Hi! I'm a tech guy, skeptic, feminist, gamer and atheist, and love OSS and science of all stripes. I enjoy a good bit of whargarbl now and again, and will occasionally even seek it out. I am also apparently responsible for the death of common sense on the internet. My bad.
I have opinions. So do you. You want to share them with me. I would like to do likewise. Please don't expect a platform for proselytizing that will go unchecked and unchallenged, though. Contact me via the clicky thingies under my banner.
The commenting rules are simple: don't piss me off. This rule has worked for me for a decade; I have never found a need for any other rule, because any other rules leads to rules-lawyering. Just remember --
this is my property, not yours.
When people first started making movies, they did what they could with what they had. Later, they learned a thing or two about movie making, and their results became much better. Likewise, modern novels are different than earlier efforts, because the craft has evolved.
When those bronze-age writers put together their ideas about how the universe ought to work, they lacked the techniques needed to write well. The bible is full of flaws because the people who wrote its books didn’t know how to do it any better. If they really thought through this eternal life stuff, they might have done a quite different job. Who wants to outlive the universe? Why would I want to look down from the clouds and watch people I love in the agonies of Hell? And there’s all that magical stuff. It’s a poorly-crafted scheme. I think a good deal of religious credulity is related to acceptance of bad writing.
Considering their (very Christian writers) more recent efforts, i.e. the “Left Behind” series, I don’t think they’ve learned much during the intervening centuries.
Agreed, Dan. While browsing in a book store, I tried to read a bit of one of those Left Behind volumes. A couple of paragraphs was all I could manage. And yet the series is quite successful, in terms of sales. But again, look who buys them – the credulous born-againers, looking for self-confirmation more than for a well-written yarn.
LaHaye and Jenkins have a gold mine there. They write for an audience that probably won’t diminish in their lifetime.
Honestly, I wish I had been so smart. It’s like those people offering services to the gullible where they insure against aspects of the Rapture like people’s pets, or sending messages to people’s loved ones, all run by atheists who are sure not to get Raptured up to the sky and are Left Behind to take care of this stuff. I have to wonder if LaHaye and Jenkins aren’t cynically laughing behind their hands as they take the money from the theists that honestly believe this stuff.