January was such a mess for me, I do believe I skipped a month in this series. Well we are well into February and I have no good excuses for letting this month slide. With no further ado, the quote of the month…this one by one of my favorite free thinkers, Thomas Jefferson.
“They [preachers] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.”
I am constantly impressed that the great thinkers of yesteryear saw in their times the same habits exhibited by the faithful as we do today. Indeed in this day and age entire enterprises have been developed by the faithful to denigrate, and obfuscate in an attempt to subvert or deny the many factual evidence based explanations posited by science. After all this science stuff is the Achilles heel of their beliefs. Just about every claim of fact by the faithful has been proven null and void by science. They have little else to do but sit by and cry foul, all the while extracting donations from their followers. They have no interest in providing anything useful to the topic, all they care about is the casting of enough doubt in science (even though they are always wrong in their claims), to keep those donations coming in.
That’s a pretty good gig if you can get it. Posture up claiming you know the truth, but never having to provide any evidence of said truth. Howl and wail about how science is wrong, but never have to point out exactly where and how it is, and if they do try that they are soon shown to be attacking a misconception, partaking in quote mining, or using the proven staple of outright lying. This matters not. All that matters to them is to play their part in the production. Pat each other on the back, and convince the sheep to send money.
I sometimes wish I could get in on that easy money thing, but I keep hitting some sort of wall of integrity every time I think that way. I just could not do it. I often wonder what kind of person can sleep at night, knowing everything they do and say…is just part of an enormous con? I doubt that person would be an atheist.
The obligatory link to the page I extract these quotes: http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html