Are we heading for Judgment Day?

Whether you believe it or not, some very powerful people are doing everything they can to bring about the end of the world. It might come sooner than we think if recent events in the Ukraine and the Middle East are any indication. Do we need to prepare for Armageddon?

There is a clash of civilizations ensuing right now; a war between cultures being waged before the world’s media. It has been raging for two-thousand years with no let up, and there are some very powerful agents-provocateurs working behind the scenes to set up the final conflict between good and evil.

Religious zealots of all stripes — be they Christians, Jews or Muslims — want to destroy our secular society and impose their beliefs on the rest of us, whether we like it or not. Some of them want to provoke a global holocaust.

After 9/11, an irrational fear of Muslims became a unifying force behind the political philosophy of right-wing extremists like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Rep. Rick Santorum (R-Pen.), Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and others. Their shrill diatribes against Islam reek of hypocrisy. When these demagogues talk about freedom of religion, what they really mean is the freedom to cram their own simple-minded religious beliefs down your throat.

The people who want to make America a “Christian nation” are just as dangerous as those who wish to impose Sharia law or any other state-sponsored religion. Separation of church and state is one of the key tenets of our so-called democracy. It should be strictly enforced.

Religious leaders like John Hagee, Pat Robertson and the late Terry Jones — the crazy Quran-burning pastor in Florida — have used their First Amendment rights to incite violence and spread ignorance and hate over the airwaves. This has led to an environment where angry white guys decide to take matters into their own hands: men who are too dumb and too crazy to tell the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh.

The list of recent hate crimes by white males against people of color proves we still have a long way to go before we can live up to the ideals of tolerance outlined in the US Constitution. America has never been a particularly tolerant country, although we like to pay tolerance a lot of lip service. Christians were killing each other on American soil a half century before the Mayflower even arrived on these shores.

In 1565 the Spanish conquistadors wiped out an entire colony of French settlers simply because – as the Spanish commander put it – “they were scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these provinces.”

The arrival of the pilgrims in the early 1600s was a response to the religious persecution they had experienced in England, but the Puritans certainly did not practice tolerance or allow opposing religious views to be expressed in the colonies. No dissent of any kind was permitted in their “city upon a hill.” This utterly theocratic society further spread the word of God by committing systematic genocide against the native population.

At least the founding fathers recognized the need to rein in religiosity with The Constitution.

To some Americans, the election of Barack Obama signaled the beginning of the End Times. Having a mixed-race man elected president of the United States was enough to send a lot of already confused people completely over the edge. Obama has been called the Antichrist on more than one occasion, and he is openly reviled among evangelicals. Some still believe he’s a “secret” Muslim – whatever that is.

Messianic Jews and Coptic Christians are now aligning themselves with these right-wing Evangelicals, Christian Zionists and virulent Islamophobes [like Pam Geller and Robert Spencer] against 1.8 billion Muslims to bring about Armageddon, the ultimate battle between the forces of Good and Evil.

But the problem with religious “morality” is that it’s not grounded in rational thought. The singular passion of a religious fanatic is to obey the will of God. Thus, everything becomes an act of faith. When someone believes they’re doing God’s will, they are impossible to reason with. Any effort to dissuade them from their task will be futile. After all, if God has commanded you to do something, anyone who tries to stop you must by definition be an agent of Evil.

Beliefs which aren’t based on tangible evidence certainly can’t be changed by presenting evidence to the contrary. They are on a mission.

Religious zealots believe that someone who acts upon faith alone should be admired and revered. Unfortunately, religious faith can be very dangerous when a believer decides on a course of action that doesn’t consider the welfare of others. If a few innocents happen to die in the process, so be it; any compromise would be a violation of God’s will. Right?

This is why the world is so fucked up.