Revealing Revelation

Someone raised a point about Revelation this week, so I thought I'd take a refresher and started reading.
Before I got to the end of verse 2 I noticed something or, rather, something came into focus so, if you'll permit me...
let's take a look through a lens with a religious tint on it...

The Bible - King James Version.

Revelation
1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Look the same as always? Not noticing any difference?
That's because of the fairly universal saturation of Abrahamic teachings.
Whether we like it or not, almost everyone's lenses have had a coat of religious tint, all added without our permission of course!
Okay, so, let's take the tint off...

Revelation 1:1 The fictionalised representation of the end of the world of the feature fictional character, which the feature fictional character's fictional father gave unto the feature fictional character, to show unto the feature fictional character's fictional groupies, things which must shortly⁽¹⁾ come to pass⁽²⁾, and the feature fictional character sent⁽³⁾ and signified by a fictional flying extra unto the feature fictional character's fictional groupie:
1:2 Who bare record⁽⁴⁾ of the fictional word of the feature fictional character's fictional father, and of the fictional testimony⁽⁵⁾ of the feature fictional character, and of all things that the feature fictional character's fictional groupie saw⁽⁶⁾.

⁽¹⁾ Nondescript time parameter; open ended predictions are not predictions.
⁽²⁾ in the fictional world of the story.
⁽³⁾ "Sent"?? Imagined dad to imagined son to imaginer of the whole tale... The actual distance of travel is?
⁽⁴⁾ "Record"?? For the transcription of a monologue on the apocalyptic end of the world delivered by the feature fictional character to a lesser fictional character in the form of a dream(it had winged humans), one may only suppose "record" is a little... grand?
⁽⁵⁾ "Testimony"?? This is a report of what was said in a dream; it cannot legitimately be called testimony. The ONLY witness was asleep(winged humans). It is, at best, the remembered portions of a dream; the result, as Scrooge so instantly surmises in "A Christmas Carol", of dodgy crumbs of cheese perhaps?
⁽⁶⁾ "Saw"?? Imagined is all we can say for sure.

And that's just the first two verses!

Anyway, I think, the point is, beware:
Sometimes one does not realise the extent to which a culturally, historical belief in fantasy has surreptitiously furnished one's lenses with a religious tint.

In this instance, what is hailed as 'revelation from the divine' is nothing more than a half remembered dream by a character in a book.

So onto the rest of the chapter.

On full reading one of course discovers the details of this tale of an imagined end of the world but if you break the tale down to its bare bones, strip all the colourful threats, promises, magic and monsters from the fable, you get the disturbing tale of an extremely powerful father who is furious at the failure of his latest madcap experiment⁽⁷⁾ and how he inflicts his vengeance, in a tantrum of epic proportions, on the sentient lab animals for what he perceives as their part in the failure of that experiment. And, because his son played a leading role in that failure, the wrathful dad makes his poor, peace-loving, hippy of an only son slaughter each and every sentient being, personally. And all because dear ol' dad was disappointed that the experiment didn't turn out the way the he wanted!
Now there's a being with anger management issues who takes no responsibility for his own shortcomings!
I suggest pops needs therapy - possibly electric shock treatment!
I have a mains outlet and a couple of Crocodile clips if anyone has cabling of sufficient capacity.

⁽⁷⁾ "I'll imprison all the creatures of freewill who ever existed as slaves to my experiment, and get them to choose, of their own freewill, to be thankful for their imprisonment. Muaha-ha-ha-ha!"
Scholars are divided as to the number of additional "ha's"
so I've gone with a middle-of-the-road insane to avoid offending either wing of extremists.
I think, with just the three "ha's" it's sinister without being too panto,
but add more to your taste, if you wish.

In conclusion I feel the reader of Revelation can be sure of only one thing; the author, whoever that was, had wide experience of mythological tales and possibly more than one opium trip!

So to the question...
How is it that even one who is atheist from birth knows not only the the names of these fictional characters, who are of value only to those who pretend them real, but also, often, the complexities of the interplay between the characters and the tale as is depicted in the book?
To which I feel the answer is...
Paying no mind or heed to the human right to SELF determination most governments support the widespread social inculcation of fantasy fiction.

But I would like to live a society SO secular that a child could be raised without ever hearing even a word that anyone held any of the fables as truth, and live out their lives in an absence of the effects of those addicted to religious literature but, while religion exists, its sycophants will prohibit this.⁽⁸⁾

So then the further question seems...
How can that be legal?
Why is my right to live free of religious influence less important than their right to spout it or wear religious garb, which is offensive to me?
This is one of the Too Many Questions

⁽⁸⁾ For a wider exploration of this read Grasping Free Reality
If you want to read more about the religious tint check out Your Point Is Not valid.

PEACE
Crispy

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