"If This Goes On—" is a science fiction short novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first serialized in 1940 in Astounding Science-Fiction and revised and expanded for inclusion in the 1953 collection Revolt in 2100. One of his Future History series, it recounts a future theocratic American society, ruled by the latest in a series of "Prophets." The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later). Scudder was previously mentioned in passing in stories such as Logic of Empire and later on in Heinlein’s final novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset. He is also mentioned in Heinlein's first, long-unpublished novel, For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs.
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Heinlein's principal starting point for the Scudder Theocracy was probably Mark Twain's gloomy prediction that the U.S. would likely be in a theocracy before 1940. Twain had Mary Baker Eddy in mind as his potential prophet(ess), but Christian Science was not the only such potential theocratic dictatorship. By 1940, the issue was by no means settled.
http://www.heinleinsociety.org/...
Nor, apparently, is the question settled now. For some reason this country has a fascination with the basest aspects of religion. We, in the main, don't actually study religion. We don't read the original texts because most of us can't write or read anything but American English (and that on a sophomoric level). We are content to let suits on platforms in humongous churches that more resemble concert venues than religious institutions simply tell us what they think a translation of multiple translations of a book partially adapted from the Chronicles of Gilgamesh says. We are lazy.
Recently Huckabee said the following:
http://www.youtube.com/...
"If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, that's fine. I'll accept that," he said Friday. "I just don't happen to think that I did."
It is acceptable for Mike to believe whatever he wants. However, it isn't for him to ram what he believes down our throats.
Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints.
http://illusorytenant.blogspot.com/...
There is no place in science class for Intelligent Design, not until the Creationists that want ID to be taught actually come up with a workable theory. I am more than willing to accept that a supercomputer, or gray aliens, or super creatures that use Black Monoliths to genetically alter apes could have a hand in human existence, but until there is an intelligent reason with proofs to put that sort of thing into the science books, I say we leave Intelligent Design in the capable hands of Arthur C Clark and other capable sci-fi writers and let ID be taught as a three credit elective in city colleges.
As it stands now, Intelligent Design is just another attempt by modern flat-earthers to get a foot in the door.
Christianity is a great religion, but this is the Twenty-First Century. We simply must accept that there is more to the universe than the distorted racial memories of a few desert tribes living in a backwater corner of the planet Earth.
I will not accept that this country becomes a theocracy in 2008, 2012, or at any time in the future.