And About the Bible . . .

                                                                                       

 Some years ago, we had a lovely couple as long-time tenants of the house where Justin and family now live. They were excellent tenants, not only keeping everything in good repair, but making needed improvements. They were also committed Jehovah's Witnesses.

                                                                                       

They asked, at our first meeting, if that would be a problem and we said of course not--but we're not interested in Watchtowers and Bible study. 

That understood, we had an excellent relationship. Then, some years later when Ethan was getting ready to go to college, the wife of the pair gave me a book for Ethan to read. All about the Bible and what it means and how to lead a biblical life.

I thanked her and said I'd pass it on to him. But, I warned her, we don't "believe" in the Bible as anything more that a collection of old stories and songs, passed down and changed over and over in the passing.

She was gobsmacked. Around here, the prevalent religion was Baptist and those folks take their Bible seriously. Or pretend to.

                                                                                        

Now I'm the one who's gobsmacked--at the rise of Christian Nationalism in this country--which was founded by people escaping the lack of religious freedom in England.  

Alabama's Chief Justice and Speaker Mike Johnson are two recent examples of politicians basing their decisions on the Bible--which is a lot like using a map from 1700 to drive to California. 

I am wary of a government run by folks who care less for the here and now than a hoped-for heaven. Why worry about the environment? The Rapture will be coming any day.

When John was in grad school at University of Iowa, studying Comparative Religion, I had no job. So I  typed all his papers and, having an interest in the subject, read most of his textbooks. 

It was fascinating to learn how errors in translation and doctrinal disputes had shaped the Bible over the years. Man's work made the book what it is.

In the King James version, it rises to poetry in places. Some of the New Testament, the Beatitudes for example, is pretty darn woke. But the Inerrant Word of God? Give me a break.

Running a government based on the 'Holy Book' of a subset of the population is wrong. It would be wrong if it were the Queran, the Vedas, the Analects of Confucious, the Torah, the Tripitaka. . . or Atlas Shrugged or the poems of Rod McKuen.

And it's wrong when it's the Bible.

The Snake Oil Wars

                                                                  

The sequel to Waiting for the Galactic Bus, this 1989 novel is, sadly, even more relevant today. Darkly humorous, it's also a warning and a philosophic manifesto. 

Consider the dedication: "To those lucid and courageous minds who gave you the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, Falwell, Robertson, and the God-Inspired Rule of the Righteous. To those intrepid souls who fight with unflagging zeal to remove from libraries dangerous books they have not read and from theaters those spiritually toxic films they have not seen, believing that thought is a controlled substance and secular thinking hazardous to mental health."

Thirty-five years later, they're still at it. Today's terrifying watchword is Christian Nationalism. These fundamentalists dream of a USA under the banner of Jesus, with laws based on the Word of God--and they are the ones who'll tell you just what that Word means.

We already see how MAGA eschews 'Woke Jesus,' in favor of Gun-toting, Kickass (or Republican) Jesus. Theirs is not a world I want to live in, any more than I would want to live under Sharia law or under a Dear Leader (the former guy's wet dream) as in North Korea.

Why the Snake Oil Wars? Because the novel's premise is that mankind creates religion and then relies on it to "fix" everything with thoughts and prayers. Just like Snake Oil.

                         

                                                                                    

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

                              

One of those book pushers on Facebook (Mario? Barbara?) suggested some time back that I might like Small Gods. Oh, I do, I do!

Pratchett's wry humor is at work here, as is his wisdom. I found myself bookmarking many passages, and, rather than undertake a review, I'm going to do some quoting.

 

"Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water. A mere quantum-mechanistic tunnel effect, that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time."

"It is a popular fact that nine-tenths of the brain is not used and, like most popular facts, it is wrong. Not even the most stupid Creator would go to the trouble of making the human head carry around several pounds of unnecessary gray goo if its only real purpose was, for example, to serve as a delicacy for certain remote tribesmen in unexplored valleys. It is used. And one of its functions is to make the miraculous seem ordinary and turn the unusual into the usual."

"Because if this was not the case, then human beings, faced with the daily wondrousness of everything, would go around wearing big stupid grins, similar to those worn by certain remote tribesmen who occasionally get raided by the authorities and have the contents of their plastic greenhouses very seriously inspected.  They'd say 'Wow!' a lot. And no one would do much work. "

It's a story about gods and philosophers and religions and turtles and eagles and a fellow with a perfect memory. I loved it. Highly recommended.

God's Thumbprint

Heading out to fill the bird feeder a few mornings ago, I saw this odd oval cloud and thought at once, "God's thumbprint!"

It morphed into something else almost immediately but I was left to ponder why that should have been my immediate reaction, what with being a non-believer and all.

I realized that religious imagery has been a part of my life, from early Methodist Sunday School, to Episcopalian confirmation classes. I still think the language of the King James Bible is beautiful. And as an English major, I found religious imagery everywhere I turned. 

And my life is richer for it. But I'm still a non-believer.