Tuesday Thought

Consider the following Old Testament claims believed by fundamentalists Christians, Jews, and Muslims:

• Woman was created from a rib torn from man's side.
• Within the animal kingdom there was no animal death before Eve ate the apple.
• People lived up to 1,000 years of age.
• There was no rain before Noah's Ark and the flood.
• Noah fitted hundreds of millions of species from every corner of the globe on a boat, and then redistributed them after a global flood.

Think about these points for a moment and then ponder that if people can believe ideas as outlandish as these then how can they possibly discount the ideas in any other religion old or new?

To believe that no animals died (or therefore ate anything) originally, or that humans lived for 1,000 years is to exhibit a disconnect with reality so great that if the belief was not shared amongst millions we would surely call such believers mentally disabled. Ironically, if enough people believe an insane idea we call their conviction religion, whereas if the group of believers is small enough we lock them up.

On a political and social level this serves as a reminder that secular society must be defended, continually, from those who would gleefully pull us back into the dark ages of fear and oppression.