The
phrase "cognitive dissonance" is making the rounds among progressives these
days to describe just exactly how this country could even think about reelecting
the Chimperor. Fundamentalists are the very personification of that cognitive
dissonance. In fact, their influence must be destroyed if our democracy
is to survive. Under our constitution -- including freedom of speech and
religion -- the only legitimate way to destroy their influence is to discredit
it beyond all repair in the public's mind. But first, to understand why
their influence must be destroyed, you have to understand what they're
about.
Consider
just a few observations from your daily life. You are reading these words
using a computer monitor that probably has a cathode ray tube firing electrons
at a phosphorous target. Without our understanding of quantum physics,
you wouldn't be reading this. The communication signals between my computer
and yours very likely travel some of the distance through space, bouncing
off a communications satellite in geosychronous orbit. That satellite was
placed in orbit thanks to the laws of physics postulated by one Isaac Newton
300 years ago, as modified slightly by one Albert Einstein right at a hundred
years ago. [For those of you wondering, the Special Theory of Relativity
was first published in 1905.]
Also
in orbit around the earth is the Hubble Space Telescope, which has taken
photographs of galaxies which are 12,000,000,000 light years from the earth.
A light year is around 6,000,000,000,000 -- that's six trillion -- miles.
Which means that those galaxies are some 72,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
miles away. That's 72 thousand million million million miles away. In other
words, the universe is a big fucking place, and we are a very tiny part
of it.
We
also pretty well know how long our sun has been around -- four and a half
billion years. We know this because we actually know quite a bit about
the thermonuclear reaction that fires it We know how much hydrogen it has
relative to helium -- which is what that thermonuclear reaction creates
-- so that we can tell using the rate of consumption of its fuel how long
it's been around, and how long it's likely to last. As to how we know the
mechanics of this thermonuclear reaction, that's simple. We have the technology
to create the very same thermonuclear reaction that fires the sun, right
here on earth. In fact, a single Trident nuclear submarine carries enough
thermonuclear warheads to pretty much destroy the world. So we can have
a high level of confidence in our knowledge of how old the sun is, since
we recreate it's basic process.
Closer
to home, we can look around at our own geology. We can look things like
mountains, and figure out just how the hell they got there. We notice,
for example, that those mountains contain things like seashells -- suggesting
that those mountains were seabeds at one point. Fundamentalists say that
is evidence of Noah's flood. Unfortunately the known life cycle of clams
and oysters throws cold water on that theory. Forty days and forty nights
of rain, followed by six months of flood wouldn't be enough to grow clams
and oysters, and then bury them deep in sedimentary rock. Oh, and the volume
of water necessary to inundate all of the continents in their entirety
would fill up the Atlantic Ocean. I don't think forty days and forty nights
is quite long enough to dump that much rain.
Then
of course, there are the bones of those rather large lizards who used to
live here, but don't anymore. They are found in some of that sedimentary
rock in the mountains, suggesting they were here a mighty long time ago.
In light of what we know, by virtue of recreating the thermonuclear reaction
that drives the sun, concluding that the earth has been around as long
as the sun has, and that gee whiz, long extinct creatures used to live
on it, isn't a stretch in my view. In fact, given the astounding photographs
from the Hubble Space Telescope, and the wonders of quantum mechanics and
both Newtonian and Einsteinian mechanics that give you tangible beneifts
you can reach out and touch, it's pretty clear to me that the earth has
been around one hell of a lot longer than six thousand years, and took
longer to whip up and populate with life than a mere six days.
And
that is just looking at some rather obvious empirical evidence. It is at
the level of "pure reason" that the Genesis story falls apart -- at least
in so far as its "literal truth" is concerned. Consider a few simple claims
made by religious fundamentalists. God is omniscient, they tell us. He
knows everything. He is also omnipresent -- everywhere that is. Yet in
the Genesis story of the fall of humanity, God was off somewhere while
Eve was being tempted. Perhaps he stepped into a back corner of the Garden
of Eden to take a whiz. When he came back, he was calling for Adam and
Eve, and actually had to look for them. This from an "omniscient" god,
who should have known where they were, indeed should have been right there
with them. He should have been watching the serpent tempt Eve -- allowing
it to happen, whatever implications that might have.
In
short, something's got to give. Either God was neither omniscient nor omnipresent,
or the Genesis story is inaccurate. Either way, the fundamentalists are
wrong about one or the other of their fundamental beliefs. I'll leave it
to them to figure out which one. The point is that I have found a logical
inconsistency that wipes out at least one of their major beliefs -- just
three pages into the first book of their bible.
By
this point, you should be able to see why the likes of me are a major league
pain in the ass to the likes of Jerry Falwell. I'm a thinking man, as well
as being educated into the basic facts and the underlying world-view of
science. I believe that the universe and everything in it has more or less
fixed properties, that can be understood with our minds, and tested with
empirical methods. I believe the best tool to understand the universe is
our reason. Faith actually has a place in our knowledge. I've never seen
an electron. In the end, an "electron" is a theoretical construct -- a
set of mathematical equations. But those equations predict a pattern of
certain observable phenomena. So far, we have observed just what the equations
tell us we should. Hence, the computer screen humming along just fine in
front of you. So my faith in the existence of electrons is backed up with
both reason and observation. It isn't blind. That faith will be modified
as new evidence, and new thinking requires me to modify it.
Faith
and reason can get along together just fine, so long as faith is intelligent.
The faith of fundamentalists is anything but. Fundamentalists such as Jerry
Falwell believe in things for which there is zero evidence. They believe
in things for which there is an ocean of contrary evidence. They also believe
things that defy that thing known as "common sense." Finally they believe
in things that are logically contradictory to the point that they simply
can't be true. They are forever on the defensive from assholes like me
who are rude enough to point these things out to them. Still they persist,
many of them becoming outright enemies to the entire worldview of modern
science, and the most fundamental principles of reason -- principles presumably
given to us by none other than the Almighty, himself.
Thus,
do fundamentalist christians reject rationality itself. They have placed
themselves at odds with the very foundation of modern science, technology
and the culture on which it is based -- even as they watch their televisions,
work on their computers, and otherwise make use of technology that would
never be possible using their frankly medieval system of thinking. Not
only are their beliefs a morass of contradiction, their very existences
are. And we know why -- because they tell us incessantly. Fear. Specifically,
fundamentalists fear the fires of hell, believing they are compelled by
the threat of eternal punishment to accept realities that their own minds
and experience ought to tell them are patently false.
At
bottom, the entire fundamentalist worldview is a cosmic order built on
fear and intimidation. Let us consider that worldview, examining its basic
fundamentals in the light of the reason the good Lord sought fit to endow
us with, but the fundamentalists feel compelled to reject. Let's just lay
out some of the core principles.
We
have already discussed the mutually exclusive beliefs that God is omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent, and the bible is the unerring literal truth. .According
to them, God is also perfectly just. God is loving. In fact, "he so loved
the world, he gave his only begotten son, and whosoever believes in him
shall not perish but have everlasting life." Let's take a closer at that
"love" and "justice" -- as the fundamentalists conceive it.
Human
beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and . . .
.
. . they are sinful and evil. Say what??? Does that mean God is sinful
and evil?
Apparently
not. It seems that the first humans were disobedient. God put them in paradise,
and right smack in the middle of paradise he put the "tree of knowledge."
He told them they could eat the fruit of any other tree in the garden,
except for that one. Then he stepped out for a little while -- notwithstanding
his omnipresence. Then a serpent showed up to tempt Eve with the fruit
of the tree God left right smack in the middle of the garden. Mind you,
God doesn't want human beings eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge,
which raises the question of why exactly it was he put the god damn thing
in there to start with. It's like leaving your .357 on the dining room
table, then leaving your child in the house while you run to the grocery
store, telling little Adam, 'play with anything you like, but leave the
.357 alone.'" Yeah right. You can absolutely depend on little Adam to mind.
Imagine such a parent coming home and being shocked -- shocked -- to find
out little Adam played with the gun and shot his little friend, Eve. According
to the fundamentalists, God hasn't got as much sense as your average parent,
who knows better than the leave things lying around you don't want your
children playing with.
The
fundamentalists' perfectly just and perfectly loving God isn't through.
Having left the "forbidden fruit" right in the middle of the Garden of
Eden, God apparently left the back gate open, so that the serpent -- paradise's
version of Eddie Haskell -- could wander in and put ideas into the Eve's
head. The serpent did this, by the way, in the absence of that "omnipresent"
god, and apparently without God's knowledge -- even though God knows everything.
The omnipotent God -- the one who can do anything -- apparently didn't
see fit to boot the serpent out of the garden on his ear, before the damage
was done. Which completely overlooks the question of why God created the
serpent to start with.
Let's
get down to the obvious question, fundamentalists never ask. Whose fuck
up was this? According to the fundamentalists, it was all Eve's fault.
God bears no responsibility for creating a situation that made it all but
certain that Adam and Eve were going to eat that forbidden fruit. Having
set them up to fail, God's infinite justice requires punishment. His infinite
wrath has been invoked, because his creatures disobeyed him. Mind you,
he created the very possibility of disobedience -- just another fuck up
he can't possibility own up to. You see, he's "perfect," so it has to be
somebody else's fault. Funny how that sounds just like the mental gymnastics
of conservatives, when caught in a contradiction. They never admit to their
mistakes, either.
It
just keeps getting better. What does the infinitely just god do with his
disobedient creatures -- the one's who have fallen into a state of fundamental,
metaphysical, immutable sin and evil. Does he snuff them out, toss them
into the cosmic dumpster, and head back to the drawing board? Oh hell no.
He sends these fundamentally flawed "evil" creatures forth from the Garden
of Eden and tells them "be fruitful and multiply." Yeah, that makes sense.
Two creatures have made you infinitely angry, and summoned forth your need
for infinite justice. So you send them out to propagate -- thus infinitely
multiplying your need for "perfect justice."
The
progeny of Adam and Eve didn't waste any time, either. One of their two
sons promptly wasted the other one in a rage of jealousy. As the history
of the twentieth century attests, things have only gotten worse. So here's
the skinny. God created the circumstances of our fall, was infinitely angry
when we did what any idiot could have predicted, and then compounded the
problem by leaving us around to reproduce billions of sinful, evil, "fallen"
brothers and sisters. Having done all of that, he is eternally hacked off
about all of the carnage we create in the world -- carnage he apparently
never saw coming. Exactly what kind of dumbass is the god of the fundamentalists
imagination? I ask again. Whose fuck-up was this?
Now,
the fundamentalists tell us that God loves us -- notwithstanding his eternal
wrath and need for justice. So he's going to save us -- or at least some
of us. We are all his creatures, mind you. We are all descendents of Eve
-- imperfect sinful creatures, eternally stained by her initial disobedience.
That would be eating the forbidden fruit, God carelessly left lying around.
Unfortunately, only some of us get rescued from this hell on earth, none
of us created but were born into.
Not
only that, but the mechanism for our salvation is entirely arbitrary. God
sends his son down to earth, to live in a remote corner of the Roman Empire.
All you have to do to get back on God's good side -- remember, this shit
pit we all live in is your fault, not his -- is "believe." Now of course,
having been fruitful and multiplied, there are a substantial numbers of
us who live in corners of the earth that are thousands of miles distant
from that remote corner of the Roman Empire. They've never heard of Jesus.
God's answer to those folks is simple. Tough shit.
That
shit, by the way, is plenty tough. You see, the "just" punishment for your
sinfulness -- the sinfulness you inherited from Eve for eating fruit God
left lying around -- is to burn forever in the lake of fire. Have you ever
burned yourself for even a second? Multiply that by eternity. That's how
pissed off God is at you. Never mind that he set things up that way. He
put the forbidden fruit right smack in the middle of the garden of eden.
He created the serpent, and let him into the garden. He wandered off and
left Adam and Eve unsupervised. When they eternally and ontologically corrupted
themselves, he sent them out to create billions of corrupted copies of
themselves -- creating a whole world full of sin and evil. And who has
to pay for this hopelessly fucked up mess by burning forever in the lake
of fire? You do. What a guy that fundamentalist god is. Doesn't this whole
cosmology just have "justice" written all over it?
One
conclusion can be drawn from the cosmology of the fundamentalists. God
is a hapless dolt, who has created a world that is a hopelessly fucked
up mess. He is also a snivelling coward, refusing to take responsibility
for the mess he created. Instead, he has passed the buck to you and I who
had the misfortune to be born into this hopelessly fucked up mess. Even
his effort at fixing it is half-assed, leaving 75% of us to roast in hell,
because the "patch" relies on highly unreliable human communication to
spread the word. As for those New Guinea headhunters who didn't get the
"heads up" on their one way journey to hell, well they're just shit out
of luck.
Of
course, there is an alternative explanation. God could indeed be omniscient
-- intelligence at its purest. In that case, the situation we humans find
ourselves in -- eternally corrupted by the original sin of Eve -- wasn't
a fuck up at all. It was God's intent. He knew Eve would eat that fruit.
He knew that all of her descendents would be stained with sin, and would
commit all manner of abomination. He could have reached into her head and
fixed the "bug" right then. But he didn't. He deliberately and purposefully
allowed the infection to spread over all the earth. Instead of making the
Gospel as self-evident a proposition as say, the cummutative principle
of addition -- one any idiot can understand -- and establishing secure
means to save ourselves that are guaranteed to reach every one affected,
he deliberately created an imperfect system.
He
gave us minds with which to reason. But he doesn't like it when we use
that reason. In short, he has intentionally placed us in a hopeless situation,
and then demanded unreasoned blind belief as the price tag for "salvation"
from this hell of his own creation. Just to make the whole thing interesting,
he threatens you with burning forever if you don't throw away your god-given
reason -- which he apparently endowed you with just to make your job all
that much more difficult. Instead of ruling his creation with reason, the
fundamentalist god has created a universe of raw, arbitrary power. There
are no ethics in that universe. Only politics. Believe in Jesus and join
the team, and god will bring you up to heaven to "praise and glorify his
name." Apparently, God has something of a self-esteem problem -- as well
he should. He is a hopeless narcissist, who has basically created this
whole sham in order to have a small herd of terrified and docile supplicants,
bowing and scraping before his throne in eternal gratitude for not being
thrown into that lake of fire. Absolute power corrupts absolutely we are
told, and one need only look at the awful metaphysical terror God inflicts
on his "children" to understand what infinite corruption is created when
one's power is infinite.
If
the god of the fundamentalists isn't simply a simpering dolt, he is --
far from being good and just -- an unimaginably twisted and sick bastard.
Imagine being a parent of four children. You whisper to one of those children,
"go tell your brothers and sisters that if they don't worship me as a god,
I'm going to burn the house down with them in it." One of those children
believes it. Another one doesn't, and the last child never gets the word
-- because the first child forget to tell her about it. True to your word,
you save the first two, and burn the other two alive. Anyone out there
have a problem taking that parent and promptly putting them on the end
of a rope? That's the god of the fundamentalists -- the one they "praise
and worship" with such doe eyed devotion.
Here's
the thing. They don't have a problem in the world with this cosmology.
You point these things out to them, they are quite stoic about the whole
thing. "Oh well. That's what the bible says. That's just how it is." In
fact, they have absolutely no sense of the cosmic injustice of the whole
thing. They are mindless, unthinking, callous animals, breaking their own
private deal with the cosmic power structure. They're just saving their
own skins. To hell with everybody else.
As
for the political world -- the one we create here -- we should not be surprised
that the "earthly kingdom" these assholes create mirrors the cosmic kingdom.
They are largely indifferent to the suffering of other human beings. They're
just looking out for themselves. In a sense, the fundamentalist cosmology
of "believe, or else" is perfectly suited to the soulless American middle
class. Suck up to the boss, and get a ticket to affluence. Everyone else
can live life as a corporate serf. As for poverty, hunger, ignorance, disease
and war, the boss doesn't give a shit about that stuff. Hell, he helps
create it. So the fundamentalists don't care either. Instead they worry
about the trifling sins the boss has become fixated on. Has the US killed
100,000 civilians in Iraq, in a war based on bogus intelligence, if not
outright lies? Did tens of thousands of children die last week from malnutrition,
filthy drinking water or preventable diseases? Did some of those children
march off to work in sweatshops owned by American capitalists? Are people
who are seeking to improve these awful conditions gunned down every single
day by right-wing hoodlums who will countenance limitless human misery
for the sake of their own privileges? None of that bothers God the least
little bit. Instead, a man sucking another man's dick is what really gets
God's goat. That is what he just can't tolerate. He's not going to punish
America for the 100,000 civilians killed in Iraq, or the 50,000 people
killed by the CIA backed Pinochet regime, or the 2,000,000 Vietnamese killed
by American bombs and bullets, or the mass of landless impoverished brown
people exploited by American corporations. Instead, he's going to punish
America, because some of our citizens look at nekked pictures in Penthouse,
or buy beer on Sunday. Jesus spoke of those who "strain at gnats and swallow
camels." Now you know what he meant.
How
do you like the picture so far, of these soulless cretans who call themselves
"righteous?" By now you should understand their militant hostility to reason.
Look at the job I just did on them, applying just a little basic logic
to their bizarre cosmology. For them to continue their insouciant lives,
in blissful ignorance of the misery others suffer to pay for them, they
can't allow the least glimmer of rationality to intrude. So they don't.
Meanwhile,
the Republican fascists are hard at work perpetuating the willful ignorance
of what is apparently a majority of the American public. The superstition
and fear of our christian fundamentalist is but the tight inner core of
a much broader and pervasive ignorance, rampant in today's America. The
fundamentalists merely provide the paradigm model, showing the rest of
"Middle America" how to turn away from what their eyes show them, and their
God-given rational minds would teach them -- if they could stand to listen.
The entire ethos of Republican America is just an earthly version of the
fundamentalist cosmology. Get yours -- your place in heaven, that is. To
hell with everybody else. And don't ask too many impertinent questions.
The corporate master might give you a dose of divine wrath. Just swallow
whatever propaganda he's peddling this week. Whatever you do, don't allow
reason or evidence to intrude on your godly thoughts.
Now
you know why the fundamentalist worldview has survived the wretched Middle
Ages that spawned it. It is tailor made for the grooming of mindless corporate
drones. It will come in handy, when the corporate fascists complete their
work of reestablishing feudalism. It teaches the new industrial serfs the
one lesson they need to learn, and learn quick. Don't question the arbitrary
and ruthless power of the lord. Instead, tell him how "good" and "just"
he is. That same absurd cosmology of fear and intimidation, likewise has
no place among intelligent, rational human beings who govern themselves,
and wish to live as free people. Fundamentalists are the enemies of freedom,
democracy and reason itself.
It
is high time we treated them as such.