Do I really need to say that dealing with irrationality is an exercise in futility? No, I don't think so, but of course no one talker will admit himself as being irrational or holding irrational beliefs. It's always the other one that is being irrational. And just in case you ask two irrational people to discuss with each other then you are in for lots and lots of fun.
I just heard on CNN a little while ago the news about this pastor who is about to burn a Holy Book in order to make a point to his adversaries around the world, and how the US General is Afghanistan is asking or almost begging him not to do so because the American operations there will be in danger.
First of all I am really so sorry for any General whose operations are so well planned and thought out that a pastor on the other side of the world can put them in danger...
But the whole issue of Holy Books begs for some questions...
It seems that although a book is basically a bunch of pages wrapped up together with a cover, IF the pages happen to have imprinted on them some magic combination of words, which some people consider Holy Words, then the book itself becomes Holy to this group of people, Holy enough to provoke threats of violence in case it's integrity is violated. That is, a material object gets raised to Holy status, which is an act of total irrationality, especially given that you can reproduce it almost infinitely.
Yes, I know that this is basically a symbolic act, of actually burning the holy words, but bear with me for a minute...
Well, what if my freshly received copy of a Holy Book has two typos and a missing page? Is it still a Holy Book? I mean, it definitely aimed to be a Holy Book, but since it is not exactly the same with THE Holy Book, then I am not sure if it has lost part or all of its Holiness or if it was never Holy at all...
Clearly, if it was Holy (in conception) and ended up losing part of all of its Holiness, then someone is to blame for this... And this someone has to pay for their crime, isn't that right? So maybe I should go first blow up the bookstore (for selling this abomination), then the printing facilities etc.
What did you say? One or two typos don't matter? What about 3 or 4, or 10 or 50? Where do you put the line? How many mistakes in the reproduction does it take to make the contents non-Holy?
Now, the book is a relatively easy case, but we are not living in the Middle Ages anymore... What about that audio book of a Holy Book that I have in my iPod? Does this make the iPod Holy or is it just a Holy File stored in it? I don't know about you, but both the ideas of a Holy iPod or a Holy File just sound so absurd to me... but they are just a natural consequence of the Holy Book concept. Holy words are contained in there, and destroying these Holy words is an offense it seems.
So what if I need to delete the Holy file to make some free space? Is this the same as burning a Holy Book? Why should it not be? And it makes it much easier to knock yourself out if you happen in be in the Holy Book burning business. Just copy the Holy File 1000 times then delete all 1000 files... wow... what a pleasure... and so convenient, just remember to use something like SDELETE so that the actual bits are REALLY wiped out; you don't want them lying around in your disk, do you?
Well, if deleting a Holy File is the same as deleting a Holy Book, then clearly the operating system providers should provide some means that will prevent us from deleting these Holy Files, maybe they should be providing them to us as part of the operating system, as protected files... How rational would that be now?
Of course there's a next step to this... what if someone memorizes the Holy Words contained in a Holy Book? Has he become a Holy Person too? Why not? What if he prints the Holy Words on the walls of his home, is this now a Holy Home that you cannot anymore bring down? What if he prints them overnight on the Statue of Liberty? Would the authorities be allowed to cleanup the mess the next day, or would that provoke Holy War? What if a guy in death row tatooes a Holy book all over his body? Should that permit him to escape the death penalty?
I think that by now my point should be clear. If you want to consider some words as Holy that's your own business to do so, but don't mix things up. You should consider the words and ideas as Holy, not the material objects that happen to contain them. And the world might just be a slightly better place...
Have Fun
Dimitrios Staikos
