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During the 2004 election, Bush & Kerry agreed on only one thing: the greatest danger in the world is "nuclear terrorism".
Wrong. Wrong. WRONG.
The worst danger in the world is religious fundamentalism. Through its behavior, evils such as nuclear terrorism follow as a matter of course.
Religious fundamentalism gave us the obliteration of almost every early Christian denomination prior to 300AD, leaving only the Roman Catholic Church. Since they'd gained the power of the Roman Empire, they turned on their spiritual brethren and mercilessly stamped them out, as well as anyone else who got in the way.
Read your history.
Religious fundamentalism gave us the purges and slaughters of Asoka against the Buddhists of India, until the day his eyes were opened.
Religious fundamentalism gave us the Crusades and the suicidal Witch hysteria which blanketed the whole of Europe, and still recurs, now and then, today. Protestant or Catholic doesn't matter; it was embraced by both equally. Martin Luther and John Calvin hated quite a lot of people, as is amply shown through a perusal of their own writings.
Now and then, up to the 1900's, religious fundamentalism led to the outright purges of Catholics, Mormons, Jews and others in the United States. The early Puritans were good at driving out or killing anyone who didn't accept their theocracy, Indian or white, Christian or not.
So much for "freedom of religious thought".
And I'm not even talking about what we did to the Native American tribes.
In Japan, religious fundamentalism led to State Shinto and the direct worship of the Emperor as a living god, leading to an Imperial Military which saw the lives of millions of their own people as sacrifices to the glory of the Emperor (and their own power).
The Japanese people were led to believe that such a death was the greatest gift that could be given to them, since the Emperor was a living god (and his ministers and military demigods by default). Hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians and soldiers died in battle or committed suicide due to their indoctrination, and caused in turn the needless deaths of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of innocents.
The Nazi Holocaust against the Jews is another example, and is always in the forefront of religious persecution. The fundamentalism of Nazism was reared mostly in pagan and neomystical faiths, and perverted the respected ancient symbols of other faiths (such as the swastika and Norse runes).
However, the Jews weren't the only victims of Nazi religious fundamentalism: careful reading will show that the regime--Hitler in particular--also had a particular hatred of Christianity, Catholics and Protestants alike. Among Christians, Catholics suffered the worst. Before his fall, Hitler enacted laws had been enacted to replace Bibles with copies of Mein Kampf. Churches were destroyed; clergy and followers were sent to concentration camps.
This doesn't count his hatred of other groups: Poles, Russians, Slavs, blacks, gays. . .Hitler sounds a lot like the people I grew up around.. . .
Oh, and we can't forget what I consider the worst crime ever committed against humanity: The destruction of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and the murder of the last Librarian, Hypatia, by the Christian Bishop of that city, 'round 'bout 323 AD.
(This woulda put it close to the Council of Nicea, where people--NOT GOD--decided what "Christians" would believe in; but that's another story. . .I have decades of bitterness over both.)
That one crime, alone, set the world into spiritual and intellectual darkness for centuries. No other human incident, to my knowledge, has been so profound in its consequences.
. . all that vast knowledge gone. . .a small fraction was held by the Christian Church, but the vast majority of surviving information was preserved and protected by an enlightened Muslim culture. If not for the Muslims--in this instance--I believe we would still be living in even more ignorance than at present.
The violence and bigotry of the Bible makes the Koran look like a bedtime fairytale for toddlers. Problem is, people don't read either. If you have the guts, buy a copy of the Koran and read it. Then open up the Bible and read the Book of Judges, especially the last two chapters
After that, go to the New Testament and study the hatred of "Saint" Paul, cursing anyone who doesn't believe in his version of Jesus; or, for that matter, his upholding of slavery and dehumanization of women.
. . .go ahead. . .I'll wait. . .
Then try to explain to me how evil the Koran is.
(Ahem.)
People conveniently tend to forget--or never notice--that when you point a finger at someone, the other fingers are pointing right back at you.
And, of course, I include myself. I'm damn sure no better than anyone else.
But then, the delusional aspect of humanity includes the fact that humans will question every belief and proposition, save those held most dear to the heart. Religion is usually one of those beliefs.
At this time we have quasi-theocracies springing up everywhere, including the United States. A thinking person, using the brains granted by God, should be able to see it. And recoil.
If not, I guess it's proof intelligence isn't a survival trait after all.
I have always been of the opinion that there have been only two authors of worth produced in the United States, and both of them were from Missouri. One was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. The other was Robert Anson Heinlein.
Like Clemens, Heinlein was practical, yet imaginative; somewhat distant, but noble and affectionate. Heinlein found his forte in writing science fiction, and in doing so inspired generations of scientists. His books on space travel, fiction or nonfiction, paved the way for the Apollo Program. He also wrote a good amount concerning politics and the political process.
His tales were peopled by individuals, not cookie-cutter reflections with painted smiles and plastered attitudes. Probably the most astounding thing about his characters was that they were competent people. This is something usually unheard of, especially nowadays.
Shortly after beginning his writing career, Heinlein started plotting a series of stories bound together as a common projected history of humanity. He based this "Future History" on two basic types of story: "What If?", and "If This Goes On. . ." The latter type became itself the title of a rather important story.
"If This Goes On---" turned out to be a story unlike any other at the time. It posited a world in which The United States had become a theocracy. Religious fundamentalism had taken over the country, and the United States of America had ceased to exist as a republic. Religion in the name of the Holy Prophet overshadowed everything.
Sound familiar? I ain't talkin' 'bout Muslim countries. The "Christian Embassy" has loads of influence in the Pentagon, RIGHT NOW. We're kidnappin' people from other countries and puttin' them to work in Iraq; that is, SLAVERY. Earlier today I posted a news story which shows we got Jim Crow back in gear.
I live in a redneck backwoods part of the country, and it seems to me that people tend to think religion is showing up for church and agreeing with a mouthpiece, not to mention suckin' up to whoever says they're in charge. Thank God for the University here or there'd be no intelligent conversation at all; even at that, sometimes it's a problem.
In 2004, Bush & Company came close to stopping the elections because of "national security" concerns with terrorism. There'd been doubt they'd even be held at the time. This year they're already building prisons for protestors at the political conventions. You can bet there'll be other fun tricks up their sleeves.
Sounds a helluva lot like Heinlein, a helluva lot like "If This Goes On---".
The story itself is available in the omnibus Future History volume, The Past Through Tomorrow. Some years later it was subdivided into other volumes; I have it in front of me now, from the book Revolt In 2100 - Methuselah's Children.
I'd definitely invite each of you to read the story, at least. I have the book turned to his Timeline in the front of the book, written in the latter 1930's-early 1940's. It's notable that directly after the year 2000, under Sociological changes, he listed "rise in religious fanaticism" taking place, followed by "the new crusade". After "rebellion and independence of Venusian Colonies" (the story "Logic of Empire", dealing with slavery), he notes the rise of a "religious dictatorship in US".
You can't make this crap up, folks, these books have been around for decades. If you look carefully at his timeline, you'll see that he perceived an initial space program (including moon landings), followed by decades of neglect in space exploration, only to be finally opened up again.
In view of what's been going on the past seven years, I've been meanin' to post Heinlein's own thoughts on the matter. The following (at length) is taken from "Concerning Stories Never Written: Postscript", in the aforementioned Revolt in 2100 -Methuselah's Children (1939,1940; reissued 1999 by Baen Publishing, paperback, pages 264-266).
So, I'll shuddup and let the Master speak. . .
"I am aware that the themes of the unwritten stories linking the second and this the third volume thus briefly stated above have not been elaborated sufficiently to lend conviction, particularly with reference to these notions; the idea that space travel, once apparently firmly established, could fall into disuse, and secondly the idea that the United States could lapse into a dictatorship of suspicion. As for the first, consider the explorations of the Vikings a thousand years ago and the colonies they established in North America. Their labors were fruitless; Columbus and his successors had to do it all over again. Space travel in the near future is likely to be a marginal proposition at best, subsidized for military reasons. It could die out--then undergo a renaissance through new techniques and through new economic and political pressures. I am not saying these things will happen, I do say they could happen.
"As for the second notion, the idea that we could lose our freedom by succumbing to a wave of religious hysteria, I am sorry to say that I consider it possible. I hope that it is not probable. But there is a latent deep strain of religious fanaticism in this, our culture; it is rooted in our history and it has broken out many times in the past. It is with us now; there has been a sharp rise in evangelical sects in the this country, in recent years, some of which hold beliefs theocratic in the extreme, anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, and anti-libertarian.
"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. This is especially true whether the faith is Communism or Holly-Rollerism; indeed it is the bounden duty of the faithful to do so. The custodians of the True Faith cannot logically admit tolerance of heresy to be a virtue.
"Nevertheless this business of legislating religious beliefs into law has never been more than sporadically successful in this country--Sunday closing laws here and there, birth control legislation in spots, the Prohibition experiment, temporary enclaves of theocracy such as Voliva's Zion, Smith's Nauvoo, a few others. The country is split up into such a variety of faiths and sects that a degree of uneasy tolerance now exists from expedient compromise; the minorities constitute a majority of opposition against each other.
"Could it be otherwise here? Could any one sect obtain a working majority at the polls and take over the country? Perhaps not--but a combination of a dynamic evangelist, television, enough money and modern techniques of advertising and propaganda might make Billy Sunday's efforts look like a corner store compared to Sears-Roebuck. Throw in a depression for good measure, promise a material heaven here on earth, add a dash of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Negroism, and a good large dose of anti-"furriners" in general and anti-intellectuals here at home and the result might be quite frightening--particularly when one recalls that our voting system is such that a minority distributed as pluralities in enough states can constitute a working majority in Washington. . ."
"Impossible? Remember the Klan in the 'Twenties--and how far it got without even a dynamic leader? Remember Karl Marx and note how close that unscientific piece of nonsense called "Das Kapital" has come to smothering out all freedom of thought on half a planet, without--mind you--the emotional advantage of calling it a religion. The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed."
'nuff said.
(originally posted Monday, August 06, 2007 at
http://www.tagworld.com/mattukenobaka/PostDetail.aspx?id=4a32bc16-c302-401e-aa73-5054e4b2b731)
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