The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. August 26, 2008

(Props to Eric Hoffer for the subject line.)

I’ve been listening to the Left Behind books recently. (I’ll get on my pro-audiobook soapbox some other time. For the moment, just roll with the fact that I like them. These particular audiobooks are also downloadable online through My Local Library^TM, meaning they’re free and available everywhere. This is a perk.)

If you haven’t heard of Left Behind, here’s a quick summary of the series: The Rapture happens. Our Heroes (a few traumatized yet plucky survivors) realize it was Jesus, become born-again, and try to convert as many others as possible before the Antichrist or one of God’s upcoming judgments gets ‘em first.

Here’s another summary: Fundamentalist preacher and ghostwriter team up to write Mary Sue Bible fanfiction, working from a pretty skewed interpretation of the canon in the first place.

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