A recent poll finds that only 27% of Americans believe in evolution. Others are "leaning toward it," but a majority believe in or lean toward creationism. Meanwhile, our friends in the DLC are saying the Dems need to get down with the Christian thing. Many people can reconcile religion with existing in reality, but obviously most Bush voters don't. They don't believe in evolution, but they do believe in WMDs in Iraq, Saddam masterminding 9/11, and toleration of homosexuality causing God to bring his wrath down on the nation.
Personally, I think this is our biggest problem. Here we are trying to make policy and run campaigns based on truth and reason, and it turns out that the majority of voters operate on a different basis entirely. They purport to believe what is written in an ancient book, but in fact they don't even believe that. There isn't one word in the Bible about abortion or "life beginning at conception," although abortion was widely practiced in ancient times.* The Catholic Church, in fact, didn't decide that abortion was a sin until the 19th Century. Nor does the Bible mention Saddam Hussein. What the believers believe is what their preachers tell them. If their preachers tell them that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, that he had dangerous weapons that he planned to give to terrorists, and that God wants them to vote for George W. Bush because he will keep them safe from terrorists, abortionists and sodomites, they'll vote for George W. Bush.
As far as I'm concerned, rather than trying to pander to epistemological fallacy, we need to fight for the cause of reason. Onward to the Final Victory of the Enlightenment! Our opponents want to lead us back to the 14th Century - and that was not a good Century.
What I am hoping for on this diary is for a discussion of how to do this. People who consider themselves religious are particularly encouraged to join. How do you reconcile faith with reason? How can we encourage more people to live in reality, without feeling their core beliefs and communities are being threatened? And for those of us who do not believe in God (in the interest of full disclosure, I am among them), how can our community of interest with liberal people of faith be encouraged and made effective?
Our national community, indeed our species, cannot succeed if we can't govern ourselves on the basis of truth. That seems pretty obvious. Truth: the universe is more than 13 billion years old, the planet is more than 4 billion years old, and life evolved over 2 ½ billion years. That's why we're here. We are not at the center of the universe, and God does not favor or protect America over other nations. The only path to victory is to convince people of what is true, not to indulge ignorance and superstition.
*A correspondent tells me that Numbers 15 actually provides a method for a priest to perform an abortion. I don't interpret it that way, but indisputably, the Bible nowhere condemns abortion.