Frankly I find it somewhat amusing, and somewhat strange that there are no Bush supporters among any of the blogs I read. Pretty nearly all of them are today Democrats in mourning, wondering how the country could be so stupid, worrying about what's going to happen next. I, on the other hand, breathed a great big sigh of relief and have tried hard not to gloat. :) It's nice to see that the country still has its moral values.
I have more on my mind, but I can't get it sorted enough to make it coherent. I just wish people would stop it with the implications that most of the country is stupid, ignorant, obtuse, shortsighted, unsophisticated, etc because we voted for Bush.
To be honest, from all I heard, saw, and read in the media, Kerry's campaign was the one that got more press and had more star power. I mean he had a mainstream summer blockbuster going for him in Fahrenheit 9/11. And yet somehow in spite of all that, the majority of the popular vote went to Bush. Is this because we were too stupid to hear what Kerry was saying? No. We couldn't get away from Kerry. He was everywhere. We were bombarded with him from every direction. We heard what he was saying, we considered it, and we decided it wasn't good enough. People are smart enough to decide things for themselves. Even the conservative ones. Even, dare I say it, the religious ones.
And I suppose this brings me to what's actually bugging me, and has been. The prevailing idea that having religious beliefs implies inferior intellect. Only stupid people need things like religion, whereas the intelligent are above believing in God, too smart for church. Faith is apparently something only for the ignorant and stupid. Someone I know postulated that it might be a delusion, a disorder.
If I might make a couple of things clear. First, I have above average intelligence. I'm not dumb, thank you very much. And second, I am not mentally ill.
I think people find religion scary. It's too demanding, too restrictive. Religion tells you that there are concrete rights and wrongs, and that if you do something wrong, there are consequences. Religion demands that you submit to something outside yourself. That's not an easy thing. It requires trust, and faith. People don't like to submit to anything though. People want to be in control. They want to do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it. They want to have everything. Volunarily restricting oneself to a certain way of life is a frightening prospect. I think that a non-religious person who calls a religious person stupid, simply on the basis of religion, is afraid.
Why is the divorce rate so high? Why is there a shortage of priests and nuns? Why is birth control so widespread? People are afraid. They're afraid to commit to anything for life. Committing to something means shutting out the possibility of something else. Faith and religion is all about commitment. People are afraid of that. To make themselves feel better, they call believers stupid and ignorant.
This is not to say that there aren't stupid religious people. There are stupid people everywhere. :P But not all religious people are stupid. I'm sick of being seen that way. I'll bet most religious people are actually of average intelligence... just like most non-religious people. There's a reason it's called "average".
Just because a person thinks differently than you does not mean they are deluded.
Just because you choose not to see does not mean you are blind.