A recent Gallup poll showed that only 4 in 10 believe in Darwin's evolution in the US. I am saddened, but not surprised, to hear this. Religion is a dangerous system of control that wants to keep society in a permanent state of childhood. I can not agree more with Émile Zola: "Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest."
"As Darwin is being lauded as one of the most important scientists in history on the 200th anniversary of his birth (on Feb. 12, 1809), it is perhaps dismaying to scientists who study and respect his work to see that well less than half of Americans today say they believe in the theory of evolution [...], the evidence is clear that even to this day, Americans' religious beliefs are a significant predictor of their attitudes toward Darwin's theory. Those who attend church most often are the least likely to believe in evolution, and most likely to say they do not believe in it."
This is a very nice interview that Larry King did last night to the author of "Religulous", Bill Maher. "Religulous" the movie launches on October 3rd.
Some excerpts from the interview follow.
About the role of religion in public policy:
BM: The big question that got all the play in the news snippets was asking what should we do about evil? [...] So Obama gives a very nuanced answer, and again this is why I do like this guy. [...] He said, "Yes, we should be aware of evil, but we should be humble about evil." And what he was trying to say, I think, was you know what? It's easy to sit back in America and go, "Well, we're the good people. That's common knowledge. Evil is always over there and never here."
He was saying you know what? We have a lot of evil right here. Look at the prison system. Look at the justice system. Look how we treat immigrants. We torture people now in America. There's, you know, rampant sexual harassment of women in the military. There's a lot of evil that we're doing. OK. This didn't go over very well.
Then McCain is asked. What do we do about evil? Two words. Defeat it. Now, of course, to the people in this audience, this goes over great because when they hear evil, they think of something very tangible: the devil. They're not kidding. They believe in this comic-book figure called the devil who's going to poke your ass in hell if you're bad. Heaven, air conditioning. OK.
So, you know, you have to take this into account. These are voters. These are people who think evil is the devil. We can defeat it by the end of my first term. We will defeat evil. And, you know, how are you going to have a country, supposed to be a super power, in this world making the right decisions if this is the kind of thing, thinking that goes into it? It's like trying to write a song when half the keys are out, you know, the keys on the piano are out of tune.
Why belief is a tough think to counter:
BM: I asked Jesus at Holy Land [a theme park], "Why can't God just defeat the devil and get rid of evil?"
You know, and it's the same reason the comic-book character can't get rid of his nemesis. Then there's no story. If God gets rid of the devil -- and he could, he's all powerful -- well, then there's no fear. There's no reason to come to church. There's no reason to pass the plate. We're all out of a job. You know, it's got to go on.
Evangelicals and their new found mission of saving the environment:
BM: One reason I have always been anti-Evangelical and people who take the Bible literally is because it allows you to be horrible to animals, people, too. Slavery is OK with the Bible, keeping women down, and honor killings and let's not even go into how bad they are to people. But animals, you know, the Bible says man can have dominion over animals. And also they believe people have a soul, whatever that is, but animals don't. So do whatever you want with them.
So if they're getting more on the page of being kind to animals and helping the environment, then sign me up.
Animal rights:
BM: [Candidates] forgot about poor people, let alone animals. Anyone who doesn't have a vote, forget about it. Children, why are old people taken care of so well economically in America and children not? Because old people vote. So I don't know. It's a host of issues that I wish, again, my champion of the liberal wing would take on, like the drug war and animal rights. But I'm not holding my breath. I'd be happy if they could end the war.
Smoking pot on the film:
BM: We were in Amsterdam, where it's legal. In America, I only smoke it when I'm 12 miles offshore. I have a boat, Larry. I go out there beyond U.S. territorial waters and I light up.
At some point in the interview Larry suggests that he adheres to the idea that people are not so religious in practice:
BM: I don't know how it's more weak minded to be the one who is saying, look, I don't know what happens when you die. So I'm just going to say I don't know. That, to me, seems a more honest approach than believing in.
LK: Well, in truth, don't most people think that? Would you gather that they don't know? Because if they knew, why would they fear it so much? [...] why fear death?
BM: You know, I agree. I've never been the person who's been troubled by those big questions. [...] See, there may be answers. I'm not saying that there isn't something out there. I'm not strictly an atheist. An atheist is certain there's no god. [...] You know, people say could it be Jesus? Yes, it could be Jesus. It also could be Furby or the lint in my navel. I have a feeling it's probably not something that smacks of the story that bronze-age men would write down, people who didn't know what an atom or a germ was, or where the sun went at night, or why their women got pregnant. You know, if the Bible was written by a god who's beyond time, it wouldn't be so limited to the morays of that era.
This is a very nice interview that Larry King did last night to the author of "Religulous", Bill Maher. "Religulous" the movie launches on October 3rd.
