This Is What I Get...

...for watching CNN. I returned home early from work, not feeling 100%, and I thought I'd see what the headlines were. I'm an idiot. Obviously.

And like an idiot, I tuned in just in time to hear Wolf Blitzer ask -- with accompanying graphics splashed across the screen -- if the recent natural disasters (tsunami, Katrina, earthquake in Pakistan) were indication of END OF DAYS. And he asked this IN ALL SERIOUSNESS.

Will my alien parents please come back for me now? My investigations into intelligent life on earth have proven inconclusive.

UPDATE: Because I am not only an idiot but a masochist, too, I kept watching. Some born-again Christians are apparently in a tizzy re: recent disasters, and they're all asking the same question: is the world ending?? The byline (because there is always a byline): Christians Debate Possible Meaning of Disasters.

Debate? Hmmph. I see CNN's providing the whole spectrum from the far right-wing Christian to the mid-right-wing Christian POV.

Wolf is talking w/ both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Friends, this is not the "700 Club," where they could talk about this all day for all I care. I'm trying to watch the news. News, not superstitious hand-wringing. Could I get some? God, this makes me cranky.

What does CNN think it's going to accomplish here? Will they answer this question? Is it End of Days? No. Will they explore the myriad reasons why people find comfort in coherent narratives in an increasingly unfathomable world? No. Will they approach this as a sociological phenomenon wherein the nightmares/fantasies of a sizable number of the population drive the popular imagination? Um, no. Do they want to cynically capitalize on a loudmouth subset's darkest projections? You didn't hear it from me. 

Why so pessimistic anyway, these born-agains? I am continually amazed by what seems the fragility of some Xians' faith. If the world were micromanaged by a punitive/benevolent father (sic) spirit in the sky, and if that benevolent/punitive father (sic) spirit "decided" to end the world (pardon the chuckles), why would the faithful worry? They're headed to Heaven! Won't the faithful be spared all our heathen science and ratiocination and reproductive rights and loving whom we love? No room on the chariot for the rest of us, so why not rejoice? [Clarification: rejoice at going home to God, not rejoice at the disaster.]

Comments

[SocraticGadfly]

If only we could see Wolf Blitzer's end of days.

[coturnix]

I turned off the TV.

P.S. Watch your traffic - Pharyngula linked to this post!