Q: Why is fundamentalist Christianity better than string theory?
A: Because it makes testable predictions.
Here is a prediction, from none other than Sarah Palin: God will intervene on Election Day.
In an interview posted online Wednesday, Sarah Palin told Dr. James Dobson of “Focus on the Family” that she is confident God will do “the right thing for America” on Nov. 4.
Dobson asked the vice presidential hopeful if she is concerned about John McCain’s sagging poll numbers, but Palin stressed that she was “not discouraged at all.”
“To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder,” she told the influential Christian leader, whose radio show reaches millions of listeners daily. “And it also strengthens my faith because I know at the end of the day putting this in God’s hands, the right thing for America will be done, at the end of the day on Nov. 4.”
…
She also thanked her supporters — including Dobson, who said he and his wife were asking “for God’s intervention” on election day — for their prayers of support.
“It is that intercession that is so needed,” she said. “And so greatly appreciated. And I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation. And I so appreciate it.”
Admittedly, not a very good testable prediction. I doubt that we’ll see wholesale conversion to atheism on November 5th if Obama wins. More likely, we will be told that this is just an exceptionally subtle part of God’s plan. It’s like predicting supersymmetry at the LHC!
I went on a brief trip to Ireland and England a couple of weeks ago. You know what they couldn’t stop talking about? Sarah Palin. And religious Americans more generally. This pretty much sums up why:
I understand that later on in the interview, Tracy claims that the bit in the Gospels about loving your neighbors was “probably inserted by Communists,” and she raised her eyebrows so high that her eyeballs popped completely out of her head.
I hate to be difficult, but I’m very disappointed, but I think you’ve strayed a little from the scientific method here. First of all, there’s a world of difference between “fundamentalist Christianity predicts” and “Sarah Palin predicts”. If I claim that global warming (or for that matter, gay marriage) will cause the world to burst into flames tomorrow morning, I don’t think you can make a case against either one come noon tomorrow.
Second, it’s not even a testable prediction of Sarah Palin. From all the polls I see, it looks pretty likely that “the right thing for America will be done, at the end of the day on Nov. 4.”
I’m also disappointed in my editing ability, but that’s a topic for another post.
wow.
I think you’re all missing something.
I shivered at watching this – I’d heard of people voting based on faith, but to actually see someone talking about the election in this way, voting on the religious faith of the candidates, rather than on the more tangible real-world issues facing the US, is quite frightening, especially as I’d wager this is someone who believes in the “End Times” predicted in Revelation.
I guess the Atheist Bus Message Campaign wouldn’t go down well in certain areas of the US, then…
*Cringe*
Most of the times when I hear about the existence of such people I pretend not to care. But seeing them in flesh and blood and realizing that their crazy extremist is most likely going to affect the most important presidential elections in entire US history, about which I do care, is really really depressing.
Good luck USA, you would need a lot of it.
-Tarun
This woman’s beef with Obama is really motivated by bigotry, not Christianity. When some Christians use the phrase “born again”, it refers to a Christian becoming a new person and putting his past behind him. Thus, it is perfectly possible for an atheist or a Muslim to become a Christian. The fact that Obama’s mother was an atheist and his father a Muslim is completely irrelevant.
Sometimes when I hear the ramblings of people like this, I assum that they’re fundamentalists who are constantly reading the Bible and running around citing verses that they think apply to any situation. The truth is that many of these people never go to church, have only a vague notion of what Jesus was really talking about, and have constructed their own personal theology to support their bigoted view of the world.
I have more respect for people who simply state the truth, which is that they don’t want a black president. They’re nasty, hateful racists, but at least they’re honest, nasty, hateful racists.
Cringe indeed…
You know, I really feel sorry for moderate Republicans- you know, the type who’s in it mainly for economic reasons. Per my experiences they seem to make up the great majority of people who vote that ticket, but they keep getting hijacked by this crazy religious sect on the right that totally ruins what chances they had.
Obviously these moderates need to go and realize what a terrible rap they’re getting from the fringe and take their party back, as no one else can do it for them. I’m really hoping this election will be a slap in the face wakeup call for them, as the American system could greatly benefit from having a reasonable dialogue of differing opinions instead of the “you’re either with me or against me” diatribe we’ve evolved into.
Don’t forget that the American political spectrum is skewed heavily to the right when compared to most other democratic countries. Only in America could the pre-2008-election-campaign John “Maverick” McCain be considered a moderate. Anywhere else he would have been considered be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. These days, he’s way out on a limb.
As for feeling sorry for those “moderates”, spare me. For six years they stood by and watched — nay, enabled — the Bush administration’s ideologically incompetent foreign and domestic mismanagement, and *now* they want us to feel sorry for them? No thanks.
(Note, I am talking about those moderate Republican enablers in Congress, not those outside who came to their senses early on and have opposed Bush for years).
Its interesting how Sean is an atheist zealot. I think atheism is as fanatical a belief as fundamentalism. Its interesting that Sean even thinks of a day when America will “convert” to atheism even if the comment is in jest.
Most Christians are not fundamentalist wackos, just as most Muslims are not fundamentalist Muslims or terrorists.
Well its interesting that the people you met in Ireland were talking about “religious Americans”. So is everyone in Ireland an atheist? I seriously doubt it. There are probably not very many fundamentalists in Europe, and maybe not nearly as many regular church goers, but Europeans still by and large have some faith in God. I have a friend that lives in Austria and most people there are Christian, just not of the Sarah Palin variety.
Luke,
Obama is in fact a Christian:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/145971
The atheist bus campaign proves what I just said-atheism is in itself a religion. Why waste time worrying about whether other people believe in God or not?
last I heard even God only has one vote, no?
God has either zero votes, or infinity votes.
<blockquoteI doubt that we’ll see wholesale conversion to atheism on November 5th if Obama wins.
I think you meant “de-conversion”, lest the pesky wishy-washy agnostics and the religious themselves start gloating on how “fundamentalist” and “faithful” we-who-do-not-have-a-god are.
Whoops, too late.
shite, forgot to close the blockquote, but you know what I meant.
I’d like to point out that this woman is an n of 1 and so it is inappropriate to make from this datum broad sweeping generalizations. There are no doubt many others like her, but this one idiotic individual really means nothing about the attitudes of anyone else.
Palin?
I think this clearly falls short of a prediction, she just says that god will ensure the right thing will happen. The right thing I expect is defined to be whatever god made happen, so this is just good old fashioned exercise in tautology. I’ll show restrain and refrain from engaging in any physics analogies.
“Why waste time worrying about whether other people believe in God or not?”
I will promise to stop caring about people’s beliefs if they promise to stop letting them influence their voting choices.
Sean,
Have you ever thought about just disabling comments on Cosmic Variance? I mean, sure, you’d miss out on a few worthy contributions, but for the most part it wouldn’t be much of a loss. I know it would greatly enhance my reading experience.
David McMahon, my friend I think you are living in some sort of Religious Disneyland. I live in Europe and can assure you that most people are NOT religious or fanatic in any way. Look up the word secularized, and you get the picture.
In many cases USA is the leading country in the world. But, when it comes to politics and religion you have really messed things up. I say you are more than a 100 years after the rest of civilized world.
It’s a big relief to live in a country where politicians cannot do utterly stupid things, and then refer to a mysterious holy ghost as highest judge and responsible for what is right or wrong.
The real danger starts when the people stops using their brains and instead look down in a 3,000 year old book of crazy and violent stories – to get the solution for the problems of today.
It gets even more troublesome if the Commander-in-Chief have Rod Parsley as Spiritual Guide.
We who lives in Europe are not afraid for a new Adolf Hitler or the Communists or Usma bin Ladin. We are truly afraid the things will go terrible wrong on the other side of the Atlantic, and that the world will have a religious wacko with the hand on the nuclear button. That would be the end of everything.
For those who want more info before you vote; McCain Pastor: Islam Is a ‘Conspiracy of Spiritual Evil’
Nonsense. Using that standard, you can call any effort to sway someone’s beliefs about anything “a religion”. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which some people will go in their attempts to redefine atheism as a religion. To be honest, I really don’t see the point of doing that anyway. It’s not as though atheists are trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes by denying that they practice a religion.
As for why atheists bother advertising? In the UK, I don’t honestly know. The ranks of the non-believers in Britain has been growing so fast in the past few decades it would make any Christian evangelical outreach coordinator green with envy, and it’s happened without any organized effort (unless you want to call making mandatory school assemblies incredibly boring an organized effort!).
But in the US, there is plenty of reason for atheists to be more vocal. A more vilified and distrusted minority it would be hard to find these days (unless it’s all those imaginary socialists the Republicans keep fretting about), especially when it comes to running for elected office. Just last week, Elizabeth Dole even went so far as to smear her Senate campaign opponent by linking her to an atheist PAC in a sinister fashion.
One way to counter the distrust and hatred is to grow the number of atheists in the country. I don’t happen to believe that overt advertisements will do much good, but it wouldn’t hurt. Fact is, the US is slowly becoming more secular with each new generation, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we reach the same tipping point many western European nations passed decades ago sometime in the near to moderate future, and it will happen organically not through some mass organized effort.
In order to inject a little balance into this debate, perhaps it is a good time to remind folks (including Europeans) about Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
Senator Obama was a member of Pastor Wright’s church for 20 years and financially contributed to it while all the hateful sermons were being preached. Pastor Wright performed the marriage of Senator Obama and his wife, and baptized his two children. Meanwhile, Pastor Wright preached that the US deserved the 911 attacks and that the US government was responsible for the AIDS epidemic in the African American Community, plus much more hateful nonsense.
Senator Obama has acknowledged that Pastor Wright was his “spiritual mentor” and even gave Wright a position in his presidential campaign.
The PBS video clip in Sean’s post is a tempest in a teacup compared to the implications of Senator Obama’s long relationship with Pastor Wright.