Wow..

[kv0925]

Rather echoing some sentiments I posted last week, and also very much in line with my atheist-leaning agnosticism, here is an editorial piece I find very interesting and very much agree with.

A choice quote:
We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.

From there he goes into the notion that maybe--just maybe--devoutly religious people who believe they're living in the Biblical End Times and are really looking forward to the Rapture ought not to be the folks in charge of a nuclear arsenal. And you know, I for one find that really difficult to disagree with.

Comments

[cp.livejournal.com]

It's really a good article, even though it's rather slanted towards the atheist point-of-view on evangelical Christians in general and that stripe of politicians in particular. Still, it's a good point. It's like common Americans would rather elect someone they can relate to than someone who is smart and qualified enough for the job. And politics is the only place that happens--if you're selecting a doctor or a mechanic or a lawyer or an accountant or anything else, you don't want someone who knows as much (or less) about the topic as you, you want someone who's educated and qualified to do what you need them to do. Why should we hold our leaders to less of a standard than that?