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Belief in RELIGION is a public health crisis
Douglas Rushkoff in Arthur (March2006)
(...) Just look at the numbers. A FoxNews poll claims that 92% of Americans say they believe in God. 85% believe in heaven, and 71% believe in the Devil. (That's right - the guy with horns and a tail who presides over hell: the DeNiro character in Angel Heart, Pacino in Devil's Advocate and the one who tricks people into signing contracts on Twilight Zone.) Given FoxNews' accuracy, we can cut these numbers in half, yet we're still confronted with a deeply frightening prospect: half the people amongst us believe some really fucked up shit. They've taken the metaphors of the Bible or Dante's Inferno and gone ahead and decided that these images and allegories are real.
Taking back the bible
So I think it's time those of us who have transcended this primitive approach to collective storytelling to speak up (...)
Perhaps the best way to kill their
God, in fact, is to take charge of the
Bible. It is in my own opinion as a
media theorist the Greatest Story Ever
Told, and deserving of our continued
support and analysis. For my part, I’m
doing my comic book series Testament,
which I hope will bring these stories told both in their Biblical context and
as a near-future sci-fi fable to people
who might never have stumbled across
them before.
For others especially our friends
involved in the occult arts I’d hope
they consider using some Bible
imagery and characters in their work
and rituals. They’re just as potent as
anything in the Mahabharata, and far
more resonant with the Western popular
culture in which most of us actually
grew up. For those of you looking for
an authentic tradition in which to base
your art, music or fiction, consider the
themes of revolution, universal justice
and mind expansion a they’re depicted
in allegories from Eden to Babel and
characters from Joseph to Jesus.
By appropriating these characters
and metaphors as our own, we instill
them with the power they require to
release the stranglehold that true
believers have over the myths built to
help us face the truth, instead. Their
success in making the Bible seem like
a sanctimonious tome is just another
testament to the deleterious effect
of surrendering one of the best books
ever written about sacred magick to
people whose lives depend on ignoring
the possibility of escape from the
nightmare of eternal bondage to a
vengeful deity.
The more we can make its mythology
relevant to our present, the more easily
we’ll bring those who believe in it out
of the past.
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