Religion: A Banana Republic of the Mind

Banana Republic

n. A small country that is economically dependent on a single export commodity, such as bananas, and is typically governed by a dictator or the armed forces.

Right off the bat this dictionary definition makes it perfectly clear: a banana republic is a ‘small country.’ That’s generally how we use the phrase, and that’s precisely how it came about in the 1930’s. It’s a derogatory slap in the face to a country whose economic exploits lack a certain depth and sophistication and whose future surfs a wave almost entirely dependent on the market of a single product. The term is purposefully slanderous because these countries are a danger to themselves and their neighbours. They are vulnerable, unstable, and at their core, volatile. Fair enough, the turn of words is accurate, but I contend the definition is far, far too restrictive. Banana republics also apply to individual minds, and in this unhealthy market theists have a working monopoly.

Theists, particularly evangelical fundamentalists, are a danger to themselves and their neighbours. The dogma they cling to is so fragile, so vaporous that they are left emotionally vulnerable, mentally unstable, and outwardly highly volatile. The absence of sophistication or depth in a theists thinking makes them a social liability; an invalid unable to contribute to the greater good. They are immature, irrational, brittle, and yet they are also unmovable. They are each tiny little individual banana republic’s ready in an instant to scream down new ideas… or in fact rebel against quite well established ones, and for this I present to you Exhibit A. This note was scribbled on top of a high school geology exam on the origins of the earth: