You have to admit, it's kinda fun to sit and watch the republican party pander to the religiously insane, by far the cornerstone of their base. It's estimated that 25% of Americans are very religious, attending church at least once a week, or about the same percentage of Americans that still give Bush a positive approval rating. Coincidence?
It's been reported that Bush felt his dad lost the '92 election to Clinton because poppy more or less blew off what he called the extra X chromosomers of the republican party. Regardless of your views, you have to admit 25% of the population is a pretty strong starting position in a national election. And play to this crowd Bush did; faith based initiative, gay marriage amendment, stem cell research veto, answering to a "higher father," and my all-time favorite, kicking his booze and coke habit through faith, whatever that means.
Bush rallied the nation to arms after 9/11 to fight the evil-doers who brought down the WTC towers killing almost three thousand innocents. He promised a crusade, which was not a particularly good choice of words considering the Muslims have been sensitive to it going back centuries when they fought King Richard and his crusaders. Now they face another King George. No, not the one America faced down in the War of Independence, but another George who's inventing presidential powers a king could only dream of having. In other words, centuries of hate between Muslims and Christians are now again at the forefront of crisis because it's so easy to interpret religious writings to your own ideological or theological bent.
For example, Christians who believe in the Bible verbatim, don't have a handy answer when asked who was the on the spot reporter who jotted down the conversation between Adam and Eve in Genesis. Nor do they have an explanation that there is no mention of dinosaurs. How can the good book miss something as big as the dinosaurs?
Muslims on the other hand, with the Koran in the very same hand, and even though it says no such thing, promise 72 black-eyed virgins to martyrs. Well, if I was a 16 year old teenage boy, with zero prospects, how much more convincing would I need to blow myself up?
What's particularly scary about this is that there are six billion people on this planet; 2.3 billion are Christians and 1.3 billion are Muslims. That's over three quarters of our population and they're all crazy. They're crazy because they believe things that nobody can prove. When someone says they've talked to God, or Jesus, or Allah, or Buddha, do you believe them? Has God or one of these other deities every talked to you? (Don't answer that). Or are you just a tiny bit suspicious that when these guys; Jerry Fallwell (RIP), Roberson, Dobson, Roberts tell you they've just gotten off the phone with God and He's instructed them to ask you for more money?
Religion, as the founding fathers foresaw, was not the solution but the problem. Many of them were either atheist or agnostic. And before we forget to mention it, the 4th largest religious category is, "non-believer." The point is, our founding fathers were actually quite clever in recognizing how dangerous religion could be, that there should be a separation between church and state. Bush and Rove have shamelessly usurped this constitutional separation for political advantage. To them it has always been about chasing that 25% of the electorate who are religiously insane, just to stay in power.
No one wants to make fun of anyone’s faith, whatever it happens to be, but let’s stop treading water and come up for some air here. Faith based is nothing more or nothing less than voo doo horseshit because not one person on this planet has a clue how life on Earth started. Anyone who tells you differently either has a financial vested interest, or they’ve been sucked into the vortex of religious insanity.
All of this is controversial, but it should really piss you off that Rove and Bush use religious fears for political advantage. How much more disgusting can it get?
believe that our founding fathers believed the exact opposite of what they wrote,
replacing them with the words "Christian nation". Ignorance is truly bliss.
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