Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
i wish more christians felt that way, but instead, 63% of Americans believe the bible to be 100% fact. that scares the hell out of me, when you have over 3/5ths of the most powerful nation on earth who think that the earth is only 6000 years old and who believe Moses really did put 2 of every single living creature on the planet on his boat, it's cause for alarm. and you can bet out of that 63%, it includes many powerful people who have the jurisdiction to govern millions of lives. do you see now why Atheists get so passionate over this stuff? |
Well if they believe that, they're not very careful readers!
Seriously, I think you've put your finger on a key problem in this debate. I remember a thread a while back where I somewhat incautiously used the term "religious right"--which is a term that really only makes sense in the context of
American politics. There are similar types in Canada, but they have nowhere near the influence or money, and certainly haven't succeeded in putting their followers into the seat of power.
It's not that all religious people are right wing, or even that all people who are religious and conservative are members of this movement. It's a very specific movement comprised of a minority of Christians who have worked to change the political debate and wield influence at the highest levels of government. They're not even that secretive about it--their agenda is to promote a moralistic, conservative agenda
at the expense of the government itself if necessary--and along the way to discredit both scientific thinking and what they call "materialism."
This last part is jargon--but it's
their jargon, and it merits some explanation because of how scary it is. Being a materialist simply means that you believe that you yourself have some kind of access to truth through observation or experience--in other words, you can decide for yourself what to think. Being anti-materialist means in this case that the only path to truth is
submission to authority.
So they're a tiny minority, but perhaps a solid plurality of certain denominations--southern Baptists being one. In that case, we should be openly mocking them, because their values seek to erode the enlightenment society that took hundreds of years to build in the West. Their agenda is nothing less than a fascist theocracy. To make a video marginalizing this small minority of Christians? IMO,
that's God's work! It doesn't extend to a condemnation of religion altogether or of Christians as a whole. Just this one group of whack-jobs who have way too much influence right now, especially in a society with a nominal separation of church and state.