Religion Week starts on Tuesday

Jack Chick. You are either demented or brilliant, but either way you are extremely malicious.

I used to think ol' JC... wait, that's not right. Jack Chick, OK, was a wrong-in-the-head type who puts the "mental" in "fundamentalist". Now, I am seriously considering the idea that he is a phenomenally successful and extremely ruthless opponent of Christianity who is doing his damndest to undermine its credibility. I am a modern allegory of those medieval heretics who suggested that the Devil wrote Ecclesiastes and parts of Genesis to undermine the Bible's moral message.

The jury is out, but for now I continue to work on the assumption that he is sincere- mostly because I struggle to imagine anyone so relentlessly in-character.

As such, cruising chick.com is an endless source of amusement of the human-feelings-are-meaningless-so-why-not-smile kind. I am particularly pleased by this gem. Maybe you don't want Jack in your browser history, so let me give you the skinny. One of the favourtie tubs to thump over there is that the only bible worth reading is the King James version (the one comissioned by the mad king of Scotland who was a leading light in the world of hunting witches).

Anyway, that little exercise is what I, with my sketchy grasp of sports, like to call a "home goal". In essence, it goes like this. "The New International Version omits many phrases found in the KJV! it is therefore unreliable!" What is not made explicit is that these phrase are in the NIV, but as footnotes with phrases like "One very late manuscript includes this phrase, but it's in different handwriting from the rest and it alludes to events that didn't happen until the year 350 AD".

The article proves that the NIV is not a good version iff you already accept that the KJV is the definition of a good version. Congratulations! Meanwhile, everyone else is saying "Hey, different groups of well-educated and sincere scholars produce biblical translations that sometimes differ in significant details? I guess I better start TAKING ONE VERSION TOTALLY LITERALLY".

Expect the pointing and laughing to continue tomorrow and possibly all week!

Disclaimer!
I genuinely don't have a problem with people who have a religion. I don't understand it, but I don't understand a lot of things. Still, that doesn't mean I can't argue with people about their epistemology, ideals or basic good manners. I'm going to come right out and say it, anyone who is offended by my amusement at Jackie is probably not someone I care much about offending. Now I am going to go and eat some turkish delight. This is not a cultured reference to satanism.