Why I Don’t Believe in Kim Jong Il or Jesus Christ

Written by Anthony David Jacques in News at December 29, 2011

State textbooks claim the late Kim Jong Il did not produce urine or feces. The Bible says that Jesus walked on water and turned water into wine. Whether or not North Koreans actually believe their dear leader had a supernatural gastrointestinal tract is difficult to assess, as they would not be likely to admit a dissenting opinion publicly. Christians, for the most part, believe in these and many other biblical claims about their dear leader without a second thought. For a Christian to dissent on such claims is (only recently, mind you) much less likely to invite imprisonment, torture or death, yet these claims enjoy the same level of outward devotion.

That North Koreans have been observed lavishly weeping and recounting the great work of their late dear leader in the days following his death (whether sincere or not) can be accounted for more precisely: When Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, those who were observed not mourning his loss enough were punished. Now, if you look carefully, the state cameramen can be seen hard at work documenting the lamentations of the people, and the people have responded with quite a spectacle indeed. This early in the invention of a myth, such methods are not uncommon.

The state propaganda machine has also freely embellished stories of the week preceding the late dear leader’s memorial service, claiming that earthquakes have rocked the sacred Mount Paeku, Kim’s alleged birthplace, that weeping owls have flown into the Kim family mausoleum in Pyongyang, and mysterious flashes of light were seen in the sky, et cetera.

That nobody in the outside world takes any of these claims seriously should go without saying, yet such a statement becomes necessary as a springboard for a more important point about the nature of similar claims that most in the outside world readily believe without question.

Our collective ability to critique and dismiss such supernatural claims in North Korea is only a feature of the small scale and relatively brief history of the supernatural dynasty in question. Were these same claims to be associated with the death of a Pope, Prophet or Rhabbi, it would be considered impolite to rebuke them as ridiculous (not to mention, completely evidence-free). Yet this is precisely what they are. Religious tolerance would demand that we publicly show respect and, if we must, snicker to ourselves quietly, so as not to disturb those in mourning.

It is only because this is reported in modern day North Korea, that its supernatural leaders have lived within the lifetimes of many people who are still with us, and that the beliefs are held (however loosely) by only a few million people, and for only a short period of recent history, that we can summarily dismiss them. If North Korea carries on in this manner, deifying a patriarchal succession of leaders and producing supernatural claims as harbingers of each leader’s passing, it is not inconceivable that religious tolerance will soon require these silly ideas to command the same respect as that of virgin births, spectral visitations or the forgiveness of sins through human sacrifice.

Christopher Hitchens often related the Christian idea of heaven as a celestial North Korea: Constant leader worship, constant surveillance and no room for dissent. As North Korea ushers in a new dear leader I can only wonder at the inability of the world’s major monotheistic adherents to recognize the startling similarities between the oppressive state and the paradise for which they are hopeful in the afterlife. Hitchens was also quick to point out that at least in North Korea, a person can look forward to death as an exit from such totalitarian subjugation. With heaven, no exit is readily apparent.

We in the secular community take solace in the spurious nature of all such supernatural claims. To quote Hitchens one final time, I don’t believe in Jesus Christ for the same reason I don’t believe in Kim Jong Il, because, “What can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”