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Journalist Kurt Andersen Explains How Fundamentalist Christianity Has Made the United States Go Nuts

kurt andersen

What follows is a short video of journalist Kurt Andersen explaining how Fundamentalist Christianity has made the United States (especially the Republican Party) lose its marbles.

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6 Comments

  1. Avatar
    GeoffT

    This guy speaks a lot of sense, though I think he’s wrong to encourage people to tolerate that it’s okay to believe whatever you want in private. I’m not saying people can’t believe whatsoever they want in private; to say otherwise is, of course perverse. However, I don’t think that it helps to acknowledge this right.

    What’s worrying is that evangelical America is actually relatively small, yet punches massively above its weight. Most Americans believe in evolution yet, according to this guy, most politicians feel that they have to fudge the issue. This from the country that feels it leads the free world and wants to be great again (though nobody quite agrees as to when was the last time?).

    I thought I’d add a final, punchline, thought but I can’t think of one.

    • Bruce Gerencser

      Sadly, the percentage of Americans who actually believe in non-theistic evolution is quite small when compared to the percentage of people who either believe in creationism or theistic evolution. Here’s what Pew Research recently had to say about the matter:

      Only a minority of Americans fully accept evolution through natural selection. Roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults (62%) say humans have evolved over time, according to data from Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study. But only a little more than half of them (33% of all Americans) express the belief that humans and other living things evolved solely due to natural processes. A quarter of U.S. adults (25%) say evolution was guided by a supreme being. The same survey found that 34% of Americans reject evolution entirely, saying humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

      ….

      According to the Center’s Religious Landscape Study, a solid majority (57%) of evangelicals say humans and other living things have always existed in their present form. (About half of Mormons and roughly three-quarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses also reject evolution.) These views are largely mirrored by the positions of large evangelical churches, as well as, in many cases, by majorities of their members. For instance, majorities of those who affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention (58%) and the Seventh-day Adventist church (67%) reject the idea that human beings evolved over time. By contrast, much smaller minorities of mainline Protestants (30%), Catholics (29%), Jews (16%) and the religiously unaffiliated (15%) share this view.

      http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/10/darwin-day/

      • Avatar
        ObstacleChick

        I have faith in our next generations though. According to the Barna Group survey Generation Z (born 1995 or 99 depending on who you ask) self report a higher percentage as atheist, agnostic, or no religion. Assuming belief in religion and belief in creationism or intelligent design go hand in hand, this trend appears promising. I am sure a lot of it is regional too.

      • Infidel753

        What’s really striking is how much worse the situation is here compared with other advanced countries. The Pew link says that even more people in other countries reject evolution, but they’re talking about Latin America and the Middle East, which are less-developed areas with generally low educational standards (and are highly religious). In Europe, Japan, and other developed countries, evolution is far more accepted than here. It’s hard to see how the US can remain a leading nation in the long run when so much of the population is scientifically illiterate by developed-world standards.

  2. Avatar
    Becky Wiren

    Actually, I think adults who believe evolution was guided in some way by God have a less rigidly Christian POV. Those adults already do NOT believe that the Bible is literal. It’s true that liberal Christians cherry-pick the Bible, but it is what they select to believe that is important. And generally they don’t believe in our government being a theocracy, or violating the wall of separation between church and state.

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