Sticker Shock

It's always a great thing when fellow atheist and critically thinking columnist Robyn E. Blumner has another column out. This time she is taking on the Cobb County, GA School Board and the "evolution is just a theory, not a fact" crowd.

[link] To see what this side is thinking, I recently spent a day watching Christian broadcasting. What struck me most was the emphasis the preachers and talk show hosts placed on the need to get religion into government. They were positively obsessed with it.

These Christian leaders were far less interested in discussing Jesus' teachings than how to get prayer back in public schools. It wasn't good enough that granite statues of the 10 Commandments could occupy every inch of Christian-owned private property; they wanted hulking renderings in courthouses and other government buildings. These shows were not about building better Christians. They were about building a Christian nation.

How right you are, Robyn. I've commented on this very subject myself (here, here, and here) and I find myself in agreement with Robyn. We are most definitely in the midst of a Christian right-wing movement with one foot firmly entrenched in Dominion Theology, the other in historical revisionism ("The Founding Father's meant for this to be a "Christian Nation, you dirty, lying atheists!") heading towards an American Theocracy that will ostensibly prepare us for the second-coming of their god-thing.

The "Magic Man In The Sky Made It All With Magic" theory, sometimes referred to as "Intelligent Design", is simply a wedge issue to further this dominionist theocratic agenda.

The sticker on biology texts in the Cobb County School District was not placed there to make students into better scientists. It was placed there to sneak Christian theology into a public school. A wedge. You know it, I know it, and I'd wager that the Cobb County school board knows it. Why all the dissembling bullshit? If they were open about it and unabashedly said, "Yes. We are indeed trying to get our theology into the public school system because we believe that we can run this country better than anyone else," then at least you'd have to respect the courage of their convictions. However, instead of admitting it, they try and sneak it in under the disguise of "Intelligent Design".

What are they hiding for? Newsflash, IDiots: You're not fooling anyone. Be honest about it, or give up.

UPDATE: I just wanted to publicly thank Andrew Olmsted for his kind comments on his blog. Keep up the great writing Andrew!