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Thursday, December 06, 2007
Are We Headed Towards a Theocracy?
Non-baseball party. Enter at your peril, avoid at your pleasure.
I’ll make this short and sweet. It has nothing to do with baseball, but since this is my (our) blog, I (we) can write about anything I (we) want.
As an aside, is there anything that Bush and his administration does not feel comfortable lying and/or deceiving the public about (and then hemming an hawing and denying when caught)? I am referring to the Iran situation of course, although that question could apply to lots of other things. Can that possibly be good for a society - for its government to continuously lie to and deceive it, even if some people in the government think that it is necessary? Personally, I want a government that is transparent except in the rarest of circumstances and even then I think you have to give truthfullness and full disclosure the benefit of the doubt (not to mention the slippery slop of it being O.K. to lie about some things).
Anyway, in 1960 when Kennedy gave his famous speech about his religion, he basically said that a candidate’s religion is his personal affair and that the separation between Church and State is absolute. I was only 1 year old at the time, so I don’t remember what happened, but I don’t think he got any criticism for that.
Today, 47 years later, Romney essentially said two things (among others of course). One, that religious faith should be part of government (whether you think that that is a violation of the 1st Amendment is another story and it is not as simple as that anyway). Two, and I did not listen to the whole speech, that he would support anyone that “bows to the almighty,” regardless of their religion. I think, but I am not sure, that he left out anyone who does not bow to anyone, in a religious sense (i.e atheists). If that is true, that enough is sad, in my opinion.
Anway, I think it is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to hold the office of the POTUS unless you profess a faith in God and religion. Certainly, it is impossible as a Republican candidate.
Keep in mind that if Huckabee gets elected, which is a distinct possibility (and I happen to like him, even though I am an atheist and Libertarian/Democrat), we will actually have an ordained (I assume and whatever that means) minister as the President, or if Romney gets elected (a lesser possiblity, but a possibility nonethesless), we will have a devout Mormon as President. Devout Mormons are a strange bunch. Regarldless of what you think of Mormonism (my personal viewpoint is that it is a goofy form of religion, but what religions aren’t goofy from the persepctive of a secularist?), their daily lives are very much a part of their religion, and he (Romney) is probably a bishop or something like that in his Church. So if Romney or Huckabee get elected, we will either have a minster or bishop as President. If that is not close to being a theocracy, at least closer than what he have ever been in modern times, I don’t know what would be.
So what is wrong with a theocracy, in my opinion? That could be a 100,000 (or million) word answer, right? My answer in a few sentences, is:
Theocracies base their public poilicy on religious dogma, most of which was developed a long time ago. Religious dogma is often at odds with science, not to mention the fact that it is intractable (whereas, science consists of theories which have not been disproved yet, but eventually will). Science is one of the things (not the only thing of course) that helps us to improve our quality of life and cure, or at least ameliorate the ills of society. Ultimately, it might be science (again, at least partly) which saves us from self-extinction. I have a hard time believing that people who believe that evolution is incorrect (it is just a theory, so I have no problem with that characterization) can make good decisions for a society in this complex world that we live in.
Is there any theocracy in the world whose people do not live in poverty and continuous strife? I don’t know. That is a real question.