Minor irritation

[avevale_intelligencer]

This, recommended by a tweeting telynor, is actually not a bad article on why America seems to have been governed for so long by people who don't seem to be that smart. Have a look and try and see where I almost gave up on it in disgust.

Religion does *not* make you stupid. That is a cheap shot almost unparalleled itself in its stupidity, and no-one who writes from a secularist point of view seems to be able to resist it. It's like saying that most American chocolate is disgusting because Americans have no taste. It's offensive and untrue all at the same time, and we know it, but it appeals to the meanness and smugness in our nature.

Religion does not make people stupid. *People* make people stupid. And the people who make people stupid are often themselves quite clever, and realise that (a) keeping people stupid means they (the smart ones) can do what they like, and (b) if they hide behind a religion, other smart people will see what they're doing and, rather than blaming the smart ones, will blame the stupid people for being stupid because they are religious.

It is staggeringly naïve to imagine that the Southern Baptist Convention supported slavery and segregation because its members actually thought it was God's will, and I don't think even the writer of the article believes that for one minute...and yet he can't resist taking a mean, smug little crack at religion on his way. If the American educational system fails, it is because it is made to fail. Fundamentalist religion is just one tool that is used to that end, and one of its functions is to be the scapegoat.

So how do apparently stupid people get into positions of power? Well, strangely enough, that isn't God's will either. This is where the writer finds his way back to common sense and makes some good points. There *is* an American myth that honesty and decency are fundamentally incompatible with intelligence, that "book-larnin'" is conducive to sneakiness and moral turpitude, that the path of honour is to stride down the middle of Main Street and face your enemy head-on, hands hovering over your holsters and brain in neutral, prepared to draw on the word of command and not one split-second earlier. It goes back much further than McCarthyism, I think, and has echoes in other cultures. We have our "play up, play up and play the game" ethos, or we used to, but while we never believed being clever was a requirement, I don't think we ever seriously made it into a bad thing.

But the myth is no more than a myth, as those early Americans could testify who practised the art of camouflage and took pot shots from cover at the Redcoats marching down the middle of the road in their silly uniforms. And when stupid people get into power, the place to look is just behind them, where lurk the smart people who are yanking their strings; who are keeping people stupid, making sure future generations grow up stupid, perpetuating the myth that makes them *proud* to be stupid, and holding up Christianity as a shield in the knowledge that other smart people, despite their smartness, will look no further in placing the blame.

If Obama wins the election, he will have a chance, as Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton did, to strike a blow against the pervasive myth--to prove that he is no figurehead--and also to live up to his promises in the field of education. If he can do this, it will be that much harder for the smart people who have hidden behind Bush for the last eight years, and hope to hide behind McCain and then Palin, to work their trick again. I do not think he will waste his time attacking religion; I certainly hope not. Because if we believe, as I think the writer of this article believes, that Barack Obama is an intelligent, educated, knowledgeable man, then that in itself is the ultimate crushing refutation of the smug, mean little canard that "religion makes you stupid."

Comments

[howeird]

By most definitions, the people you describe are not fundamentalist. Fundamentalism does not allow for dogma to be questioned, or for scripture to be taken any way except literally. "God said it, I believe it, the end."

Please note that I did not say Southern Baptist in my comment.

[earth-wizard.livejournal.com]

True on both accounts. I was referring to Southern Baptist in the previous article. Sorry on that. And, yes, the theological tenets of the Southern Baptist creed are dogmatic, but the members do not all agree nor condone the theological crapology of their leaders as in most things... :) Yeah, for me, when I chose to abandon the early teachings of parents, and elders, and make the choice based upon my understanding of self, society, and scientific and philosophical ideas I was fairly dogmatic in my own atheism for a long while, then realized that any dogma, atheistic or religious was self-defeating and not worthy of the effort. :)

and, sorry, didn't mean to single you out personally, was just using your example of agreeing with the statement "fundamentalism religion makes you stupid"... of course now that you've detailed your definition I can agree that you're perfectly legit in your estimation :) I too would agree that all fundamentalist dogma is thouroughly tempered by a literalist and tyrannical ideology based on intolerance and bigotry. My opinion. :0

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Fundamentalist dogma is indeed all those things you said. I still do not believe that it makes the people who believe in it stupid.

I will go further (and the rest of this is addressed at the thread in general, not at you or howeird specifically). If you once get past the vocal ones who loudly parrot the dogma because it makes them feel important or secure or gets them on teevee or for whatever reason, I think you would find that the rank-and-file membership of many if not most fundamentalist groups, as of any other religion, includes a number of people who routinely question the dogmas, if only to themselves. They may not speak out about it, and again there are many possible perfectly logical reasons why they might not feel able to. They may speak out about it and simply not be heard or listened to. They may leave the group (at which point they presumably miraculously recover their intellects). But I believe they exist. And saying of any group of which this may be found true that "well, they're not fundamentalists" smacks of the old rhyme about science fiction:

"'SF's no good!' they bellow till we're deaf.
'But this looks good.' 'Well, then, it's not SF.'"

I have no proof for these suppositions...but I *will* not accept that it is okay to pigeonhole and dismiss an entire group of total strangers as stupid on the basis that one does not agree with their beliefs. Never have, never will. It's not only smug and arrogant, it's rotten tactics.

[earth-wizard.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree, I was not implying that I agreed with his use of the term "stupid", which is for me anathema, only that I agreed that fundamentalism is in itself unjustifiable no matter what faith. :) I think my other comments above, which you agreed with stipulate my own feelings... :)