Extremes make news
Pat Robertson thinks we should kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, because he’s a “terrific danger” to the U.S. I used to work for the guy (Robertson, not Chavez), so the story got my attention. Robertson’s extreme views on matters political not only distance him — and by proxy his followers — from the very people he wishes to evangelize, but also provide great fodder his political enemies.
My liberal friends wonder how anybody could possibly be fooled by this kind of nonsense.
So later, Ed Cone points to a New York Times piece on religion and science, where this statement is found above-the-fold:
Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?Reaction from one of the panelists, all Nobel laureates, was quick and sharp. “No!” declared Herbert A. Hauptman, who shared the chemistry prize in 1985 for his work on the structure of crystals.
Belief in the supernatural, especially belief in God, is not only incompatible with good science, Dr. Hauptman declared, “this kind of belief is damaging to the well-being of the human race.”
To those who believe in God — and especially those with a passionate, evangelical zeal — this is even more outrageous than the idea of assassinating a South American President. And yet we wonder how a televangelist can get away with such stuff.
It is the extremes that make news. Meanwhile, the rest of us keep searching for sanity.
August 23rd, 2005 at 4:39 pm
American Christianity - and, increasingly, Christianity worldwide - is nothing more than a branch, a wholly-owned subsidiary, of the Republican party. Ergo, nothing Robertson, Falwell, et al says surprises me anymore. Perhaps Roy Moore should alter his ten commandments graven image to say "Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless Thou Art Referring to Political Enemies of Jesus’s Little Brother, Bush."
*sheesh*