I was minding my own business this morning, scanning the TV guide, trying to find something worth taping for later viewing, when I happened upon a stupid show on the Travel Network.
The so-called documentary, purporting to “reveal hidden stories of the beautiful locales…through eyewitness accounts and key facts”, focused, in this episode, on alleged “Spirits in the Forest”. The subject forest, in this case, was the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California, a 720 square mile expanse of chaparral and riparian areas which separates coastal and inland urban areas north of San Diego. It’s major claim to fame is the fact that portions of it catch fire every year.
Anyway, according to the Spirits of the Forest folks, the CNF is also supposedly well-known for “terrifying encounters with gun-wielding ghosts and strange, savage creatures”, “the area’s bloody and tragic history”, and “its link to the existence of portals into other dimensions“.
Well, excuse me for saying so, but this episode is a crock of shit.
I’ve lived in Southern California for 70 years, owned a home adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest for 30 years, and rode my horse up in those mountains for many years, and never encountered a ghost, a savage creature, or spied a wormhole into another dimension of space and time. As a matter of fact, in 70 years, I never even read one news article about scary goings on in that forest, except for an occasional mountain lion attack and the annual forest fires (that were set, almost without exception, by a careless camper or a disgruntled fireman/arsonist). In all my years, I ran across exactly one scary rattlesnake up there, but no spirits, goblins, axe-wielding demons, or blood-thirsty, Satanic cultists.
And, I haven’t met anyone who has.
So, I’m calling B.S. on this cable show. It’s Fake News, pure and simple.
Now, I’m sure that people who “hear voices”, consult Ouiga boards for advice, and talk to loved ones at seances would disagree with me on this. Who’s to dispute them? They see and hear what they want. How can you convince a guy who’s been abducted by aliens, subjected to humiliating examinations in a flying saucer, and returned to earth unscathed…that said adventure never happened? Good luck with that.
Or, how about the folks who’ve encountered Bigfoot or a Yeti? The fact that not one of these large creatures (or the Loch Ness Monster, for that matter) has ever been captured or has ever died (leaving a skeleton that scientists can examine!) should give pause to these true believers. But, I actually know a bigwig in the Bigfoot believer community, and, other than his odd conviction about the big, hairy, stinky and bashful creatures, is an otherwise intelligent and interesting guy. He just wants to believe, and so he does. And, in doing so, gets to socialize with other nutty folks who enjoy fantasizing about things that normal people can’t “see”.
Religious people are like that: they experience a lot of things that are hard to believe, yet they believe them…because they want to.
Take the case of Joseph Smith, for example. At age 14, the teenager was supposedly approached in the woods by God who told the youth that every church on earth was offensive to Him. God gave Smith some golden tablets with new rules to help establish the new, correct religion. Like other famous prophets, the teenager never told anyone about this and, of course, the golden tablets disappeared like divine evidence always does.
Young Mr. Smith eventually completed the Book of Mormon, his new bible . Luckily for Smith and the rest of his male followers, God’s new rules allowed Smith and his buddies to have sexual relations with as many women as they pleased. Actually, this is not surprising , since a horny, teenage boy was writing Scripture.
Oh, and by the way, followers of his new religion were expected to provide his church with 10 percent of their annual income, so that the church could spread the good news (and afford lots of girlfriends).
Prophet Smith ended up with twenty-eight concubines. Unfortunately, before he could shack-up with any more, he ticked off a bunch of creditors, was jailed, tried to escape, and was killed by an angry mob.
Prophets, like Joseph Smith, the greybeards in the Old Testament, or the Branch Davidians’ David Koresh, the Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad, or televangelist Peter Popoff are believed (by the true believers) to have direct communication with God…because the self-proclaimed prophets say they do. Who’s to say they don’t? Prove it (that they don’t)! It’s pretty much impossible.
Apostle Paul, who pretty much created the Christian religion, wasn’t actually one of Jesus’ personally-appointed Apostles (i.e. close followers). Paul claimed that God directly gave him the Word, so to speak, and sent him on his way to spread the news. Who’s to say He didn’t?
Most people aren’t called by God to perform special tasks for Him on earth. Like killing people, for example. Although God is against murder, according to His commandments, he often deputizes human beings (i.e. prophets, popes, imams, etc.) to lead orgies of mayhem against people of other races, creeds and religions. Or, at least that’s what religious leaders profess, before they carry out pogroms, Crusades, ethnic cleansing, etc.
They claim that God wants this done, by his followers, despite the fact that God himself used to do His own dirty work via plagues, thunderbolts, hurricanes, pestilences, or, in one case, a Great Flood.
(I guess He’s gotten old, or lost some of His powers, and needs help from his mortal creations. To be honest, it’s not very God-like.)
So, He’s recruiting assistance, or, at least, that’s what religious leaders want their flocks to believe. And, for the most part, they do. Why? Because “God wants it”. And, who’s to say He doesn’t?
Belief is like that. Facts, evidence, and logic don’t matter much when you want to believe something, or don’t want to know what is true. Politicians prey on this human weakness. But, as Voltaire once said, ” Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
So, if you want to believe if there are ghosts in the woods, alien spaceships hovering above the earth, have just won the lottery (if you’ll send some earnest money to a Nigerian grifter), or that Pastor Rod Parsley’s Miracle Healing Cloth will defeat your metastatic breast cancer, you are perfectly free to do so. It is your right, and there is no law against being stupid.
As the old Italian proverb goes, “He who knows nothing doubts nothing.”