At left is what Bertrand Russell said perhaps a century ago.
My take on this may be slightly different, in that I call religion our prescientific understanding of the universe. Human beings with our newly formed big brains were called upon to crave an explanation for natural phenomena: disease, weather, astronomy, etc., and we wanted our fear of death somehow assuaged. Absent science, religion was our only choice.
One hundred years hence, however, is there any reason to have any confidence that “religion … will fade away?” As we look at Israel vs. Hamas and the banning of abortion here in the United States at the hands of the evangelical Christians, do we see any progress along the lines that Russell predicted?
What we do see is a civilization careening at the edge, largely because of its failure to adopt science. When it come to climate change mitigation alone, it looks like we’re going to cook our home planet.
If I could only be a believer, my life would be so much easier. But I can’t accept that channel, and neither should you.
Incompetence isn’t actually the issue with Trump.
Imagine for an instant that the president was paid $100 billion per year to run this country, and that he was given a $50 billion annual merit-based bonus if his key statistics were up that measured how well the country was doing in terms of the quality of Americans’ lives. Do you think he’d be starting useless and illegal wars that drive up consumer prices? Destroying the educational system and the environment?
Not for a millisecond.
As shown here, there are (formerly credible) people who are telling us that Trump is restoring Americans’ trust in government.
Do they truly believe this?
One of the casualties of the post-truth era is that the statements of our “leaders” no longer are required to have any basis in fact. What Jim Jordan says here is a fine example.
When he says “better” here, is he referring to runaway inflation? Trump’s purposeless and illegal war with no end in sight? His blatant corruption and criminality? His having, quite successfully, divided the American people into groups that hate each other? The enrichment of billionaires at the expense of the working class? The carefully engineered collapse of the environment so as to favor his donors in fossil fuels? The demise of the U.S. educational system?
Please be clear.
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