Blame the Silent Majority.

Following Mr. M's recent post about the controversies between religion and science currently being driven by the rabid right wing of evangelism, I was interested to come across this post by rightwing blogger John Pike.

John, who often is refreshingly outspoken and always on this side of the sanity boundary some conservatives cross, has this to say:

Christian moderates--like Muslim ones on their side--should be held blameworthy for the scary zealotry of Evangelical-fascists. By not saying, "Hey, I like going to weekly services and everything, and I even play on the Church softball team; but I don't really believe that God wanted us to stone women for committing adultery like it says in the Bible. I just like religion to give me reflection once a week, and build a sense of community and morality for my children. Nobody really believes the Bible should be taken literally, do they?"

An interesting way of looking at things. It is the opposite end of the argument I offered some time ago that in talking about religion, it is almost impossible to argue for religious tolerance anymore without sounding like an apologist. Moderates are forced into this position by the current jingoistic nature of the "War against Terrorism" and the fundamentalist's attitude of "you are either for us or against us". To argue for religious tolerance is to argue for shades of grey, not black-and-white. It is arguing that the "enemy" is not as evil as he has been painted by political and religious extremists. Of course, as soon as you defend "the enemy" you can be safely ignored, dismissed - the messenger can be attacked instead of the message. As such, both ends are complimentary.

John supports his thoughts by quoting from Sam Harris's book, "The End of Faith":

because moderates tend to ignore the most lunatic parts of scripture, they lose touch with how dangerous these books are when taken literally. In fact, they have trouble believing that anyone does still take these books literally, and so they tend not to recognize the role that faith plays in inspiring human violence. Religious moderates are blinded by their own moderation. When college-educated jihadists stare into a video camera and declare that “we love death more than the infidels love life,” and then blow themselves up along with dozens of innocent bystanders, religious moderates rack their brains wondering what motivated these killers to do what they did.

John ends with a question: "Yes, there is a line between Islamic Fundamentalism and Christian Fundamentalism. But how close does Evangelical-fascism have to approach Islamo-fascism before we acknowledge that both are a problem?"

Umm, about this close John? Can you guess whether it was evangelist nuts or moslem nuts who were caught last year with a weapon of mass destruction in a lock-up in Texas? A cyanide gas bomb big enough to wipe out downtown Dallas - and they may have built and sold them more to others in the white-supremacist militia wing of the evangelist movement. It is already a problem.

UPDATE On the other hand, there are still plenty of right wing loonie fundies out there, like Dennis Prager, who says, amongst other nonsense:

The second reason that the breakdown of Judeo-Christian values leads to a diminution of human worth is that if man was not created by God, the human being is mere stellar dust -- and will come to be regarded as such. Moreover, people are merely the products of random chance, no more designed than a sand grain formed by water erosion. That is what the creationism-evolution battle is ultimately about -- human worth. One does not have to agree with creationists or deny all evolutionary evidence to understand that the way evolution is taught, man is rendered a pointless product of random forces -- unworthy of being saved before one's hamster.

My colleague, Shamanic, has done a perfect demolition job of his argument over at Simianbrain. Here's a sample:

, I fail to see the logic. If God didn't create us (and I say this as a person who definitely does believe in God) then we have no value at all? This is only the view of religious fundamentalists who are unable to imagine that the universe may or may not bear any resemblance to that which is described in their holy books.

This isn't only a problem of Christianity, but also of Islam. The two share more in common than either would be willing to acknowledge, and the fact that both claim a monopoly on reverence for God and Man while killing the latter in the name of the former is disgraceful to this secular leftist.

Why don't you get to work on pushing Judeo-Christian values like charity and compassion, Prager? These, far more than ignorant moralizing, are what we are in short supply of today.

Wonderful stuff, Sha.