Larry King

I watched a bit of Larry King last night ... you know ... the talking head trying to become the most irrelevant guy on TV?

Well he had a panel of religious pundits on, discussing why god lets bad things happen to good people or something like that. As an atheist I found the whole discussion rather absurd but the people participating were quite serious. What was very interesting to me, as it always is, was the diversity of opinions, each claiming to understand the mind of god. All those christian and non christians on the panel were absolutely certain that THEIR worldview was the ONLY right worldview. As an impartial observer these guys and gal all looked like hacks to me ... each pushing an agenda, each certain of their righteousness and each losing credibility with me virtually every time they opened their mouths to speak .... except perhaps one but I'll mention him later.

It was obvious from the start that they couldn't all be right. I continue to be amazed then that ANYONE can actually puts stock into anything people like this claim. Fact is all of your religious views are yours alone. You *think* god is this or that, you *think* god feels this way about an issue, you *think* god said this in this book or that book, you *think* everyone who feels differently is wrong. You THINK a lot of things ... but you don't KNOW. To claim you KNOW when you only *think* is illogical bordering on insane. So you choose your religion based on your own personal take on your own personal idea of what god is or isn't. Sometimes you don't even have a choice .... it is impressed upon you as a child by your family and their church ... which usually becomes your church ... you never really had a choice to begin with.

I saw one pundit claiming yesterday (rather truthfully imo) that the decline in church attendance was because they weren't reaching kids as well as they used to with their religious indoctrination. So kids were growing up more apathetic to their faith, and the only way to reach them was to target them when they were young and impressionable like in school or clubs, to cement the need for faith in them so they would grow up more pious. That to me is extremely cynical and doesn't actually speak well to the rightness of religion, but if it is so clear there is a god why do people need to be convinced so forcefully? But I digress ....

Back to Larry King .... The show demonstrated to me that none of these guys, with the possible exception of Deepak Chopra had ANY clue about what they were talking about. Deepak, a spiritual man with no obvious fixed religion was the only one who seemed to speak from the position of reason. His views appear to be shaped by thoughtful consideration rather than the rigid ideology of organized religion. He was the one panel member who had anything intelligent to say imo. All the others were merely yapping about stuff they were just guessing about. Which I guess was the point of the show ... give these wingnuts a platform. I mean they didn't actually achieve ANYTHING. They just yapped about what THEY believe .... not what they know ... what they BELIEVE. What exactly is the POINT of that? What purpose does it serve? Did it change anyone's mind? Did it convert anyone? Was any viewer enlightened? Did it HELP anyone? It certainly wasn't news .... it wasn't particularily informative ...it didn't educate unless showing these people up to be the airheads they seemed to be was educational. The most I got out of it was the personal opinions of the guests explaining their personal view of god ... but I have no idea why I should care what they think exactly but it was on Larry King so I guess it was important .... right?

You see totally irrelevant.

Tune in Sunday for a repeat performance of what I am sure will be another deeply insightful look at religion .... "What happens after we die? Religious and spiritual leaders explore the ultimate mystery." I'm sure everyone on the panel will be able to speak from first hand experience rather than mere hypothetical guessing. I expect lots of white light stories and floating above the body revelations ... course I could be wrong maybe Larry managed to set up a live interview with a dead person to clear up the question once and for all .... I wait with bated breath.

IA