the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory
Apostle Paul, Romans 3:7
Every now and then God gets bored counting fallen sparrows or casting His dice to decide the outcome of quantum events, so He breaks the monotony by performing the odd miracle. And I do mean odd. Who knew He would get the urge to sketch crude religious icons on tortillas or oil-streaked windows? Apparently designing the entire universe was not a sufficient creative outlet.
While overdriving the brain's face-recognition modules is a fairly passive act of reverence, some miracles come in a more active mode. Weeping statues, stigmata, the shroud of Turin -- all of these require the individuals responsible to be actively involved in ginning up these "miracles." There are sometimes financial motivations for the hoaxers, such as selling tickets or trinkets, but many times the motive is more sinister. They are an act of faith with the oxymoronic name of pious fraud.
For the faith-based, actions in support of their faith are moral. To them actions do not matter as much as thoughts, and as long as their thoughts and beliefs are true to their faith, any action that follows from that can be justified. For some this includes lying. Those who concoct false miracles hope to inspire the faithful and stymie the non-believers, and by so doing bring others into the light of their beliefs and forward the cause of good. While there may not be many willing to hoax miracles, anything which inspires an attitude that the ends justify the means should give us pause.
This attitude is rampant in politics. The hard core of fundamentalism in the far right is full of individuals who are willing to commit immoral acts to support and enact their faith-based ideology. We have seen it done time and again. Those in positions of power have financial motives -- selling tickets, trinkets and oil -- but they are aided and abetted by private individuals with no fiduciary stake who nonetheless see this as a moral battle. They will support what they see as the "right" side unwilling to see how immoral, or even illegal, are the actions that it takes. Some question whether our public officials would do something as outrageous as rig an election, given the possible ramifications were it to become known. This argument is not sufficient in the face of radical right-wing philosophy. To the faith-based, no action which supports that faith is beyond consideration.
- jack*
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