Post by benson on Feb 23, 2022 19:54:08 GMT
I have no problems with people being religious per se. I think that people have the right to believe in whatever they want. If they happen to believe in something that is demonstrably wrong, well then, they should be prepared to suffer the slings and arrows of reality. The problem tends to come in when some religious people try to impose their religion on others. If you go through my posts on religion, you'll find that this is where I tend to step in. Want to teach creationism in the classroom? Uh uh. Want to oppress women? Sorry, fella. Think abstinence-only education works and you should get government grants to teach it? Keep it in your own pants, please.
The problem is amplified by the fact that pretty much every religion tends to think of itself as the One True Belief. And when they get some political clout, things get very itchy indeed. Or have we already forgotten what the Taliban did to the Buddhas of Bamyan? That's why I worry when I hear politicians in the U.S. saying we're a Christian nation. We're not. We're a nation of mostly Christians, to be sure, but there are other religions here as well, and a bunch of non-believers too. When confronted with this, most of these politicians tend to say the Founding Fathers were Christians, and based this country on Christian beliefs. But that's not true either: the basis of our country's law is the Constitution, and the Founders took a great deal of care making sure it kept religion at arm's length (despite what some politicians believe). With the far-right going apoplectic every time someone mentions non-believers or religions other than Christianity (remember this?), I imagine the 2012 Presidential election will be one where every candidate tries to out-religious the next. But we have the 2010 midterms coming up, and it'll be an issue there too. That's why I like very much what the Freedom From Religion Foundation is doing: they've created wonderful ads with quotes from the Founding Fathers showing precisely how they felt on this issue. The one above of JFK is cool, because his candidacy was attacked for him being a Catholic, of all things. The thing is, he was a religious man, and still understood that religion must be kept away from politics.
www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/we-are-not-a-christian-nation
The problem is amplified by the fact that pretty much every religion tends to think of itself as the One True Belief. And when they get some political clout, things get very itchy indeed. Or have we already forgotten what the Taliban did to the Buddhas of Bamyan? That's why I worry when I hear politicians in the U.S. saying we're a Christian nation. We're not. We're a nation of mostly Christians, to be sure, but there are other religions here as well, and a bunch of non-believers too. When confronted with this, most of these politicians tend to say the Founding Fathers were Christians, and based this country on Christian beliefs. But that's not true either: the basis of our country's law is the Constitution, and the Founders took a great deal of care making sure it kept religion at arm's length (despite what some politicians believe). With the far-right going apoplectic every time someone mentions non-believers or religions other than Christianity (remember this?), I imagine the 2012 Presidential election will be one where every candidate tries to out-religious the next. But we have the 2010 midterms coming up, and it'll be an issue there too. That's why I like very much what the Freedom From Religion Foundation is doing: they've created wonderful ads with quotes from the Founding Fathers showing precisely how they felt on this issue. The one above of JFK is cool, because his candidacy was attacked for him being a Catholic, of all things. The thing is, he was a religious man, and still understood that religion must be kept away from politics.
www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/we-are-not-a-christian-nation