Religion is politics about the unknown

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”

For centuries, our ancestors thought they were sinners in the hands of an angry god.

As long as they believed this, they were frightened like cornered animals.

The more they were frightened, the more they believed it.

And the more they believed it, the more they were frightened.

The angry god was not the only thing they had to fear.

It the one thing they feared most.

It was also the one thing they had least to fear from.

The Bible says children are gifts from God to you personally.

The Bible says diseases are judgments from God to you personally.

Christians used to have as many children as they possibly could, not to maximize the number who would survive childhood but to maximize the number who would surround you in heaven.

Usually, half or more died before reaching adulthood, and childbirth itself was so dangerous it was women’s most common cause of death.

The Bible does not contain a single sentence designed to improve medical outcomes, for mothers, infants or anyone else. What it says instead is that the human body is corrupt, the human intellect is worthless, and only God can save.

Whoever believes the Bible will always attribute their pregnancies and other medical outcomes to their personal relationship with God rather than to any necessary or contingent factors.

When your children are at increased risk for early death due to preventable childhood illnesses because you had thirteen when you only had attention for three, the Bible will not help you pay attention or prevent illness. It never has and it never will.

All the Bible is ever going to tell you about parenting is, God’s eye is on the sparrow, he’s the only one who can save your children, and if you stop hitting them, even He will not be able to save them, and it will be your fault, not his.

Of course, we do need to defend ourselves from unseen threats, and knowledge is power.

The fact that women were once banned, by men, in the name of higher power, from holding knowledge or power over men, proves there is no such thing as higher power.

If a minister were to prove his creed, that would be a miracle.

If all of us believe the Bible, nothing will ever be done about climate change. We will burn all the oil, gas and coal we can find and praise Jesus for our blessings while the environment collapses around us.

As the gulf widens between the haves and the have-nots, the haves will thank Jesus for taking so long, the have-nots will ask him nicely to please hurry up, and for another 2,000 years we all will be uttering his name in vain.

If everyone believes the Bible, medical outcomes for most people will only get worse over time.

When your children are at increased risk for early death due to preventable childhood illnesses because you had thirteen when you could only pay attention to three, the Bible will not help you prevent any of their illnesses. It never has and it never will.

All the Bible is ever going to tell you about parenting is, God’s eye is on the sparrow, he’s the only one who can save your children, and if you stop hitting them, even He will not be able to save them, and it will be your fault, not his.

If God existed, there would be no need for theology.

Theology is what we have instead of God because God isn’t there.

If God existed, men would not feel compelled to subordinate women, and they would not be able to.

Theology is how men tell themselves women are their rightful subordinates.

For almost 2,000 years, Christian leaders around the world have been live-action role-laying the Old Testament with one another on the international stage for pleasure and profit.

The Christian populations support it because they share the pleasure, if not the profit.

They are in on the game. But the joke is on them.

As long as people are Christian, they will always support the expansion of Christianity by any means.

Their faith functions according to design.

We know where it leads: to another thousand years of darkness.

But if we take from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, we know Jesus is not the only way.

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Background art

  1. Penitent Magdalene, Domenico Tintoretto, 1598-1602.
  2. The Last Supper, Giampietrino and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio after Leonardo da Vinci, orig. 1495-1498.
  3. Death on the Pale Horse, Gustave Dore, 1865.
  4. Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Giuseppe Angeli, c. 1770.
  5. Saint Guy Heals a Possessed Man, Gabriel Mälesskircher, 1474.
  6. The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, Thomas Cole, 1829.
  7. Scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edwin Landseer, 1850.
  8. Saul and the Witch of Endor, William Sidney Mount, 1828.
  9. Signing of the Compact in the Cabin of the Mayflower, George E. Perine and Edward White, n.d.
  10. A Tale from the Decameron, John William Waterhouse, 1916.
  11. Religion Saved by Spain, Titian, 1572-1575.
  12. Excommunication of Frederick II by Pope Gregory IX, 1572-1573.
  13. Joshua Passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, Benjamin West, 1800.
  14. Death on a Pale Horse, Benjamin West, 1796.
  15. St. Thomas Aquinas, Carlo Crivelli, 1476.
  16. Destruction of the Beast and the False Prophet, Benjamin West, 1804.
  17. The Temptation of Christ, Gustave Dore, 1866.
  18. The Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey, Thomas Cole, c. 1846-1848.
  19. Embarkation of the Pilgrims. Samuel Bellin and Robertr Walter Weir, n.d.
  20. Daniel Interpreting to Belshazzar the Writing on the Wall, Benjamin West, 1775.