This diary is inspired by the recent post which called into question Palin’s mental stability and which is being flamed mightily. I agree that the diarist's choice of words is terrible but a very important issue is broached by this reflection on Palin’s Pentecostal beliefs. This election does equate to a national referendum on the enlightenment project (and the ideal of scientific progress) versus the anti-enlightenment ethos that drives all fundamentalist sects (from radical Islamists to Christian warriors).
We know that Palin characterized the Iraqi war as a mission from God (though that could have been just a rhetorical move), rejects anthropogenic global warming, is a creationist, and a believer in end times doctrine. Since these are "Christian beliefs" (albeit end times philosophy is a 19th century invention), they are to be treated with respect even though they are patently irrational. If Palin couched her beliefs in terms of say Nordic mythology, she would be widely castigated as a kook. If instead of believing that Jesus is going to descend from the Heaven’s and carry away all the true believers, she believed that a superior Alien race would return to earth and carry home their chosen ones, she would be regarded as crazy and unfit to hold office. [Don't laugh, recall how Dennis Kucinich's credibility was assailed in media when he said that he had seen a UFO.]
However, why is it acceptable and indeed a political plus to really believe that a giant, all knowing entity in the sky (a master puppeteer no less) is keeping a big ole data base of who to rapture away versus believing there is a superior race zipping around the cosmos in really cool space ships? Both are metaphysical beliefs and both can rightly be called superstitious and divorced from the evidentiary-reality paradigm.
In the SNL skit, Tina Fey as Palin said that "global warming was the lord holding us tighter." Her line got a big laugh but it is a satire that hits very close to the heart of the matter.
At some point, the approximately 75 to 80 percent of the nation who do not classify themselves as fundamentalist need to fully come to terms with the anti-science, anti-rationality, anti-reality "faith-based paradigm" that is being marketed as "small town values." This stance is blocking stem cell research, undermining school curriculum, and if it continues to expand, it threatens national security by creating a barrier to scientific advancement and rationally based political decision making.
Bush reportedly views himself as an instrument of God and we know how well that "God tells me what do" mode of policy setting worked out. It might be worth highlighting that McCain-Palin endorses this same theocratic decision making style.
Look the fundies are never going to vote for Obama anyway. It might not be a bad idea to appeal to the undeluded segment of the undecideds.