We Must Stop Allowing Lunatic Fringe wingnut christians to Dumb Down and Radicalize This Country

by Allen Clifton

They believe that “dog speaks to them,” that laws should be taken from religion, that homosexuality is a sin, that women shouldn’t have control over their own bodies and that all other religions besides theirs are wrong.
Oh, I’m talking about islamic radicals, not wingnut christians.  Though I could see how someone might confuse the two.  They do have striking similarities.
Kind of ironic, isn’t it?
Especially when you consider that many wingnut christians loathe muslims – all muslims.  See, to a good deal of them, all muslims are “islamic radicals.”  Though I’m sure many of them are unaware that there are more muslims found in south and southeast Asia than the Middle East.  But I doubt many of them are “alerted” by someone they meet from Indonesia.
And while islamic radicals do pose a threat to the United States, mostly from afar, wingnut christians pose a threat to this country domestically.
These people, empowered by the teabaggers in the last few years, are doing everything they can to dumb down this country and turn it into some kind of theocracy.
Instead of having debates on how to combat climate change, we’re stuck trying to convince tens of millions of people that dog didn’t use a tornado to “punish” sinners.  Instead of figuring out how to make the United States a world leader in math and science, we’re debating whether or not the story of Noah’s ark should be in the chapter following the mapping of human DNA in science books.  Instead of embracing some of the most educated and intelligent among us, millions of Americans would rather listen to a bearded redneck from backwoods Louisiana tell them how the United States needs to be more “dogly.”  And somehow “being dogly” seems to mostly revolve around a strong disdain for homosexuals.
It’s absurd.
When we have a debate about science in this country we shouldn’t have to spend time debating someone who thinks the Flintstones is a documentary, believing that humans and dinosaurs roamed the Earth together just a few thousand years ago.  But that’s exactly what we’re having to do.
The vast majority of the world’s scientists agree that humans are causing climate change, a fact that’s really indisputable at this point.  Well, unless you’re one of the christian wingnuts who believes that dog determines the weather or ridiculously tries to claim that the world is cooling – not warming.  That’s the funny thing about a lot of these climate deniers.  Half of them admit that the world is warming but say that it’s “natural,” while the other half tries to claim that the world is actually getting colder.
Meanwhile nearly every climate scientist, and most people who actually believe in science, think both groups are complete idiots.
The same goes for our Constitution.  These people continue to claim that this nation was founded on christianity, yet the word “christian” doesn’t appear even once in our entire Constitution.
And no, pointing out the reference to “the creator” in the Declaration of Independence doesn’t “prove” that this is a christian nation.  These people don’t seem to understand that the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are two completely different things.
And let’s face it, when it comes to homosexuality, if they had their way it would be illegal – just like it is in many muslim countries.
I often get emails from conservatives telling me that I don’t “show them any respect” in my articles. And they’re right. I used to, but I can’t anymore. Not too long ago I actually engaged in far more debates with conservatives than I do now. But many of the ones I encountered had become so ridiculous that I simply couldn’t take them seriously any longer.
When I say to someone, “Well, essentially every astrophysicist agrees that (fill in the scientific fact)” and their response is, “Well, the bible says…” I usually just toss my hands up in the air and walk away.  To me, that’s like discussing something in English with someone who only speaks Chinese. We’re not going to get anywhere because we’re not speaking the same language.
But the thing that bugs me most about their ignorance isn’t that they believe in this nonsense, it’s that their stupidity is taking the United States down with them.  While the rest of the world is pumping out more engineers and scientists, we have tens of millions of people who believe getting an education is tantamount to “liberal indoctrination.”
They literally believe that education has a “liberal bias” essentially because facts don’t often support their ideology.  To most people, that might lead them to question whether or not what they believe is accurate. But not to wingnuts. Oh, no. To them, if facts don’t corroborate their ideology, the facts are wrong or biased.
And they’re only getting worse.  But miraculously they’ve managed to do one thing: They’ve added a new kink in the theory of evolution by somehow managing to get dumber over time, not smarter.