Suffice it to say I wholeheartedly concur.  It is this
present-day effort toward monotheism and monotheistic
superimposition of thought in America that makes me
shudder.  Have we all forgotten the Scopes Trial?  It
wasn't that long ago.  Did folks miss the fact that
the science teachers in one of our states recently
opted to stand in the hall rather than to read a
mandated statement about intelligent design?

That Babylon, one of the major cities of antiquity,
which stood for thousands of years, was wantonly
destroyed and is a casualty of modern day aggressions
is disgraceful.  That ancient cities quoted in
Scripture are being refound is wonderful.  One would
expect there to be some concrete facts in the book
that is based on Faith (not intelligence, but Faith). 


But there is at our helm today an administration that
wishes to promulgate a monotheistic philosophy.  It is
funded by fundamentalists, and some of the
machinations are very much to the right.  Be very
afraid of us on the left if you prefer, if that
threatens you.  We will not sit quietly and see
blind-faith allegiance to a doctrine that should be
based on love be pushed down the throats of others
who, by condition of birth or by consequence of free
thought, opt to believe differently.

The problem I have seen evidenced in our "grab onto
the latest fad" society is that there are a number
jumping onto the band wagon of appearing pious because
"everybody's doing it."  Neophytes often promote
extremism.  

Intelligent design may have its merits as academic
theory, but let's not allow one segment of society to
throw the baby out with the bathwater here.  The
recently reported problems in schools having to do
with ID were very much associated with trying to
squelch discussion of evolution and promote a
Christian deity.

Explain that to our cousins, the chimps, and to those
whose theology is of a different flavor.  Where does
that place the science that is medicine?  




--- L Dewey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> As with 'scientific creationism' before it,
> 'intelligent design' is 
> part of a larger effort to suppress science and
> critical inquiry and 
> replace it with blind obedience to (theocratic)
> authority.
> 
> It is not some new hypotheses to be tested by
> experimental science, it 
> is theology (and a specific monotheism, no less).
> 
> However, as with creationism, the proponents (who
> some call 'Christian 
> fascists' because they cite that scripture as their
> fundamental 
> justification) are eager to shroud their efforts as
> 'just another 
> theory' to be debated in the marketplace of ideas.
> In which case, 
> finding someone with a PhD and a journal to publish
> in is a significant 
> event. It plays well on the 700 Club.
> 
> Is there something wrong with that? Yes, there is.
> 
> This is not simply an intellectual debate (although
> that debate, even 
> on museum-l, is important). The ideology and
> politics being promoted 
> are being realized by incitements to violence, by
> wholesale round-ups 
> and detentions, by military invasions and the
> threats of further 
> invasions.
> 
> This stuff is lethal (to critical thinkers, to gays,
> to women who don't 
> 'know their place', to people of color, to
> immigrants, to Muslims, to 
> people living in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria...)
> and will become 
> more so if "good people do nothing" (to paraphrase
> Burke).
> 
> -L.D.
> 
> 



=====
Indigo Nights
[log in to unmask]

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