Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; and he overthrew those cities and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities . . . [Abraham] looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
Source: Genesis 19:24-28
There are so many stories in the bible that seem to act as an explanation for things that couldn't be comprehended with the little scientific knowledge nor the means in which to make sense of things. I mean, I get it. They didn't know any better. What scientific information did they have? The city of Sodom and Gomorrah always appeared to be a biblical story whose aim was to denounce homosexuality and this is presented as fact for being the reason that God summarily destroyed it with fire from above. It was characterized by the bible as being a big gay ol' city, and hence, is obviously why God had smitten them.
Now lets flash forward from those times to present day. You'd think things would be more clear to us as far as understanding our world and universe go. Yet it appears to me that humans, more specifically--those with a nefarious religious agenda, have a fascination with finding a causal relationship between a single cataclysmic event and tying said event to something in a matter-of-fact sort of way which implies that the event happened for only this reason.
For instance, when Katrina hit Louisiana, these demagogues wasted no time at all in pointing the blame at the city itself! The liberties that the city took in promoting things such as Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence; the latter being a weeklong gay & lesbian event, was evidently the reason this happened to them. Their rhetoric implied that 'God's wrath had been lain and this is what they get.' REPENT!
If you haven't heard of Pat Robertson, you'll quickly find that he's no stranger to controversy. On top of that, his voice has a far reach. According to the NY Times:
Pat" Robertson is a television evangelist who once sought the Republican nomination for president and founded the Christian Coalition, a conservative faith-based organization that became a force in national and local elections.
Mr. Robertson is the host of the religious "700 Club" talk show on his Christian Broadcasting Network that his website says has 1 million viewers all over the world.
He's been in the news a lot in the past concerning a slew of topics. From basically making his god a 'divine hitman' by asking for more vacancies in the supreme court, thus essentially praying for supreme court justices to die, to saying that gays/lesbians helped the events of September 11th happen, to lambasting the Disney World for hosting an event called "Gay Days", by saying "[...]tolerance of homosexual activity ''could bring about earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.''
He's well within his rights to spew his bastardized version of Christianity love and compassion; but what it really amounts to is hate-speech that is cloaked under the guise of religion. I could go on all day about him and others like him, but I will not. There are Christians and then there are fundamentalist Christians just as there are Muslims and the extremely fundamentalist Muslims; which is the version of their religion that we're exposed to in the West. These 'fundies' give a bad rep to those who mean no harm in the practice of their religion. (I stress their religion.) And yes, the majority of the followers of Islam that think it is absolutely wrong to do as the suicide bombers do.
Now, to explain why I brought up Pat Robertson (or any others hate-mongerers like him, regardless of what brand of religion they ascribe to.) Covering topics concerning religion isn't my favorite thing to do because I find that it's a very polarizing topic. After all, if something keeps you grounded, be it music, science, dancing or religion - who am I to say you shouldn't believe in any one of those things. However, there comes a point where your belief in something can have such a debilitating effect on you when it renders you a closed-minded, irrational, pious and hateful bigot and then spews over and negatively affects those around you. Be it in the form of murder, oppression, prejudice, or just good old fashioned hatred. It can make the extremist follower only see a literal interpretation of what they read, leaving zero room for tolerance or compromise; things no longer are open for interpretation but are either good or bad; black or white.
This is when it becomes dangerous. Passion that is justified and emboldened with what one truly believe means that the follower may feel they are given a free pass on their conscience to do what they want with no reason for remorse. After all, their cause pleases their god. That mindset is the biggest cause for alarm. If everybody's religion is right, then everybody is wrong. (You're of course thinking smugly to yourself that you are the one who is in the right, aren't you? Therein lies the dilemma.)
When those men flew those commercial aircrafts into the towers - the most dangerous weapon wasn't the planes, it was their ideologies. Ideologies are more dangerous in the long haul because they touch and affect more, creates more hatred, gets passed on to offspring or admirers and reproduces exponentially. The United States has their own ideologues in positions of power and great influence. Fundamentalist mindsets are not particular to a specific region or religion. What would that mean for philosophy, art - and imagine the scientific cover-ups that would ensue if new revelations contradicted what was written in the Bible or the Qur'an? Should it matter if you truly have faith? It apparently does.
Not to get off topic though --According to the bible verse at the beginning of this post, the city of Sodom and Gomorrah (yes - where the word 'sodomy' is derived) met an unfortunate demise wh
en "[...] the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; and he overthrew those cities and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities [...]
Now if you'll read this article, it reports that a clay tablet with ancient cuneiform writing that has "baffled scientists for 150 years" has finally been deciphered and may shed some light on some things and should be explainable with our 21st century minds:
Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that it recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across.
The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700BC copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky.
He referred to the asteroid as “white stone bowl approaching” and recorded it as it “vigorously swept along”.
[...]
Dr Hempsall said that at least 20 ancient myths record devastation of the type and on the scale of the asteroid’s impact, including the Old Testament tale of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Ancient Greek myth of how Phaeton, son of Helios, fell into the River Eridanus after losing control of his father’s sun chariot.In my view, many of the scribes (let alone anyone back then) could not explain it any other way; surely this must have been the wrath of God Almighty. After all, what did they know about asteroids? How else could you explain firey rocks falling from "the heavens"? So sure, I can't judge them too harshly. So yes, it follows that the story would become embellished, especially since they were told by mouth, countless times before becoming recorded. Why would the scribes simply write, "a rock fell from the sky. It was badass. [Genesis 19]"
It would make sense to me back then to attribute this to God's wrathful hand. Definitely. However, we're in the information age. We have explanations for natural disasters and no longer need embellishments to make sense of what exactly it is we cannot comprehend. The mystique is gone. Or, at least, it should be. Science/astronomy has helped us understand our world much better. This is why science and religion are constantly at odds--or more specifically, why religion is always at odds with science. I don't like to pretend that I have all the answers because it's not so. But we've really come such a long way that it astonishes me that people still choose to not see the proof before us and rely on an explanation for the world that fit at a certain time period.
Surely if we were still completely in the dark about our world and how it works, we'd be writing about Katrina and September 11th in pages that would be worthy of being canonized into our bible. Surely Katrina would have been irrefutably attributed to some god's wrath, just as it is today. But at least they had an excuse back then for not knowing any better. I don't have that excuse now.
When it comes to the point when a child dies because their parents chose not to seek medical treatment because they wanted to rely on prayer alone, theres a real disconnect right there. Not to mention that when their child died, they asserted it was because they didn't have "enough faith." Wake up, people.
-Erick
If you're curious about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, you can go read a portion online of the story of Sodom & Gomorrah which is actually kind of fucking hilarious. For instance, a couple of men from Sodom bang on the door of Lot's home demanding that the two men that entered the house be brought to them so that they may 'know them.' ('know them' is the modern day equivalent of 'fuck.') Who were the men that they wanted 'to know'? They were angels that were sent to warn Lot of Sodom and Gomorrah's inevitable destruction. Lot doesn't offer the Angel's, instead offers up either of his two daughters. Oh, and his wife gets turned into a pillar of salt later because she turned around to look at the burning city when God commanded her not to. Gnarly.
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