All of the arguments about religion today have surprised me. I teach religion at a university, so I like careful discussion and careful thinking about religion. It is what I try to teach my students to do. Many of them are very devout, and they have been taught that they should not think too much about religion. They often incorrectly accuse me of not being a Christian because I practice and encourage critical thought about religion. My basic philosophy is that if we say religion is the most important aspect of our lives, then it deserves our best thinking, not thoughtless acquiescence.
I have seen some evidence of careful thinking today on Daily kos, but also some evidence that it is lacking. One thing that I never include in my thinking about religion is any attempt to defend God, or the Bible, or any other aspect of my religion. God, and the Bible, have been around a long time and they will both far outlast me, so they are in no need of my defense. The best statement on this issue I have seen is in Yann Martel's novel,
Life of Pi, on pp. 70-71.
There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.
These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.
It is difficult for me to imagine being something other than a Christian in America today. People who do not fall into this dominant religious category have become second-class citizens. What does it mean that a person cannot get elected to high, political office without being a Christian? (Warning: I am about to use three stupid, careless terms in the following sentence. I do so deliberately in order to show that they are all three equally stupid and careless) We have not yet had a non-Caucasian president or a non-male president, but both of those will likely precede a non-Christian president. I know, I know, you are going to say it is different because people can not choose their race or gender, but they choose their religion. There are two things wrong with this argument. The first is that it is not entirely true. I have made some choices about my religion, but I was born to Baptist parents and I am a Baptist. To at least some extent, my religion chose me. The second is that it is not relevant to the argument. Even if people do choose their religion, do you really expect them to change it, or to have to change it, in order to be elected to public office. People who are something other than Christian get stomped on daily in our society, so if they want to come on this site and talk about it, then I say, "Welcome." They may not have another safe, public forum in which to do so. I do not feel my own faith attacked in any way by expressions of faith or lack of faith that differ from mine. I have never felt in any way that the self-avowed atheists who write about religion on this site are trying to convert me to atheism. I am not here because we all share common religious views. I am here because I share many progressive, political views with those who participate in this forum. It is a curious thing to me that I have far more in common politically with most atheists than I do with a lot of the other Christians I encounter.
The mixture of religion and politics is the most frightening aspect of American life today. I think this is something with which most of us would agree. I can't find the recent quotation by the Alan Alda character on The West Wing, but it went something like this: "When people demand that their politicians make religious declarations, they are begging to be deceived."
One particularly offensive diary posted on this site earlier in the day argued that God exists for those who can see. The implication was that unbelievers are blind or stupid. This is heretical Christianity. The church rejected Gnosticism in the third and fourth centuries, yet it is still a wildly popular notion. The college students I encounter love the idea that somehow a switch has been flipped inside of them because of their faith and the truth is now visible to them, while it looks like nonsense to others. Not only is this bad theology, it is insufferably arrogant. I believe in God with all of my heart, soul, and strength, but I have to say that Hurricane Katrina still looks like nonsense to me. I still have not been able to get my mind around it. I have no secret gnosis to help me. As I told one of my students earlier today, the only thing I am sure about is that God wants me to help those who are suffering. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that all of the atheists on this site would agree with this choice of behavior, even if their motivation is not theistic.