Sunday, July 1, 2012

Religion and logic: mortal enemies

I've been thinking about intelligent friends who are Christian. It seems to be an oxymoron. How can you be intelligent and believe in gods?

Though I've certainly known some normal, liberal Christians with big hearts, overall I'd have to say that the smartest Christians I've met share the following characteristics. They are Republican. They read the Wall Street Journal and watch Fox News. They deny global warming. And they consider Thomas Friedman to be the greatest intellectual who ever lived. How this can be? How can intelligent people fall for obvious nonsense?

I think it's because they lack logic. They don't know even what it is. Obviously, this prevents them from being logical when they think about, well, anything. Scarily, it seems to be a missing ingredient in their mental make-up.

It takes logic to understand that Thomas Friedman has never said anything sensible. And logic is the pepper spray that wards off the evils of the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the Roman Catholic bishops. None of these three evils speaks with a logical voice -- ever. And of course, Republicans and logic have never met -- not even once in a dark room while drunk.

So is logic the gift that protects liberals from the toxic stew that is the belief system of most Americans? We're not attracted to any of their "grand ideas" because they are neither grand nor logical. They're not worth a moment of our time. And yet the dimwits flock to these arguments on TV, in church and in the election booth.

It's like they're a different species. What do you think? Is it because they know nothing of logic (or kindness, but that's another post)?