UNDERCULTURE

I absolutely love this guy’s writing. Enjoy.

Spurned theology’s first reaction is almost always violent. Whether it is the spectacular display of an outsider’s still-beating heart, or the public torture of an apostate, religion is historically eager to leaven its spiritual threats with the stink of burning flesh. When threatened either by a competing belief system or by science, no religion has ever allowed itself to simply fade away without first trying to address its detractors through physical confrontation. Invariably, however, there comes a time when a religion can no longer rely on force to safeguard its existence. The meme becomes increasingly wily, and as its ability to ingratiate itself into the social fabric of a region begins to fail, it tries to embed itself into a variety of legal and educational systems. Concurrent with a religion’s escalating physical impotence, is its inability to assert a literal interpretation of its sacred texts. With the loss of strict literality comes even greater threat, and the response is to feign some level of reasonability or exclusivity to escape skepticism. But rather than fall for it, religion needs a first rate smack down.

Edit [03 December 2009]: Research shows that people use God as a ventriloquist’s puppet. I could have told you that.