h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The problem I have as a Brit over US TV evangelists is: should we just laugh at them, or should we be afraid of them?
Of course they're ridiculous, cynical con-artists, but the scary thing is that lots of people take them seriously - and the even scarier thing is that there are politicians who are happy to pander to the narrow-minded, gay-bashing, anti-feminist, anti-civil rights, ultra-reactionary mindset of these people.
I have watched plenty of harrowing newsreel items and horror movies in my time, but I have truly never seen anything quite so horrifying as a film I saw of Pat Buchanan speaking to the Republican Party's annual gathering a few years ago. He shamelessly appeals to outright bigotry in a way that no mainstream UK politician ever could - and he's come far to close for comfort to top political office in the most powerful country in the world.
So yeah, laugh at the manic mercenary preachers by all means - but never forget that given a chance, the constituency they represent would bash a lot more than Bibles. They're Bigots For Jesus and they are FRIGHTENING.

I guess it comes down to, 'is there a middle America mentality in the UK?' Thats the target population of those guys. If they can find that here, they're in the door.
Scary.

Too true. And let's face it: the cultural influence of the USA is so overwhelming that if ( forbid), the likes of Buchanan came to power then the whole world would be affected. And anyway, I've met some great Americans, not least on-line here, and I'd truly hate to think of them having their lives controlled by tiny-minded religious zealots. It'd be a nightmare, especially for anyone who wasn't a heterosexual WASP male.

Yeah. I had a rather eye-opening experience with some nice sweet folks from the Mid-West at a health spring.

Spending several hours in a hot spring after a couple of days of tramping was a welcome relief.

The conversation revolved around guns, christianity and the internet, a rather interesting conbination. Everyone in the pool was talking about their guns and what they used each one for specifically (which all pretty much equated to "I like to shoot stuff with it").
Christianity was based entirely what they heard in church and saw on the television. And they were convinced of their beliefs. Though when challenged, seemed at a bit of a loss to explain themselves.
Talk of the internet seemed to revolve around guns as well.

Of course this was only a small portion of the entire midwest small town America, but it scared the jiwillikers outta me!

I recommend that we deal with these people in the same way that they advocate we deal with gays, blacks etc, etc; to wit, shoot them. I mean, it's not as if anyone would miss anything.

Option two is to set up a Satanist's TV channel, preaching 24-hour acceptance of everyone and universal love, global disarmament, world peace, rational feminism, helping of the poor, the banning Internet censorship and the execution of all neo-nazis.

Let's just call it a zero tolerance policy. It has a certain pleasing irony, I think.

Hey, wait a minute! I'm from the midwest and I'm not a racist, homophobic, gun-toting religious fanatic!

Yes, Icarus, and we love you! Your anti-stupidity campaign has been one of the best and most popular things around these parts lately!
It's just some of your neighbours, who wouldn't be qualified to support an anti-stupidity campaign, who worry us! How do you cope with them?

Middle America is where the hotspots for bigotry, racism, etc can be found. However, nobody lives in Middle America. They all moved to California and Florida, where they learned a bit of racial tolerance if only because of a love for fresh, homemade tamales. Pat Buchanan has NOT come very close to the presidency, because his party (The WASP Zealot Racist Party, or Republican for short) has realized that he stands no chance of winning a national election. Now he's courting the reform party. Just when you thought they couldn't find a more bitter and disagreeable candidate than Ross Perot....

By the way...don't misunderstand that above paragraph and think I'm a Democrat (short for Tree-huggers And Welfare For All). I hate both parties equally.

I start anti-stupidity campaigns and seize the moral high ground.

I know it's true that the Republicans have thought better of a Buchanan bid for the Presidency. However, there is more than one way to "come close to high office". Like, for instance, being a close advisor to the President...
Before I started this strand, I did a bit of web-searching to make sure I was getting my facts right. http://www.buchanan2000.com/ is just one of several sites I found that confirmed my suspicions.
Read it and shiver.

Nut-jobs seem to come in all shapes and sizes. Personally i find the absolutely mad fundmentalists who rail on about divorce rates and homosexuality, etc, etc ... i find them the easiest to deal with because they are pretty easy to dismiss - and let's face it their audience is comparitively small and pretty weak at the moment.

What worries me is the achingly nice sincere people who you can't help but like who seem moderate and reasonable - all are young and fresh and eager. It scares me the number of young people who are succumbing to the new "cool" christianity, which is really the old fundamentalism dressed in jeans and playing soft rock. It's not the people who want you dead for your sins we have to worry about - it's the ones who'll let you live but on THEIR terms.

My personal theory is that religion (and possibly political ideology, but that's another thread) is becoming a replacement for the things that are missing in our brand-new consumer lives - most notably religion gives you a place to belong and a ready made social group, one that will be similar where-ever you go. In an increasingly rootless and insecure existence, crackpot answers will florish.

And all of this is targeted at those people that 1)are looking for an easy solution; 2)aren't interested in thinking too much (or don't know how to think for themselves).

Thi s is also tied into the deification of ignorance that's prevalent in North America (check out the Stupid Users forum for more details) and likely shows up in other places, too. This mindset is driven by consumer-culture, the painful averageness of television programmes (especially American) and the perceived threat of Information Technology.

That and the fact that America was the comfort capital of the religiiously-dispossessed a couple of hundred years ago and consequently has a powerful Christian (of various sects) undercurrent running through the society. That means that very few people will openly admit to agnosticism or athiesm and allows for the famous "bible-belt" of religious intolerance/unacceptability.

Fruitbat

Hello fellow God lovers,
I love to watch people talk about God. I really don't care where or how they do it. On television, on radio, or on the floor Congress it all seems so entertaining. People who feel His power everyday in everything they do. It's amazing how God can enter your world wether you want him to or not. You turn on the tube to watch a little porno and wham there he is reaching for your crouch as well as your bank book. Turn on the radio to listen to a little of sinful rock and roll and wham there he is warning you about hidden lyrics and how it can drive you to suicide. You go to hand a hooker a twenty and bang there He is on the very money your handing out. Then there are those souls on the tube raising their hands to the heavens praying for miracles and receiving a sense of hope. To live with God forever what a great buy. Then, out of no where,I come the realization that this is society being reflected through God instead of Hollywood and there is really no difference between the two. So I reach for my wallet, laughingly and with a tear in my eye, take out a dollar or two thinking how nice it would be if the world could spend its way close to God. If God could be bought so cheaply. Then God comes to me and tells to keep my money because in the end its all been His fault. I think I have been watching way too much television... peace war42

Going back to the original question, laughter has got to be one of the best defences the human mind has against absurd beliefs, however forcefully they are argued (even by televangelists with GOOD HAIR.)
One thing generally shared by the worst bigots of any religion, and fascists of both extreme left and right is the lack of a sense of humour (or perspective). After all, they're the chosen ones, and know all the answers already, so there couldn't possibly be any valid alternative points of view out there, just unbeleivers, subversives, commies, rightists or whatever.
I'm no expert in American history, but despite whatever strong religious feelings people had in the past, some of them still recognised the need to keep religion away from politics, though whether it was as a result of long and measured debate, or more a case of 'For Pete's sake, let's make sure none of those nutters end up running the country', I can only guess.

Yeah, you're right.

The people that think that they know everything and know that theirs is the only way are the most ignorant and unforgiving.

This world needs more happy people.

What was that all about?

On seperation of church and state: The framers of the Constitution were, by and large, ascribers to a now-defunct belief system called Deism. Deists believed that there was a god, or Creator (seen this word a few times in the Declaration and Constitution?) who created the world, spun it on its axis, and departed, with no further interest or involvement in creation. Thus, since they were not religious, they prevented religion from becoming a part of our government. As for the rest of them, most early American citizens were Protestants of one type or another, and they learned their lesson about letting religion and state intertwine from Europe's mistakes, both with Catholicism and Anglicanism. And of course, let's not forget those silly Puritans who burned all their women during the country's colonial days.

Thanks for the info (as I said, I'm no expert). Those Deists sound like a pretty sensible bunch of people. Having a once-useful god who doesn't care any more feels much more rational than having someone to pray to when you want a new TV set. It answers enough of the where-do-we-come-from questions, without pretending to give all the answers.
What happened to Deism - did it just drift into agnosticism or something?

My (uneducated) guess would be that it dissolved in the 1850's, as archaeologists, paleontologists, geologists, and many other -ologists began to put their work together to disprove the creation theory. At that point, I believe Deists would have gravitated to atheism or agnosticism, depending on which group had cooler parties.

Interestingly enough, Pagans throw the best parties.

Which is exactly why I am easily converted to Paganism for a night or two at a time.