book of revelation as applies to politics

[phoenixsong44]

I was browsing through the Counterpunch website and came across this article. Its a couple months old but very relevant. It basically describes how the book of revelations has/is used to justify things like the war in Iraq. It does get a little long winded, but let me know what you think.
www.counterpunch.org/leupp07172004.html

[Rama]

One gold star for having a Garnet picture.
Another gold star for linking to counterpunch.

[Seany-D]

The Bush administration has made it no secret that they include religious imagery and quotations from the Bible and hymns, for example, in the president's speeches. I'm not frightened by the fact that they seem to believe that we may be in "the end-times"; what frightens me is the concept that they may end up willing it to be so, practically speaking, through their oversimplification of the world into "good" and "evil".

As stated in the article, people will read what they want to read out of a text, if the desire is strong enough. Witness "Centuries" by Nostradamus. For, well, centuries, people have been reading his words and applying meaning to them to befit his predictive capabilities. It's like finding the lock that fits the key -- not the other way around. I see such tendencies in my own work, and I have learned to avoid them (hopefully) through proper application of the scientific method.

Bonus point to the article for mentioning some of the apocryphal books of the Bible. Fruit cup!

I've never much appreciated a benevolent omniscient deity whom always feels the need to communicate in layers upon layers of symbolism. I much prefer my third manager at the store. "Hey boy -- go empty the shit-cans" is much easier to carry out than something where a four headed dog which speaks of the land of Refusia is swallowed up by a white stallion bearing the name Hefty-Kitchen-Sak over a period of nine-times-nine days. I think the purpose was to tell a good story while chastizing the flock to not beat up people, or else they'll get an ass-whippin' -- something W. should heed closely, 'cause he's pissing off a lot of the world.

I am fairly disturbed by Bush's petulance in insisting that he can divine between good and evil in this world. It smacks of fascism, or at least, fascist logic. We really need to get this nut out of the WHite House, in my blunt opinion. Sadly, I don't think Kerry's gonna do it. I think term limits will do it.

Remember when the Antichrist was the USSR? Ahhh, the good old days....

Sean "car's still not ready yet" Davis