Being the long-standing and committed atheist that I am (helped in that direction by five years regular exposure to religion when I was a church chorister, as I've said before), I might not be the most impartial of observers, but I still find the current, particularly American, but also increasingly in this country too, addiction to fundamentalist Christianity extremely worrying. Otherwise intelligent people seem to completely lose their powers of rationality when religion is brought into the argument. They must do, because why else would anyone in the 21st century want to live their lives, and, of even more concern to me, to impose their way of thinking on everyone, by a moral code based on Bronze Age taboos? There's a line in The Moralist which encapsulates a lot of what scares me most about these people, about the religious right 'wanting to round up every boylover in the world, and gas them'. OK, boylovers are an easy and convenient hate target, as I've said before, but once we've been subjected to the 'Final Solution', who's next? People have to vote, and indeed live, according to their own consciences, but people need to look beyond the glib soundbites before they make their choice. Sadly, there's little evidence that many of them do. If it could happen in an advanced 'Western' democracy once (Germany 1933-1945), it could happen again. Far too easily.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
I'm not sure it's all that prevalent, though they tend to make a lot of noise, and in this day and age of giving as much media exposure to the loudest and most extreme, they tend to get a lot more coverage than the people who work quietly in the background for change. Over here right now, part of our problem is that everyone expected Obama to be some sort of miracle worker and fix all the problems the Republicans created, so now the conservatives are screaming - and they are religious nuts for the most part. Then you've got the Fred Phelps and his ilk - nothing mainstream about his idiocy, but because he's loud and obnoxious, he gets face time. Ugh.
ReplyDeletePeace <3
Jay
Hello Jay
ReplyDeleteThe 'lunatic fringe' like Phelps are not the problem, as I see it, it's those who dress not dissimilar attitudes up in a suit - Parry, Santorum, Bachman, and the like in your country, and their fellow travellers over here. They're the ones who can sweet talk their way into power, before shedding the mask and becoming the oppressors. That's exactly what Hitler did - he won a democratic election, albeit marginally, but once he held the reins of power, the rest is terrifying history.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
look to Greece. I hope it will not lead to a coup or even civil war erupts.
ReplyDelete@ Jay: Do you think Obama will win the next election, so as the Republicans turn on him full of hate.
Nikki
Guten Tag Nikki
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a theocratic USA with all of the trillions of dollars worth of military hardware they possess rampaging about the world 'persuading' people towards their line of thinking is a genuinely frightening prospect for me. As I said in the post, I really hope people think before voting in the next presidential and congressional elections. What is it they say about 'when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold'?
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
@Nikki: I have no idea if Obama can win again. The Republicans seem to be trotting out their lunatic fringe as possible candidates, so maybe we stand a chance.
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Jay