UK Independent: Republicans, religion and the triumph of unreason

[stopbush]

Johann Hari: Republicans, religion and the triumph of unreason

How do they train themselves to be so impervious to reality?

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Something strange has happened in America in the nine months since Barack Obama was elected. It has best been summarised by the comedian Bill Maher: "The Democrats have moved to the right, and the Republicans have moved to a mental hospital."

The election of Obama – a black man with an anti-conservative message – as a successor to George W. Bush has scrambled the core American right's view of their country. In their gut, they saw the US as a white-skinned, right-wing nation forever shaped like Sarah Palin.

When this image was repudiated by a majority of Americans in a massive landslide, it simply didn't compute. How could this have happened? How could the cry of "Drill, baby, drill" have been beaten by a supposedly big government black guy? So a streak that has always been there in the American right's world-view – to deny reality, and argue against a demonic phantasm of their own creation – has swollen. Now it is all they can see.

(snip)

How do they train themselves to be so impervious to reality? It begins, I suspect, with religion. They are taught from a young age that it is good to have "faith" – which is, by definition, a belief without any evidence to back it up. You don't have "faith" that Australia exists, or that fire burns: you have evidence. You only need "faith" to believe the untrue or unprovable. Indeed, they are taught that faith is the highest aspiration and most noble cause. Is it any surprise this then percolates into their political views? Faith-based thinking spreads and contaminates the rational.

Read the excellent article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-republicans-religion-and-the-triumph-of-unreason-1773994.html

[SeekerBlue]

1. Johann Hari always delivers

He is a voice in the wilderness.

Always concise and exquisitely reasoned.

I blanketed this everywhere when I first saw it (on the Richard Dawkins Foundation web page) this morning.

Bravo.

:applause:

[stopbush]

3. I also found this article at the Dawkins site.

Facebook and DU were my first stops to post this gem.

[d_b]

2. k&r

[FiveGoodMen]

4. "Faith-based thinking spreads and contaminates the rational"

The story of America in one sentence.