The Rant Institute

Many right wing Christians believe we are currently living in the end times foretold in the book of Revelation. And they may be right: "Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago." Given this fact, the fear of such Christians makes this election particularly interesting in light of the prophecies foretold in the book of Revelation (which I actually think of not as prophecy, but history,  for it tells us what will happen in the future by simply describing how it has happened - over and over again - in the past. Earth is purgatory, in other words, which plays in an infinite loop; until we wise up at least.) Hence, if we are in fact living in the last days, then as "the Bible tells us so," the Anti Christ...

People always talk about the great deal of HOPE that religion gives them. But it gives just as many people – if not far more – a great deal of fear as well. Fear of eternal damnation, for example. Dying is scary enough, without having to add to that experience the specter of possibly roasting for all eternity in hell, and all for the sin of being human.  My father took comfort in his religion his whole life. And by doing so, it made him accepting of a life he struggled to be happy with. This was not the fault of religion, of course, as his myriad issues came from too many sources to count. Religion simply provided a means by which to put all of the crap he had experienced his entire life, into some framework that made some sense. He could “live with it all,” in other words, by know that justice would be meted out in the in, as long as he “believed.” But when he finally reached the end of his life, he was terrified of dying. I do not honestly know what terrified him...

When the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers chose to remain seated during the playing of the National Anthem last week, in solidarity with BLM and as a protest against the systemic racism and police brutality that has gone on in this country for far too long, he was probably well aware of the fact that he was putting himself in hot water. But he did it anyway. Soon after, he was attacked for doing so. On Facebook, posts abounded with claims that it was hypocritical for a black man who makes $19 million a year to claim that "blacks are oppressed" in America. Many of the people casting such stones, ironically enough, are supporters of billionaire Donald Trump (or Drumpf, to be more accurate). It apparently fails to occur to all of them that if a black man cannot claim that "blacks are oppressed in America," simply because he happens to be a millionaire, then a white man cannot claim that the entire country is broken, corrupt, and conspiring against him, when i...