- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
They're entitled to their hardcore Christian worldview; they're entitled to their Jesus soft rock and beliefs about the soul and when exactly it enters the body. All those things are debatable, and there are good people holding all kinds of positions in this debate. But what does worry me is the misinformation: Obama is a Muslim, a socialist, he's going to change America into "something else", he despises the flag and other national symbols... all of those things are demonstrably wrong. Maybe it is true that people want to believe in catastrophes and "hidden evil"--some people will go for bad UFOs making experiments with poor innocent victims, others will go for Obama-is-a-monster stories and "worry". But it doesn't have to be like that. The New Life people could believe all they want about God and the universe, and simply be better informed about Obama--read the articles, see the arguments, look at the evidence, and not jump to preposterous conclusions, for J. Christ's sake!
It's always possible to come up with something stupid. Say, Obama is the antichrist! How do I know? Count the letters: Barack Hussein Obama. That's 6-7-5. Ahn, isn't that clever--he writes Hussein with a double s! But if we shift the double letter from Hussein to Obama -- if it were Barack Husein Obbama -- then it would be 6-6-6! Of course his "real" name is the 666 one; the 675 version is a clear attempt at diverting out attention. And we all know the antichrist--the true antichrist--would certainly play tricks like that to conceal his true nature from us!
I've just made it up, in a minute and a half. You know what's worst? I'll bet there are people out there who would believe it. We so much want our lives to be full of strange, transcendent forces that we're ready to accept stupidities like these. "Yes, but what if..."
Sigh.
