This posting is inspired by "The Coolest 8-year-old Talks about Religion," a brilliant 2 minute sketch on youtubes, put together by the band "The Bastard Fairies." The young monologist scolds Bill O'Reilly, informing him that violence has been around a lot longer than video games, especially the violence caused by religious zealots since the Crusaders, including the KKK.Indeed! And to extend the insight: how about rating religious iconography encouraging bigotry and slaughter, just as music companies rate violent lyrics on CDs? It seems reasonable that if Congress wanted to contain violence, then the place to start would be the fire-and-brimstones nonsense spouted by the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions. Of course some sects are more prone to this than others and in the spirit of freedom of religion, Congress might require a simple self-monitoring ratings system. Perhaps a scale of 0-5, with 0 being Buddhists and 5 being the army of the USA, or any other government or group that fights in the name of its religion. Army recruitment ads would be prevented from being aired during times when children watch television. The Bible would have a caution on its cover, indicating that portions are inappropriate for children. Libraries would have to remove the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim founding texts from their shelves.
Why hasn't religion been completely wiped off the face of the earth, when it has proven to be not only sheer nonsense but deeply harmful? For the same reason that nations, families, races, clans and castes exist: to provide a pseudo-protection against mortality. Too bad that pretend immortality leads to actual fatalities.
image from my.opera.com/zenya/
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