tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post5130751226355622692..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: First, they came for the fundies...Larry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-56015056421794795022012-01-03T05:18:15.660-07:002012-01-03T05:18:15.660-07:00Thanks for your post and the response. I totally ...Thanks for your post and the response. I totally agree with the point that liberal theists are often not so liberal on close inspection, so long as they really are believers in the first place. This opens the huge topic of just who genuinely believes this crap. I can't count the number of people I know who nominally "believe," go to one church or another on Sunday, (embarrassingly) believe in things like homeopathy and astrology,...etc., and all at once. I can't seriously consider these people believers, though no doubt that is how they would self-identify on surveys. They're more like belief-machines. They live to believe...whatever...anything.<br /><br />And we do have evidence that less pernicious sects can fulminate into much more pathological forms. Modern American Evangelicalism, never particularly benign, went from political irrelevance to a horrendous scourge in the matter of 30 years since Carter. The interesting question is what distinguishes religious woo from other types, like astrology, in terms of persistent threat to humanity? Obviously, the key is the content of these ludicrous beliefs. I can't imagine how the passage of stars and planet are going to seriously obstruct people's lives in the way religious does today--except on an individual basis. Perhaps I'm wrong. Much money does get diverted by Alternative Medicine.Huntnoreply@blogger.com