Reading CNN today I found that Pat Robertson has again pissed off a large mass of people. Apparently he called the major stroke suffered by Ariel Sharon an act of “divine retribution” for dividing the holy land.
Such nonsense could be expected from zealots of any religion but traveling back to America I was struck by just how much of this there was in my home country and the hypocrisy associated with it.
Much of America is fixated on the radical Muslim clerics as dangerous, idiotic, backward people who are against progress and prefer to impose on other their superstitious beliefs.
And it’s true, that in the Middle East there many countries have extremely large populations of backward people who choose to live as though it were 100 BC. The radical and even un-radical segments cover their women from head to toe for this simple reason that they don’t think they could control themselves from trying to hump everything that walks by. Only if they blow themselves up and kill innocent people can they begin their humping of 72 virgins in Heaven. How sad is that? They are living proof that we have evolved from Apes, even though I don’t mean to insult the Ape since even they can control themselves better than many men.
However, what many Americans fail to see is that it has it’s own brand of Radical Cleric by another, and for them more comforting name, called the “Pastor.” While I was back home, I counted no fewer than 10 Christian morning shows which hyped up their congregations into a crying, hyper-excited frenzy.
Among the most ridiculous was the “divine money transfer” where the preacher promised that if you came to his church and truly believed, God would actually put money into your bank account or give you a new house. This was alongside his sales of holy water, payable by cash on delivery to purify your home.
Among the most popular shows is the 500 club which is a bunch of idiots who get together, condemn everyone who is not Christian and are basically a grouping of the greatest minds from Farmtown, Iowa who get all the learnin’ they need from the Bible.
Their leader acted just as violent as the radical clerics by calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. The only reason they probably haven’t actually tried to do it, is we live in an excellent country who usually does not let religious fanatics do what they want (current government excluded). Pat also said that “hell-fire and brimstone” would descend upon a small town in Pennsylvania for favoring evolution being taught over “intelligent” design.
Therefore, it is interesting to note how many Americans feel threatened by the radical Muslim cleric but more comfortable with their own brand.
It will be an interesting point of history 1000 years from now when future generations look back at the technical progress being made at this time, but the relative failure to let go of the superstitious beliefs and traditions of organized religion. Through science, and the amount of knowledge available to us, many still believe that sprinkling their house with “holy” water will somehow magically protect them. They still believe that sacrificing things on an alter and consuming that which is sacrificed will transfer strength to them just as the pagans of old. Although now they don’t kill living things since they are “civilized” but prefer to do it symbolically.
Just imagine trying to explain this ritual to an outsider. Yes, the Christians are sacrificing their king on the alter. In ancient times, it had to be a living thing in which they would eat the skin (if you call it flesh it’s less revolting to some) and drink the blood. They believe that the strength of the sacrificed will be passed to them if they eat it. But now, they do not like to sacrifice living things anymore because they consider themselves “civilized.”
They are also cannibals in a sense since they believe that by eating their “savoir” they will be saved from something bad after death. This is because they were taught that they were basically born bad and if they don’t do what the church tells them to they will go to some (imaginary) place called “Hell.”
