Re: [Phys-l] Richard Dawkins Answers Reddit Questions

[Hugh Haskell <haskellh@verizon.net>]

At 12:42 +0000 11/21/2010, Dr. Keith S. Taber wrote:
> Without wishing to be provocative, as an outsider I don't understand
> why fundamentalist Christian religion seems to be so influential in
> US education, when so many other aspects of US public life are
> clearly influenced very little by Christian values and principles.

That depends on which Christian values and principles you are talking about.

> I'm thinking, for example, of the high per capita prison population,
> and the use of legal judicial killing in some states (but perhaps
> those where the Christian religion is less influential?) - in the
> 21st Century!

Alas, it seems to be the contrary. In Texas, where fundamentalist 
Christianity seems to have create a bastion, they have been on a 
"death penalty binge" for several decades, carrying out more than 
half of all executions in the US since the reinstatement of the death 
penalty in the 1970s, including the execution of several for whom 
there is pretty good evidence that they were innocent of the crimes 
they were convicted of.

>  - the apparent keenness to take military action around
> the world, the relatively limited provision of public health services
> and social welfare compared with many European countries, etc.

Much of the support for the military excursions of the US over the 
past 50 years has come from the Christian right, as does a 
significant fraction of the support for our overly permissive 
attitude on gun ownership, although much of that can be laid at the 
feet of a massive lobbying effort financed by the major manufacturers 
of handguns in the US.

> I'm
> not looking to be critical (I'm not from a country that has a
> tremendous history of good behaviour), but if Christianity is really
> such an influence, it is either very selective in how it uses that
> influence within the public sphere, or is a very distorted (inverted)
> version of the teachings of Jesus Christ!
Again, it depends on what interpretation of the gospels one follows. 
My perception is that much of the attitude of the religious right in 
this country is based on a reliance on the more bellicose passages of 
the old testament rather than the more moderate parts of the new 
testament.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
mailto:hugh@ieer.org
mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

It isn't easy being green.

		--Kermit Lagrenouille