9/11 And Some Troubling Aspects Of Its Legacy

In a recent post I mentioned the Dove Outreach Center, a church in Gainesville, FL, having a burn the Koran day on 9/11. I mused whether or not they would have a burn the Bible day on 4/19, the anniversary date that bible verse quoting Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. To make my point I could have used other examples going as far back as Salem Massachusetts when certain members of that colonial community were hung after being charged with practicing witchcraft and/or being witches. Not withstanding the legacy of a fine practicinor of Christian orthodoxy like Torquemada, the legacy of Christian sensibilities being upset and subsequent actions following their apple carts being overturned is not a good one. That's why this business about the uproar over an Islamic Center at the Ground Zero site is so troubling.

Watching the likes of Newt Gingrich, Rick Lazio, and Sarah Palin pander to right wing Christian organizations by taking public stands against the building of the Center is par for the course in its hypocrisy. A case in point is the Pentagon. It also was a target on 9/11. Back in May of 2007 Salon's Justin Elliot pointed out that since 9/11 Muslim prayers have taken place daily in the Pentagon since we, you know, actually have Muslims serving in the military. The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council estimates there are currently around 15,000 members of the United States military that are practicing Muslims. If one were to take a casual stroll through Arlington cemetery they might be surprised at the number of tombstones that have symbols of the Muslim faith etched in them. That's why this movement to quash an attempt to build an Islamic Center that includes a Mosque is so troubling. What about these individuals in Arlington who were self identified Muslims that died to preserve our freedoms that included practicing the faith of your choice?

The movement to oppose the building of this Center is driven by the Christian right. Their actions should give anyone pause when freedom of religion gets this kind of challenge in America. Don't take my word for it. Just ask the ghost of Sarah Good.

The GOP & The Middle Ages: A World View

A couple of years ago a CBS News poll on evolution had a startling revelation: only 30% of registered Republicans believed in evolution. That’s 30%. Registered Democrats don’t get off so easy either where 57% actually believe in evolution that still leaves 40% who do not. That’s still 4 out of ten registered Democrats. Independents were at 61% yes to 37% no. Let me assure you the rest of the western world has moved on from this argument and overwhelmingly embrace Darwinian science. This includes an astounding 85-90% of Chinese.

What prompted this post was Digby’s piece over at Hullabaloo citing FDL’s Blue Texan discussion of Scott Brown’s anti evolution stance in the Massachusetts Senate Race. Back in 2005 Digby wrote a piece about how the GOP was being held hostage by the rank and files’ European Middle Ages’ world view of a literal theological doctrinaire belief of the book of Genesis and its creationists story:

“[…] Ben Adler asked a bunch of leading conservative intellectuals whether they believed in evolution. As far as I can tell only about half of them have any intellectual integritywhatsoever, and only one is definitively honest in my opinion: Charles Krauthamer, if you can believe that. Richard Brookheiser and William F Buckley get honorable mentions.Remember, these are highly educated people. The problem is not that they may believe in God or have a religious view of the origins of the universe. That is quite easily explained. It's the weaselly, mushy way they try to divert the question elsewhere or explain what they know is a ridiculous position. It's as if they are all terribly afraid that James Dobson might read TNR and berate them for not having a religiously correct fundamentalist view. William Kristol, as always, is the slickest guy around.

[…]And these are the people who railed against campus political correctness. What do you suppose it's like to be intellectually held hostage by people who you know for a fact are dead wrong on something? It must be excruciating.”

As a World History and A.P. World History high school teacher I will refuse, if I am ever driven by school board or state policy, to offer the sham view of Creationism in the classroom as an explanation with equal weight as that of Darwinian’s hypothesis of natural selection.

One has to wonder why evolution is still denied by such a large body of citizens in light of the Catholic Church’s record on the denial of scientific truth (i.e. Galileo). If one believes in the literal interpretation of Creation in the book of Genesis then one must also deny Galileo’s view of the universe where the Sun is not the center of the universe where the Earth actually revolves around the Sun and not vice versa. I am appalled that a large percentage of the American electorate still wants to hold these Middle Ages’ beliefs at the expense of scientific advancement (i.e. stem cell research). It just doesn’t seem logical to me to accept these other scientific truths while denying others that are based on the same scientific research methods.

This isn’t even the most bothersome thing about this. Let me conclude with a quote from a commenter on Digby’s post about intelligent design:

“I recall years ago reading some statistic about how like 80% of the Chinese believed in evolution like 40% of Americans.

It's probably more like 95/25 these days.

I await the arrival of our Chinese overlords any day now.”

Amen to that warning brother.