The Destruction of Knowledge and the Rise of Stupidity

The greatest crime perpetrated by Christianity wasn’t the Crusades, it wasn’t the witch hunts and it wasn’t the inquisition; it was the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria.

I’m aware that some Christian scholars have challenged the classical version of the story including the rape and murder of Hypatia. I’ve read the challenges and I’m not impressed. They’re the sort one would expect from the lawyer of a guilty man. They’re more in the realm of “your evidence I did it isn’t strong enough” rather than “here’s evidence that I didn’t do it.”

I especially love the argument that “all” the Christian mobs did was remove a smaller number of books and scrolls from pagan temples and destroy them as if it mattered where the knowledge was kept. There is more than enough evidence to lead me to conclude that books and scrolls were stored in a library building attached to the Serapeum Temple and both were destroyed by Christian mobs attempting to eradicate anything that disagreed with Christian dogma.

As I read posts and opinions by Christian fundamentalists disparaging science in particular, and knowledge in general, it becomes increasingly obvious that, given the opportunity, Christianity would gleefully engage in a second major burning of books and destruction of knowledge.

Knowledge and education are dangerous to religion. The more people know, the more educated they become, the more likely it is that they will see the reality that religion is utter nonsense.

The amount of pure stupid out there is mind boggling. There is no attempt to understand the facts. It seems perfectly ok to just make stuff up. The problem is the average American is such an idiot that he accepts that made up nonsense as truth without bothering to check.

I am absolutely flabbergasted at the complete crap, crap that is demonstrably false, coming from pulpits and right wing politicians and pundits that is accepted by the under 80 IQ Trailer Park set with nary a hesitation.

More and more my reaction is please tell me you’re not that stupid? Working class white America has been manipulated into supporting policies that run counter to their interests and Black America has somehow been convinced by Christianity to support the very philosophy that would like nothing better than to reinstitute Jim Crow and midnight lynchings.

Continue to deny homosexuals equal rights and eventually you will find your rights denied as well.

What I should do is laugh all the way to the bank but I know that eventually that stupidity is going to lead to trouble.

The Tea Party movement has some damn good points. It also has a significant lunatic fringe aspect. In the old days those good points would eventually have been absorbed into the political mainstream while the lunatic fringe aspects were discarded.

In today’s climate my concern is that the opposite may turn out to be the case. I see the lunatic fringe, fanned by political talking heads that only care about their ratings, growing while the valid points get lost in the misplaced enthusiasm.

Religion and science are not compatible. Science is continually searching for the truth. This of course assumes that the truth is not already fully known and will probably never be fully known. Religion on the other hand claims to already possess the truth and claims there is no need to search any further. New discoveries can only undermine the so-called “truth” that religion claims to already possess.

Not only are science and religion not compatible, the reality of the situation is that they are in a death struggle. Either science will destroy religion or religion will destroy science. There is no other possible outcome.

The Right Wing Conservative movement is mired in religion therefore by definition it is suspect. I’m actually a supporter of fiscal responsibility. I believe the federal budget should be balanced except in emergency situations. I would probably be a Republican if the party wasn’t courting the religious lunatic fringe. As long as that is the case I’m going to continue to try and get some fiscal reality into the Democratic agenda. Unfortunately I haven’t had any luck so far.

Now let’s talk about the Tea Party types.

The working class Tea Party supporters are the sorriest sons of bitches I’ve ever seen. They are being manipulated by the corporate fat cats to allow the continued fleecing of the American middle class. While the Halliburton, Exxon and Insurance company executives buy a ninth or tenth vacation home you sorry sons of bitches will be lucky if you can afford the health care you’ve been convinced to oppose reforming.

Here’s reality. The only solution to the budget crises is to cut services and increase taxes. Even the Republicans are eventually going to have to own up to that reality. The big questions are what spending gets cut and whose taxes go up?

If you continue to let yourself get manipulated then the “big government spending” that will go away is spending that benefits yourselves and the majority of Americans and, at the same time, any greater tax burden is going to land squarely on your shoulders.

If you’re making $40,000 a year, you NEED health care subsidies and the public option and you DON’T NEED to protect the Bush tax cuts. So why the hell are you supporting just the opposite?

It wasn’t big government that outsourced all those manufacturing jobs to China. It was the same people that are currently leading you around by the nose.

The reality is that the fat cats are manipulating you using fear and you dummies are falling for it. Socialism is not your enemy; environmentalists are not your enemy; gay marriage should be a big “don’t care;” someone’s decision about whether or not to have an abortion is none of your business and you should be clamoring for Health Care Reform.

Like I said, you are the sorriest sons of bitches I’ve ever seen.

Democracy ceases to function when the electorate cannot be relied upon to vote in their own best interest. Democracy in the United States is failing. If you want someone to blame for that, look in the goddamned mirror.