Religion
Related: About this forumBible barons: How the GOP uses religion to keep voters captive to corporate ideology
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/bible_barons_how_the_gop_uses_religion_to_keep_voters_captive_to_corporate_ideology_partner/If you want to know why nine out of the 10 poorest states are located in the hyper-religious South, look no further
CJ WERLEMAN, ALTERNET
Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann (Credit: AP/Susan Walsh/Reuters/Larry Downing/photo collage by Salon)
Last week, a bill to make way for the display of Ten Commandments in public buildings, such as courthouses and schools, passed out of an Alabama Senate committee, sending it to the full Senate for a vote as early as next week.
If you want to know why nine out of the 10 poorest states are located in the hyper-religious South, look no further than this calculated right-wing political play, which is designed for one purpose: to ensure Southern and Sunbelt voters continue to vote against their own self-economic interests.
If passed by the state Senate and signed by the governor, the state would put a constitutional amendment on the next ballot to let Alabama voters decide the issue. The theocratic authors and the Republican Party sponsors of this bill are fully cognizant of the fact that the bill is unconstitutional, and thus it will, inevitably, be struck down by the courts.
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is clear: Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. It is the very basis of the separation of church and state.
more at link
longship
(40,416 posts)The inevitable court challenge will waste the federal courts' time. But the inevitable failure to be upheld fits handily into their activist judges narrative. Of course, when one peels back the whole thing, this is about theocracy, not governance.
Disgusting.
pinto
(106,886 posts)Their activist judges meme is just a vote garnering smokescreen. And all that Constitution stuff...
cbayer
(146,218 posts)People are getting sick to death of this crap.
I don't even think it's about theocracy. I think it's just politics.
I hope to see some significant changes this voting cycle, but we shall see.
longship
(40,416 posts)Psychological research has shown fairly convincingly that true believers are very resistant to changing their minds. So I do not hold out much hope to influence the older, more set in their ways, generation. On the other hand, it is refreshing to read that the millennial generation seems to see through the veil of orthodoxy and are willing to think for themselves.
In my humble opinion, this may be a generational problem that may solve itself as the older people pass away. Kind of crude to put it that way, but the hypothesis might be worth studying.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)is not going to change. But recent studies show that the youngun's aren't buying some of it.
It won't die off, but I think it's going to change.
longship
(40,416 posts)No matter what, there is no censorship of freethinking ideas. (Yet.)
That may be having a significant impact. And there's another study that ought to be done.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)When people can look it up for themselves and look it up easily, they are going to more readily question what they are told.
But, the problem with that is that the internet is full of so much dead wrong information.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful"
Wow! 2000 years ago and its exactly the same. Some things never change.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)than to anything on which it is poured.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
This caused me to look up other quotes by him and he has some really great ones.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)religion is just as valid a method of knowledge gathering as science, evidence, or reason, it continues to be an effective strategy for the GOP. I'm not going to go so far as to make a ridiculous accusation that everyone who defends religion and attacks atheists who voice their opinions against it is "carrying water" for the Republicans, but I do feel this is worthy of discussion.