Dennis: Your understanding is skewed.

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Aug 8, 2018 at 18:35

Hello, Dennis. You said a lot of things, most of them stereotyped chiches. In response, let me zero in on one:

"I am pretty sure that the near half of the nation that thinks the Universe is about 6,000 years old when God created it and that baby dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark is largely conservative, while most scientists, especially the leading ones, are overwhelmingly liberal and secular."

You are right in qualifying your remarks with "pretty sure" and "nearly half". As for the "6,000 year old universe", I know few conservatives who believe such things. I myself have an MS in Chemistry, among other degrees; and am comfortable with a 13.8 billion-year-old universe; but I assure you, I am about as conservative as they come; and Daniel Pipes would probably vouch for me on that point.

Concerning the founding of the US, you are not on target. My ancestors date back to the landing of the Mayflower, and include Elder William Brewster and Thomas Pence. Their motives for coming to this continent were ENTIRELY religious, and of a "Judeo-Christian" nature. This was the case with most of the Plymouth settlers, and of their Massachusetts Bay neighbors as well. Between them, they formed the template upon which US society was built. Others certainly influenced its development, such as the Calvinist Dutch; but the New Englanders formed the basis of American political, legal and religious history. The "Enlightenment" came much later, and primarily affected the upper classes.

Some of your generalities might overlap the truth at some points; but there is much to refute -- more than I have time or interest to engage in. Let me just address the following:

"Hereditary monarchies and aristocracy, slavery and theocratic societies are very Judeo-Christian indeed, while pogroms and bloody religious wars were very Christian."

Let me see... Hereditary monarchies. We have the British monarch, the Emperor of Japan, the Saudis, Hashemites and others in Arabia, the kings of Bhuatan, Etswana, Tonga and others. The vast majority of these lines are not Judeo-Christian.

Religious wars? Have you actually thought before writing? Yes, we have the Thirty Years' War, of 400 years ago; and some lesser wars since. We also have the devastating part of WWII between the Communist Soviets and Nazi Germans. Neither were Judeo-Christian. At the same time, there was Sino-Japanese War, which claimed between 10 million and 25 million victims. Most of the perpetrators there were Judeo-Christians; but they were definitely religious: The Japanese willingly died for their god-emperor.

You might do well, to question why you have come to such a skewed understanding of things.

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