The Bible for Illiterates

At a wake last night, a very pleasant priest (and I tend to despise all proponents of any organized religion,) described the rosary as "the bible for illiterates." He explained that in the middle ages, people were given these short repetitious prayers and a set of mnemonic beads so that they could recite the lessons of the bible despite the fact that they could not read. The priest also had a nifty little ring rosary so that he could pray while he drove despite the fact that he was probably literate.

I thought at the time that it was a cute story. And I still think that he was probably not a bad person. But, having a bible for illiterates is wrong. It is one more way of exploiting people rather than helping them. It's the same thing as saying that TV is culture for illiterates. Yes, it gives comfort to many people, but it's real purpose is to sell shit to people that they don't need or want. Just like religion.