August 18, 2004
God and the Perfect Trifecta
I've been trading some friendly banter about religion in public venues with my good friend David at Better Living Through Blogging (that is the next blogmeet I want to make: Montana). We disagree on a few things, but I think our essential skepticism about the invocation of Christian themes in government-sponsored areas is the same. My problem is probably more rooted in irony: I find it repulsive that a Supreme Court can sit silently through an invocation to God Almighty, then rule against little children hearing a prayer in school, or saying "under God" in the Pledge. Hypocritical bastards.
I don't see much harm in religion, at least since the auto-de-fes of the Inquisition, anyway. Nor do I see the bogeyman of the "Religious Right" in the GOP or this Administration. Bush is a religious guy, just like Jimmy Carter, but it seems to be a very private issue with the man. Does it direct his decision making? I'm sure it does. So what? I don't see any references to God and Baptists in No Child Left Behind, or the farm subsidy bill, or steel tariffs, or tax cuts. I'll grant you there may be a little Blue Light in the War on Terror, but we didn't pick that fight. I essentially cleave unto the Descartes principle: Believing is not a problem if God turns out to be false. Not Believing is a real problem if God turns out to be for real. Sort of like pari-mutuel betting, without the porkpie hat, and the tatters of my mortgage payment laying in shreds on the grounds of Los Alamitos.