Amid the competing forces gathered on the Washington Mall last Saturday to blather for and against the healthcare reform bill, there was one group that went largely unnoticed. Honestly, why would anyone demonstrate on the Mall for a Supreme Court decision? You'd have a better chance affecting the outcome of the Kansas - North Carolina basketball game by demonstrating outside the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. The group calling itself The Reason Rally managed a crowd of 25,000 or so and attempted to show the powers that be in Washington that atheists are a force to be reckoned with.
Anyone who wonders why reason needs a rally has spent very little time reading a newspaper and no time watching FOX News (God bless you). Americans have consistently used religion and its cousins: exclusionism, faith and bigotry to pollute the national dialogue. The symptoms are everywhere but mostly centered around the conservative, tea party, evangelicals. As our politics devolve into a race to the bottom, GOP presidential hopefuls are leading the way.When a debate moderator asks eight potential presidential candidates how many believe in evolution and only three answer affirmatively, reason needs a rally. When a substantial percentage of the voting population chooses a candidate who degrades education and disdains any science that contradicts his mysticism, reason needs a rally.
While the Reason Rally organizers profess to be neutral on religion, their signs and slogans carry a decidedly anti-religious tone. The featured speaker, Richard Dawkins (no, not the Family Feud guy) has written a book called The God Delusion. Dawkins believes that Homo sapiens are at their best when they "crawl from the swamp of primitive superstition and embrace reason and evidence-based truth". OK, maybe that's a bit harsh on religion but consider the following:
- Rather than accept the revelations of modern science, they take their truth from a book written in 800 BC by unidentified authors whose knowledge was of their time.
- When faced with something they don't understand, they don't interrogate science for a solution, but conclude that it must be supernatural and therefore beyond understanding.
Seriously, the appeal of presidential bright-lights like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Donald Trump runs about as far from reason as it's possible to get. Ask yourself who has dropped out early (Mitch Daniels, Tim Paulenty) and who's still in (Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich). The reasonable types got shelved at the outset. Why? Too reasonable. Republicans clearly prefer candidates who believe in sacred underwear and creationism.
Anyone who wonders why reason needs a rally has spent very little time reading a newspaper and no time watching FOX News (God bless you). Americans have consistently used religion and its cousins: exclusionism, faith and bigotry to pollute the national dialogue. The symptoms are everywhere but mostly centered around the conservative, tea party, evangelicals. As our politics devolve into a race to the bottom, GOP presidential hopefuls are leading the way.When a debate moderator asks eight potential presidential candidates how many believe in evolution and only three answer affirmatively, reason needs a rally. When a substantial percentage of the voting population chooses a candidate who degrades education and disdains any science that contradicts his mysticism, reason needs a rally.
While the Reason Rally organizers profess to be neutral on religion, their signs and slogans carry a decidedly anti-religious tone. The featured speaker, Richard Dawkins (no, not the Family Feud guy) has written a book called The God Delusion. Dawkins believes that Homo sapiens are at their best when they "crawl from the swamp of primitive superstition and embrace reason and evidence-based truth". OK, maybe that's a bit harsh on religion but consider the following:
- Rather than accept the revelations of modern science, they take their truth from a book written in 800 BC by unidentified authors whose knowledge was of their time.
- When faced with something they don't understand, they don't interrogate science for a solution, but conclude that it must be supernatural and therefore beyond understanding.
Seriously, the appeal of presidential bright-lights like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Donald Trump runs about as far from reason as it's possible to get. Ask yourself who has dropped out early (Mitch Daniels, Tim Paulenty) and who's still in (Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich). The reasonable types got shelved at the outset. Why? Too reasonable. Republicans clearly prefer candidates who believe in sacred underwear and creationism.
Here's a simple test to determine if you're ready to join the Reason Rally:
If you are suspicious of intellectuals and the elite, preferring instead to be governed by people just like you, the Reason Rally probably isn't your best choice for a weekend activity. If you believe that the guy who does your taxes should have a better education than the person you send to Washington as President, you might find NASCAR more up your street than the Reason Rally. If you think that your Christianity, your white-ness or your male-ness makes you a victim in America, re-runs of Glenn Beck will have more appeal than the Reason Rally.
Remember, according several of the candidates, God told them to run (Actually, in the case of Mitt Romney it might have been Karl Rove but, for Republicans, Rove is pretty close to being God. Gingrich was chosen by Lord Voldemort). So if God told Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and whoever else, to run for Predident was he/she just having a bit of fun? Donald Trump supposedly wanted to trade a Divine endorsement for a spot on Celebrity Apprentice. The Almighty demurred. Anyway, no candidate has had the chutzpah to suggest that God told them he would help them win. Pity. My guess is The Almighty is taking Obama and the points. Sounds like a candidate for the Reason Rally.
Remember, according several of the candidates, God told them to run (Actually, in the case of Mitt Romney it might have been Karl Rove but, for Republicans, Rove is pretty close to being God. Gingrich was chosen by Lord Voldemort). So if God told Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and whoever else, to run for Predident was he/she just having a bit of fun? Donald Trump supposedly wanted to trade a Divine endorsement for a spot on Celebrity Apprentice. The Almighty demurred. Anyway, no candidate has had the chutzpah to suggest that God told them he would help them win. Pity. My guess is The Almighty is taking Obama and the points. Sounds like a candidate for the Reason Rally.
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