>> And just how does the "just the facts, ma'am" brigade explain
>> religious belief and the influence of religion in politics in
>> this country without just calling people stupid?
Bill Bartlett:
> I believe I have given the answer to the first question once before,
religion
> is simply a strategy for passing social traditions, including experience
and
> knowledge, down through the generations.
Doesn't cut it with me. Per C.G. Estabrook's earlier post, American Fundamentalism is a relatively recent phenomenon, vintage 1909. I don't know if their political ambitions date from that time, but I'd be surprised if they did.
I've got Fundies in my family on my mother's side. A specific religious *dogma* has been transmitted from my grandparents to my aunts and uncles (my mother was the lone apostate in the family) to my cousins, but no traditions. I don't think my grandparents could even say the word "divorce"; I think that most of my cousins have had at least one by now.
Curtiss