What inspires people to promote weird religious claims?
The generic essence of religious belief is that it consists of supernatural claims that have no evidence and so you embrace these ideas by faith, and not because they are actually true. Why does this happen? Humans generally don’t start with a blank page, but instead inherit a cultural tradition, and so we develop a bit of an emotional bond to it. This is never really examined but instead is simply accepted without too much thought. Often the degree of confidence in the various claims is not all that great, but because religious gatherings are more or less akin to a social club for people to meet, and make friends, they remain popular.
What can however ignite passions and set hearts racing is a very special blend of right-wing politics and religious fundamentalism. This taps into human emotions to such a degree that some take this religious/political blend to the literal extreme and end up attempting to impose it all by force upon the rest of us.
Once a week I throw a spotlight upon some of this religious weirdness, and so here is this week’s offering.
What happened during the last 7 days?
The delusional Trump cult devotees continue to ply their spin …
- Richard Land: Donald Trump Is ‘A Genetic Marvel’… “Land claimed that Trump, who reportedly works just a few hours a day and prefers to spend most of his time watching television and tweeting endlessly, goes “full bore” from 5 a.m. to midnight and is working so diligently that he is wearing out his 30 year-old staffers, who can’t even keep up with him.“
- Lance Wallnau: Robert De Niro’s Divorce Is a Divine ‘Boomerang’ for Attacking Trump…”those who attack this president will suffer retribution for daring to attack “God’s anointed,”
- Bill Mitchell Explains How Trump Is Like Abraham, David, Solomon, and Han Solo…“I believe that this is God’s country and I believe that Donald Trump is the man that he has chosen at this time,”
(You can be more or less certain that anything being promoted by Trump supporters is not true. That is a now well established Trump tradition)
The Pizzagate conspiracy theorist is going after Google because they booted him off YouTube …
(I’m not quite grasping how he thinks an earthquake will take out a global corporation that has facilities right around the planet)
The philanthropist George Soros continues to be a boogeyman used to scare the gullible …
(It’s a very old trope dressed up in modern clothes … they have simply replaced “Jews” with “Soros”)
The Democrats are still evil incarnate …
(The backstory here that he is basically pissed at being called a bigot for expressing xenophobic comments)
Demonising Hillary is also still a popular hobby …
- Bill Deagle: Hillary Clinton Is ‘Gonna Die and Her Soul Will Be Harvested by the Dark Side’…“Hillary Clinton is in end stage Parkinson’s disease … She is the victim of an evil family that cursed her as a little girl and made her enveloped by a trans-dimensional demonic entity”
(I’m not exactly inspired by the medical skills of somebody who thinks Parkinson’s is caused by family curses and “trans-dimensional” demons. Others agree, Mr Deagle’s medical license was revoked in 2007 for gross incompetence – Search that link for Willian Deagle for find the official confirmation of that)
Supposedly Belief is above the law …
- Catholic Archbishop: If Your Religion Contradicts the Law, Ignore the Law…
(Law is not like the pick-and-mix sweetshop counter. Opting out is of course a personal option that will have consequences)
Cancer is a sign from God…
- Anne Graham Lotz: My Breast Cancer’s a Sign That an Attack on Israel is Imminent…
(Her “Evidence” is that both she and Israel were born in 1948 … along with lots of other people who are doing just fine )
For the folks who will believe anything except the things that are actually true …
- Christian Conspiracist: The World Is Run By “Child-Molesting Satanists”…
(You can’t help but wonder if this is some sort of gullibility test)
White House Prayer briefings …
- Breitbart Editor: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Should Open Press Briefings With Prayer…
(Since the actual press briefing will be fiction, then I see no problem by starting it off with a bit of religious fiction as well).