Start at Crooks and Liars. There's a new book out that proposes the radical idea that the wealthy have been manipulating the religious in order to make more money and not pay taxes. Ya think? But it sort of vindicates something I've been thinking about for a long time.
Hi! I'm a Democrat, and I think your church sucks. Vote for me!
Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman University of Michigan
I always catch hell from some progressive friends for having sympathies with fundamentalists, Christian, Muslim and/or Jewish. In some circles, a good progressive is supposed to be an atheist and believe in the power of secularism. But this progressive belief system doesn't realize that it is also based upon a kind of faith, since it cannot be demonstrated empirically and it requires no less of a blind jumping off than its theocratic counterparts.
Religion and the people who practice it are seen by some progressives as enemies of the state rather than as mere varieties of ordinary human beings. Polemicists point out that religion has been the source of many of the world's largest conflagrations and therefore the secular faith is the way to go. But it's a false dichotomy. While it may be true that religion has historical shortcomings as an institution, the track record of its secular counterparts in the form of state mandated atheism ain't that good neither. We're stuck between dumb and dumber.
Religious impulses are as valid as any other human instinct as far as we can prove, and secular institutions benefit from their continued health and well being unless one religious faction rises to control all the others. Which is highly unlikely given what we see in Iraq. Individual religions don't do very well when it comes to wrestling control of governments out of the hands of other fundamentalists. Not because they are incompetent, but because so many other people take a different view of matters.
Who are we to play God, deciding which impulses are less than human? In certain circumstances the zealous instinct might become useful again. Where will we be if we cut it out and leave it on the operating room floor? A stock definition of hubris is man's temptation to play God with things beyond his scope.
In my humble opinion fundamentalists are victims of stunted mythology and lack of a broader education rather than active proponents of theocractic forms of government. Given the opportunity to get a decent education, most kids learn that the world is made up of all kinds of people and that we need to respect each other's cultural heritage. I say most kids. Bible Camp Moonies being the exception rather than the rule in American society. But, in my view, agitating for completely homogenous secular societies is counter productive.
Not only is it unrealistic to do away with religion completely, it pisses off the people you want to vote your way.
Hi! I'm a Democrat, and I think your church sucks. Vote for me!
And religous movements are just as silly who seek to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Christian version of Sharia Law. They're out there all right, but their numbers, I would argue, are probably about the same as some of the snake handler cults that used to come down out of the Appalachian mountains with the HillBillies. These rare orchids tend not to thrive in the urban and suburban settings where good education is available. So I think it's a matter of funding good education rather then prescribing secularism as the state religion.
I think the cartogram above makes it easy to see that the red populations - rimming the outside of the urban areas - are in danger of disappearing demographically if we can just get them folks some Internets(tm) and a few good teachers.
Maybe I'm sympathetic because I was raised by religious people and I would probably have ended up on death row without their help given my baseline temperament. Bahai's and Catholics and Baptists opened their homes to foster children, actually doing good instead of talking about it, and so I benefited from their practice if not their dogma. I ended up becoming an official agnostic simply because I don't have definitive proof either way.
So I have a soft spot for good people who say it's better to believe in something - anything - doesn't matter what - and act on that progressive vision rather than to believe in nothing and end up a nihilist. We all know where nihilism ends up. In my humble opinion nihilism is where the secular faith-o-phobics are headed just as fast as their counterparts in other fundamentalist systems.
If people want their faith, I say let them have it. The homophobia running like a wild fire through the American prairie states and the west and the south, I would argue, is actually coming from a very small cross section of the American population who suffer from the least education. I would also argue that it's caused by an unconscious reaction to the perceived encroachments of urban realities and the impact of corporate culture upon bucolic ways of life. The Federal Marriage Amendment probably appeals to less than 10% of Americans, but these are the same 10% who usually sit home cussing when not excited and exploited by the fascist rhetoric coming out of Karl Rove's office. And that 10% is enough to tip the debate inside the 40 yard lines.
Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman University of Michigan
Homophobia usually dies when it reaches the suburbs, as evidenced by the Purple America maps. I don't have a lot of time to do a full demographic study to back up my hypothesis. I'm just sharing my intuition. I think when most people encounter actual gay people they find out that they are nothing like their minister said. And once they find out they've been manipulated by the wealthy who just want to skim the till, I think they'll come to their senses.
I've had this conversation with The Hanged Man countless times - so this view of mine didn't just fall out of the sky. I decided to blog it so we have a record of our conversations for the future. Lotta good stuff gets lost in the email with The Hanged Man. I'm just saying it's not wise to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Maybe if the DoD could spare us the cost of couple of carrier battle groups we might be able to send some Internets(tm) and teachers up into them thar hills out west and down south.
And maybe there's a correlation in my hypothesis to Muslim fundamentalists, assuming they're human beings just like the rest of it, and maybe we could all benefit from a long term prescription for terrorism which involves good education systems instead of strong Departments of Defense, which is another scam perpetrated by the weatlthy on the unknowing.
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