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Science, Religion, and Hate
 Though
I try to keep abreast of new
ideas, the conclusions of modern science are often, as they say,
“counterintuitive” — that is, contrary to what common
sense might lead you to expect. In the realm of physics, this is true of the
theory of relativity, quantum
mechanics,  Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle, and the
currently fashionable string theory, which it would take me a separate
column to explain.
Let’s take an example closer to home. Paul Harvey reports
that scientists have found that, other things being equal, there are more
germs on a steering wheel than on a toilet seat. Talk about counterintuitive!
But if you live in the realm of ideas, you must be prepared to have your mind
dizzied now and then.
Which brings me to the theory of evolution. When Darwin proposed it
in 1859, it struck most people as counterintuitive. But after being pushed by
the drive-by media for a century and a half, it has come to seem like
common sense itself.
I
often ask liberals to explain what they mean by right-wing, a term
they apply to everything they dislike, even principles that have nothing in
common, such as anarchism (opposition to all government) and fascism
(government without limits), as well as conservatism (government within
carefully defined limits), not to mention monarchism, oligarchy, plutocracy,
nativism, militarism, laissez-faire capitalism, theocracy, libertarianism,
feudalism, neoconservatism, and a hundred mutually incompatible other
things. What common denominator can they possibly share? How can they all
be “right-wing”? No liberal has ever been able to tell me.
To
add to the confusion, no matter how bitterly all these right-wing people
disagree amongst themselves, they are always a single thing:
“the” right wing. And no matter how much President Bush
increases the size of government, no matter how far to the left he moves
the Republican Party, all liberals agree that he is “right-wing.”
I
finally began to get my answer when I watched, yet again, the classic liberal
movie Inherit the Wind, a fictionalized version of the 1925
Scopes “monkey trial.” If you want to understand how liberals
see the world, this is the place to start.
![[Breaker quote for Science, Religion, and Hate : And Elton John]](2006breakers/061113.gif) The
real Scopes was
prosecuted for teaching Darwin’s theory in a public school. Today,
when government has switched dogmas, he would be prosecuted if he tried to
teach that God created man.
The
movie never actually uses the term right-wing, but the basic idea is
there. On one side are the reasonable, benevolent, open-minded liberals,
typified by the Clarence Darrow character (played by Spencer Tracy); on the
other are the religious bigots, buffoons, and blowhards who hate science and
are typified by the William Jennings Bryan character (Fredric March) and
form lynch mobs.
Liberals may not believe in God, but they make it clear that if they did,
he would be a much nicer sort of Deity than the one the believers believe in.
In fact, he would be more comfortable with the people who don’t
believe in him than with the ones who worship him. It’s the atheists
who are made in his image, so to speak. And needless to say, he would
probably reject the ontological argument for his own existence.
In
the spirit of the movie, Richard Dawkins, a Darwinian biologist and militant
atheist, says atheists are smarter than believers and the world would be
better off without religion, just as, I suppose, Russia was better off under
Stalin than under the superstitious tsars. Elton John, the rock star who has
tied the knot with his gay lover, seems to agree. He says religion breeds
nothing but hate, especially hatred of gay people.
According to liberals, if you think marriage makes sense only as an
objective relation between people of opposite sexes — for the practical
purpose of establishing and regulating paternity — you must hate gay
people. And hate, after all, is the essence, if anything is, of what it means to
be right-wing. It goes hand in hand with logic and defining things, and is but a
short step from outright popery. (Let us not forget that the Catholic Church
has always persecuted science.) A liberal God, if such existed, would want
everyone to have the right to marry, even — or especially — gay
people. He would also accept gay and lesbian bishops.
Hate is so intrinsic to all that is “right-wing” that liberals
have to keep coining new words, such as homophobia, to identify
right-wing hatreds. Other right-wing traits include greed, fear, insensitivity,
and bellicosity. Do I overgeneralize? Well, what would you expect? I’m
right-wing!
Excuse me; I have to run. My lynch mob is waiting for me.
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2006 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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