The Religious...it's like, "hey, give it a rest, will ya?!"

It's 7 degrees outside right now. Surely, this is a sign from God. I think there was a prophecy, perhaps in Nehemiah, to the effect of "when the temperature aligns with the holy number, it shall portend numerous things having to do with God."

For any of my Biblical literalist friends out there, I hope you are aware that Revelation was only one of many books written in the "apocalyptic style," a literary convention that was popular at the time employing heavily symbolic and fantastic imagery dealing with the end of the world. And I hope you are aware that the symbols employed by the revelator refer to the Roman Empire and John's burning desire to see it crushed, rahter than a literal prediction of the events of the end of the world.

It is amazing to me that so many Christians profess a belief that the Bible is written infallibly by God but have absolutely no interest in learning about the historical evolution of the text. I mean, the very fact that it was written over the course of thousands of years seems to be swept under the rug of most sermons. Not to mention that most books have undergone layer upon layer of editing by different factions, particularly the very ancient cosmological tales that first existed in the oral tradition.

It just seems to me that the central dogmas of the traditional religions (the creeds, not the values) are fairly outlandish and, at the very least, bear the burden of proof. By all means, believe in them; just be aware of how extreme those tenets are. It is not the secular world that is out in left field; it's you!

The fascinating thing about conservative/literalist/fundamentalist relgion is that it can be so incredibly insular. The extreme example is those entire towns that have been basically taken over by particular sects of a religion (you know, the ones where the men all have a bunch of 13 yr old wives?) But even the run-of-the-mill evangelical church culture consciously attempts to remove itself from the secular world. Christian tv, Christian music, books, music, homeschooling, camps, social circles....the walls of these parralel sub-cultures can be quite thick, even if they are invisible. Within those walls, the assumption becomes that everyone you meet is Christian, when in fact, the percentage of people who subscribe to very conservative Christianity is quite low (just like, at my little liberal college, the assumption is that everyone you meet is a Democrat, even though 50% of Americans aren't).

Just felt like talking religion...I don't get to do that much anymore.