(Christopher Hitchens shares his notes from his recent book tour. Rapier sharp wit that kept me chuckling all the way through. Very much worth the read!)
One of America's most seminal books is William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, in which he argues that the subjective experience of the divine can be understood only by the believer. I have just been finding out how true this is. You hear all the time that America is an intensely religious nation, but what you don't hear is that there are almost as many religions as there are believers. Moreover, many ostensible believers are quite unsure of what they actually believe. And, to put it mildly, the different faiths don't think that highly of one another. The emerging picture is not at all monolithic.
People seem to be lying to the opinion polls, as well. They claim to go to church in much larger numbers than they actually do (there aren't enough churches in the country to hold the hordes who boast of attending), and they sometimes seem to believe more in Satan and in the Virgin Birth than in the theory of evolution. But every single time that the teaching of "intelligent design" has actually been proposed in conservative districts, it has been defeated overwhelmingly by both courts and school boards. A fascinating new book, 40 Days and 40 Nights, describes this happening in detail in the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania. Its author, Matthew Chapman, is the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, which helps make Dover the modern version of the Scopes "Monkey Trial," in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, with the difference that this time the decision went the other way. A Republican-appointed judge described the school board's creationist effort as "breathtaking inanity."
Full article in Vanity Fair ...
1 comment:
Thanks for the heads-up on the Vanity Fair article Joe. I do adore Hitchens; we need more rascals of his stripe around here. Enjoyed the article and am not surprised of his findings on tour either. I do believe this is a groundswell of intelligent, critical thinkers in our midst who are getting fed up with the Bible thumpers' attempts to co-opt public policy. Enough is enough seem to be the mutterings I'm hearing.
For me, the halt to stem cell research is the worst abomination in the political capitulation to the fundamentalists. I'm disappointed that the Democratic candidates aren't making more noise about it. With this research we could possibly leap ahead several squares obviating a whole tour of other less promising roads to cures. It would be like pulling the Lollipop card in Candyland, like turning on all of the features of the Batmobile, like going to Warp Speed on the Enterprise....you get the drift...
Instead, we've got these believers in Bronze Age mythologies; people who think the Earth is six thousand years old and that dinosaurs boarded Noah's Ark, indirectly directing our nation's funding of Scientific Research. It would be hilarious ala a good South Park episode, if it weren't so damned infuriating and tragic, so tragic.
I do hope Hitchens is right and that there will sooner than later be a shift in our National consciousness in favor of the intellect.
One can only pray this happens I suppose. Until then, "Blessed are the cheese makers" indeed.
Post a Comment