Mitt Romney Says Something Stupid. Again.
In other news, dog bites man.
From CNN:
“Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone,” he said.
What universe is he living in? I guess this means that Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are among the freest countries on earth, freer than western Europe or North America. Oh, but those are Muslim countries, so they probably don’t count.
How about the Middle Ages, then, when pretty much all of Europe was fiercely Christian, of one stripe or another? Would it be worth pointing out that stuff like the great American experiment came up after that, after the Enlightenment had taught that hey, maybe we can do better on our own, without relying on a god? Would it be worth reminding Romney that Thomas Jefferson took a razor to his Bible in an effort to, in effect, improve upon the received Word of God?
Heck, has he forgotten that the very first amendment in the US bill of rights includes the right freedom from religion?
By the way, Mitt, this has nothing to do with you being a Mormon, and everything to do with you being a pious git.
Surprisingly, he still doesn’t get why a bunch of us point and laugh at him when people point out that his religion is “weird” and the whole thing blows up in his face. I’m dreaming of a day when the religious opportunists of the Republican party reap what they’ve sown and degenerate into sectarian bickering that cripples the party. I know it’s a long shot, but it would be funny as hell.
Unfortunately, I think that as much as the various Christian sects love to bicker among themselves, they’ll go all lovey-dovey ecumenical to fight a perceived common enemy such as Muslims or atheists.
OTOH, we may be seeing the ID “big tent”, under which both Behe-style, “natural selection isn’t the whole story” IDists and YECs like Ken Ham are supposed to fit to fight the common foe of “Darwinism”, falling apart. At least, I’ve seen some squabbles over at Chez Dembski when someone suggested embracing common descent in the wake of the Dover trial.