Due to Budget Concerns, the Light at the End of the Tunnel Should Be Turned Off...

Having done some reading and research over the last few days for various odds and ends, I have come across a question on a couple of web sites that brings to light a disturbing mindset within the fundamentalist community. This question was asked in various forms, but most of them had to do with this supposed little scenario:

---

If God revealed himself to you, so you had no doubt whatsoever that this was, indeed, god, and he asked you to kill another person, would you do so?

---

While there were some that said things like "No way!" or "God would never ask that!" (of course, ignoring that their very sky god has asked this of people in the bible), here are some of the more disturbing answers:

---

"No doubt about it that it'd be a crazy situation to be in, but if God Himself came down and proved his existence and asked that I kill an innocent child- beside the fact that I'd be out of my head and very uncompromising- I'd leave it all in His hands and do what is asked of me."

---

"God is supposed to be the dude who sees everything in the big picture in a manner we can't. So knowing that, I'd have to comply because for all I know that "innocent child", if not killed, could grow up to be the next mass murderer, terrorist or inventor of a new weapon of mass destruction. I have always believed there is a bigger picture than we'll ever be able to see, no matter how important we think our puny little lives are."

---

"if I know that the God is THE TRUE GOD... then I would go kill an innocent child. Death is nothing to be afraid of, but disobeying God is."

---

"id do it. he is my god"

---

"When I was a child, I learned in Bible school the story of Abraham and his son. I remember asking my Mother, "What would you do if God asked you to kill me". She said, "I would obey God." For two months after that I lived in fear that my Mother was actually going to kill me. I entertained the idea of being adopted by atheists, but in time forgot about it."

---

"My life is in this order. God. Family. Country. Yes i would sacrifice anything for my God. And all ready have."

---

"I would because I know that God has a bigger plan that I can ever comprehend."

---

Scared yet? Of course, we knew fundie nut-balls were capable of this type of atrocious behavior: Andrea Yates, Deanna Laney, and Dena Schlosser simply failed to get the contract in writing before committing their children's lives to an end.

In a recent poll, it was found that:

1. The 82 percent of adults who believe in God include 86 percent of women and 93 percent of Republicans but only 78 percent of men, 69 percent of those with postgraduate degrees, and 75 percent of political independents.
2. Seven in ten (70%) believe that Jesus is God or the son of God. This belief is more prevalent among women (75%) than men (64%), among those with less education (77%) than among post graduates (48%) and among Republicans (82%) than Independents (62%).

So is it really a surprise that so many would kill their child if god so told them to? I suppose not.

A 2004 story in the Washington Post reported that:

1. 61 percent of Americans believe the account of creation in the Bible's book of Genesis is "literally true" rather than a story meant as a "lesson."
2. 60 percent believe in the story of Noah's ark and a global flood
3. and 64 percent agree that Moses parted the Red Sea to save fleeing Jews from their Egyptian captors.

So if they think god actually did do these things, following in the footsteps of their deranged religious father Abraham, they'd also be willing to kill their children, in the hopes that, like Abraham, a goat would suddenly appear to take the child's place.

A lesser-known story along the same lines, of course, is that of Jephthah's daughter.

---

Judges 11:30-39 (King James Version):
And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man.

---

Funny god didn't provide a goat that time, eh?

Tom recently made a brief appearance back on-line this past week, in a short post entitled "Reading Rosenblatt in Reading," and in this short post, he said:

---

God took thousands of years to send Jesus to earth because the fear of what he had created paralyzed him.

---

And even though I put no stock in sky god, I do put stock in the basic premise: I fear what man created when he invented the concept of religion. And apparently, so should our children...

Cori, a beautiful young woman from South Africa recently commented that not every conservative fundamentalist is as crazy as the ones who make the headlines, and I acknowledge that; most of my family is proof of that fact! But I do fear the overall cloud that has enveloped the world: religious fervor has many of these nut-balls craving the end-times, when Jesus will return to Rapture them to heaven. The fact that they believe this so fervently is almost bound to end in some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy unless the tide is turned...

And if that means some have to live without hope... to turn off the light at the end of the tunnel, and let people's eyes adjust to the reality of what they've created... and perhaps they'll find a new source of light... one that doesn't end in the death or destruction of anyone... and then, perhaps only then, will we begin to hope that these man-made god's who crave such blood will release the minds of the masses...