Kerostasis

Hold on just a moment...just because our history books are more self-critical doesn't automatically mean they don't have an agenda. It just suggests they dont have the agenda of "making us look good". But they could still very easily have the agenda of "making us look bad".

The way you phrased your post only contributes to that assertion. I'm pretty sure my high school american history education was filled with everything we ever did wrong as well, and pretty much glossed over any positive accomplishments besides the Revolutionary War.

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Steeler

Except for inventing modern democracy, the lightbulb, unionization, and modern economics, saving the world from polio, the nazis, and communism, taming mother nature, cracking the DNA molecule, landing on the moon, and reaching the pinnacle of civilization. Take the chip off thy academic shoulder and note that American textbook authors are quite willing to celebrate the many successes of the United States and sing its glories to the heavens. There's just some other nasty stuff that they also include that is not so flattering. As they should.

Anyway, yeah. Faith and politics. I'm really not interested in any politician's "spirituality" or "faith" or "beliefs," yet we are constantly fed these homilies and confirmations of faith as if they were indicators of something important. It is one of the most common interview topics, easily beating out direct questions on economic or social philosophy. It won't tell you anything about a candidate's personality, goals, or qualifications, but it will provide a nice sound bite for either their supporters or their detractors, depending on their chosen constituency.

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TheFeniX

You're making a blanket generalization based upon a single country?

At some point in time, American politicians might have that kind of power. As of right now, we have a free press.

Further, Turkey may be able to pull the wool over the eyes of their own citizens, but that's null and void for the rest of the world.

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Switch

I'm agnostic. I don't follow any religion as I think that interferes with most attempts at divine inspiration. That said, I can understand why faith screws up politics as often as it does. Bottom line -- If you are religious, there is no reason whatsoever to want to live in anything but a theocracy. Most main stream religion teaches that no laws are above the laws of their respective religion. That said, it doesn't make sense for a devout person of any religion to contribute to the creation of a state that doesn't promote their religion.

Until people start thinking on their own (as the unfortunate truth is that most religion is systematically forced upon children in a social environment that promotes such actions, removing the ability for these individuals to think outside the confines of said doctrines) we're going to have millions that feel obligated to vote Christian. I say christian because its the largest cult philosophy in the US. Not many people voting jewish or muslim --- do we even have any candidates for that?

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|TG|Switch

Better known as:
That noob who crashed the chopper.
That noob who ran over the mine.
That noob who TK'd me with a sniper rifle.
That noob who hit that APC at 300m with light AT! Our APC...

Kerostasis

We have a fair number of Jewish and Muslim congressman and senators, just not serious Presidential candidates. Every President ever elected has been a Christian, and if I remember correctly it took an awful long time before we were even willing to elect a Catholic over a Protestant.

Really, it just comes down to the reality that more than 3/4 of the US population is at least nominally Christian. Not all of them are devoted enough to show up at church-services every week and tithe to the church, etc, but they still like to at least call themselves Christians, and very few of them will be willing to vote for a non-Christian candidate for President.

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ScratchMonkey

Faith: To believe without reason or evidence. See Gullible. Yeah, I want that in my representive.

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ednos

I'm not saying it's always the case. I'm saying I don't really trust any history after what I've seen happen. I've read two history books from two school of thought and learned two entirely different accounts of South American colonization--completely conflicting information. I don't personally care at all about the time period, so I don't care who was right... but I would like to point out that American history is not to be blindly trusted (no one is).

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The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. ~ Bertrand Russell
I have a tendency to key out three or four things and then let them battle for supremacy while I key, so there's a lot of backspacing as potential statements are slaughtered and eaten by the victors. ~ Magna Centipede

ScratchMonkey

We have that in the US, too. We just call the tribes Republican and Democrat. No principles, just a team one always votes for, just as one always cheers for a certain sports team.

I'm sure most TG regulars aren't like that, but that's how most people work. You know, the people who buy tabloids and who sit patiently through commercials on their TiVo (according to a recent Nielsen study) .

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