Crazy Revalating

IN RETROSPECT, it was probably inevitable. Inevitable that in the midst of the greatest pandemic in one hundred years,, the evangelical apocalyptic crowd would begin dusting off their Bibles, turning to the last but not least section, and start equating the Book of revelations with the virus.They would inevitably find the part where it says that in the final days trials and tribulations would beset humankind, and they would decided that the virus qualifies, and that therefore we have at our disposal incontrovertible proof that the good book is the best book, the only book in which God reveals not only his plan and his law but his predictions for the future, and that the end of days is therefore upon us. No matter how vacuous, how ridiculous, it was bound to happen. Thomas Jefferson, who was an atheist but allowed everyone to wallow in the misconception that he was a Christian for the sake of his social advancement and position in society, called the Book of revelation "the rantings of a lunatic." For that matter, he called the Christian faith "our modern superstition", but he did so only in personal letters, which he never intended to be made public, nor dreamed that they someday would. And indeed a close reading of the book quickly reveals exactly how twisted, crazy, hallucinogenic it really is. It is as if its assumed author, John of Patmos, were either on acid, crazy, or the inventor of fantasy and science fiction, pick your genre. And yet, here, well into the twenty first century, millions of the faithful, the gullible, the nob-bibliophile types, right wingers, Trump supporters usually, the deeply devout, actually cling to the nonsensical belief that the bible was written by other than human beings, and that God speaks to us in books and stories, rather than in nature and beauty. Goethe put it better: "It is beyond me how anyone can believe that God speaks to us in books and stories. if our hearts do not tell us what we owe ourselves and others, and if the world does not directly reveal itself to us, then we will most certainly not find it in books, which at best are designed only to give names to our errors." It must be acknowledged, however, that anyone sufficiently ill informed to believe that the Bible, or any other book, contains the ultimate truth, about the present, past, or future, simply cannot understand Jefferson or Goethe.