Remember Eric ... our judgment time, the final Yom Kippur has been given. You are a liar, you're a Lucifer, you're a pig, a greedy (expletive deleted) pig. You're an abomination. You receive my bullets in your office. Remember they will be placed in your heads. You and your children are Lucifer's abominations.
And according to this report Leboon has made other threatening videos aimed Barack Obama, the movie studio behind the movie Babe (Babe, he tells us, was "created by Lucifer"), federal judges (with this warning: "You will lose your first born sons as you sleep. I did this to the Pharoah."), and white supremacist David Duke.
Now I want to ask in absolute seriousness: why is it suspected that Norman Leboon is off his beam? Why the psychiatric evaluation? Don't get me wrong - I do think people who believe God talks to them are somewhat delusional (I won't go so far as to say crazy, but there is something definitely abnormal about this type of thing).
My reasoning is as follows: I don't believe in an anthropomorphic deity that would be capable of talking to anyone. For that reason, I reject all alleged divine communications from all sources. I may be wrong, of course. But at least I'm consistent.
On the other hand, for all those who believe in a personal God, a God who is concerned about mankind and life's drama, who believe that God is "in control" of what is going on and has revealed his will to his creatures, I don't understand how they can accept one purported revelation and reject another.
It is worth noting that this God of Enoch is the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And what separates these three groups is the issue of divine revelation. Christians believe that later prophets added to the revelations given to Moses and the prophets of Israel (Jews don't believe this), while Muslims believe that a later prophet, Muhammad, received additional revelations that superseded Christianity and Judaism (Jews and Christians don't believe this).
The whole trouble is, if you believe God did talk to your religion's forefathers, how can you deny he spoke to those of other religious traditions? This is a thorny problem that rarely gets an airing.
There no doubt are those who would agree with Leboon that Cantor is a greedy liar. Some would agree he is a pig. Would that make it easier to accept Leboon as a prophet of God?
The usual response is for a religious believer to say that their God wouldn't say this or that. "My God wouldn't tell a person to do that," we are told. But again, how do they know? If you believe any of the holy books of the big three religions, for example, you find God telling people to do a lot strange things that would be totally unacceptable according to modern ethical standards.
If indeed there is a God who speaks to man, it follows that no mental evaluation could possibly prove or disprove that. And who is to say that God does not keep giving additional revelations and that these revelations might not seem contradictory to prior revelations?
This whole thing is a very big door that once opened seems impossible to close again. But 'tis not a problem at all for my religious philosophy.
7 comments:
Half the stuff he's saying is completely contradictory to Islamic theology and eschatology. He's just spouting threats as the article states with "no rhyme or reason". He does seem off his rocker plus he rarely blinks (creepy). He mentioned that Obama's security council were saying "very bad things" about him. I wonder if he's been on a FBI watch list for awhile or if someone turned him in and the FBI didn't know a thing? These death threats and homegrown terrorist activities seem to be on the rise. I wonder with all the kooks venting on Youtube if the FBI even bothers to keep track of a few of the more outspoken ones? What's even scarier is that he's got 114 subscribers to his Youtube account.
This guy was, obviously, a whack job, but you make a good point. Did God speak to Oral Roberts and tell him that he was going to die unless his followers sent money? Oral was reasonably sane, it appears. What about Pat Roberson? He says God speaks to him often. Is he as credible as Oral? How can Christians pick and choose who to believe?
I look at the faces of people who talk to and with God (whatever God) all with the same look on my face, "okay." Your point is taken. Is a threat, if by God's word, anymore insane if against one lowly man than an entire religious group or country? God is always on the side of warriors and sports teams. Both kill, beat, or are killed, beaten---no wonder God has some anger issues.
@Eruesso - I have to remind myself that subscribing or following any of these whacks is necessarily an endorsement. At least I hope that's mostly the case with this loon. I follow Sarah Palin on my Facebook, for example!
I believe in God, I believe God does communicate with humankind. As for being anthropomorphic no, but as Spirit and we as spiritual beings allows for communication. I also believe there are those who are truly delusional regarding hearing some sort of direct message from the Almighty with checklists and such, I don't believe that happens. Then there are the nuts who just plain make stuff up. Where this guy falls I don't know.
What I meant to say @Eruesso: "is NOT necessarily an endorsement" Sheesh.
"I believe in God, I believe God does communicate with humankind. As for being anthropomorphic no, but as Spirit and we as spiritual beings allows for communication. I also believe there are those who are truly delusional regarding hearing some sort of direct message from the Almighty with checklists and such, I don't believe that happens. Then there are the nuts who just plain make stuff up."
That pretty much sums up my feelings too.
Thanks to everyone who participated and left comments. I enjoyed each one. Even granting, for the sake of argument, that God does speak to us, the question remains unanswered as to how anyone could validate the message. Thomas Paine's objection to revelation still stands: If you tell me God spoke to you, it could at most be a revelation only to you and only hearsay for me.
Most objectionable of all to me is the idea that God expects a certain behavior from us humans and that our eternal destiny is staked upon our compliance to his will, yet he selected only certain individuals to reveal these things to. What's worse, we are left with corrupted and questionably translated versions of the record of these alleged revelations from God! What a poor way of doing business with something of such vital importance.
But again grant for the sake of argument than these Holy books are genuine and more or less accurately translated and still you find that no two groups can agree on how they should be interpreted, let alone which Holy book is the final authority.
The burden of proof seems to me to be on the those who claim God speaks to us. So far as I can tell, they haven't made a very convincing case. All we find is confusion and disagreement.
Post a Comment