Saturday, March 22, 2008

Religion and Racism

Sam Harris on the religious side to Obama's race speech:

...The stultifying effect of religion is everywhere to be seen in the 2008 Presidential campaign. The faith of the candidates has been a constant concern in the Republican contest, of course--where John McCain, lacking the expected aura of born-again bamboozlement, has been struggling to entice some proper religious maniacs to his cause. He now finds himself in the compassionate embrace of Pastor John Hagee, a man who claims to know that a global war will soon precipitate the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (problem solved). Prior to McCain's ascendancy, we saw Governor Mitt Romney driven from the field by a Creationist yokel and his sectarian hordes. And this, despite the fact that the governor had been wearing consecrated Mormon underpants all the while, whose powers of protection are as yet unrecognized by Evangelicals.

Like every candidate, Obama must appeal to millions of voters who believe that without religion, most of us would spend our days raping and killing our neighbors and stealing their pornography. Examples of well-behaved and comparatively atheistic societies like Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark--which surpass us in terrestrial virtues like education, health, public generosity, per capita aid to the developing world, and low rates of violent crime and infant mortality--are of no interest to our electorate whatsoever. It is, of course, good to know that people like Reverend Wright occasionally do help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for the sick. But wouldn't it be better to do these things for reasons that are not manifestly delusional? Can we care for one another without believing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is now listening to our thoughts?

Yes we can...

3 comments:

jenhargis said...

Okay, so Christianity is worse than racism? Is that the point of all of this?

Felipe Budinich said...

you've got some serious reading comprehension issues.

He is only saying that we could live a good life, respect our neighbours, feed the poor, et caetera... WITHOUT the need of a invisible pink unicorn poking our back.

That unicorn may be named jesus, allah, god, whatever, i call mine fluffy.

jenhargis said...

No, he's not ONLY saying that. Nor are you ONLY explaining what he's saying. I don't know if you read the entire article or not, but this man is blaming Christianity for slavery, among other things(not the main point of the article, but rather a supporting point). He is saying that Obama has to say he's a Christian to get elected and that is to appease the weak-minded.

Why do people embrace the notion of Islamic fanaticism versus a peaceful Islamic religion, but then pretend that there are not Christian fanatics?

And if you are not aware that you are saying more than one thing, let me tell you what you are saying. First, you are calling me stupid. Second you are pointing out your what you think the man is saying, and third you are saying that religious people (not just Christians) are stupid.

There is nothing wrong with MY comprehension skills.