…just emailing with ali e., and he asked why i didn’t mention the interrogation of the candidates by rick warren. ali made an allusion to the religious tests, etc.
first, this is a nation which is 80% christian. both candidates are avowed christians. so i think it’s not that weird that they’d be questioned by a christian minister on religious questions. i’m opposed to candidates using their position to push forward their own religious sect, though this often happens. but, i am pretty sure that it is impossible to disentangle people’s views on a host of issues from their religious viewpoints and what not.
second, i’m no longer much of a “naked public square” person. religion is important to people. in fact, anti-religion is important to people. many irreligious people talk about how religion should be a hobby, like knitting. well, that’s never gonna happen. in fact, most “irreligious” people have their own passions which are in many ways rather religious in form, though they might not have a god or supernaturalism tacked on to them.
as someone with a very thin/spare metaphysical and supernatural set of beliefs i’m among 2.5% of americans, and a tiny minority in the world. i’m enough of a communitarian now that i just believe religion has to be treated differently because most people conceive of it differently. i treat religion as another material/phenomenological condition of existence. nothing more, nothing less.
if i was god things would be different of course….
