Infidels come from behind

Something that’s a tad irritating these days are the fairly common statements that go like this—“We need to save the rainforest/coral reefs because there may be some really neat drugs and compounds in there that are yet to be discovered, and they may help mankind fight cancer or lose weight or get even better erections and …”

Now hold on just a cotton pickin' minute. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only humanoid who cringes at the hideous anthropocentrism in that notion. The strong implication that we are the favored species on this Rock, and everything is here for our pleasure and benefit and, I don't know, maybe having some respect for the rainforest not because it might have some medicines that help us live from 77 to 82 but because it's home to about 94,000 species of ants and each one of them would probably be all in favor of avoiding the upcoming Mass Extinction because staying unextinct is generally every self-respecting species' first choice on their To Do list.

But this is pretty standard Oh-The-Wonder-of-Man stuff held over from the Book of Genesis and that is, in and of itself, getting a bit strange—the fact that the Book of Genesis still has mojo. Because these are not great times for the Old Testament. Have you noticed?

No, the new millenium has not been kind to the first half of the Good Book. The people who still take it seriously are getting increasingly beat up by all those who for centuries have been biblically oppressed. It's looking like the adulterers, the fornicators, the homosexuals and the dopers all got some decent representation in court, and are finally winning some key decisions. That, or maybe there are just more gay, stoned judges on the bench.

Slowly but surely, the last decades have seen earthlings by the millions bail out on the previously inarguable position that the Old Testament did indeed contain The Word of God. That Zebediah confidence, which seemed pretty rock solid when I was growing up way back when, has now lost mucho of its fan base, with some of its heaviest declarations now nothing more than fodder for comedy routines. I mean, there probably aren't enough rocks on Earth to stone the adulterers to death. And forget about the fornicators. We runnin' amok out here!

Bye bye, Old Testament. It's been a long, rough ride, but the aforementioned infidels, who used to get strung up, beat up, and run outta town now seem to have the upper hand. Not just in the courts, but in the minds of most Christians. Just look at all the websites explaining why it's no biggie to blow off the OT, just really pay attention to JC.

So there you go. What used to be the Word of God has now, in the last 50 years, become quaint folklore of receding interest and less influence. Ain't it funny how time slips away?