Books

[asterroc]

I've decided I hate preachy religious books that masquerade as fiction. "Left Behind" and "Summer's Path" are two examples.

"Left Behind" I read a year or two ago because I felt it was an important cultural work, and might help me understand the mind of the evangelist. The premise is that one day half of the world's population disappears suddenly, leaving behind their clothing and all worldly goods, and the remaining people slowly come to the realization that they have missed the Rapture. While I do feel that witnessing something like this would be compelling, the manner in which the main characters become converted is unrealistic. Right after the rapture happens the main character and his college-aged daughter are skeptical and confused about the disappearance of the mother and baby brother. Then the father attends a sermon and suddenly sees the light. He takes his daughter to the priest and she suddenly sees the light as well. Mere exposure to The Holy Word is all it takes for them to suddenly become utterly converted.

"Summer's Path" I am reading the audiobook b/c Audible.com gave it away for free and I thought it was fantasy. I was deceived - it's New Age pseudo-Christian evangelism. The main character is dying of terminal cancer and contemplating suicide (this book is not for the triggery) when he meets a non-denominational angel who offers to take over his body for him. The main character only passingly wonders if the angel is an alien body snatcher, and never wonders whether it's a devil instead because the angel tells him to "trust his feelings". The book is now devolving into preaching about how all physical ills are caused by not being in touch with your emotions, and depression is caused by suppressing your physical sensations. No that doesn't make any sense to me either. The main character (now in the body of a dog) is currently sitting in a car with some New Age hippies (who keep calling the angel now in the main character's body a hippie, ironically) who are guiding him in connecting with his inner energy source, and of course he believes it as soon as he hears about it and is able to do it on the first try.

Yeah, if religion really worked that way - all you needed was to be exposed to the One True Religion to suddenly convert - then just about everyone in the world would have come to the same One True Religion by now.

Comments

Re: Left Behind

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it, but I think being witness to the Rapture might be a heavy factor in one's conversion. I could see myself hypothetically believing in Christianity were I to witness such evidence firsthand.

Of course, I would probably be a little skeptical and consider other explanations, but if nothing else panned out, I would believe it, I think.

Honestly though, I would be thankful that the world population had suddenly been reduced and feel that I were living with more freedom than I had before. :)

Re: Left Behind

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

The part that bothered me was that even after witnessing the Rapture, the main characters did NOT believe Christianity, and continued to be skeptical of Christianity for weeks. Until the INSTANT they heard someone else talk about Christianity, and then they converted instantly. And swallowed not only every last part of Christianity entirely, but also every last personal interpretation of the preacher, such as exactly which European politician was the Antichrist. (Yeah, the preacher was a sinner, that's why he wasn't raptured himself.)

I agree with your analysis, but it was the instant conversion AT A LATER DATE that bothered me. The main character was a lapsed Christian, if he was going to believe the things of Christianity, why not as soon as the Rapture happened? Why did he need to hear The Word?

What I got out of reading it was an insight into the evangelical mindset that people just need to hear The Word and will be instantly converted. I still don't get WHY they think it'll work, but I get that they do think it'll happen and that's why they keep preaching at me.

Re: Left Behind

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Of course, I would probably be a little skeptical and consider other explanations, but if nothing else panned out, I would believe it, I think.

I don't know what evidence one could present that would convince me that the Christian Rapture had just occurred. So a bunch of people have just disappeared; that's certainly congruent with some predictions of what the Rapture would be like, but not all of them...and it's also congruent with (for example) large-scale abduction by any aliens possessing Star Trek transporters and cloaking devices...and anyone with that sort of technology can put on whatever sound-and-light show that they want in an attempt to further convince someone that the Second Coming has Come and Gone. *shrug*

Re: Left Behind

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

The correlation between people who had disappeared and their Christian tendencies would support the theory of the Rapture.

And who's to say that large-scale abductions by aliens is different than the Christian rapture? Maybe we're just putting two different labels on the same reality.

Re: Left Behind

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that such correlation would support the Rapture theory. But it would also support any number of other stories. (Among other things: once they're gone, how do we know that they haven't all gone to Hell for getting it wrong?--as long as we're hypothesizing such things.)

The Rapture is said to involve supernatural entities and processes whose existence and nature are beyond proof and . How should one prove the existence--past or present--of same? It seems to me that the closest that one might come is "we have no explanation of what happened here that accords with physical laws as we know them, so it could have been the Rapture (or aliens, or we're all living in a simulation that just had a major-but-not-fatal system error, or ...)".

I'd expect that many Christians might object to the notion that the Rapture might manifest as alien abduction to some. (Many more might find it entirely appropriate, of course.)

Re: Left Behind

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Then it comes down to an Occam's Razor fight: which is less believable?

Re: Left Behind

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

...I suppose it's impolite of me to bring a pun to an Occam's Razor fight, but, well, I just did. :)

I don't see how Occam's Razor helps in the absence of critical physical evidence (which we are required to assume in the case of the specific fictional Rapture to which you referred). You can't slice fog. *wry smile*

Re: Left Behind

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Applying Occam's Razor to the possibility of the Rapture is just as acceptable or not as applying it to the possibility of highly evolved deceptive aliens or that we are living in the Matrix. If half the world's population disappeared today, none of those ideas are testable, so technically none are actually hypotheses, so technically we cannot strictly apply Occam's Razor to any.

We should discuss string "theory" sometime. ;)

Re: Left Behind

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Well...mostly. In the case of aliens operating according to physical laws as we know them (or may come to know them later as our data collection and models improve), we might at least be able to demonstrate, later, that the data are consistent with a specific set of technologies that were known to be possessed by the aliens at the time of the 'Rapture'. I agree that in the case of the Christian Rapture and the simulation argument, since literal miracles are possible, we basically can't test (or falsify) anything.

So The Rapture = The Black Plague?

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

If some god took away some portion of my loved ones, I would hate him with the passion of a thousand dying suns. What sort of terrible deity holds people I love hostage in order to blackmail me into becoming a worshipper? That ain't the act of a loving and benevolent God! In fact, that sounds more like the other guy they keep going on about. . .

Re: So The Rapture = The Black Plague?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, the evangelical Christian viewpoint is that life on Earth is a form of prison. If God finally gets around to springing some of our loved ones, we should be grateful that He was willing to do so.

(I'm not saying I believe that, I'm actually atheist agnostic, but I want to understand the religious viewpoint since it is so important to our society.)

Re: So The Rapture = The Black Plague?

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

I assume the terrible thing we've done to deserve spending eons (as a species) in/on a form of prison is the Original Sin? Or is there some other reason God is keeping us here?

[fireaphid.livejournal.com]

Your issue with Left Behind is the same as my problem with the big christian group on my campus. They advertise their events, which would only interest those who believe the stuff, to everyone, including those they know don't believe it (and who may be openly hostile to their persistence). I've discussed it with a few representatives from the club when they insist on announcing it many times over to an uninterested and increasingly antagonized audience, and they seem to think that just "hearing the news" will make everyone believe. Dude, if it hasn't worked the last 10 times you made the announcement, it's not going to magically work this time! It's totally beyond me why they think that no one outside their religion has heard the basic tenets before, and that just hearing it will make them change their minds. Sheesh! Sorry for the rant, but, yeah, that's evidence of a broader misunderstanding of theory of mind in evangelical communities. They just can't imagine what it would be like to not be a believer, because that would require them to consider doubting their own beliefs, which they aren't allowed to doubt if they want to be good christians. . .

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

Eh, is advertising their events any different than the George Romero fan club passing out flyers for their movie night to every student, even those that dislike scary movies?

[fireaphid.livejournal.com]

No, they're a good deal more obnoxious about it than that. Announcing every day at dorm dinners for weeks, sending daily or weekly e-mails to groups that have asked to stop being pestered, putting up signs in places where they're not allowed (like places for official student government announcements, etc.) or on the doors to rooms that belong to other clubs that have asked to be left alone. . . they're really going too far. No other campus group gets into anyone's personal space like that and ignores when people ask to be left alone.

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

Oh, unsolicited email and vocal announcements are more than just advertising... I say go to the dean of students about it.

Unless this is a private christian university. In which case, you're screwed.

[fireaphid.livejournal.com]

The oh-so-awesome Dean has gotten involved when they incited violence against members of the LGBTQ club and when individuals in the club were stalking those who had asked to leave the club, so it's understandable that this is not exactly a priority to them. /-: It'd be nice if they self-policed, but that would again require some concept of how others might think. . .

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Christian belief is like many ideas; once you believe it wholeheartedly, it seems obvious. Someone writing from a Christian perspective would naturally incline themselves to think of evangelism as simply showing people how obvious their belief is. All an unbeliever needs to do is open his or her ears.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i'm always confused by the same effect in the narrative structure of Jack Chick tracts, which very often involve people who have never been exposed to the idea that Jesus Christ is God and that he died for their sins and so forth. i mean, they act like they've never heard anybody say this before. them somebody explains about that much to them and they see the light almost instantly. i know we heathens aren't up on all the fine details of the theology, but i think that most of us know that much about the standard story. it's not that we don't know what the message is, it's that we don't buy it, right?

on the other hand, i think the subjective experience of a lot of religious converts - and, more generally, of a lot of people who've had major changes of mind about anything - is that there's just a moment where it finally clicks where you get it. it's not like you haven't heard the pieces before, but somehow they don't amount to much to you until they come together and it all makes sense. most of us have had an experience something like this on a smaller scale once or twice in an academic setting. if that's what the subjective experience is like - then writing it that way makes sense. it's not that hearing it once is sufficient to make it totally obvious, it's that a particular instance of hearing it can be the triggering event that makes it all fall into place.

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

I hope you have seen the Cthulhu tract.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't!