Because I write a great deal about nutball religious activities, a friend asked me if I believe nutball religious sects have a right to exist. I thought for a few minutes and answered “yes, of course, they may be nutballs and believe that cats or trees are gods but they are not hurting anyone.” I assert: let them have their nutball fun! After all, I just want to point a finger at them and laugh. Still, the question bothered me so I thought a bit longer and came up with one modifier, “in the case of a Jim Jones type self-destructive cult or a morally deprived baby blood drinking type coven, or a nutball group that espouses violence against others, especially other religions, well then I would have to say “Hell no”. Society should do everything possible to protect themselves from dangerous nutballs.
Nutball religious cults should not get a “get out of jail free card” just because of some metaphysical connection to a deity, an infamous historical figure, or an enlighten philosopher. Nutballers must operate by a certain moral standard to be considered legitimate. I would have to extend this concept to include major religions as well, which means that the violent fractions in Islam are a real problem. Islamic terrorists should be considered a nutball sect and treated as such by their mainstream counterparts.
Nutballs are everywhere. One must be on guard against nutballs and nutball (unscientific) thinking else they co-opt legitimate processes and turn them towards their own evil ends. The best example of this I can site recently is in the area of creation science, nutball Christian fundamentalists believe it wise to teach biblical science (I’m not even sure what that is), next to Darwin and Einstein in our public schools in an effort to gain equal time for their views. It’s a waste of young minds and clearly qualifies as socially destructive nutball behavior (it will make us all dumber). Nutball behavior is not limited to Christian sects, Islam has them too; just consider the theories currently floating around Islamic websites speculating that Israel was the mastermind behind the bombing of its own people in Taba, or that America orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as a way to justify killing Muslims. This is always nutball conspiracy theory wacko thinking, and is just plain wrong.
I’m very open minded, if something I write offends, please let me know. Every now and then I mistake a mainstream behavior for something more nutballish. For example, I was completely mystified to find out that beheading innocent people is actually condoned by Islam (as long as they can be classified properly as non-Muslim). Here I thought it just violent nutball extremists, and then I find out its mainstream. Hmmm, it makes one wonder, how peaceful is this supposed religion of peace anyway?
