No Time for Trivia

I must admit it.  I saw the face of God and laughed in spiritual renewal.  Here is a group that have done so as well:

I must admit that my experience was directly related to the consumption of peyote buttons and Jim Beam while watching Stripes with Bill Murray, whom some have labeled a God.  I must admit, too, that The Razor’s Edge with Bill Murray is one of my all time favorite movies.  There are some very spiritual messages in that movie.

I must admit that I, too, have spoken in tongues.  Here are a group touched by the Holy Spirit of God:

And here:

I must admit that my episode occurred in Corfu, Greece when as a young Marine I over indulged in Ouzo and hashish and was trying to find the ship I was attached to as my Cinderella Liberty was fast drawing to a close.  Nobody seemed to understand me, but I was certain of my clarity and the purity of my mission.  I did not find my ship that night but the next day the Shore Patrol found me.  It did not turn out well….

I must admit that I have handled snakes before.  Here are some doing so as well.

I must admit that I was stone cold sober and using a device to capture Diamond Back Rattlesnakes  in West Texas.  My friend and I caught several, skinned them and ate their meat.  It tasted like chicken, of course.  We were not seeking enlightenment just food.  Sometimes God plays tricks on those that don’t respect the design of nature.

Woman Dies After Snakebite In Church

woman died after being bitten by a snake during a serpent-handling service at church, police said.

Linda Long, 48, of London, Ky., died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbors of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling

Obviously she was possessed by Satan.  Though he was their pastor, he too must have been filled with demons:

Snakebite Proves Fatal To Minister

JONESVILLE, VA – A preacher who refused medical treatment after a rattlesnake bit him during the serpent-handling part of an Easter service has died, authorities said. The Rev. Dwayne Long, 45, of Rose Hill was holding a rattlesnake when it bit him on the back of a finger, Lee County Sheriff Gary Parsons said. Parsons said the congregation prayed for Long, but no one sought medical treatment. Long died Monday at his home. “We don’t anticipate any charges at this time,” Parsons said. “That’s their belief.” Long was pastor of a Pentecostal church where members interpret serpent-handling as a form of obedience to God.

Snake-handlers believe that when people die of a snakebite they receive during a church service, it was simply their time to go. Long leaves a wife, five children and two grandchildren.

Five children to take up where dad left off.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  Too bad this passage was written by an anonymous person and not liable in court for their assertions:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. —Mark 16:17-18

The practitioners of this ritual call it faith.  I call it culling the herd.

Although laughing hysterically and speaking in tongues is probably harmless, I have a feeling it is always proceeded by donations of money.  It is also probably a case of committing oneself so thoroughly into a belief culture that to not respond as those around you would cast you as an outsider so following through with these embarrassing and absurd performance outweighs one’s sense of dignity and reason.  The need to belong is strong.

One of the practices that transcend rituals in the believer’s faith is the refusal of accepting medical treatment or allowing others in one’s cult/family to do so as well.  This results in deaths and prolonged illnesses, usually for children on a regular basis, such as here, here , here and here.  I feel most for the brainwashed (if they live long enough to be brainwashed) children that suffer because of their parent’s absurd beliefs.  The adults that choose not to accept medical treatment for religious reasons I call culling the herd.

It seems to me that were there a God, the all knowing type, that it would open the sky and tell these fools that the reason that we are endowed with reasoning skills, the ability to deduce things from a scientific perspective and that we have the ability to understand to a high degree the human body and the effects of disease, injury and illness is to use those skill sets to extend our lives and those of our loved ones.  Instead we have scriptures that were written thousands of years ago when the understanding of bacterium, viruses, the immune system, antibiotics and a host of other areas of medicine and human pathology were unknown or highly misunderstood.   They also state  that the universe, earth, the oceans and sky, all of the animals and plants, and man and woman were created in six days.  Also they state that the Earth was the center of our solar system.

I have always wondered why there would be galaxies so far away with billions of stars that we cannot even see without the advent of radio, electronic and other modern telescopes, what their purpose would be if we were “God’s” only children.  The light from them, if any some of the most distant ones have even done so,  reached us, are billions of years in the travel.

But, better not think on those things.  Better just laugh hysterically and get bowled over by  speaker of tongues.  Handle some serpents and refuse the wonders of modern medicine.  And occasionally… cull the herd.