Does God believe in Bush?

Some U.S. citizens have faith in a god who believes in them over all others. The most extreme adherents to this world view in the U.S. tend to be Evangelical Republicans (See the Left Behind series).

Why is this worthy of attention?

The GOP Evangelicals are dangerous - a kind of cult of the Chosen Ones - fundamentally dogmatic people. The official separation of Church and State in this country thankfully holds them at bay. Unfortunately, Bush's Faith Based Initiative gives them a direct government mandate to proselytize - their primary agenda. Not surprisingly, few if any other religious faiths' initiatives have been approved.

However, I do believe these are their 'final days'. Religion and irrational world views in general continue to lose influence since the advent of science, rationalism, and secular humanism. Unless something catastrophic happens to a large section of the electorate and infects our thinking with fear and paranoia as it did after 9/11, the pull of theocracy and those who seek it will continue to wane.

Happily, more citizens are coming to realize the bankruptcy of religious faith's power to wisely inform real world decision making. It is quickly abandoned by even the most self-professed faithful when it gets in the way of participating in the modern era (only the Amish seem to be true Literalists when it comes to their faith in the Bible for instance).

Time and time again, the revolutionary changes brought about by the practice of science and reason have been naysayed by the faithful (i.e. the telephone, the car, the plane, the computer, organ transplants, blood transplants, InVitro Fertilization, gene therapy, stem cell research, etc. etc. etc.). Yet obviously, science and reason hold the only real promise for improving man's lot - and not just The Chosen Ones'. It is science and reason which may one day feed all of the hungry and cure all of the sick. It is science and reason which has the best potential to one day bring about world peace and equality. Religious faith can do none of these things realistically, though it is good, admittedly, at instigating and justifying wars, barbarity and mass suffering. History voluminously makes this case.

Furthermore, the wishful belief in an omnipotent Santa Claus promoting a glorious afterlife for The Chosen Ones -- yet only sometimes answering prayers, sometimes flooding the lands, sometimes saving hostages, sometimes healing the sick, sometimes striking down evil but always ALWAYS allowing genocides, holocausts, famines, diseases (or perhaps doling it out) -- is beyond bizarre, beyond whacky - it's irresponsible. This childlike belief in an afterlife allows real lives and the real lives of others to be taken for granted. If we are not judged by our actions - as the Evangelicals advocate - and instead are judged merely on how well we 'keep the faith', this world surely would be doomed to the root of all evil: ignorance ensconced in faith.

The mind is the most powerful and most dangerous tool humans have. It is easily corrupted by charismatics and others (Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc.) who profess to know 'The Truth'. Those in power, like Bush, are monumentally dangerous as their minds have been co-opted by the charismatics' superstitious subjective truthmongering.

In the end, the GOP Evangelicals' justification will come down to this: I have had a personal experience with God and His resurrected Son. There lies the weakness of their whole belief system. It's based on the power of their subjective experience. For the individual, subjective experience IS all powerful yet science and reason has shown the evil that has been done and is done on its behalf. It is only through the objective transcendant method of science that man might tame its most powerful and most dangerous tool, the mind, for greater good. It is only by passing down knowledge and not faith that man might evolve, become more compassionate, and face the unknown courageously, uncorrupted by the vagueries and temptations of the subjective faith-based world view.

The scientific method is the most powerful system we have for using our most powerful tool the mind. We, all of us, put more 'faith' in science everyday by using the products of its genious. No matter what our 'talk' is, our 'walk' puts the majority of its faith in science, its method, its rationalism, its objectivity and most importantly its results.

See The Skeptic's Annontated Bible, The Church of Critical Thinking, Killing the Buddha, The Life of Victor Frankl, The Skeptic's Manifesto, Bush and the Jesus Factor, The Scientific Method, Ghosts of Rawanda, The New Humanist.