I was out today, though, so they left a leaflet in my mailbox. The title was ‘Do You Want to Know the Truth?’ What that actually means is ‘We Know the Truth and You Don’t.’ Isn’t that just what so bugs me about smug, proselytizing religionists?
We have a monopoly on the truth. Our prophet is the only right one to follow. Our little list of dogma is the only one that will get you to heaven. We will allow you to discuss, but in the end you must agree with us.
They’re not the only ones, of course. I see a world in which the majority of people staunchly inhabit one of two citadels – the first called Mindless Materialism, and the second called Sectarian Certainty. Others like to have a foot in both camps, living out their weeks in the first and nipping over to the second on Sunday just so they get the best of both worlds. And they’re all convinced that theirs is the only way to be.
Those of us who decline to join either, but instead keep our eyes open while negotiating the airy road between the two often have to travel with very little company.
2 comments:
Oh my god Jeff, you're channeling my maverick grandfather, he had the same effect on the Jehovah's Witnesses. I wept with laughter reading that!! You're not an aquarius are you?
By the way, my thoughts exactly!
No, Mel. Saggi. I managed the same thing the last time I talked to the Men in Black in the High Street. They're the worst; they even use bloody corporate selling techniques!
So glad to have you for company, Mel.
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