BabySky

I felt so sleezy in the bookshop earlier. I tried oxfam first but could only find books about the bible and god etc. One of them was called "How To Read The Old Testament" - oh dear.

When I went to a "real" bookshop and was confronted by an assistant I felt like I was buying pornography. - "Do you need any help?" - aaaahhh! - why did she have to say it like THAT? Like - yes I need help -do you have a bible? Keeping my voice down looking really shifty
"erm? do you have a bible-I'm not a christian or anything honestly". When they directed me to the back of the shop I joked "hope it's on the top shelf away from children" - it was - fantastic!

"In the begining god created the heaven and the earth" - ok so we're off to a pretty bad start as that is utter nonsense and provably so. But let's not start taking it literally as apparently, according to many theologians, we should not. By page 3 (appropriately enough!) this version of god has advocated the oppression of women - from genesis chapter 3 verse 16: "and thy desire shall be (ha! love the emphasis - god's early material has me in stiches) to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" - WHAT! Ok so he's a misogynist but at least he hasn't killed anyone yet. Oh and what was the heinous crime Eve had committed? Well the awful woman was tempted by a talking snake and she ate from a tree (where does all this stuff to do with apples come from?) apparently of "knowledge" but the only knowledge that seems to be imparted is that they should feel a little bit embarrassed to be naked.

Then there's some really weird stuff where for some reason god doesn't much care for his five-a-day preferring Abel's meat offering to Cain's veggie delights (sounds like a shop name?!?!). Cain gets pissed off about this and kills his bro. Whoo-hoo - first murder and only on chapter 4. Oddly enough god has to ask Cain where Abel is but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just seeing whether Cain would 'fess up and not that the big guy wasn't omniscient at this point.

At last some genocide in chapter 7 - you know that bit where he destroys every living thing on the planet apart from selected animals and Noah's family by means of drowning. But hang on - what about the fish? Presumably they (and other organisms perfectly capable of living in water) were ok - they're not actually mentioned. Why should fish get "let off the hook" and women have to do all that suffering and stuff.

Ok so far this god doesn't seem like a very nice guy - vengence all the way. Ok so perhaps we shouldn't take all this stuff literally but how should we take it? A moral lesson? Be really scared of me and do what I say 'cos I can wipe you all out if you piss me off? What a tosser! Like the begatting though - bloody loads of it!

Someone suggested to me that it would be pointless trying to convince a religious person with enough conviction to blow themselves to hell (it's just an expression Marge!) - oops, sorry, I mean "to paradise" - that there is no god and they were probably right. However [and ok I'm not being completely serious - I don't really think I'd convince anyone using this (or any) argument] if I were to point out to this presumably very suggestable person, that at some point in history, a mistranslation occured and instead of 72 virgins (hmm? I wonder if it's supposed to be the same bribe for female martyrs - maybe they're not allowed - oh f*ck now there's another book I'll have to read - d'oh!), he should expect 72 white raisins of crystal clarity, would he still be so willing? The sad answer to that is probably yes.

Anyway - getting serious - I was already worried about what's happening in the States. Subville sent me the audio from an American TV show from years ago "Crossfire" where Frank Zappa expresses his observation that America was fast becoming a fascist theocracy. I think Frank would be as horrified as I was if read the following (though probably not in the least bit surprised)...

From "Letter to a Christian Nation" - Sam Harris...
"Forty-four percent of the American population is convinced that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next fifty years. According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry here on earth. It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen — the return of Christ. It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves — socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency".

Far fetched? I don't think so - and although it is worrying enough that this is going on in one of the most powerful nations on this planet, I've noticed over the years that what happens in the states tends to drift across the pond - some kind of cultural osmosis or something. Only last week I ended up in a discussion with a member of "the audience" listening to someone who at first appreared to be 'a nice young man' probably not really doing any harm - WRONG! Creationist alert - cover your children's ears! The dipstick from the audience was one of them and actually had the nerve to give me "the evidence is all around you" claptrap. After having a quick look around and finding no evidence of god anywhere I said "You're going to tell me to look at that tree aren't you?" He did! Poor guy - he believes the tree was somehow designed by some kind of cosmic magician (thou will like this - but when I've finished designing pigeons - not a lot!), whereas I'm fairly certain (as certain as I am that I can't walk through a brick wall) that Darwin et al. got it right and as far as I know there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary.

I am glad to say there were no young children listening to this nutter but there could have been.

Am I being an alarmist? I hope so but if Sam Harris's 44% statistic (don't know where he got that from but I've heard similar stats from other sources) is reasonably accurate then I think I have every reason to be worried.