Revenants, Retroviruses, and Religion: How Viruses and Disease Created Cultural Mythology and Shaped Religious Perspectives

Religion, and mythic creatures have been intertwined for such an expansive part of our history that even today these mythic creatures, however redacted and glamourized, are still within our global culture and individual societies. Their presence is either glorified or made into horrid objects in our media, literature, and our entertainment. They can be a source of everything from comedy to a serious drama that builds a fanbase of millions, but there is more to it than that. These "monsters" are often resurrected legends and superstitions that are the shining revenants that sparkle on the movie screen. What is forgotten, unfortunately, is the truth behind these revenants and the human tragedy as well. Their rise was not from imagination and fearful ignorance alone. Many have acquired their ghastly visages, merely from superstition and torture of real-life human beings. This superstition was, in these and all periods, a "perverse excess of religion" that "attributes importance, in some way magical to practices, otherwise lawful" These superstitions were not baseless fictions but rather not approached in a logical and reasonable manner to the laws of nature and naturalistic thinking. Families suffered unspeakably for something they had no control over. It was from these superstitious and supernally themed theologies that the monsters or revenants were made legend. In this book, the authors show that time and time again naturalistic thinking and the scientific method has created a more benign environment for human survival than superstition arising from religious theologies, and that it was religion itself and its theologies that created negative structures towards the ill and suffering that it simply did not have to create. Come, then, with the authors, and discover the truthful origins of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. See how a lack of naturalistic thinking allowed viruses and bacteria to shape our theologies, and how these religious theologies, shaped our ethical conduct towards other human beings for the worse.