One of the worst, most depressing things I ever heard was the “debate” a few years back between Ken Ham and Bill Nye about creationism. Incredibly, the debate ended up more or less a draw (which is exactly what someone like Ham wants—an outcome where we can conclude, “Who can say really? I guess it’s up to each of us to decide for ourselves.”) I put the blame squarely on Nye for being ignorant of the basic fact that Ham and his ilk are totally irrational. The idea that you can reason with people who reject every tenet of reason is deeply foolish. Nye treated it like a genuine debate where scientific evidence can be brought to bear to decide it.
Only at the end did Nye seem to begin to realize that Ham’s position rested on rejecting all scientific evidence at the start. Everything for Ham rested on a nutty claim that science can only reason about what is immediately in front of us—that it can’t legitimately make claims about historical events. Instead of challenging that claim or, rather, exposing how utterly nonsensical it is (since it entails the complete rejection of pretty much everything we know about the world), Nye continued to invoke established scientific claims, as if these would settle the debate. By the time he began to comprehend what was going on it was too late.
The lesson I draw from this is the same one that applies to the media’s attempt to use “fact-checkers” to debunk the craziness of Trump. You don’t argue with the details of this nonsensicality, pretend that there is some rational account (with a few factual errors) being put forward. That grants it exactly the legitimacy it seeks. You have to dismiss it wholesale, identifying it as the dangerous incoherent utter bullshit that it is. Obviously this is easier said than done with the likes of Trump. But when it comes to the “beliefs” of the Ken Hams and Mike Johnsons of the world once you take the first step of granting that there is reasonable, if probably false, world view informing their claims, you have totally given up the ballgame.
Bob Stewart was an excellent Tourism Commissioner, I worked with him when I was in the industry. RIP Bob.
I still laugh about the time Ken Ham got a big fat “no” on his insurance claim request when The Ark became flooded by torrential rains a few years ago.
I agree, but if we’re going to complain about tax-free churches we should also be complaining about taxpayer money spent on lavish Christmas decorations for the White House each year.
The “National Christmas Tree” and lighting ceremony costs hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The National Park service provides the trees for interior WH decorations. Even if we hand-wave the WH Christmas tradition as just a generic holiday theme and not celebrating the birth of Christ, there is this from the official WH site:
The East Room features a Neapolitan crèche, or Nativity scene, with over 40 figurines, most dating back to the eighteenth century. The crèche has been displayed during every White House holiday season since 1967.
I know I’m sounding like the Grinch here, a sour note during a time when we’re supposed to be festive around the Solstice. But it chaps my butt to see taxpayer money spent to celebrate a Christian-related theme so heavily in the White House.
Do they spend this much time and money on decorations for Jewish or Muslim holidays at the White House? Should they be doing this at all? I don’t care if Biden puts up a Christmas tree and has a Nativity scene in his private Delaware home. This is different, a government promotion of religion.
A grab bag of reasons to be righteous wrapped up in usefulness to the powers that be. The only reason these guys are pro fossil fuels is because that’s who the belong to. The power structure that allows them is built on oil. Texas, Oklahoma, whatever.
That framing still implies that humans are special, that there is a “ladder of Creation” where God intended humans to be here on the top rung because he/she/it cares for us. That’s not how natural evolution works. We’re just the result of historical contingency, the last ape standing.
I remember that, too. It was awful, and affirms that one should never argue with a pig. Because…
It’s not the run-of-the-mill ignorant, uneducated base of the Trump mob that I worry about (except when they violate our reasonable laws.) They should be prosecuted and punished. But that era is gone. Justice has become slow farce. And. eventually, the Defendant, currently out on bail, will be dead. Rudy is, for all intents and purposes, totally neutered. Gaetz, Jordon, MTG, Tommy PotatoHead, DeSantis, Ramaswama Ding Dong – all laughable and ham-tied (I meant hand-tied, but I like the image of ham-tied better (because, fat, dead pigs.)
It’s those people like the Mike Johnsons and the Leonard Leos, and the Timothy Carneys, that I really worry about. How do we expose and counter them? I’m not talking about the law, or the voting booth. Or halls of Congress (we have some pretty sharp Orators on our side there.) I’m talking about in debate and press and social discourse – in the public arena? Who are speaking to the public, not just us in our Democratic Bubble.
Johnson was affiliated with ADF, “the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights.”
“ADF will walk boldly into the wind with resilience and with courage. We will do—as we have done—the hard things to which God has called us with the expectation that He will accomplish His purposes.” - CEO, President & General Counsel, Kristen Waggoner
The affiliated attorneys are not conscripts, they join voluntarily to advance the God-given right to live and speak the Truth in law, policy, and the public square. Johnson is a true believer.
And yet even with Johnson’s stint at the ADF he moved on. And how many of us prior to the great replacement, or Game of Speakership Thrones had anyone heard of this God bothering guy? He’s been in Congress since 2016.
Also, too: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
I agree that there’s a lot of what we might call “cultural Christianity” paid for by our tax dollars. I wish there were less.
I do want to caution though that (a) I’ve lived somewhere with no public holidays throughout the winter. It sucked. I am considerably more tolerant of civic displays of lights on street trees and such since then. (b) it is extremely easy for people who believe they are above “religion” to fail to see the influence of Christianity in their secular traditions. NZ’ers love to lecture Americans about how morally superior NZ’ers are because the “are not religious like Americans”. I once interrupted such a lecture to inquire about the Easter trading laws which require whole categories of stores to close on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The answer I got was “Easter isn’t a religious holiday”
tldr; purging religion from the public square lands hardest on minority religions while the dominant religion is often so embedded that people don’t recognize religious observances for what they are. Keeping expenditures even is probably a better bet- spending the same on Christmas decorations as on the White House Hanukkah party.
