If you’re religious, then you really need to read this BBC article about a cargo cult in the South Pacific.
Villagers at Sulphur Bay worship a mystical figure who they believe will one day bring them wealth and happiness.
“John is our god,” declares village chief Isaac Wan, who beats his fists into the ground to emphasise his words.
“One day he will come back,” he says.
See, you probably look at those people as deluded and wasting their time. Well that’s how rational people look at theists. All theists.
One particularly nice bit of irony:
A Christian youth worker told me how he thought the cult was childish. “It’s like a baby playing games,” he insisted. “Those people are holding on to a dream that will never come true,” he said.
The Raelians believe that all religions are really a case of mistaken identity much like this one. The true architects of life on Earth were the Elohim (apparently Hebrew for ‘those who came from the sky’, obviously aliens, see).I can’t remember the whole story as I bought and read their book at a festival and the loud music must have affected my short term memory somehow. Ho hum.Richy