Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of life and the greater antiquity of the Earth,more than half the American population believes that the entire cosmos was created 6,000 years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue.
Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen?and many who themselves get elected?believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in a garden with a talking snake, by the hand of an invisible God.
This is embarrassing.
But add to this comedy of false certainties the fact that 44 percent of Americans are confident that Jesus will return to Earth sometime in the next 50 years, and you will glimpse the terrible liability of this sort of thinking. Given the most common interpretation of Biblical prophecy, it is not an exaggeration to say that nearly half the American population is eagerly anticipating the end of the world. It should be clear that this faith-based nihilism provides its adherents with absolutely no incentive to build a sustainable civilization?economically, environmentally or geopolitically. - msnbc
Monday, November 6, 2006
Religion does untold damage to our politics.
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1 comment:
Wow. What an awesome generalization about Christians. I feel compelled to
generalize about athiests now. They're all immoral rapists and child molesters
who would gladly resort to canibalism if the need arose (or if they didn't have
the $1.00 needed for the McDonald's value menu).
It takes a lot of balls to look at the inclination towards religious ideology
and associate it with stupidity. Why is it that the atheists always claim
religion is the cause of every major war and prejudice? Don't they know
that the Nazi's based their Aryan beliefs solely on Darwin's notion of evolution?
And what is this argument that "science" has all the answers? Ahem, Mr. Harris,
it's time to wake up and smell the OOPARTS.
If anything does damage to our politics, it's uninformed people like Mr. Harris
who think that their notion of the world is somehow better and more enlightened
because they reject the supernatural. Earth to Mr. Harris. Please pull your
head out of your ass. I don't think you're a Nazi just because you're an
athiest. Please don't think I'm a moron because I think there's more to life
than you.
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