A future generation is going to have to rediscover irony. Given the extent to which reality imitates satire today, I wouldn't count on our children to be that generation.

The latest example of this that I came across recently, through a friend, is a planned "world's biggest mythological theme park" in India - the mythology is Hindu. While I do give the planners high marks for calling it mythological - Hindus after all respect their myths more than any other major religious ilk - the following rationale for the location from the park's chief executive gave me pause:

People come to take a bath on the bank of the Ganga river because it is a Hindu belief that this cleanses a person. But after they take a bath there is nowhere for the pilgrims to go to learn about Hindu stories.

I would hope that the pilgrims wouldn't need a theme park to learn why they just cleansed themselves in the Ganga.

Then there's the businesswoman in Britain, who wants a million Christians to contribute £144 each toward a biblical theme park aimed at reversing the "decline of Christian teaching and celebration in schools."

Being the leader of the free world and all, there is of course already a Christian theme park in the US - The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, which, I'm told, happens to be the home of another such park, with an arguably not too different goal, except for the brand of the religion. Among the thrills at HLE is the Oasis Palms Café, where one can satiate one's belief with a "Goliath Burger," or "Bedouin Beef" or "Shepherd Soup."

[irony | satire | mythology | religion | theme park]

7:05:13 PM