Death Of A Holy Man

The Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba died a couple of days ago at the age of 84. According to Wikipedia he had predicted he would die at the age of 96 and then be reborn 8 years later. Millions worldwide believed him to be a living god who performed miracles such as causing material objects to appear, transforming one substance into another, raising the dead and other god stuff. On his 80th birthday his devotees gave him a birthday party and it was estimated that well over a million people showed up. In spite of his untimely death years earlier than he predicted, I predict his followers will dismiss all notions that a god who makes predictions which don't come true just might not be a god after all. People are very good at dismissing evidence that contradicts or undermines their beliefs. I would not at all be surprised to hear that his followers are eagerly awaiting his rebirth / return. Maybe they won't have to wait 2000 years.

Were it not for this sort of naive gullibility I might have argued that in this modern world of video and around-the-clock reporting Jesus wouldn't have much of a chance of making a claim of godhood stick. I sure wouldn't want to bet anything substantial on that. People are incredibly irrational. They will blame a president for high gas prices when the world market sets those prices. They will believe the world was created 6000 years ago in spite of overwhelming and ever-growing evidence that it is billions of years old. They will believe the wild conspiracy theories Glenn Beck spouts. They will believe 4-year old boys go to heaven and come back and report on the streets of gold and angels with huge wings. They will believe Joseph Smith found golden plates in the desert and translated them into the Book of Mormon. They will believe a science fiction writer's tales that launched another new religion, Scientology. There is seemingly no end to the list of unlikely things many will believe. But they will not accept the vast amount of data and the statements of almost all climate scientists who warn of catastrophic and perhaps irreversible effects of global warming. Very strange.