I have often thought about creating a section of the Attic featuring my favorite religion-oriented links. It would contain sites of some of my fellow atheists (many of whom have pages much better than my own), as well as sites debunking creationism, and so on. And perhaps one of these days I'll get around to it.
One link that would definitely be in the list is to Landover Baptist Church. If you've never visited this site, you simply must. Go ahead. Go now. I'll wait.
It's a rather huge site, with any number of diversions. I find it both hysterical and insightful. (If for no other reason, visit this site for its Bible Quizzes. Then share them with your theistic acquaintances and see how well they do.)
What kills me is how many people leave this site thinking it's serious. It's a spoof, folks! If one clicks on the link to Americhrist, Ltd., found at the bottom of several of the pages there, the truth is revealed:
"The Landover Baptist Church® is a satirical newsletter/website published by Americhrist Ltd.landoverbaptist.com/.org enjoy an average of 215,000 unique sessions, 1.3 million unique pageviews, and over 24 million hits per month.
The Landover Baptist Church® uses invented names in every article, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental."
Can't get much plainer than that.
But what's bizarre is that people on all sides of the religion issue are not getting it. Read any of their several letters pages to see what I mean.
Christians damn them for perverting the word of God or "not getting it right." Atheists condemn them for the tongue-in-cheek insults they heave at non-believers. I wonder if any of the people who wrote such emails to them ever go back and read more of the site and then finally have the bulb light up above their heads.
And maybe there's a lesson to be learned from this. The fact that so many, atheist and theist alike, don't "get" this site is because we're too uptight about our faith, or lack thereof. I know that I often go into "defensive mode" when reading about religious stuff, just looking for yet another thing to become outraged about. Likely, many theists go looking for reasons to voice their outrage over the secularization of our society.
Maybe both sides need to chill out a bit and stop taking everything so seriously. At least temporarily. For myself, I find a visit Landover Baptist Church to be a good way to stop taking it all so seriously, and get a few laughs now and again.
