Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking

Florida and South Dakota Catholic bishops applauded the recent defeats of marijuana legalization in their states, something they easily aided and abetted given Florida’s population is 21-percent Catholic and South Dakota’s is 18.4-percent. Protestant factions in the two states also fear and hate cannabis.

The bishops went to the trouble of creating a stack of misinformation about cannabis that likely added to the loss of votes for the ballot proposals:

…marijuana use overstimulates the nervous system while also decreasing high-functioning rational thought.

Often these effects are accompanied by others, including distorted sensory perception or hallucinations, irrational anxiety or panic, diminished motor control and slowed reactions, and reduced learning and memory,” South Dakota’s bishops said. “Studies have shown that impaired cognitive function continues into the workweek even after a person no longer feels intoxicated, and that regular users are at approximately twice the risk of developing psychosis as non-users.” […]

One reason people use and enjoy marijuana is it stimulates high functioning rational and creative thought. It’s not an extraordinary process. Mere daydreaming can create entertaining or useful ideas. And no marijuana smoker has claimed they are latently affected by marijuana well into their work week. Upon cessation the effects of smoking marijuana typically wear off after an hour or so.

Falsehoods are dangerous. People who believe absurdities can go on to commit atrocities. Catholicism and other sects and cults that equate persecution with protection can emerge to survive in ways that require continuous reinforcement of public ignorance. Critical thinking is rejected. Cults engage in mind control techniques designed to prevent their members from using their imaginations, thereby leading to lifelong impaired cognitive functions for their victims. The inquisitions punished improper thinking with burning at the stake. In his 1633 trial Galileo barely escaped with his life. Religious extremists all seem to fear that analyzing or musing about their beliefs and histories will cause their assemblage to collapse.

That is why many religions present themselves as a package deal for people who don’t have time to read the ancient texts in their original languages to produce their own religious viewpoints and experiences. Cult followers like those in Jonestown are expected to swallow their grape Flavor Aid without complaint. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Protestant who wants to introduce prayer back into public schools was overjoyed when her state’s marijuana initiative failed to pass. She went on to proclaim she never met anyone who got smarter by smoking dope….. Drinking a glass of water doesn’t make anyone smarter either. People do it anyway.

The Catholic Church is famous for their book burning sprees starting in the 9th century. In 1560 it published the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of forbidden books that included medical texts. The Index wasn’t abolished until 1966. In the end all types of literature were purged, along with ancient written records that covered mind expanding cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms. Medical science and progress was replaced with fatalism and a 900-year long Dark Ages that would renew itself in some perverse way if medicine and science is overtaken again by bishops who are anti-marijuana and anti-physics.