All Annotations of The Mahablog » The Wisdom of Doubt, Part V[Preview]

saved by2 people, first byDiana on 2007-07-08, last byken meece on 2008-02-01

• He combines nationalism, magical thinking, and Old Testament readings.
• There is a raging debate between several men I know regarding if the rapture is near, if we are currently in “the tribulation”,and is there a “pre tribulation” rapture. This new “religion” takes current global events and twists them to fit Biblical prophesy.Among the highlights are the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the war in Iraq, and if the Chinese and Russians will enter the war in Iraq.These men I mentioned are counting on all of the above, because when the events occur, heaven is near.
• a large section of American Christians are in it for the earthly rewards
• It was an early use of the “dog whistle” technique, coded language that is meaningless outside of the narrow framework of secret communication–”You know what I mean.”
• American religiosity
• America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior.
• I don’t have to tell you there’s some heavy-duty weird shit going on in American Christianity.
• theology lite.”
• But it would be a lot more useful if liberal and progressive people, religious and non-religious alike, worked together to defuse the pernicious influence of right-wing politics and religion.
• A perfect real-world example of what Moyers is talking about is the way many Christians treat the Ten Commandments.
• The statistics suggest that more people “believe in” the Ten Commandments than actually know what the Ten Commandments say.
• It’s not even religion. It’s an idea of religion, but not religion itself, except on a very primitive level.
• Faux religion, on the other hand, is about bullshitting ourselves about ourselves and demanding that the universe cater to our greed and fears and ignorance.
• In this manner of thinking, Jesus becomes a tool, an icon, an image, but is certainly not a guide or a teacher.
• favoring the Ten Commandments without knowing what they are.

• I don’t care what religious tradition you call your own; just “believing in” something that you don’t practice or understand or follow is crap.
  It’s not even religion. It’s an idea of religion, but not religion itself, except on a very primitive level.
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  I think many Americans regard the Ten Commandments as something like a tribal totem. They want it placed in institutions of power, like schools and courthouses, as a symbol of their tribal dominance. Think of it as territorial marking. And this is just as true of the hard core fundamentalist as it is for the “cultural” Christian who has read most of the Left Behind books but doesn’t know the Beatitudes from spinach.