The images shown above are just few of the recent ones (including of physicist Frank Tipler) posted on Pastor Mike's blog. They are only a very minor fraction, however, of all those poor souls he's got "burning up" in the nether reaches of his original "I-Net Church" pages, to do with "False Doctrines". Make no mistake here: If he doesn't instantly judge you to be worthy of his imprimatur you will be dispatched to the Hell zone - and this is irrespective of whether you believe or NOT! You must then, believe HIS way, be stamped as a TRUE "biblical Christian"... or it's the HELL-way. So, in other words, ordinary God-believers and Christians are treated no differently from atheists! (So one wonder why he expends so much time carping about atheists, as if we're the only ones he's approving for Hell!)
What's with this obsession to see burned up all those who may elect to approach the Almighty in a slightly different way? This when we already know that one of the most degenerate and evil concepts ever spawned by the human brain is the Hell Myth. This despicable psychic embolism has not only severely delimited lives of millions of humans (out of sheer fear) but has also allowed degenerate “Satan”-obsessed religions to control masses of minds even as others are driven into delirium and psychosis. Well, a new book and a survey associated may well shed some light, viz.:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/book-breaks-americas-gods-11827805
The survey is based on the book: America's Four Gods, by two professors from Baylor University. They broke down by categories the four prevailing "Gods" - or more accurately God-concepts (since no human brain can process an ideation that embodies a wholly transcendent Being, since the brain's capacity is also transcended) - that are prevalent on the American religious landscape. Their findings are not a little bit enlightening, as well as disconcerting (in how limited some people's concepts are given they are supposedly embracing something "infinite" or "all loving"). A cursory snapshot breaks them down as follows (see also the video above, allowing a few seconds for some commercials to pass):
- 28% in Authoritative God- who also intervenes in lives (believed in mostly by white male evangelicals)
22%- Benevolent God (intervenes, but is not judgmental, believed in mostly by female evangelicals)
21%- Critical God (somewhat detached but still judgmental, believed by African Americans, and those of mainly lower income levels)
24% - Distant God (set universe in motion then disengaged- believed in mainly by liberals, progressives)
The authors observe the preceding are not merely of passing interest or fodder for trivia contests, but also have a profound impact on one's morals and behavior. For example, the believers in the Authoritative God are much more likely to accept that disasters such as Katrina and 9/11 are events visited on us by their God as punishment.
This is not surprising since they are almost all convinced every word in their Bibles must be taken absolutely literally, including some of the most reprehensible acts and edicts of their God.
For instance, in 2 Kings 2, 23:24, "the Lord" (so-called) allows children to be slain by wild animals if they insult their elders (in this case a "prophet"). Similarly, by Deut. 22:22 both John Edwards and his former girlfriend (Riele Hunter) would have to be stoned to death for adultery if the authoritarian caricature of the Bible were adopted. Further, by Deut. 21: 18-21 any insolent son would have to be taken to the outskirts of a city by his parents who'd let the elders stone him to death.
If one examines the profile of the one who posted all the recent "Hell" cartoons, one quickly beholds he fits the template of the 'Four Gods' authors to a tee, as a white male evangelical. He, like his cohorts (including Fred Phelps who has about 99.99999% of the human race headed for Hell), could pretty well hang a sign around their necks saying, "Big Daddy in the sky, Beat Me!"
They're clearly terrified of living or breathing under their own autonomy so have to conjure up the worst punishment their febrile brains can imagine to project on others who do!
Quite the converse are those who accept the Distant God, and as the authors note, these are more likely to be those who accept that humans have to solve their own problems, and blame their ills on themselves as opposed to whining "The Devil made me do it". They are also more likely to side with Benjamin Franklin, that "The Supreme Being of the universe would never be concerned with such an essential nothing as Man".
Of course, Franklin, like Jefferson and Madison, were Deists - not orthodox Christians, which explains this viewpoint. Strictly speaking, Deism is not Theism, but in fact, only one step removed from atheism. The only real difference is that in Deism a kind of non-specific "first cause" is proposed, but after that all distinctions collapse. Whatever the "first cause" it quickly abandoned its handiwork and found better things to occupy itself. The atheist avers there is no one or nothing "minding the store" and so does the deist.
No wild surprise then that most of those who forged the Declaration of Independence and signed it were of the Deist persuasion. Indeed, it is hard to accept that any remote believer in an Authoritative "woodshed" (punitive) deity would countenance rebelling from one's "parent country" on the scale of the American colonials. They'd be regarded as "spoiled brats" who "want anything their little hearts desire" (including liberty from the tyrants overseeing them!) have to be "taken to the woodshed".
What's with this obsession to see burned up all those who may elect to approach the Almighty in a slightly different way? This when we already know that one of the most degenerate and evil concepts ever spawned by the human brain is the Hell Myth. This despicable psychic embolism has not only severely delimited lives of millions of humans (out of sheer fear) but has also allowed degenerate “Satan”-obsessed religions to control masses of minds even as others are driven into delirium and psychosis. Well, a new book and a survey associated may well shed some light, viz.:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/book-breaks-americas-gods-11827805
The survey is based on the book: America's Four Gods, by two professors from Baylor University. They broke down by categories the four prevailing "Gods" - or more accurately God-concepts (since no human brain can process an ideation that embodies a wholly transcendent Being, since the brain's capacity is also transcended) - that are prevalent on the American religious landscape. Their findings are not a little bit enlightening, as well as disconcerting (in how limited some people's concepts are given they are supposedly embracing something "infinite" or "all loving"). A cursory snapshot breaks them down as follows (see also the video above, allowing a few seconds for some commercials to pass):
- 28% in Authoritative God- who also intervenes in lives (believed in mostly by white male evangelicals)
22%- Benevolent God (intervenes, but is not judgmental, believed in mostly by female evangelicals)
21%- Critical God (somewhat detached but still judgmental, believed by African Americans, and those of mainly lower income levels)
24% - Distant God (set universe in motion then disengaged- believed in mainly by liberals, progressives)
The authors observe the preceding are not merely of passing interest or fodder for trivia contests, but also have a profound impact on one's morals and behavior. For example, the believers in the Authoritative God are much more likely to accept that disasters such as Katrina and 9/11 are events visited on us by their God as punishment.
This is not surprising since they are almost all convinced every word in their Bibles must be taken absolutely literally, including some of the most reprehensible acts and edicts of their God.
For instance, in 2 Kings 2, 23:24, "the Lord" (so-called) allows children to be slain by wild animals if they insult their elders (in this case a "prophet"). Similarly, by Deut. 22:22 both John Edwards and his former girlfriend (Riele Hunter) would have to be stoned to death for adultery if the authoritarian caricature of the Bible were adopted. Further, by Deut. 21: 18-21 any insolent son would have to be taken to the outskirts of a city by his parents who'd let the elders stone him to death.
If one examines the profile of the one who posted all the recent "Hell" cartoons, one quickly beholds he fits the template of the 'Four Gods' authors to a tee, as a white male evangelical. He, like his cohorts (including Fred Phelps who has about 99.99999% of the human race headed for Hell), could pretty well hang a sign around their necks saying, "Big Daddy in the sky, Beat Me!"
They're clearly terrified of living or breathing under their own autonomy so have to conjure up the worst punishment their febrile brains can imagine to project on others who do!
Quite the converse are those who accept the Distant God, and as the authors note, these are more likely to be those who accept that humans have to solve their own problems, and blame their ills on themselves as opposed to whining "The Devil made me do it". They are also more likely to side with Benjamin Franklin, that "The Supreme Being of the universe would never be concerned with such an essential nothing as Man".
Of course, Franklin, like Jefferson and Madison, were Deists - not orthodox Christians, which explains this viewpoint. Strictly speaking, Deism is not Theism, but in fact, only one step removed from atheism. The only real difference is that in Deism a kind of non-specific "first cause" is proposed, but after that all distinctions collapse. Whatever the "first cause" it quickly abandoned its handiwork and found better things to occupy itself. The atheist avers there is no one or nothing "minding the store" and so does the deist.
No wild surprise then that most of those who forged the Declaration of Independence and signed it were of the Deist persuasion. Indeed, it is hard to accept that any remote believer in an Authoritative "woodshed" (punitive) deity would countenance rebelling from one's "parent country" on the scale of the American colonials. They'd be regarded as "spoiled brats" who "want anything their little hearts desire" (including liberty from the tyrants overseeing them!) have to be "taken to the woodshed".
Given the prominence of the Authoritative God in the nation's fabric, by virtue of the prevalence of the white male evangelical demographic, it is interesting to find out more about how this particular mindset became so frozen (but at the very least one factor is the subscription to "biblical inerrancy")
Douglas Hofstadter notes ('Anti-Intellectualism in American Life', p. 135):
"The fundamentalist mind.....is essentially Manichean, it looks upon the world as an arena for conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, and accordingly it scorns compromises (who would compromise with Satan) and can tolerate no ambiguities."
And this is what we see in such Hell depictions as those shown, not to mention how he arrogantly attempts to portray Caleb Shay's stalwart responses to his "questions" as more the actions of a "spoiled brat" than an independent thinker. To him, all independent thought is "unbiblical". The Pastor is also convinced he's one of a tribe of 'God's Warriors', waging an endless battle against hordes of unleashed demons and human Satanic agents and divine imposters, trying to bring him to perdition - including his own (atheist) brother - who is regarded as "an agent of Satan". His universe is one of perpetual warfare and hatred of "the other" (unlike him), so there are no islands of respite or calm ...only hidden "tricks" used by the Great Deceiver to try to lure him into acting against his "salvation".
Beyond this, when one gets into the psychological dynamics of those 28% who believe in the Authoritative God, one finds they embody also what has been called "the authoritarian personality type". According to Harvey A. Hornstein in his terrific book Cruelty and Kindness: A New Look at Aggression and Altruism (Prentice-Hall, 1976, 'We and They', p.13.), this personality "is pathologically rigid, absolutist and displays little or no flexibility" . In the words of some, “It’s my way or the highway”. (Or the Hell way!)
The seed of this germination probably inheres in one or more incidents in the early life especially if the person was dominated by an authority figure, perhaps paddled by a teacher or threatened in some way. Since most white male evangelicals hale from the Deep South and we know (from national statistics) that corporal punishment (especially paddling) is most often employed there, it isn't surprising so many of their minds have been polluted by the "Authoritative God" meme - which their own Bible also helps to corroborate for them. ("See, my God IS a Giant Paddler! Look at what he orders for all those who cross him!)
The experience then buries itself in the subconscious and though this person may spend most of its adult life exorcising its demons in drunkenness or whatnot, it eventually will come back to the authoritarian mindset that originally dominated it and use that as an experiential template. Not surprisingly, as Hornstein notes, many of these authoritarians become either military commanders, cult leaders (like Jim Jones and David Koresh) or ministers in extreme fundamentalist religions (like Fred Phelps). They find that in these venues their exercise of control is maximized to the hilt and there are few people with the moxie to challenge them.
Further, they try to amplify their authority by basing its exercise on an independent external authority in which they invest their minds absolutely. For the military commander it may be the Joint chiefs, and for the minister – his KJV. Never mind either being corrupted at the core, their word is “gospel” and more than enough for the authoritarian to spread his noxious materials.
Let us hope, as we parse "America's Four Gods" , that the one god-concept that finally prevails in American minds is either the benevolent deity or the distant one. The alternative, a "Giant Paddler" of the Authoritarian form - taking its marching orders from the Cosmic Psycho in the Old Testament - is too horrific to contemplate. Particularly if one of them ever assumes executive power or, even worse, a plurality of them assume control over all branches of government! According to the same stats in the book, if there is anyone or any contingent to stop the purveyors of "God - the Paddler", it is likely their wives - female evangelicals who adhere to the "Benevolent God". That contingent may well be our last hope to administer a dose of sanity to their hell-bender hubbies!
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