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Urban Legends Lure Christian Believers
Copyright 2004 by Gretchen Passantino
Tuesday, March 30 2004 @ 07:45 PM ESTTwo new urban legends circulating primarily through the Internet are snagging gullible Christians into believing and repeating them internationally. As reported by one of the best Internet urban legend debunkers, Urban Legend Reference Pages, the two urban legends are likely to recruit -- in the first case -- Christians and those against Christianity, and -- in the second case -- Christians who are afraid they might be snared by an Anti-Christ plot.
The first urban legend is a report that a Christian and an atheist are competing to collect signatures of, respectively, those who believe in God and those who don't. Presumably, the one with the longest list of signatures "wins" the contest. ULRP's Barbara Mikkelson's analysis of this legend features at least three quick tips that reveal the falsity of this message: (1) This message has been circulating in various forms since at least 2001 (even the slowest dial-up connection should be able to collect 300 signatures in 3 years!); (2) None of the e-mail addresses associated with this message is active; (3) It doesn't take an uncontrolled, unscientific Interent e-mail contest to "prove" that belief in God or rejection of God is more popular. Mikkelson notes that according to most reliable polls, fully 75% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most polls agree that somewhere between 3 and 15% of Americans say they have no belief in God. (For further information about statistics relating to religious belief, see the poll statistics at The Barna Research Group.)
Mikkelson also speculates that it would be unlikely that someone would change his personal beliefs about God simply on the basis of a spontaneous, limited e-mail poll.
The second urban legend asserts that Mondex, a kind of smart-card technology, is poised to introduce a new technology that will replace offical government ID cards (such as drivers' licenses) and credit cards with a "grain of rice sized" electronic implant under the skin. (You guessed it, it is said to be implanted on the back of the hand or the forehead.) There is an Internet Powerpoint slide show circulating that purports to explain the technology (complete with photographs) and to warn Christians that submitting to this technology is to take the "mark of the Beast," effectively buying into the economy of the Great Tribulation and submitting to the power of the Anti-Christ and the Beast.
The ULRP dissection of this urban legend is careful and comprehensive. Authors David and Barbara Mikkelson point out that the report makes misstatements of fact, logical mistakes, misidentifications of technology and industry, grammatical mistakes, and false analysis of terms and technology. For example, the report states that "Mondex" stands for Monetary (money) and dexter (right hand) -- you can only get money using your right hand. Instead, the technology is named after the French word for "world," "monde," an indication of the inventor's hopes of how widely his technology will be disseminated.
The Urban Legend Reference Pages, along with sites such as Christian broadcaster Rich Buhler's Truth or Fiction, catalogs urban legends from around the world and should be a first test for any dubious message one receives. Further information on principles for recognizing urban legends are also available in these Answers In Action articles: One of the Latest Urban Legends by Gretchen Passantino and Fantasies, Legends, and Heroes by Bob Passantino. Readers may also e-mail Answers In Action (aia@answers.org) with specific queries.
UPDATE TUESDAY MARCH 30: Another commonly mutated and repeated urban legend hitting e-mails internationally this week is the old one discussed in Fantasies, Legends, and Heroes and other sources -- that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been petitioned to ban religious broadcasting. First laid at the feet of the late atheist Madyln Murray O'Hair, the current mutation says Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family is urging Christians to bombard the FCC with requests that it not enact the ruling. There has never been such a petition, there is not now, the FCC would never accept such a petition, and our United States Constitution would never validate such a petition. Do you know how many million of dollars (yes, millions) of dollars the federal government has spent combatting this urban legend? No Christians should ever propagate this embarrassingly false urban legend. In addition to the discussion in Fantasies, the Urban Legend Reference Pages covers the issues here: FCC Petition Doesn't Exist.
For the full story, see the ULRP's two articles, Belief in God Petition and MONDEX.
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