started again to read john bunyan's "pilgrim's progress." don't know why it's considered such a classic of literature. it is neither a classic nor literature in my opinion.

the first time i started reading it, a few months ago, i got bored with its religious theme, and depressed that it seemed so like sayed qutb's "in the shade of the koran."

even on two adderal yesterday i found it the same in this second attempt at reading only more so.

then i read in the introduction that it had been widely read in some islamic circles. ugh.

the koran, "shade" and pilgrim's progress really do have a lot of similarities, very allegorical/metaphorical, very "fundamentalist," very intolerant of "unbelievers," totally accepting of the infallibality of "the book," very totalitarian.

bunyan says, as does the koran, that it is better to leave one's wife and children in their unbelief and pursue the path of holiness than stay with them and live in error.

like muhammad, bunyan was persecuted, jailed, and has the (some) victims rage against his persecutors, all cloaked in what is meant to be the soothing light of divine wisdom.

like muhammad, bunyan seems to me likely to be diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic grandiose-type and anti-social personality by today's psychiatrists.

made me think: how many women have written books like this?

is it only men who have seen themselves as the offspring of god, chosen by Him personally to deliver His message to the world?

pilgrim's progress also was a splash of cold water in the face for my view of the relative benignty of christianity. we have become so pluralistic, so ecumenical in the west that few of the even the hardest line religious hard liners would write something like pilgrim's progress today.

reinforced my disgust with religion generally also. the most murderous thought disorder in human history.

most of the time i honestly respect people of non-intrusive religious faith. "faith" itself, in general, is a good thing i think. i accept kierkegaard's point of the limits of human cognition and the necessity to take the "leap of faith" that SOMETHING must/might be beyond its ken.

but then i read stuff like the koran, "shade" and "pilgrim's progress" and i just get so disgusted and angry.

man, i'm really in trouble if there really is a god.


-benjamin harris