It's May 21st at about eight o'clock in the evening, and it seems like there have been no major disappearances. The end of the world appears to have not occurred. I've had some fun with the predictions this past week, as have many people, especially on internet social networking sites. However, there have been some who have expressed an opinion that we shouldn't be having so much fun with this. That this isn't something that should be the butt of a joke. Are they right? Was I wrong to joke about the end of the world? Let's examine some of the arguments I've seen and see how they hold up.
1) Making a joke of this obscures some of the serious ramifications of these misguided beliefs. - The basis behind this one seems to come from some of the more depressing stories we've heard coming out of these predictions. There was a New York Times article about a family who stopped saving for their children's college because of their belief that, well, the world was going to end before college became a reality for them. There was another article about families who had their pets euthanized so they wouldn't suffer when they were gone. In light of tragic events like this, should we be cracking jokes? A few more enthusiastic critics have gone on to use this as a springboard for a discussion of how various religious views cause harm in general, from the gay marriage debate, to Islamic extremism, emphasizing that our reaction should be dismay and condemnation, not amusement. I disagree. The consequences are serious, that's true, but satire, comedy, and ridicule are one of the better weapons we have against absurd behavior like this. Serious and funny aren't as contradictory as people think. Comedy, after all, is merely tragedy plus time and/or distance.
2) Look, I know it seems kind of silly, but these are deeply held religious beliefs and they deserve some respect. - Coming from literally the opposite side of the spectrum from the first point, there are those who simply find it in poor taste to make fun of people's religious beliefs, regardless of how silly they seem. I kind of get this one. There are some lines that maybe we shouldn't cross. I think the reason that this one doesn't fit for me is this: they went out on a limb and posited a clear statement that could easily be proven false. You have to know that when May 21st comes and goes and everyone's still here that you'd be outside of the realm of potentially true religious belief and into the realm of "obviously really, really wrong." In addition, there's something to be said for people deserving the respect they give. The more you respect that you might be wrong, the less funny it is when you are.
3) What if they're right/Even if they get the date wrong, a Second Coming will occur and the jokes seem to be mocking God more than mocking the date. - Sure, they could have been right. And bin Laden might be enjoying 72 virgins right now. But at this point I'm nearly one hundred percent sure that one of those statements is wrong, and I'm about 99 percent on the other. But here's the thing: we make jokes about God all the time. Sermons have jokes in them, and some of them, if you really think about them, are kind of at God's expense, or at least with God as the topic. How many "gates of heaven" jokes have you heard? God can be funny.
What bothers me more about this argument, though, is that it seems to be, at base, an argument religious people use all too often. "What if you're wrong? Do you want to risk how badly my version of God is going to hurt you if you don't believe what I tell you that you need to believe?" Heck, it's been codified into a rational-sounding argument called Paschal's Wager. I say rational-sounding, because it's flawed at several levels. First, there are too many people saying the same thing. By believing in any given version of God, I'm risking that some other belief system might be right and that version might punish me. If I believe in Jesus, what's Allah going to do to me. If I believe in Allah, how can I help stop Xenu? Even within one religion, if I'm Catholic, what's going to happen with the Church of Christ's God? Enough denominations make enough contradictory claim, that I'm not sure that you can logically ensure that you're "in" with any one set of beliefs.
That's not the only problem, though. Once we start playing the "what if" game, we need to play it to its logical conclusion. What if God really hates cynical smartasses who play "what if" and specifically decided that anyone who believes simply because of Paschal's Wager is out? Just because no major religion says that doesn't make it an invalid "what if." Look, I'm a believer, but I think that "I'd better believe because God might send me to hell if I don't," is a bad reason to believe. Next post I'll go further in explaining why, and try to put the final nail in the coffin of Paschal.
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