Browsing around the web you'll find a lot of tech people are very strongly against religion in all forms. Most American technophiles see only the fringes of religion: wild "you're goin' to hell!" preachers, TV televangelists, religious scams, cults, politically motivated religious groups that interfere with science and schools, right wing propagandists that hijack the secular government to push their versions of morality & ethics upon everyone else. Jesus is for the dumb, unscientific Nascar-loving redneck masses of the Bible Belt, and the idea of God & Creation, well that's for the drooling greeters at Wal * Mart. For the left, it is the anti-progress right wing that keeps the culture from moving forward. The US President, George W. Bush, is seen as a bumbling retard who is evil in every respect, from oil & greed to appeasing the right. In essence, the secular left is the epitome of everything scientific & factually accurate; a progressive and elite culture, whereas the right is only a stumbling block composed of the uneducated masses.
From an American rightist point of view, few of which are technologically savvy enough to be often found on the web, the left wing secularists plot against what is right and what is Godly. The left forces liberal judicial nominations, hidden from public vote, that rule from the bench and shape the traditional culture into a secular one. To them, the idea of the existence of God is the historically righteous position; such is an idea that the left must always fear and never accept. To the right, science today has been largely hijacked by left leaning secularists who would rather die than accept truth contrary to their own version of it. The masses clearly see what is right and what is good, what America was founded on, but a vocal minority of anti-religion extremists have been trying for the last 40 years to corrupt the public with its own version of truth. The opposition of secularism & humanism is seen as the group of those who are eroding the moral fiber of America; the inevitable downfall of the United States as a world super-power can be attributed to the moral erosion of the masses, just as it was for ancient Greece and Rome. Who are the enemy for the religious right? That would be your college professor, newspaper editorialists, Hollywood, Democrats, naturalists, secularists, humanists, progressive religionists that push views contrary to Scripture. So many have taken the wide & easy path to ungodliness, lawlessness and evil. What is evil? It is simple to determine what is evil: the lifestyle and views of the contemporary world. The path to evil is a big road and easy to travel, hence the world takes it (See Jesus' words in Matthew 7). Such is the view of the religious right in America, that is the view of the faithful. To them, the secular left is the always present alternative to godliness, and a stumbling block to all seeking God.
These two viewpoints are clashing constantly in America; turn on the TV, Fox News will be spouting on about the lies of the left. CNN will be reporting the evils of Bush. Hit the radio to listen to right wing commentators point out the flaws in the left. Or switch it down a few frequency units to hear Al Franken spit venomous insults at the religious right, savoring every moment while doing it. Even on the internet, I just participated in a Slashdot.org discussion about the idea of Intelligent Design; not to my surprise, anyone refuting the least bit of evolution, or even suggesting the idea that God might exist was moderated down, silenced out of the discussion, and followed by a horde of secularists, posting anonymously, spewing obscene insults at anyone that didn't agree with their version of the truth.
I'm kind of jaded by all this. It has led me to believe that very few people are really interested in finding the truth; instead, it seems to me most would rather believe what they want to believe, than find the truth for themselves and, if necessary, accept correction and move on.
If I posed to you something that conflicted with a strongly held view you had, would you care to see if it were true? I really doubt it! So few are interested in the truth, it's much easier to just defend your beliefs without objectivity of those beliefs. Even more so if it is a widely held belief (such as the idea of the existence of God, or the idea that life evolved from simple single-cell organisms). How few people there are that actually want the truth and actively seek it!
There is a story told in the Jewish Talmud seems relevant in this post. There was once a rabbi named Eliezer who was arguing with the Rabbi Yehoshua (same name as Jesus, different person) and the majority of the scribes in that place over a minutia of the Torah -- as I recall, it was regarding the bricks in ovens -- if a brick in the oven was laid on the Sabbath, was the oven then unfit for use since work is not allowed on the Sabbath? Rabbi Eliezer argued for days with Rabbi Yehoshua and the scribes, until finally he was too tired to argue any longer. Rabbi Eliezer called out Heaven,
"Lord, if I am right, let this carob tree prove it!"
Suddenly, the carob tree uprooted itself and moved 100 cubits. To which Rabbi Yehoshua and the scribes replied,
"The carob tree may move, but that does not prove anything."
No doubt, Rabbi Eliezer had to be furious; here God had performed a miracle on his behalf, but his opponents were still in unbelief. So he cried out to God again,
"Lord, if the truth is as I believe it to be, let this river prove it!"
To their amazement, the stream which ran by the sages' house flowed backwards. Rabbi Yehoshua and the scribes replied,
"A stream flowing upward proves nothing."
Undoubtedly feeling more confident in his miracle-asking skills, again Eliezer inquired of God,
"If I am right, let the walls prove it!"
The walls of the study house began to lean inward and cave in on them; Rabbi Yehoshua questioned the walls, as to what business they had in arguments between scribes.
The walls, out of respect for Yehoshua's wisdom, stopped caving in, but remained leaning inward for the sake of proving Rabbi Eliezer. Finally, as a last-ditch attempt to prove himself right to the others, Rabbi Eliezer passionately and with all enthusiasm & sincerity called out to God,
"Lord! If the Law is according to my interpretation, let the heavens prove it!"'
A loud, thundering voice called out and was heard in the sanctuary of scribes,
"Why do you argue with Eliezer? The Law you are arguing is as he says it is!"
To which Rabbi Yehoshua and the scribes sneered,
"The Law is not in Heaven."
Point of the story [in my context, at least]: even if one's belief goes against the very thing you are arguing for, one would rather continue to argue and have conflicting viewpoints than admit wrong and accept correction. Here we have rabbis, teachers of the Law, striving to be holy to God by works and by following perfectly every minutia and derivation of the Law, yet they ended up having to deny heaven and disregard God's own instruction (heard in a loud, thundering voice no less). Instead of admitting wrong, they would rather continue on in error and follow the majority. [Note: the Jewish interpretation of this Talmud passage somewhat differs, but I won't discuss that here.]
Whether you believe in God or not, this story, fictional or otherwise, has one helluva point to teach: people are generally opinionated and prejudiced to the point that, to prove them wrong is of little bearing: even if one is wrong, he is still right in his own eyes. I think the key to unlocking truths in the world, whatever truths you might be searching for, is to keep a mind that is free from prejudice and open to all possibilities.
I've opened myself to the possibility that God doesn't exist, that Jesus is not the Messiah, that Creation is a lie, that human beings are nothing more than evolved organisms that will have zero consciousness after death. And on the political spectrum, I've opened my mind to the possibility that the right wingers are evil, that the left is the intelligent, progressive group we ought to be a part of, the uneducated masses are the only ones keeping religion alive. I've considered those things because they have been forced down my throat by secularism that surrounds all of us. I've considered those things, and I've rejected some things -- not out of prejudice -- but out of searching for the truth on my own. I've also come to the realization that not all of what I believed previously is true, and have accepted correction as a result.
I've discovered the Republican Party is not the epitome of all things good (surprise!), as I once thought it to be. I've come to the realization that, unlike my previous thinking, much of the right wing is wrong, many are concerned about the wrong things, and many are caught up in war, politics, money. I've accepted correction, and now to me, politics and God seem odd bedfellows. I will cast my vote for a righteous man, but being righteous is not limited to any particular political party. In my new way of thinking, "righteous"and "politician" are nearly exclusive terms.
Then in other cases, I've been right since the beginning. I've found that going back into early human history, there was a false godhood, created primarily by Babylonians, out of which evolved nearly every false religion and every false god we have today. There was once a real God. I've come to the realization that that same real God is still here today, while all the false gods will die off, then be reinvented later, only to die off again. I've discovered that the messiah fit perfectly into the plan created for mankind; it is truly astonishing how well the Messiah, Jesus, fits perfectly into the original plan, fulfilling every God-inspired forespoken word about Him. I've found that man is not a mistake or made by chance, but by deliberate acts from the real author of the universe. With our will to learn, our creativity, our human spirit, our striving to find our creator, the very deliberate layout and organization of the universe, leads me to confirm that there is an God behind all this, the same God that started it all, was known from the beginning of time, followed by righteous men, mocked by the contemporary world, the same God that has always had one set of rules to live by, the Law, and has had one way to be freed from sin, the shedding of blameless blood, which has been made complete with the blood of a blameless lamb, Jesus the Messiah. That God is still with us today and hasn't changed since the beginning of time.
The secular left's downfall is that they reject God and appease humanism, they are lost in their own elite ideas, blinded in their betterment of mankind through human rights preservation. The political right wing is equally wrong; even though we on the right accept God, we are self-righteous hypocrites, we are constantly condemning others, judging what we perceive to be wrong (even trying to pass laws blocking such supposed wrong doings)! How much better it would be for us to try to change the people instead of judging them and passing laws to block their lifestyles? How much better off would we be if both sides were to find the truth instead of pushing their political ideas and prejudices?
Seeking the truth instead of accepting your own inherited ideas as truth has its rewards in new enlightened thought and the realization of what is actually right and wrong. As Paul put it, "For those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good."
