You’re on the winning side

You’re on the winning side. Keep this line in mind while I first dive into this two-word buffet: Banana Republic. Coined in the 1930’s, the term Banana Republic is (as everyone is well-aware) used to describe a small country whose economic exploits lack a certain depth or sophistication; a country whose future surfs a wave almost entirely dependent on the market of a single product. It’s a derogatory phrase; a slap in the face to nations who’re a danger not only to themselves but their neighbours. They are vulnerable, unstable, highly volatile and essentially must maintain a delusional headset to exist. Fair enough, the turn of words is accurate, but I contend the definition is far too restrictive. Banana Republics also apply to individual minds, and in this unhealthy market theists have a working monopoly. Theists, particularly evangelicals, are a danger to themselves and their neighbours. The dogma they cling to (and the apologetics they offer up) is so vaporous that they are left emotionally vulnerable, mentally unstable, and outwardly highly volatile. They are immature, irrational, brittle, and lack sophistication and depth in their thinking which subsequently must be filled with delusion… and this brings me to the comment posted by a Christian apologist going by the name, Theologetics who at the time was encouraging another evangelical, a strikingly odd man named Roy:

“Keep fighting the fight. You’re on the winning side.”

Now, to put it mildly, this outlandishly bold statement made my mind do peculiar summersaults. For these five words to be even remotely rooted in some crumb of reality one would have to of observed a steady movement of truth toward religious belief, not away from it. For it to be taken seriously (to be on the “winning” side) there should be physical examples where religious explanations have successfully supplanted that which was once considered scientific fact. Now, the reality is that the movement of truth has been in one direction, and one direction only: AWAY from religion. There does not exist a single example in the last 400 years where a supernatural explanation has overthrown a natural one, rather tens of thousands of cases where natural explanations have instead usurped the erroneous magic promoted in religion. This has, understandably, been reflected in the rapid decline of religious practice among educated, rational populations and a striking movement from belief to non-belief among the scientific community. In 1916, 1,000 leading American scientists were randomly chosen from American Men of Science and 41.8% believed a god existed, 41.5% were atheist, and 16.7% had doubts/did not know. In 1998 a survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences (published in Nature) revealed that the number of atheists had blown out to a whopping 93%. When the number for just those involved in the biological sciences were isolated that percentage rocketed to a staggering 98.7%. There is, of course, a reason for this one way traffic: no evidence for the supernatural has ever been seen, and it’s now commonly understood that a god is simply not required for the universe to exist or be the way it is.

By ignoring this unmistakable movement in one direction (by turning a blind-eye to the overwhelming evidence to the contrary) and claiming, You’re on the winning side, it’s clear that Theologetics (like most fundamentalists) is a Banana Republic of the mind. Worryingly, these folk care not for the authenticity of the real world, choosing instead to fill their heads with a delusion as evidenced in this bloggers fabulously inaccurate statement… and that can never be a good thing; not for the individual or those around them.