OK, the gloves are off, I am so sick and tired of the religious right in the US I no longer even pretend to offer the simplest of courtesies, indifference. Nope if you approach me with any kind of superstitious explanation for anything you will get short shrift. The last few days have seen an outpouring of grief and stupidity in equal measure over the downing of an American helicopter in Afghanistan and the tragic loss of 38 men, 31 US special forces and 7 Afghan soldiers Helicopter Downed Facebook status's are overwhelmed with prayers to Jesus and demands for retribution. I cringed as I listened to relatives and friends assert with absolute certainty that their loved ones were with Jesus and that the evil doers would get what they had coming.
I understand that there is a coping mechanism at work here, I understand that if you have been brought up in a family and community where people claim divine knowledge with no evidence and are never challenged on their view then superstition is your first port of call when grief arrives out of the blue in the form of a visit from a Chaplain no less. But lets get real here. The reason your loved one is even in a far away country fighting an enemy that loves death more than life is precisely because God wills it, Inshallah.
The US is in Afghanistan because it was attacked by a group of people so certain that God is on their side that they were literally prepared to die to prove it. This level of certainty is beyond the understanding of even the most devout of Christians. So in the world of demons and angels, a world where natural disasters are attributed to magical interventions the most pious are surely those closest to god, in that case we may well be on the losing side, it may be the Christians who are ferried across the Acheron to start their journey following death.
Unless of course you think as I do that it's all nonsense, if you live in a natural world, a world explained by natural law then you would never be persuaded that it would be a good idea to spend your only life practicing to be dead, never mind hastening your own and others toward that splendid sleep because it said so in a holy book written and plagiarized by persons unknown at an undetermined time, translated and edited by further persons unknown in a desperate attempt to control those around you and fleece the flock.
It is entirely because of crazy superstition and circular reasoning that those men were even in that helicopter in the dark sky over Afghanistan in the first place, your god, my god, good god, it drives me crazy! And don't forget it was the US who financed and trained the Mujahedeen in the first place to fight the godless Soviets. Apparently God had a plan for the poor bastards torn apart and scattered over the mountain that night but getting home to their loved ones wasen't in it. But his is a win/win game, your husband survives he wins, he dies, he wins, what a game, is it any wonder everyone plays it?
Well almost everyone, not me, no sir. Whipped into a frenzy the crowds crush into the churches to be reassured it will all be over soon, that the savior will be coming soon. All our trials and tribulations will come to an end when Jesus returns, soon, it's always soon, like a rainbows end the day never seems to quite arrive. When our elected officials throw up their hands and declare that they cannot fix the problems they were elected to fix and instead call upon divine help holding prayer days, you know we are in trouble. Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to announce his candidacy as President of The United States of America "soon" this man, this joke who freely admits he can't sort out the budget deficit in Texas wants the whole can of worms, he wants to be in charge of the most powerful country in the world and then hand over the running of that country to a bronze age mythical sky fairy! You couldn't make this shit up.
Such is the grip that the religious right has on this country, behavior such as Governor Perry's barely raises an eyebrow, stupidity on that scale ought to raise serious concerns about a mans judgment, but no, here in the US along with such enlightened societies as Iran and Pakistan this craziness is seen as a virtue. We are in trouble alright but we need to address our problems with full and frank discussion and a large dose of reality, there is no room for bronze age philosophy in 21st century economics and politics. Stand up, stop being polite, nothing fails like prayer and next time your elected official mentions Jesus, tell him to get on with his job and leave off the Kool-Aid.
Rant over
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