This of course got secularists all in a tizzy, since they are already worried that our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan is nothing more than a Christian-Muslim religious conflict.
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I myself, though I hadn't watched the video, was kind of wondering if Palin wasn't acting a little extreme based on all of the to-do. Then I stumbled upon this, which was rather enlightening, and which I thought our readers might appreciate as they (hopefully) educate themselves for the coming election.
There isn't much to say about that besides what Dr. Craig has already commented on, so I'll leave it at that.
However, on this same note, I would like to highlight a quote from Time Magazine which really struck me concerning the mindset of the voting public.
A woman being interviewed about her reasoning in this upcoming election was quoted as saying:
"Honestly, I don't know what to do. I really don't want to vote for McCain. You can tell he only cares about rich people. Sarah Palin wears glasses that cost $300. McCain's wife wears Gucci clothes. Which means they don't know anything about people like me." And continued with, "I hear that Obama's a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, that would be a problem, because the terrorists already attacked us." (source)
I'll start with the latter part of the quote. Notice first that this woman doesn't even know whether or not Obama is a Muslim (which he isn't), but is using this ignorance to counterbalance her desire to vote for him. Further, she then goes on to make the completely inexcusable mistake of basically stating that all Muslims are terrorists (by the way, they aren't).
Her reasoning for her distaste of the Republican ticket isn't much better. Palin wears $300 glasses? McCain's wife wears "Gucci clothes"? I won't speculate as to what this person might say if Sarah Palin, or McCain's wife, looked like slobs, but I'm sure you can imagine. Does she really think that there is no relatively wasteful personal spending on the Democratic side of the river? Furthermore, when the future of the country is (possibly) at stake, does it really matter?
To cut to the chase, I hope that people (no matter what side of the issue they fall on) are making more informed decisions than this. If you have time to browse the internet, and read blogs like this, you have time to educate yourself. Please, for the sake of others - if not yourself - take advantage of this.
It's rather disheartening to see people making decisions on these grounds, is it not?
Get my ebook, "The Apocryphal Jesus," here
Again with William Lane Craig?
ReplyDeleteThe guy teaches at BIOLA.
BIOLA.
Here is what one physicist thinks of the pious Dr. Craig:
http://unbeguiled.blogspot.com/
IF: "Notice first that this woman doesn't even know whether or not Obama is a Muslim (which he isn't), but is using this ignorance to counterbalance her desire to vote for him."
ReplyDeleteStupidity -- or to be more precise, willfull refusal to reason (as actual stupidity isn't willful and cannot be helped in any case) -- is inexcusable; it is a deliberate moral failure; it is sin.
IF: "Further, she then goes on to make the completely inexcusable mistake of basically stating that all Muslims are terrorists (by the way, they aren't)."
True enough, not all Moslems are terrorists ... and the point, now that we've establisted it, is toally irrelvant to much of anything at all.
It is absolutely troubling that people make such important decisions on such grounds. Especially when the information is so readily available, that it's completely baffling to me why people rely on such ridiculous hearsay. Snopes does a great job of dispelling such myths. I also use ontheissues.org to research candidates' positions. Votesmart.org is another great resource for researching issue positions and voting records.
ReplyDeleteWell you've got to give them credit here at Atheism is Dead, they don't reference Kent Hovind very often.
ReplyDeleteUnbeguiled, that's a great blog. Unfortunately I wasn't able to listen to the podcast, though judging by the fact that you clearly cobbled that blog together sometime within the past two days, I'm sure the opinion of "one physicist" wouldn't have weight too heavily anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the opinion of "one physicist" wouldn't have weight too heavily anyway.
ReplyDeleteCobbled together would be an overstatement. I cut and pasted a link; what is your point?
I agree, the opinion of one expert is of little value. It's usually a good idea to follow the scientific consensus.
Perhaps you could do a survey of physics phd's. Find out what the consensus is on how Dr. Craig uses physics.
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ReplyDeleteThis 34-minute documentary I did does deal with Black Nationalist Liberation Theology and its claims about creation, at least of the white man... as well as the creation account from White Nationalists (Christian Identity):
http://videorow.blogspot.com/2009/03/papa-giorgio-on-obamas-church-and-their.html
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