Michael Butler's Blog

So says a bumper sticker seen on cars of the Religious Right in Red country.
I cannot help but wonder how, when, or where God said it. Was it in a book? If so, a book written by whom?

Now we are being put on dangerous ground by our President who is trying to marry politics into religion or is it the reverse? Either way his promotion of I.D. (Intelligent Design) surely bridges the separation of church and state. Yet this was a founding principle for our founding fathers. Hopefully Bush truly believes in what he his saying, but he won’t be the first President who believes in providential history.

The present administration is reeling from sinking polls; Rummy’s DOD seems more like DOA. Then there’s Rovegate, the Downing Street Memos, Cindy Sheehan all capped by this horribly mistaken war. But anything goes that will keep people from examining the underbelly of lies and corruption that characterize this administration. Of course fear is the mantra so let us bring in religion, so frequently the precursor to fear.

Intelligent Design is the sheep in wolves clothing. The wolf is Creationism. We are asked to believe in the existence of a serious debate within the scientific community between Evolution and Intelligent Design when there is no basis for debate. The scientific leaders and intellects recognize I.D. as a dependent on nothing but faith. Because there is no scientific evidence I.D., depends on the Supernatural. The I.D. movement is very smart stealth PR, proclaiming as does Bush that all they want is discussion. But it is a specious premise.

Creationism is supported by the Radical Religious Right who are offended by the elitist Blue, liberal, so called secular domination of our courts and the media. Reds want Christian prayers in schools, abolishment of any rights for gays, particularly marriage. Women’s right of choice is being defined as a crime. Reds support religious artifacts in public spaces. Most proclaim Terry Schiavo was murdered. This more radical side is creating an American Taliban.

A benign god would be good. All our wars have been fought in the name of God and blessed by God. If he (in Christianity, as well as Islam and Judaism, God is never a she) is the Great Architect, why do we have wars, pestilence, starvation and an endangered ecology? Are these horrific aspects and prospects for humanity not the products of a grand designer also?

And if such a grand designer exists, where, pray tell, is his or her intelligence?