Lately, though, I'm starting to wonder if I'm wrong. Perhaps the problem isn't with the fact that some people of faith (ie. Osama bin Laden, Jerry Falwell) want to impose their views on society as a whole. The problem is that the beliefs these people hold so dear are so ridiculous, so blindingly stupid, and so backward, that I question why we need to treat them with respect at all. Consider this.
"A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, have flocked to an expressway underpass for a view of a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall that some believe is an image of the Virgin Mary."
A stain. A fucking stain. I know this kind of thing happens all the time, and that there are other, far more egregious and offensive exercises of faith than this, but I think this pretty well sums up the problem with religious belief: it inevitably leads to stain worshipping. Okay, maybe not in a literal sense, but the point is once you start with a logically unsound belief (that is: belief in a personal God), no belief is too outrageous to consider. If you believe some unknown, unseen being created all life and has a vested interest in the day to day activities of we puny humans (in particular, it seems, what we do in bed and whom we do it to), then it's only a hop, skip and a jump towards believing said being would opt to communicate with his flock through a smudge of salt on a concrete wall under Chicago overpass. In fact, it makes perfect sense.
You have to kind of admire these stain worshippers for their wholesale commitment to the absurd. No half-measures for them, unlike other more mainstream and less orthodox members of the flock who believe in God, but with a host of qualifiers and restraints imposed by the real world. Not so the People of the Stain.
But the problem is the media (isn't it always?) Reading the CNN story or any other coverage of the stain and its all very fair and balanced. The views of the Stain People are respected and, while skeptics may be given a say, there's no indication that the people queuing up under the overpass are anything but earnest and pious people "expressing their faith." You'll not find anyone saying the obvious, which is that these people are dunderheads. A stain is fucking stain and is no more a miraculous act of god than someone finding a potato that looks like Abe Lincoln. If you believe otherwise, you're a moran
The problem with cutting religion and religious expression, no matter how offensive or ridiculous it may be, so much slack is that it validates it. And once you open that door, there's no telling who else will get in. Seeing as how its only a baby step from belief in God to belief in stains by God, it's an even smaller step towards, say, shooting abortion clinic doctors or this. (Ever notice how similar the rhetoric of U.S. Christian fundies and the Taliban-types are?)
And yeah, I'm aware that some of the worst, most inhumane regimes in history have been secular. But that doesn't change the fact that there are people who would love to see the street run red with the blood of the non-believers if they got the chance.
"But wait," I hear you say "Doesn't that violate the principles of tolerance and understanding that are the heart of post-Enlightenment progressive thought." Well, kinda. But here's the thing. I'm not advocating we herd people into re-education camps or force them to give up their horribly ignorant beliefs. I'm saying we need to stop treating them with kid gloves. In other words, we need to mock them. Loudly and mercilessly, as they mock those who disagree with them. It won't stops them, to be sure, but it's would hold a lens up to them for the rest of us to look at. And who knows? If it takes ridicule to make just one person realize worshipping a grease spot is really, really stupid, then it'd be worth it.
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