To go off on my own tangent, both the "right wing" and the "left wing" worry me equally with the sort of stuff you're talking about.
Everybody talks about the "conservative" version of it (and yes, I agree), but what you're saying is also the very reason why I'm always wary about certain "liberal" things such as "New-Age" beliefs, "Crystal Power", "Alternative Medicine", "the burning times", historical revisionism, and all that sort of stuff.
No, it's NOT all "OK as long as it makes me feel good and empowered"; and the reason it's not OK is because it's saying that superstition and wishful thinking should take precedence over rational thought and objective reality whenever the superstition is "better" than reality. Bible thumpers and New-Agers (and I've known both) have a lot in common in that respect.
Unfortunately, the creationists ... have a slightly better handle on swaying public opinion
As a pointless observation, I've noticed that a lot of generally atheistic / agnostic people - both avowed atheists and even casual churchgoers - seem to have a hard time relating to truly religious people. A lot of them seem to believe, on a gut level, that because they're not religious themselves, that means that nobody is really religious, and that anyone claiming to be religious is either faking it or simply a bit misguided. This has led, in my experience, to conversations where there is no true communication. The non-religious person immediately alienates the religious person by assuming that the religious person doesn't really disagree with them at all, and just needs to be told a few facts and given a chance to admit that he's wrong; while the religious person, of course, assumes that the non-religious person knows in his heart that he's defying God, and that he really agrees with the religious person if only he'd listen to his conscience...
My point being, it's very easy for a scientist trying to make her views known to a religious audience to accidentally insult their beliefs by casually assuming that their religion isn't really important to them.
Most of the time it seems to me that everybody thinks everybody else in the world has the same belief system and reality lens as they do, and that the only reason other people don't admit it is because they're being stubborn.
Everybody talks about the "conservative" version of it (and yes, I agree), but what you're saying is also the very reason why I'm always wary about certain "liberal" things such as "New-Age" beliefs, "Crystal Power", "Alternative Medicine", "the burning times", historical revisionism, and all that sort of stuff.
No, it's NOT all "OK as long as it makes me feel good and empowered"; and the reason it's not OK is because it's saying that superstition and wishful thinking should take precedence over rational thought and objective reality whenever the superstition is "better" than reality. Bible thumpers and New-Agers (and I've known both) have a lot in common in that respect.
Unfortunately, the creationists ... have a slightly better handle on swaying public opinion
As a pointless observation, I've noticed that a lot of generally atheistic / agnostic people - both avowed atheists and even casual churchgoers - seem to have a hard time relating to truly religious people. A lot of them seem to believe, on a gut level, that because they're not religious themselves, that means that nobody is really religious, and that anyone claiming to be religious is either faking it or simply a bit misguided. This has led, in my experience, to conversations where there is no true communication. The non-religious person immediately alienates the religious person by assuming that the religious person doesn't really disagree with them at all, and just needs to be told a few facts and given a chance to admit that he's wrong; while the religious person, of course, assumes that the non-religious person knows in his heart that he's defying God, and that he really agrees with the religious person if only he'd listen to his conscience...
My point being, it's very easy for a scientist trying to make her views known to a religious audience to accidentally insult their beliefs by casually assuming that their religion isn't really important to them.
Most of the time it seems to me that everybody thinks everybody else in the world has the same belief system and reality lens as they do, and that the only reason other people don't admit it is because they're being stubborn.
I'm just sayin'.
This is too long...
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