world's news, and a spirited debate with my friends on the nature of Armageddon. Later, I go out in the bright sunshine and relatively fresh air, go see a friend, run some errands, send music out to nice folks who will then be happy when it arrives in their mail a few days from now, and get some much-anticipated Garlic Filet Medallions at Lone Star.

That's a day. :)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

One of the things I find most horrific about this is that these people want my mother's people--and Jesus's people--to go to the devil, literally, so they can go to heaven.

As if you needed more examples...

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

Check out http://www.crossroad.to/News/1-today.htm. Scroll down to "War Forces Cancellation of World Pride Parade". Note the smug implication that this is due to God -- and that last year, He used Katrina(!) to keep gays from marching in public!

Just ponder this for a moment -- Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Savior, the Lamb of God, the Cosmic Muffin -- is willing to use a devastating hurricane and a brutal war to prevent homosexuals from peacefully marching. With all the things in the world which might require divine intervention, that's what he chooses to spend his time doing.

Now, I don't believe this. (I don't believe in God, for one thing) And I'd like to THINK most self-proclaimed Christians don't believe this, either. But these people do. And then they wonder why people "turn away" from God. Maybe because it's if God is so incredibly hateful and petty and vicious, he's not remotely WORTHY of being worshipped?

If there is a God, I want him to be less of an asshole than me. I'd like a God *worth* worshipping, due to his superior morality, not his raw power.

Re: As if you needed more examples...

[greenlantern-oa.livejournal.com]

God is not an asshole but human beings are.

I seriously get cranked up when idiots make religion look bad by saying (as if they had God give them a memo and they are in the know) that these things happen because people are sinning or because God is mad, etc.

It's funny how they can change God's demeanor for their own benefit. God loves everyone, now God is vengeful.........
Which is it guys?

I was raised in a Christian Home BUT I was also raised with a brain.
I am religious and I attend services regularly and have my faith etc. etc. but I definitely do not go around labeling others and telling them they are wrong in what they believe, that's just STUPID!!
I have never condemned someone to hell or said that the cause of a problem is because of the gay life style (PLEASE).
It really gets my goat when these people get press time more then the religious people who are actually out there with the rest of the world doing good works and trying to just make the world a better place by helping their fellow man!!
I have given up trying to reason with this group a loooooong time ago.....
I think in the end they may be more shocked to find out who was NOT listening to God.......

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Wait, CNN has a faith and values correspondant?! Just that is almost as disturbing as anything else in this thread.

Do they also have a witchcraft and superstition correspondant?

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

It also pisses me right the fuck off that they consider "faith and values" to be a single unit - as if you can't have either without the other.

And that, in fact, is one of the huge implications of the right-wing Christian movement - that their religion is in fact the sole definition of morality and "values". And the right-wing media ("liberal bias"? fuck you.) is perfectly willing to promote that worldview without challenge or alternative.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Technically, I am agnostic, but I call myself an AntagoGnostic, because I ask tough questions, and I expect good answers to them.

I am not religious- even in my Pagan beliefs. The idea of agnostic Pagans might be surprising to some, but religion just seems to do something to the soul.

I think that physicist Steven Weinberg might be onto something:

"Good people tend to do good, and evil people tend to do evil, but for good people to do evil- that takes religion."

And it does not matter what religion it is. I'm an equal opportunity detester of religion.

I believe that there is some being greater than ourselves- a creative force that spun us off. But that creative force gave us brains and free will, and the ability to use these things to figure out the secrets of the universe- and the creator(s), too. Religion locks that all away (http://thomhartmann.org/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=4831010351&f=2051097651&m=1381081851&r=6171032891#6171032891), gives people a single story to believe in, and tells everyone that the world is going to end like a bad disaster/horror movie.

It will if we let it. I will not let it. I choose not to believe in or worship any ill-tempered, book-bound, bronze age tribal thunder gods This god is a psychopath, and, if the Gnostics and their kin are to be believed, not really a god at all. And anyone who takes a book written by an acid-dropping hermit seriously is doomed to be destroyed by those who use that book to manipulate world events.

CNN is just another religious right glove puppet, just like Fox. I no longer take anything they say seriously. They're playing to the sheep. I am glad that I did not see that segment, because I might have harmed my television.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

It's funny, not in a haha way, but I was thinking about Revelations this week. Yes I believe it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting the fighting to end, or trying to understand what is going on. As some one who considers herself quite religious the right wing, fundimentalist wingnuts scare me. A lot, on many levels. And not just Christian right wing, fundimentalist, wingnuts either. sigh, words fail me. I'm going to go and do some housework.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Is it worth noting that the Book of Revelations was probably never intended to be an end-of-the-world literal prophecy, not even by the church leaders who included it? It was, as far as I've read, an obscured protest against the Roman Empire's abuses of power, and against the current Emperor in particular, because the early Christians would have been in big trouble for just coming out and saying it in plain language. So it's a code for political unrest, and a hope that eventually the tyranny of the Roman state would be overthrown by the forces of Christ...which, in a way, they were, so Revelations has already taken place.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the Rapture-Ready States of America.

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

62 million have bought these fictional books, the "Left Behind" series, describing the inevitability of the end.

I can't say more...I think my brain might've just burst into flames.

[batyatoon]

...is the erupting warfare a prophecy of Armageddon?...

...we're going to bring in a panel of religious experts to debate just that, whether we covering the start of an even bigger story than we thought, is Armageddon really coming...?

I think what gets me is the use of the term "religious experts." I wanted to see someone in there talking about the likelihood that these are the harbingers of Ragnarok.


Also: sorry, but I have to say it.

The Revelations will not be televised.

*ducksandrunsforcover*

[ericcoleman]

ok ... now I have to listen to Gil Scott Heron ... thanks (and I mean that)

[thealien.livejournal.com]

People who think it's The End aren't new, of course. The first group of people to think Revelation was Exactly Describing Their Situation and that The End Was Here were probably...

The first people who read it.

[beldar.livejournal.com]

What never gets mentioned is that the popular Rapture/EndTimes translation of Revalation and related scriptures only goes back to the nineteenth century. For most of Christian history, this was not how the various churches read the prophesies.

In fact, at my church the minister pointed out how numbers and metaphors can easily line up uncannily with the era from Constantine to the Rennaisance (still in the "future" from St. John's perspective).

My pagan SO simply believes John got some really wild mushrooms.

This reading of prophesy has caught on thanks to the "perfect storm" (for lack of a better cliche) of Cold War paranoia, the end of a millenium, and various clergy finding a way to gain great amounts of power and wealth via fear.

Hopefully, with time, the millenial-cult fever will wear off -- but that won't be until after at least 2033.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

In fact, at my church the minister pointed out how numbers and metaphors can easily line up uncannily with the era from Constantine to the Rennaisance (still in the "future" from St. John's perspective).

Yup.

You're right about the Dispensationalists too.


Meanwhile, the finches on Galapagos are still evolving (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060714-evolution.html).


Funny icon,btw.


(Had to post this twice, sorry; durn typos.)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

As I like to point out, the disasterbaters who fantasize about the end times have been wrong every single time in the past. With a batting average like that, it's rediculous to listen to them now.

[timewalker.livejournal.com]

Why is CNN reporting this? To try and court FOX News viewers, who constatntly refer to them as the "Clinton News Network" because of their "Liberal bias". And there is no remedy for it.
Your only hope is to watch and support Keith Olberman on MSNBC, and of course The Daily Show/Colbert Report.

As for the afterlife, I like how Gregory House put it in the first season of House (Three Stories); when asked if he finds it more comforting to believe that this (life) is "it", he responds, "I find it more comforting to believe that all this isn't simply a test."

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

As was pointed out in comments on the Israeli-Hizbollah cease-fire thread yesterday, there are a lot of people out there who are looking forward to Armageddon, the Rapture, whatever you want to call it, because they will be going home to Jesus.

I really do think that most christians that think this, won't.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

The Apocalypse has already happened. The forces of evil came and destroyed civilization; Nero's heirs met their just reward, just as predicted. The good people were taken up to heaven as saints and martyrs, and everybody else got left behind. We had a thousand year Dark Age, a cold darkness seized the world, vikings and infidels and Huns and other bad people came to punish us. Then we got over it.

And the cycle keeps going around. Just as Lord Tammuz, born of the virgin goddess Ishtar on the day of the feast-day of Saturn, died for our sins and was reborn, the King Who Was will come again. (Praise Elvis!)

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

What I find amusing is that every time there's a huge natural disaster, some wingnut finds a way to claim it's his god's "vengeance" on America for (fill in the blank: abortions, gays, divorce, whatever).

Yaknow, maybe if these things were hitting places like Rhose Island and Massachusetts and San Francisco, I might have pause to think. But no, the places generally getting clobbered the hardest are the Bible Belters themselves--Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi.

If I believed in a god, I might think he was saying something else there...

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

Any "god" who would do that is not worthy of being considered a deity. For one thing, the priorities are wrong and the attitude toward creation is pathological. For another, given that the pathology is The Divine Order of Things, the aim is lousy -- but then, a cruel and incompetent god allows people to better tolerate cruel and incompetent leaders; we emulate what we worship. But those hit hardest tend to think it's all about them anyway, and there's always been at least a latent component of sadomasochism in fundamentalism. Poor human beings. So full of potential. So flaming nuts.

The Great Game...

[corvuswageslave.livejournal.com]

So there was this game a few years back, I think it was called Black and White, where you could play a god and crush your peoples or heal them and stuff. The more of this crazy stuff I see, the more I start to wonder if we're not just all virtual programs in a Live Action SIMS simulation...

Okay... and now that the brain is wrapping around that...

With apologies to Warren Zevon...

The Envoy, 2006 Edition...

Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Israel is attacking the Lebanese
Bush is a mad at the Iranis
An' Hezbollah does whatever they please...
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Things got hot in the US, oh!
NSA got caught and couldn't do no mo'
He's got diplomatic immunity
He's got a lethal weapon that nobody sees
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Send the envoy
Send the envoy
Whenever there's a crisis
The President sends his envoy in
Yellowcake in Niger...
Oh, Abu Gharaib...
Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Bush gettin' punk'd by the Iraqis
The Israelis are attacking the Lebanese
And Tehran do whatever she please
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the envoy
Send the envoy . . .
Send for me