richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

T HE R O O T S O F R E L J G 1 O N 205
Nambas referred to his messiah familiarly as John, and claimed to
speak regularly to him, by 'radio'. This ('radio belong John') consisted
of an old woman with an electric wire around her waist who
would fall into a trance and talk gibberish, which Nambas interpreted
as the words of John Frum. Nambas claimed to have known
in advance that Attenborough was coming to see him, because John
Frum had told him on the 'radio'. Attenborough asked to see the
'radio' but was (understandably) refused. He changed the subject
and asked whether Nambas had seen John Frum:
Nambas nodded vigorously. 'Me see him plenty time.'
'What does he look like?'
Nambas jabbed his finger at me. "E look like you. 'E
got white face. 'E tall man. 'E live 'long South America.'
This detail contradicts the legend referred to above that John Frum
was a short man. Such is the way with evolving legends.
It is believed that the day of John Frum's return will be 15
February, but the year is unknown. Every year on 15 February his
followers assemble for a religious ceremony to welcome him. So far
he has not returned, but they are not downhearted. David
Attenborough said to one cult devotee, called Sam:
'But, Sam, it is nineteen years since John say that the cargo
will come. He promise and he promise, but still the cargo
does not come. Isn't nineteen years a long time to wait?'
Sam lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at me.
'If you can wait two thousand years for Jesus Christ to
come an' 'e no come, then I can wait more than nineteen
years for John.'
Robert Buckman's book Can We Be Good without God? quotes
the same admirable retort by a John Frum disciple, this time to a
Canadian journalist some forty years after David Attenborough's
encounter.
The Queen and Prince Philip visited the area in 1974, and the
Prince subsequently became deified in a rerun of a John-Frum-type
cult (once again, note how rapidly the details in religious evolution