Well we live in a divided age, when faith and science have really split and its become impossible to really believe in both anymore. I side with science, in the rational, empirical world, and find the constant reference to superstition and metaphysics to be dangerous.
And we're talk 'bout Revelations here, so I'll quote from myself.
The other thing I did, which several people have though was slightly weird - others understand the true brilliance of it - is that the bibles in my house had the Revelation of John (the Apocalypse in the Catholic bibles I used) cut out of them. I did not want my kids to read that anytime before they had finished college, preferably not until they had finished their PhDs and could arm themselves against the most dangerous and deadly book ever written.
No book ever written has been more dangerous than this one. Dangerous to others, and dangerous to the reader. For anyone who thinks that books are just words and are not dangerous, I would offer up the Revelation of John as a pretty good reason why some books ought to be banned, or at least kept under very strict control.
And, its not because it's bad, hell no. Only the Song of Solomon had a better writer. In terms of Literature, nothing else compares to the Revelation of John in its vision (and oh boy was he seeing visions), its style, its increadible use of symbolism, and its end message. I doubt that any work ever done in any language save the Tao Te Ching has as many possible meanings as the Revelation. It has as many meanings as it has readers. Which is what makes it dangerous. Where meaning in the Tao is largely good - contemplating your existence and how you work with the world rather than against it - the meaning of John is the most horrible blood soaked death trip ever. It is profoundly negative.
A bunch of people were having a discussion about the most horrible thing you could ever do to anyone, and they had thought up some pretty horrible stuff, real gruesome, real mean, incredibility complex but I won with my simple idea. If I really hated someone, I mean really hated them I'd give them a massive dose of pure lysergic acid diethylamide-25, and lock them in a room with nothing but the Book of Revelations. They would either kill themselves, or come out and kill everyone else. Either way, they would be out of their mind, insane crazy forever.
David Koresh's Branch Davidians in Waco Texas, that's the Book of Revelations at work. Why did that whole Waco deal go down like it did? Because they were either going to die, or they were going to go on a killing spree, and I think that's why the government acted as they did (I would have suggested a different tactic, but even then I think the end result would have been the same). Why? Because if you read it, and believe it - then nothing matters. Nothing. Nothing you do, or ever can do, is going to change the end as it is written, and as its written the end is nothing you want to be around for. But written it is, and that's the way it is. There is a finality to Revelations, perhaps the final finality that makes all of life pointless and meaningless. Which in turn, makes it very dangerous.
