My friends on Facebook have been up in arms about Michele Bachmann's joke about the earthquake and the hurricane being messages from God. I don't let that bother me in this case, since what bothers me more is that I don't know that she was joking. A good number of people really believe that God sends disasters to punish people, notwithstanding that the good always get punished along with the bad. This is a belief that belongs somewhere in the long ago, say the 14th Century, but never mind.
The thing that interests me in this case is the amazing facility people like Michele Bachmann have for changing the rules when the game is going against them. When disaster strikes in some perceived iniquitous zone, say New York or New Orleans, or any blue state, the religious fundamentalist says that God has a message for the sinners who live there. Now, this particular earthquake struck smack dab in the middle of Eric Cantor's district. Suddenly, God has a message for us all. Why not just for Eric Cantor?
The talent these true believers have for changing the rules, for accusing their opponents of the exact sins that they themselves (and they only) commit, for attempting to rewrite history, for presenting lies as facts, is quite amazing. It comes from practice.
What are people whose lifelong beliefs are constantly being debunked by the growth of scientific knowledge to do?
If they have power, they can make the new knowledge a crime. Or they can create a false counter-science. In short, this resistance to easily seen facts that challenge ancient beliefs creates a special breed of compulsive liars.
It's too bad. The world of the rational is the world of light. It's much less scary than a world with a possible eternity of hellfire.
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