Sunday, December 17, 2023

[byickzjh] 72 1/2 virgins

joke: my invented religion is better than yours because we get 72 and a half virgins.  if you are wondering what half a virgin is, let's just say my God is worse than your God.  a lot worse: integers are not the only thing that sum to the first 72.

* * *

72 virgins is story that Americans love to demonize Islam with, because it is an incentive we especially relate well to.  that we keep bringing it up says more about American society than it does about Islam.  we can easily imagine a society that structurally denies a some social classes access to high quality women, and then that class becoming so frustrated with their situation that incentives like 72 virgins would be highly effective.  we can easily imagine such a society because it is our own, one that a great many of us regularly encounter as incels or actively participate as perpetrators of involuntary celibacy or as allies of perpetrators.

what other societies are structured this way?  (or, which aren't?)  presumably whoever was the target audience of those sections of Quran and hadith.

at least our society isn't a lot worse: a hypothetical society that regularly dismembers young girls and has sex with their mutilated remains would be one that would relate well to an incentive of 72 1/2 virgins.

No comments :