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“In polls, more than 90 percent of Americans have said that they would be willing to vote for a woman, a Jew or a black, and 79 percent would be willing to vote for a gay person. But at last count, only 37 percent would consider voting for an atheist.”
-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The NY Times
This statistical tidbit is actually from a discussion about the surge of atheism, including Richard Dawkins' latest atheist tract, "The God Delusion." As Kristof quips, "If God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can’t help wondering why she doesn’t pull out a thunderbolt and strike down Richard Dawkins." In spite of the import of the statistic above, Kristof is arguing against a sort of fundamentalist secularism, "We’ve suffered enough from religious intolerance that the last thing the world needs is irreligious intolerance." Judging by that statistic, though, I don't think we have that much to worry about.
xXx
“In polls, more than 90 percent of Americans have said that they would be willing to vote for a woman, a Jew or a black, and 79 percent would be willing to vote for a gay person. But at last count, only 37 percent would consider voting for an atheist.”
-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The NY Times
This statistical tidbit is actually from a discussion about the surge of atheism, including Richard Dawkins' latest atheist tract, "The God Delusion." As Kristof quips, "If God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can’t help wondering why she doesn’t pull out a thunderbolt and strike down Richard Dawkins." In spite of the import of the statistic above, Kristof is arguing against a sort of fundamentalist secularism, "We’ve suffered enough from religious intolerance that the last thing the world needs is irreligious intolerance." Judging by that statistic, though, I don't think we have that much to worry about.
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Date: 2006-12-06 08:12 pm (UTC)From:Believing in democratic egalitarianism is fine, I suppose. That's a "higher power" sort of. Although I think it would still be dodging the bullet, a bit, about having a discussion of what all that democratic egalitarianism "means." Why? Why does one have a values-rich system? There's the rub. Existentially/philosophically. In that, I think all roads return to either "God" or atheism. It's more complicated than that, but your second issue is in there too....
I'm not sure all post-modernism is nihilism. Deconstruction is one thing. But doing it for its own sake or for greater good...and what is that good?...is where things get interesting. Is post-modernism valueless?
The devil, so to speak, is in the details. To me, postmodernism is about living in a full world not bounded by old standards and brave enough to boldly move progressively into the future. I suppose it means different things to different people though.