America the Ignorant

[Tsuwano]

I don’t think there would be many like that, especially in a general poll of the population. My assumption would be that it would be a few people who care that much. There may be another subset that omits arguments against it.

Again I think its real hard to be certain of the exact truth of the matter, I think politicians have been deceiving about their actual religious beliefs for however long there has been politicians. It is probably even more so now as we tend to think of religion as a personal thing and how individualist we are here in the US. For myself a lot of time this makes religion a non-issue for me, while the real issue is what they have done in the past.

You’re right. There aren’t many people among the general population who would spread lies about the President and his faith for personal or political gain. Those among the general population who do believe and spread such falsehoods do so out of ignorance. But follow the falsehood back to the source and you will often find someone who has decided to spread that falsehood (That President Obama is a Muslim, for instance) precisely for ideological reasons; for political or personal gain or to denigrate the President for political reasons. As you say, lies have been a part of American politics since the very beginning. I suppose we have to accept that. But we don’t have to pretend those lies are the truth, even when we dislike the President, or assume that those who spread those lies are noble.

 

[tap11]

I see. No, I’m not suggesting that these kids will be just fine in the world because they are proficient in the new forms of communication. I have no way of knowing if they will be fine or not. I also think there is something lost in not learning how to write or spell. I am suggesting however, that these new forms of communication will ultimately prevail and that which is considered uneducated or unskilled will be one’s inability to participate in these new ways of communicating. Just as one’s inability to read Latin or converse in French was once considered a mark of ignorance or poor education in previous eras, so will one’s inability to use these new forms of communication have the same meaning in generations yet to come.

Well, I think we are on the same page then. Of course, if the new forms of communication do have the side effect I mentioned, and all the data seems to support it, then we are soon headed for a variation of the movie Idiocracy.

 

[revert_jen]

It’s odd that according to your own definition you do not think the President is a Muslim, but then you quote an op-ed piece from May of 2008 to bolster the insinuation that he is a Muslim.

Not particularly odd. Not all positions with which one disagrees are therefore indefensible. It is possible for people to hold a different opinion from mine without being ignorant, gullible, lying, and/or willfully self-deceptive. I do not know President Obama personally, so there is no way for me to know to a certainty what his religious views are. I consider that the balance of the evidence (including self-report evidence) is that he is a Christian. It is not one of the doctrines to which I give the assent of faith, however.

–Jen