Back in my Mormon days, I believed in angels. By that I mean, I believed the stories about angels visiting Joseph Smith, and I agreed that angels could probably exist in theory somewhere. If someone claimed they’d actually seen an angel, I’d have been extremely skeptical. But they were characters in scripture, which I believed, so how skeptical could I have been.
But I never believed in genies — that was just storybook stuff. (At the time I saw no contradiction.)
Imagine my surprise to find genies treated as real beings in the Qu’ran. And now it would appear that someone is trying to sue one.
A family in Saudi Arabia has taken a genie to court, alleging theft and harassment, according to local media.
The lawsuit filed in Shariah court accuses the genie of leaving them threatening voicemails, stealing their cell phones and hurling rocks at them when they leave their house at night, said Al-Watan newspaper.
Cell phones. Voice mail. I’m tempted to say that these people don’t deserve the technology that they have. And the same goes for some Christians — today I saw someone smear a woman with cooking oil in an attempt to convince a supernatural being to heal her. That these people can even use a phone is amazing to me.
Pre-deconversion, I’d have thought that suing an angel was crazy, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some Muslims think that suing a genie is equally crazy. Then again, if you think that angels and genies are real beings, it makes perfect sense to sue them like anyone else. This family’s unquestioning faith in their scriptures looks like insanity. Doesn’t it?
So here’s an interesting continuum. On the one side are people who are rational, don’t believe in supernatural beings, and live in the real world. On the other side, you have people who believe in angels and genies, and may try to sue them. They’re the ones who really believe their religion, but they’re (quite frankly) nuts. Someone in the middle of the continuum, like me back then, claims to believe in those things, but doesn’t really. These people can exist in the real world, but that means they believe in their religion somewhat less. This suggests that one is insane to the extent that they believe in the unreal beings presupposed by their religion.
15 July 2009 at 9:05 pm
"today I saw someone smear a woman with cooking oil in an attempt to convince a supernatural being to heal her."
Bwaaahahahaha!! Been going to church lately, huh?
16 July 2009 at 4:06 pm
After the oil has been consecrated, I've never thought of the idea of using it for cooking. But I suppose you might as well.
17 July 2009 at 9:07 am
Use Consecrated Oil™ for all your cooking!
Sancti-licious!
17 July 2009 at 9:11 am
Jeffrey: I blew off church when I paid a visit to Cheney, but I did show up after Sacrament Meeting to say hi — to your Dad, actually. Good to see him.
No need to go to church anyway. Around here, the church comes to you.
21 July 2009 at 6:38 pm
coming back over btw? If you do and you get a chance lets hook back up again.