GOP True Believers Mauled by Facts
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Religious and ideological beliefs are fine -- in their place. Just as I wouldn't go to a preacher, however charismatic, to cure a toothache, I wouldn't have gone to FOX News if I was running for president and really wanted to know how the electorate viewed my candidacy.
Governor Mitt Romney's aides described him as shell-shocked when he learned of his defeat by President Barack Obama. GOP election guru, Karl Rove, had what some have described as a mental collapse when FOX News called Ohio for Obama. What's going on here?
A society as complex and diverse as the United States makes use of a range of epistemological systems, that is "ways of knowing." How do I know what is true? Science and technology demand empirical verification. Experimental results can be fuzzy, or influenced by a limited worldview. But reality, defined by the laws of nature, always punches through our desired outcomes, whether the subject be climate change, evolution, or the analysis of polling results.
The practice of Christianity in America has its own epistemology, that is, system for verifying what is and is not "true." The terms "knowing" and "believing" are used interchangeably. This system works beautifully as a moral filter and barrier to protect us puny humans from the inhuman vagaries of life itself. Christians are taught that death is not final but opens the gates to an eternal life, so long as one believes that Jesus Christ is their savior. In fact, the ease with which the human mind slips into any belief-based system of knowing, whether religious, ideological or even through reading a good novel, is phenomenal to behold. But alas, as Governor Mitt Romney just found out, it is the worst possible epistemological system to adopt if you're running for president.
RELATED POST: Karl Rove Caught Shelving Books at Local Barnes & Noble
Religious and ideological beliefs are fine -- in their place. Just as I wouldn't go to a preacher, however charismatic, to cure a toothache, I wouldn't have gone to FOX News if I was running for president and really wanted to know how the electorate viewed my candidacy.
Governor Mitt Romney's aides described him as shell-shocked when he learned of his defeat by President Barack Obama. GOP election guru, Karl Rove, had what some have described as a mental collapse when FOX News called Ohio for Obama. What's going on here?
A society as complex and diverse as the United States makes use of a range of epistemological systems, that is "ways of knowing." How do I know what is true? Science and technology demand empirical verification. Experimental results can be fuzzy, or influenced by a limited worldview. But reality, defined by the laws of nature, always punches through our desired outcomes, whether the subject be climate change, evolution, or the analysis of polling results.
The practice of Christianity in America has its own epistemology, that is, system for verifying what is and is not "true." The terms "knowing" and "believing" are used interchangeably. This system works beautifully as a moral filter and barrier to protect us puny humans from the inhuman vagaries of life itself. Christians are taught that death is not final but opens the gates to an eternal life, so long as one believes that Jesus Christ is their savior. In fact, the ease with which the human mind slips into any belief-based system of knowing, whether religious, ideological or even through reading a good novel, is phenomenal to behold. But alas, as Governor Mitt Romney just found out, it is the worst possible epistemological system to adopt if you're running for president.
RELATED POST: Karl Rove Caught Shelving Books at Local Barnes & Noble
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