Saturday, January 21, 2006
How Fundamentalism Makes Atheists of Believers
"I thought I heard in (Buttars') statement that if one doesn't vote for this, then one could be considered an atheist," said Utah Senate Majority Leader Pete Knudsen, R-Brigham City during the debate over Sen. Chris Buttar's bill that would make schools teach that evolution is not the only scientific theory about the origins of humans. "If that was the implication, that concerns me greatly. That is not the spirit in which we should discuss this legislation,'' Knudsen said. "There is a place for evolution in life, it's a part of life. It saddens me that one's faith would be challenged on a vote of this bill. I vote no.''
According to religious extremists like Buttars, anyone who isn't a biblical literalist is, by definition, an atheist. Although public opinion polls consistently show that non-believers are a tiny minority of the population in this country, the fundamentalist re-definition of atheism has turned us, overnight, into an overwhelming majority.
According to religious extremists like Buttars, anyone who isn't a biblical literalist is, by definition, an atheist. Although public opinion polls consistently show that non-believers are a tiny minority of the population in this country, the fundamentalist re-definition of atheism has turned us, overnight, into an overwhelming majority.
