Posts Tagged ‘SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE)’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on February 17, 2025 at 12:22 am
Republicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them is emotions. Especially the dark ones—Hate, Greed, Fear.
This is a lesson that liberal Democrats have refused to learn. And that is why Republicans won most Presidential elections of the 20th century.
There is no better example of the power of irrationality than a gathering of QAnon followers in Dallas, Texas, on November 2, 2021.
Hundreds of people from around the country gathered at the grassy knoll in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
The congregation wasn’t there to commemorate the death of the 35th President of the United States. They expected to see the return of his son, John F. Kennedy Jr.—who died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999.
QAnon logo
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Word on the street is Junior—JFK Jr.—will show up and introduce his parents,” one believer told a local news station. “He’ll (JFK Jr.) probably be the vice president with Trump.”
Most of the gathered crowd went home. But others stayed, waiting for months in Dallas for JFK Jr. to return.
It’s essential to understand how such thoroughly irrational beliefs can dominate the lives of millions. An excellent starting point are those beliefs embraced by Christians—from their first-century origins to the present day.
Among those beliefs:
- God creates Adam from dust. (This absolutely contradicts everything we know about how men and women reproduce. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.)
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. (Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?)
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. (Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.)
- Moses parts the Red Sea. (Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”)
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. (A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.)
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.)
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. (This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.)
- The will of God violates physical laws. (Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.)
- Jesus rises from the dead. (There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again.)
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. (There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.)
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be. Donald Trump—totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016 and 2024.
The reason: They expect Trump to sponsor legislation that will—by force of law—make their brand of Christianity supreme above all other religions. And this will give them the status of the Official Religion of the United States.
As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince: “For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many.”
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In History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on December 25, 2024 at 12:05 am
According to Wikipedia: “Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019.”
The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, with approximately 167 million Christian adults.
And Christianity continues to play a major role in American politics.
A study, conducted by the University of Kentucky, found that throughout the world, people distrust atheists. To them, those without faith are more capable of immorality than religious people. In fact, American voters are less willing to elect an atheist than any other category of candidate, including gay or Muslim.
And nearly every President has regularly attended the National Prayer Breakfast. This is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the tradition in 1953.
And yet for all the reverence Americans have for the Christian religion, few of them dare to examine these two fundamental truths about the Bible:
- Its stories cannot be independently proven, and
- Many of its stories violate the most fundamental notions of common sense.
Consider these examples:
- God creates Adam from dust. This absolutely contradicts everything we know about how men and women reproduce. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.
- Moses parts the Red Sea. Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”
Moses (played by Charlton Hestono) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.
- The will of God violates physical laws. Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.
- Christmas dates to a Roman pagan festival. Many Christmas traditions stem from the pagan Roman festival, Saturnalia, which celebrated the “birthday” of the sun. These included feasting, gift-giving, lighting candles (to ward off evil spirits) and displaying wreaths (as a sign of coming spring).
- Jesus’ alleged birth on December 25. The Bible doesn’t give a day—or month—for Jesus’ birth. Early Christians tried to abolish Saturnalia. When this failed, the Roman Catholic Church, in 336 A.D., “Christianised” the festival by naming Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25, as Jesus’ birthday.
- Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families with five loaves and two fish. If food could be so easily reproduced, the United Nations’ World Food Program would be unnecessary.
- Jesus rises from the dead. There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone returning to life after being buried.
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
Above all, it is the fear of death—not just our own personal extinction, but our ignorance of what, if anything, comes after—that is the driving force behind religious belief.
Science cannot reassure us, one way or the other. Only religion claims to hold the answer to this mystery. And only religion claims to offer us a sure path to not simply survival but live in paradise.
As a result, the permanence of religious belief is absolutely guaranteed.
.GOSPEL MUSIC, ABC NEWS, ADAM AND EVE, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATHEISTS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNIE SANDERS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DANIEL IN THE LION’S DEN, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, IRRATIONALITY, JESUS CHRIST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN F. KENNEDY JR., JONAH, KING OF KINGS (MOVIE), LAZARUS, LOT’S WIFE, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIL, NOAH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QANON, RAW STORY, RESURRECTION, REUTERS, SALON, SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE), SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE BIBLE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PRINCE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (MOVIE), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on November 28, 2024 at 12:18 am
Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled for the sake of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.
Most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them is emotions. And nothing conjures up emotions more than appeals to religion.
There is no better example of the power of irrationality than a gathering of QAnon followers in Dallas, Texas, on November 2, 2021.
Hundreds of people from around the country gathered at the grassy knoll in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
The congregation wasn’t there to commemorate the death of the 35th President of the United States. They expected to see the return of the Kennedys.
QAnon logo
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Word on the street is Junior—JFK Jr.—will show up and introduce his parents,” one believer told a local news station. “He’ll (JFK Jr.) probably be the vice president with Trump.”
Those who believed in rationality weren’t surprised when the elder former President and his son failed to magically appear.
Most of the gathered crowd went home. But others stayed, waiting for months in Dallas for the Kennedys to return.
According to followers of QAnon, the Kennedys, who once dominated the Democratic Party, had somehow become allies of Donald Trump. In this scenario, the Kennedys and Trump were direct descendants of Jesus Christ—and locked in a conflict between good and evil.
It’s essential to understand how such thoroughly irrational beliefs can dominate the lives of millions. An excellent starting point are those beliefs embraced by Christians—from their first-century origins to the present day.
Among those beliefs:
- God creates Adam from dust. (This absolutely contradicts everything we know about how men and women reproduce. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.)
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. (Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?)
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. (Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.)
- Moses parts the Red Sea. (Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”)
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. (A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.)
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.)
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. (This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.)
- The will of God violates physical laws. (Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.)
- Jesus rises from the dead. (There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again.)
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. (There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.)
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be. Donald Trump—totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016.
As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince: “For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many.”
.GOSPEL MUSIC, ABC NEWS, ADAM AND EVE, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATHEISTS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNIE SANDERS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLONING, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL IN THE LION’S DEN, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, IRRATIONALITY, JESUS CHRIST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN F. KENNEDY JR., JONAH, KING OF KINGS (MOVIE), LAZARUS, LOT’S WIFE, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NOAH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QANON, RAW STORY, RESURRECTION, REUTERS, SALON, SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE), SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPERSTITION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE BIBLE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (MOVIE), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRANSGENDERS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on December 25, 2023 at 10:26 am
You can’t understand how irrational people can be until you examine their religious beliefs.
Consider many of those beliefs embraced by Christians—from their first-century origins to the present day.
Among those beliefs:
- God creates Adam from dust. This is biologically impossible. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.
- God creates Eve from Adam’s rib. This is also biologically impossible. In 1885, German biologist Hans Driesch showed that blastomeres of two-cell sea urchin embryos could be physically separated and two entire embryos formed from each blastomere. But you don’t get a female cell from a male one. If this had happened, God would have created the first transgender woman.
- Humankind originated with Adam and Eve. A naked man and woman live in a forest, eat only fruit, and believe they are in Paradise. Then a talking snake deceives the woman into eating from “the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” They suddenly realize they are naked—and are then banished by God from Eden. Taken to its logical conclusion, this story warns: You will be punished if you become educated.
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. Transporting large numbers of animals poses a Herculean challenge for circuses even today. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces in a closed Ark would have been horrific.
- Moses parts the Red Sea. Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” to “the White Whale” in Moby Dick.
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.
- The will of God violates physical laws. Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.
- Jesus redeems mankind from sin. Adam and Eve brought “sin” into the world—not by murder, rape or incest, but by gaining knowledge in the Garden of Eden. To redeem billions of future men, women and children from a “crime” they didn’t commit, God impregnates a teenager without her consent to sire a son so he can be tortured and murdered.
- Jesus rises from the dead. There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again—especially more than 2,000 years later.
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. This is the ultimate “Get-Out-of-Death-Free” card. Everyone fears death. Science says it’s final—but Christianity promises you can live forever if you just follow the teachings of Jesus—as interpreted by any number of would-be clergy.
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
- “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4). Wrong. According to astronomers, in about 7.5 billion years, the Sun will become a red giant, expand beyond the Earth’s current orbit, and vaporize the planet. Which raises the question: If God is all-wise, why did he create a self-destructing universe?
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- Gospel music has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
- Fear of death—and the hope to live forever—as Jesus allegedly cheated death through his resurrection.
- To bring a sense of purpose to their lives by “enlisting” in a Heavenly (if imaginary) community.
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be.
Donald Trump—a lifelong criminal totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016 by claiming to love Jesus.
.GOSPEL MUSIC, ABC NEWS, ADAM AND EVE, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ATHEISTS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNIE SANDERS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DANIEL IN THE LION’S DEN, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, IRRATIONALITY, JESUS CHRIST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN F. KENNEDY JR., JONAH, KING OF KINGS (MOVIE), LAZARUS, LOT’S WIFE, MARK ZUCKERBERG, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLIL, NOAH, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QANON, RAW STORY, RESURRECTION, REUTERS, SALON, SAMSON AND DELILAH (MOVIE), SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE BIBLE, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PRINCE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (MOVIE), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on September 26, 2023 at 12:22 am
Republicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them is emotions. Especially the dark ones—Hate, Greed, Fear.
This is a lesson that liberal Democrats have refused to learn. And that is why Republicans won most Presidential elections of the 20th century.
There is no better example of the power of irrationality than a gathering of QAnon followers in Dallas, Texas, on November 2, 2021.
Hundreds of people from around the country gathered at the grassy knoll in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
The congregation wasn’t there to commemorate the death of the 35th President of the United States. They expected to see the return of the Kennedys.
QAnon logo
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Word on the street is Junior—JFK Jr.—will show up and introduce his parents,” one believer told a local news station. “He’ll (JFK Jr.) probably be the vice president with Trump.”
Those who believed in rationality weren’t surprised when the elder former President and his son failed to magically appear.
Most of the gathered crowd went home. But others stayed, waiting for months in Dallas for the Kennedys to return.
According to followers of QAnon, the Kennedys, who once dominated the Democratic Party, had somehow become allies of Donald Trump. In this scenario, the Kennedys and Trump were direct descendants of Jesus Christ—and locked in a conflict between good and evil.
It’s essential to understand how such thoroughly irrational beliefs can dominate the lives of millions. An excellent starting point are those beliefs embraced by Christians—from their first-century origins to the present day.
Among those beliefs:
- God creates Adam from dust. (This absolutely contradicts everything we know about how men and women reproduce. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.)
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. (Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?)
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. (Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.)
- Moses parts the Red Sea. (Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”)
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. (A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.)
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.)
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. (This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.)
- The will of God violates physical laws. (Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.)
- Jesus rises from the dead. (There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again.)
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. (There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.)
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be. Donald Trump—totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016.
As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince: “For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 17, 2020 at 12:56 am
Coronavirus is ravaging the country.
But in Ohio, churches are exempted from the statewide stay-at home order that bans mass gatherings during the pandemic. Even worse, some churchgoers are defiantly continuing to attend services—and even claiming they are immune from the disease.
A CNN reporter asked members of the Solid Red Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, why they risked infection for themselves and non-members in the community.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” a woman said.
“Aren’t you concerned you can infect other people if you get sick inside?” CNN’s Gary Tuchman asked.
“No,” the woman responded. “I’m covered in Jesus’ blood. I’m covered in Jesus’ blood.
“I go to the grocery store every day! I’m in Walmart, Home Depot. Look at those people. They could get me sick! But they’re not because I’m covered in his blood.” Then she drove off.
Yet Ohio is not the only state whose citizens have defiantly put their own lives—and those of others—at risk.
Jack Roberts, a 76-year-old preacher at Maryville Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, told the Courier Journal that he would rather face a fine than close his doors.
“I don’t want to battle with anybody,” he said. “What I’d like to do is just preach the gospel, and that’s become more difficult as time’s gone on. And it’s truthfully what I plan on doing.”
Some officials, however, are not turning a blind eye to irresponsible behavior—even if it is committed by church pastors.
In early April, Rodney Howard-Browne, the head pastor at Florida’s The River Tampa Bay Church, was arrested for holding services during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister charged him with demonstrating a “reckless disregard for human life” after he held Sunday services in violation of county orders calling for social distancing. Soon after that, the megachurch lost its insurance when the insurance carrier canceled it.
So what’s going on here?
First, despite the claim of the Solid Red Rock worshiper that she was “washed in Jesus’ blood”: Crucifixion is an extremely painful way to die—but hardly a bloody one. Nails are driven into the wrists and ankles of the condemned, and s/he is left to die of slow suffocation.
Second, it’s hard to find traces of blood in a man who died more than 2,000 years ago—and whose body can’t be recovered.
Third, for all the reverence Americans have for the Christian religion, few of them dare to examine these two fundamental truths about the Bible:
- Its stories cannot be independently proven, and
- Many of its stories violate the most fundamental notions of common sense.
Consider these examples:
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. (Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?)
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. (Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.)
- Moses parts the Red Sea. (Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”)
Moses (played by Charlton Hestono) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. (A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.)
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.)
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. (This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.)
- The will of God violates physical laws. (Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.)
- Jesus rises from the dead. (There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again.)
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. (There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.)
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
Americans live in an age of rockets and computers. Yet millions of fundamentalist Christians (and Jews and Muslims) continue to believe stories written when men believed the Earth was flat and the sun revolved around it.
The Constitution guarantees “freedom of worship.” But it does not guarantee freedom to irresponsibly put the lives of others at risk.
At least some states are prepared to stand fast for public safety against social irresponsibility.
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In Entertainment, History, Social commentary on February 26, 2020 at 12:11 am
According to Wikipedia: “Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019.”
The United States has the largest Christian population in the world, with approximately 167 million Christian adults.
And Christianity continues to play a major role in American politics.
On August 9, 2017, The Guardian ran a story entitled: “In God We Trust: Why Americans Won’t Vote In An Atheist President.”
And it opened: “What do Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They all profess to be religious. As a new study shows, people think the worst of non-believers. What does this mean for US voters?”
The study, conducted by the University of Kentucky, found that throughout the world, people distrust atheists. To them, those without faith are more capable of immorality than religious people. In fact, American voters are less willing to elect an atheist than any other category of candidate, including gay or Muslim.
In 2016, allies of Hillary Clinton considered painting her rival, Vermont United States Senator Bernie Sanders, as an atheist. They believed it could cost him votes in evangelically-populated states such as Kentucky and West Virginia.
Sanders, who is Jewish, rushed to deny he was an atheist.
And nearly every President has regularly attended the National Prayer Breakfast. This is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday in February. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the tradition in 1953.
And yet for all the reverence Americans have for the Christian religion, few of them dare to examine these two fundamental truths about the Bible:
- Its stories cannot be independently proven, and
- Many of its stories violate the most fundamental notions of common sense.
Consider these examples:
- God creates Adam from dust. (This absolutely contradicts everything we know about how men and women reproduce. Would-be parents don’t throw dust into the air and see it instantly turn into newborn babies.)
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
- Adam and Eve meet a talking snake. (Presumably it spoke Hebrew. When was the last time a zoologist had a serious discussion with a serpent?)
- Noah saves the world’s wildlife by stuffing them into an ark. (Sure—untrained wild animals are going to meekly walk, two-by-two, into a huge building. Then they’re going to let themselves be caged. And Noah and his family must store a huge variety of food for each type of animal for an indefinite period of time. And the sheer stench of all that animal urine and feces would have been horrific.)
- Moses parts the Red Sea. (Some scholars believe “Red” has been mistranslated from “Reed,” which is like upgrading “the White Quail” in Moby Dick to “the White Whale.”)
Moses (played by Charlton Hestono) parts the Red Sea
- Lot’s wife becomes a pillar of salt. (A human being can be turned into ashes, but not salt.)
- Samson kills 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his physical strength couldn’t kill so many men—except with a machinegun.)
- Daniel is thrown into a pit of lions—but survives because an angel closes their jaws. (This sounds inspiring—until you remember that didn’t happen when Christians were thrown to the lions by the Romans.)
- The will of God violates physical laws. (Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years.)
- Jesus rises from the dead. (There have been near-death experiences, but there has never been a documented case of someone being certified as dead who came alive again.)
- Jesus will return more than 2,000 years after he died to wipe all evil from the earth and usher in a paradise for his faithful followers. (There has never been a case in recorded history of anyone returning from the dead decades or hundreds of years later—let alone more than 2,000 years later.)
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
- Countless parents have told them to their children.
- So have countless pastors and priests.
- From the 1940s to the 1960s, audiences reveled in such spectaculars as “Samson and Delilah,” “The Ten Commandments” and “King of Kings.” When people watch Biblical movies, they believe they’re seeing The Truth as it’s laid out in the Bible.
- The gospel music scene has produced mega-hits like: “Shall We Gather at the River?” “Take Me to the King,” “Down By the Riverside.”
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be. Donald Trump—totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016.
As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince: “For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many.”
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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THE POWER OF IRRATIONALITY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, RELIGION, Social commentary on February 17, 2025 at 12:22 amRepublicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them is emotions. Especially the dark ones—Hate, Greed, Fear.
This is a lesson that liberal Democrats have refused to learn. And that is why Republicans won most Presidential elections of the 20th century.
There is no better example of the power of irrationality than a gathering of QAnon followers in Dallas, Texas, on November 2, 2021.
Hundreds of people from around the country gathered at the grassy knoll in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
The congregation wasn’t there to commemorate the death of the 35th President of the United States. They expected to see the return of his son, John F. Kennedy Jr.—who died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999.
QAnon logo
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Word on the street is Junior—JFK Jr.—will show up and introduce his parents,” one believer told a local news station. “He’ll (JFK Jr.) probably be the vice president with Trump.”
Most of the gathered crowd went home. But others stayed, waiting for months in Dallas for JFK Jr. to return.
It’s essential to understand how such thoroughly irrational beliefs can dominate the lives of millions. An excellent starting point are those beliefs embraced by Christians—from their first-century origins to the present day.
Among those beliefs:
God creates Adam–as painted by Michelangelo
Moses (played by Charlton Heston) parts the Red Sea
“The Transfiguration of Jesus” as painted by Carl Bloch
So why do millions of people unquestioningly accept so many stories that totally contradict the most basic truths of common sense?
Like Muzak, these stories—and other Biblical tales—have been absorbed over time through several mediums:
It is not necessary to actually be religious to run for and win public office in the United States. But it is essential to claim to be. Donald Trump—totally lacking in humility and spirituality—became the darling of evangelicals in 2016 and 2024.
The reason: They expect Trump to sponsor legislation that will—by force of law—make their brand of Christianity supreme above all other religions. And this will give them the status of the Official Religion of the United States.
As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince: “For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many.”
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