A dangerous preacher

I want to recommend that you click through and read an article by Walter C. Uhler called "Crackpot Christianity: Part Two". Personally, I think the adjective "crackpot" is too mild a word because it carries the connotation of being relatively harmless. But the preacher in question is not harmless at all. Here's how the article gets started:

During the weekend of August 26-27, 2006, Americans were given another opportunity to see "Crackpot Christianity" in action. All they had to do was tune in to The Coral Ridge Hour and watch its presentation of Darwin's Deadly Legacy. I watched it Saturday evening and was respectively amused and appalled by the show's infantilism and dishonesty. Although it would not persuade any educated American, the show's dishonesty implies a staggering contempt for its intended audience -- the untaught.

Knowing the audience, I expected such buffoonery and mendacity. As I demonstrated in an earlier article (Crackpot Christianity and America's Current oral Degeneration), the overwhelming majority of America's Christians know next to nothing about the origins and actual composition -- let alone the myriad contradictions -- of the holy book they ostensibly revere. Why would they know anything more about the evolutionary biology so many of them despise?

In addition, I already had read the asinine assertion made by the program's foremost crackpot Christian, Dr. D. James Kennedy: "To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler."

Here's something about Dr. Kennedy I found in the comments section:

D. James Kennedy is the most visible Dominionist, and founder of the Coral Ridge Ministries, Coral Gables, FL. He airs on Sunday mornings on ABC - his lying, twisted talks are worth watching - they'll get your bile boiling. He lies to his funda-mental-less following while he himself is Calvinist Presbyterian. These are the same Presbyterians who ruled South Africa, the ones who believe they are "predestined" since before the beginning to time to rule the world and to take it to destruction.

D. James Kennedy "saw the light" while he was bucking to become the manager of the Arthur Murray dance studios. Contrary to any form of Christianity I am aware of, he believes in astrology and has written a book on it. He is a close friend of James Dobson who fosters corporal punishment for children as young as 15-18 months. He must necessarily share Dobson's views on child abuse. He has openly declared his intentions of seeing the downfall of the USA, the replace the Constitution with a theocracy overseen by "regents". In my opinion, this Dominionist is one of the very worst charlatans, and unbelievably dangerous.

I stumbled upon the Coral Ridge broadcast one Sunday morning when I happened to be at home (maybe I was sick or something.) I was definitely appalled.

I want to share something else I read this morning in The Sun magazine. It the transcript of an interview with Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Here's a rather inflammatory statement Harris made:

If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion. I think more people are dying as a result of our religious myths than as a result of any other ideology. I would not say that all human conflict is born of religion or religious differences, but for the human community to be fractured on the basis of religioius doctrines that are fundamentally incompatible, in an age when nuclear weapons are proliferating, is a terrifying scenario. I think we do the world a disservice when we suggest that religions are generally benign and not fundamentally divisive.

That's strong. As most people who read this blog know, I'm a religious person. But I take his point; I really do. And with people like D. James Kennedy poisoning and manipulating people right and left, I think Mr. Harris may well be right.