The Elephant In Santorum's Theological Room: Religion = Make Believe

[stopbush]

When is someone going to have the balls to say it? Religion is make believe, as is the theology based on the make believe.

We're now at the point where Santorum can allege without challenge that science that is based on evidence - tons of evidence - is somehow phony, while there is a "science" in the Bible that is in direct opposition to real science, and that this "Biblical science (sic)" is absolutely true based on faith, and by treating fantasy as if it were fact.

And he's not challenged on this ludicrous assumption because in this country we mistake religious freedom with a freedom to hold absolutely stupid ideas and not have them challenged because they're religious ideas. Indeed, we mistake religious freedom for being a person's right to pass laws that make the rest of us live under the rules of their fantasy world.

Why? Because we can't upset the delicate sensibilities of the religious, who cling to their childish fantasies of talking snakes, zombies roaming the Earth and people coming back from the dead. We're allowed to call anything and everything in this country stupid, from political beliefs to what sports teams we champion, but when it comes to religion, we have to walk on eggs and bite our tongues because religious freedom is allowed under the Constitution.

There is no way that any religious claim can be proven to be true by any objective measure. There's probably more evidence available to prove the existence of werewolves and fairies. Yet, we act like there IS evidence, when there isn't even any objective evidence to prove that any of the great religious figures like Moses and Jesus even existed.

So when the religious dialogue erupts as it always does when the Republics are floundering, we fight the fight with one hand tied behind our back, because for every single FACT that we can advance to make our case, the religious person can come back with a total fiction and aver that it is a fact because their religion treats fantasy as fact. And we're supposed to shuffle our feet and nod in "you're welcome to your belief" agreement.

Perhaps we've reached the point where we can no longer afford to treat at all seriously the conceit that is religious belief. Perhaps we need to be quite clear that having the freedom to believe what you will does not confer a shred of truth or fact to those beliefs. Perhaps the religious are just going to have to grow up and deal with others calling their beliefs what they are, ie: no more based in reality than is a belief in Zeus or Santa Claus.