Friday, December 21, 2007

Prophecy Intercessor


When the dude says that we're going to draw a line down the middle of America and set people on fire, I don't think he means it literally. Then again.

Posted by IOZ at 3:16 PM | email »
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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is just...wonderful. What an amazing world this is.

6:18 PM
TGGP said...

Immolation is for buddhists and Billy Beck, silly.

6:56 PM
eric said...

Well it runs from Laredo to Duluth
It's the highway of the Devil, that's the truth.
Stay alive, don't drive I-35

7:01 PM
Anonymous said...

IOZ, here's a little Christmas present for you: A Christopher Hitchens Christmas:
http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/christmas_with_christopher

7:12 PM
stephanie g said...

I strained my eye muscles on: "But how strange is it really that he's using a highway to lead people to the way?"

Lots and lots of quotable stuff in here. Nice find.

7:43 PM
Bruce F said...

The young pod people are aspiring franchisees -

http://greatdivide.typepad.com/across_the_great_divide/ethics/index.html

9:05 PM
Comandante Agí said...

This makes me want to self-immolate.

10:05 PM
The Promiscuous Reader said...

When the newly ex-gay boy says he was on the way to meet his fee-yon-say in the bar, was that a fiance or fiancee? From the context I suppose the former, but who knows? Still, given the usual half-life of being born in the spirit, I expect he'll be back on his knees in a week or two.

12:13 AM
The Promiscuous Reader said...

And my comment has been Saved. Praise Jesus! Hallelujah!

12:14 AM
The Culture Ghost said...

Aren't these the same people who find images of Jesus burned into their toaster ovens? Or am I confusing them
with another group?

1:35 AM
Brian said...

The Catholics are usually a little more visually oriented, Mr. Ghost. It comes from attending traditional churches dripping in religious art. when you attend a big box store "church" by the freeway, your visual senses are less "sensitive" to the spirit

2:33 AM
divadab said...

Hey - these people have serious aspects of true religion - but turned to bad purpose of hate and exclusion.

They read John the Divine without seeing who are the false prophets........

Wild and dark times, indeed!

Juice it up, dance it up!

divadab

7:36 PM
Brian said...

Which true religion? The Book of Mormon? Islam? Zoroarstrianism? Hinduism?

Almost all religions busily turn their imaginary doctrines to hate and exclusion. That's the entire point.

6:18 PM
The Promiscuous Reader said...

That's not because they're religions; it's because they're social institutions. Humans are social animals, hence we form groups that include some and exclude most. Sometimes we call them families, sometimes we call them tribes, or nations, races, or football teams, or fan clubs. (Beatles vs. Stones. Beatles vs. Monkees. Country vs. rap.) I'm not sure that religions are worse in this regard than sports -- witness the riots that follow either victories or losses. Most religions contain material respecting -- in theory -- the humanity of outsiders. That this material isn't all that effective says something about humanity, not about religions.

11:29 PM
Brian said...

I can't deny you are making some good points, PR, but by claiming ABSOLUTE TRUTH, I still believe religions exagerate and exacerbate these tendencies. That very claim to universal and absolute truth can certainly be laid at the foot of religion. Rioting soccer teams do not really deny the basic humanity of their opponents, do they? Religions can and do.

12:17 PM
The Promiscuous Reader said...

Brian, people do get killed in those soccer riots, which are usually the work of the fans, not of the teams. The teams are busy exchanging shirts and hugging each other's firm, muscular, sweaty torsos.... ahem. Excuse me.

You'd better believe that sports fans will deny the basic humanity of the fans of other teams. And it's absolute, because arbitary: Our Team Is The Best Because They're Our Team, and The Other Team Sucks Because They're Not. (Also note the regular use of violent imagery in sports reporting, as well as more general martial/combat imagery. Defeat. Victory. Etc.)

As for your remarks about ABSOLUTE TRUTH, are they claims to possess ABSOLUTE TRUTH? Kinda sounds like it. But more important is that the current crop of pop atheists also claim to possess ABSOLUTE TRUTH, and advocate with varying degrees of frenzy the extermination of ragheads who Hate Our Values. (Hitchens especially knows better -- he's written enough about the atrocities waged by the US, the UK and Israel against Muslims. The insurgents are fighting us in Baghdad so they won't have to fight us in Tehran.)

I do speculate that religion might "exaggerate and exacerbate these tendencies." While I was writing my previous comment I remembered the Prisoner Experiment, where otherwise nice young fellows turned into thugs when put into a position of power over other nice young fellows. The thing is, "religion" is not a distinct, discrete phenomenon, it's an abstraction, like "art" or "science." And "science" is also pretty good at absolutizing its truth claims and denying the humanity of certain groups of human beings, witness for example the 20th-century US eugenic laws which led to the sterilization of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of human beings. Focusing on "religion" as the root of evil is a distraction from the real problem -- you're doing exactly what you attack religion for doing. (Sort of like people who say that it's wrong to make moral judgments.)

As I said before: Most religions contain material respecting -- in theory -- the humanity of outsiders. [Just as scientists pay lip service to the fallibility of science, with equal sincerity.] That this material isn't all that effective says something about humanity, not about religions.

12:16 PM

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