The FindLaw piece starts out this way:

If more Americans would read works like Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, the longevity of our democracy, as we know it, would be more assured. I say this because the more people who understand the thinking and agenda of the growing forces of “Christian nationalism,” the less likely it will be that these forces will succeed. Not many people want to go where Christian nationalists want to take the country.

The last 6 or 8 years have already shown us what we can expect from a Christian nationalist government; holy crusades fought at the expense of the tax payers, the suppression of scientific and medical research in the name of perceived biblical doctrine, and the steady dismantling of individual rights. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for what the Christian nationalists (CN) really want.

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.

- The Changing of the Guard: Biblical Principles for Political Action by George Grant

This is the type of religious imposition that we need to guard against most stringently. Sure, being subjected to “in God we trust”, “under God”, or the Ten Commandments is annoying, but all that pales in comparison to what this country will be like if the CN succeeds in their quest for “dominion”.

How do they intend to do it? The strategy has already begun. They are systematically breeding, training, deploying, and installing judges into the US legal system in an attempt to adjudicate the conversion of our country from quasi secularism to full blown theocracy. Again, from the FindLaw piece:

Reconstructionist leaders see federal judges — probably correctly, Goldberg notes — “as the only thing protecting American secularism. They know that if they can take the courts, they’ll have the country.” Their strategy to take the courts is twofold, although, as Goldberg notes, it’s also “somewhat contradictory” — and it envisions a protracted battle.First, Christian nationalists plan to pressure politicians “to pack the bench with their ideological allies,” and they are “training a new generation of home schooled jurists who will approach the law with a Christian worldview.” [...]

Second, accompanying the attempt at court-packing, Goldberg reports that Christian nationalists are “trying to strip the courts of much of their current authority” while “railing against judges who override the popular will.” Or as Goldberg nicely summarizes Christian nationalists’ strategy, they “are simultaneously fighting a war for the judiciary and a war on it.”

Goldberg cites two right-wing judges nominated by President Bush as the kind who would satisfy the court packing plans of the Christian nationalists. Both judges — William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown — initially provoked Democratic filibusters. Unfortunately, my quick search of the debate in the Senate on these two highly controversial nominees does not reveal that anyone in the Senate opposing these nominees was aware that behind them, lurked the hand of the Christian nationalists.

The CN is a small segment of our society, but they are very well funded. Millions of saps pouring money into the coffers of Pat Robertson and company, all in the name of “gifts to God”, generates allot of cash. I am certain that most of those people assume their money is going to feed little Misha or Alina or to help convert Godless “Moslems” in Indonesia. If they really understood that their money was also being used to fund a covert takeover of the American government, I wonder how many of them would still be so generous. The CN are well organized and hold regular meetings. No they don’t meet under the club name “Christian Nationalists”, but they all meet up every Sunday and receive their marching orders. They also control large segments of the media, many many blogs, have a plethora of radio shows, and several TV shows.

I have often thought that atheists need to get their own TV shows. It would be particularly good if it could come on right after the 700 Club. To be acceptable, it would have to have a title that’s more palatable to the general public, so the Angry Atheist Hour, or Religion Sucks!, though accurate, would probably not go over very well in our current society.

The CN is why I started blogging, and why I vote, and I encourage other atheists to do so as well. Atheists should never allow themselves to give in to feelings of apathy or inevitability. Every atheist should be a constructive, active, voice in their local community. There are quite a few atheists that prescribe to the notion that government itself is illegitimate and invasion of personal rights. Whether that is true or not, I will not try and argue in this post. However, I can say with complete confidence, that if we adopt and maintain an abstinence approach to government, the Christian Nationalists will step in and take over.

LBBP 

As those of you who watch my “Currently Reading” section (if anyone does) already know, I’ve returned to the Narnia series. In the last two weeks I finished Prince Caspian (which will probably be released in theaters for the holidays) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was driven back to C.S. Lewis out of boredom. The other book I’m reading (Religion Explained), while it contains some interesting ideas, is repetitive and terribly dull. I will probably still finish, but I may yet decide to abandon it.

Of the three Narnia books I’ve now finished, I would most recommend Prince Caspian to atheists because of the subject matter. It takes place hundreds or thousands of (Narnian) years after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the mythical country is unrecognizable. There are no talking animals, fauns, dwarfs, giants, etc. In fact, when young Prince Caspian tells his uncle, King Miraz, that he wished he had lived in the Old Days, Miraz says that all of those stories are fairy tales. He denies the existence of Kings Peter and Edmund, Queens Susan and Lucy and Aslan. Actually, he denies the very existence of lions. When Caspian says that he learned these stories from his nurse, Miraz has her sent away immediately.

Lewis, a former atheist, has clearly shaped this new Narnia as a model of a modern, secular world. No one believes in anything. Except, of course, they do. Lewis, like so many other misguided Christians, thought that atheists really believe in god on some level. This explains why a huge, dense forest has been planted to separate Narnia from the eastern sea, because Aslan comes from that direction. It explains why the authorities have concocted and disseminated ghost stories to make sure people are too frightened to even enter the woods. It explains why a canal has been dug to turn the peninsula that held the castle of Cair Paravel (from which the Pevensie children reigned) into an island.

Of course, the atheist (alionist?) leaders are pure evil. Miraz, we learn later, murdered Caspian’s father and usurped the throne. The queen is about to give birth to Miraz’s heir, which puts Caspian’s life in danger as well. Hence, Caspian flees to the south, where he is waylaid by two dwarves and a large talking badger. The queer population of Old Narnia has simply gone into hiding, and Caspian finds himself amongst them. The bears and squirrels and centaurs, etc. convince Caspian to lead them in a war to reclaim the kingdom. Lewis is always honest about the fact that the success of religion requires bloodshed.

As the army of Old Narnia tries to hold out against the superior army of Miraz, the Pevensies are being led to Caspian by Aslan. Well, not at first. Aslan refuses to be visible to anyone but Lucy for a while, just to mess with their heads. At one point, he tells Lucy that she must follow him, even if it means leaving the others behind. This is a very Christian message, and quite like one that you might hear at any given cult meeting.

When they finally arrive, there is a scene that caused me to stop and scratch my head for quite some time. If you read or saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you know how truly bizarre it is when Santa Claus pops up and gives the kids weapons. This blows that out of the water. They get a visit from Bacchus, Silenus and some Maenads. No kidding. This Christian allegory has a pagan god, a satyr and yes… some underage drinking. The girls get to participate in all that while the boys are doing man’s work, saving Caspian and company from a werewolf and a sorceress who wants to bring the White Witch back to life.

At this point, Peter takes control of Caspian’s army and decides to send a challenge for one-on-one combat to Miraz. The challenge is accepted, and the two meet in a ring in full armor. During the match, shortly after Peter allows Miraz to get up after tripping just to be gentlemanly, two of Miraz’s own men jump into the fray, stab Miraz to death, and blame Peter for it. This behavior is to be expected from alionist scum like them. Luckily, it’s right around this time that Aslan awakens the trees, and they devastate Miraz’s army. It is a deus ex silva, if you will.

From that point it is all ridiculous denouement involving Aslan running around “freeing” people. There are a few highlights. For one, Aslan destroys a bridge at the request of the river god. Shortly thereafter, he turns a group of schoolboys into pigs so that their teacher can come with him. In the end, Aslan allows the Telmarines (the people of Caspian and Miraz) to choose whether or not they want to stay in the New Old Narnia. He says that the ancestors of the Telmarines were accidental visitors to Narnia anyway. They are descended from a group of Earth pirates who happened to walk into a magic cave generations before. Those who want to go back to the South Pacific are sent.

In summary, Lewis’ portrayal of unbelievers is vicious. His fixation on the violence inherent in religion is telling. His marriage of the Christian and the pagan is curious, and somewhat suspicious. While still certainly light on plot and heavy on crazy, it’s a better read than the first book, possibly because of the latter.

I will bring you my thoughts on the next book in another post soon.

~I AM~

What I found was a book chock full of heavy-handed theology and blatant misogyny. I was also horrified by some of the imagery and would no sooner allow a small child to read this book than the Old Testament. Oh, did I mention that it’s also a terribly unsatisfying story? I’d like to point out a few of the passages that caught my attention. There are spoilers, but anyone who’s read the gospels knows what’s going to happen, anyway.

Chapter one sets the stage and introduces the characters. Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund are four children who have been sent to live with an old professor, far from the danger of World War II air raids. While playing in the big, mysterious house, Lucy hides in a wardrobe, and finds a snow-covered forest on the other side of the coats. When she reports this to the other children, and they are unable to reproduce her experience, they tease her. Some time later, Edmund follows Lucy into Narnia and sees it for himself. However, when Lucy tells Peter and Susan that Edmund has been there, Edmund denies it. Susan and Peter fear that Lucy has lost her mind, so they go to the Professor to ask his advice.

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies, and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

It is obvious that she is not mad? She claims to have been to tea with a faun in a magical land behind the wardrobe. What more evidence do you need?

“But do you really mean, sir,” said Peter, “that there could be other worlds – all over the place, just round the corner – like that?”

“Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor

Now, I can’t know Lewis’ intentions in writing, but the Professor seems to me like a stand-in for Lewis himself. If that is the case, the utter absurdity of the arguments he makes in this section invalidates anything else he has to say.

We learn that Narnia is in the grip of the White Witch. She is a symbol of evil or Satan and is, interestingly, a descendant of Lilith, Adam’s first wife according to medieval Christian tradition. For those of you who are unaware, Lilith was replaced by Eve after insisting on being on top during sex. Since it is clearly evil for a woman not to “know her place,” she is edged out. She ends up spawning a line of demons after she hooks up with Asmodeus.

Because of the White Witch’s magic, it is always winter and never Christmas in Narnia. As Aslan (the lion symbolizing Jesus) comes nearer, things start to change. This leads to a fascinating scene in which Father Christmas (Santa) arrives in his reindeer-drawn sleigh and gives the children weapons instead of toys. Even in a fairy tale, Christians are expected to slaughter unbelievers in the name of Christ. As Christ himself said in Matthew 10:34 (NIV), “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Peter gets a sword and shield. The girls, though, receive defensive weapons only.

“Susan, Eve’s Daughter,” said Father Christmas. “These are for you,” and he handed her a bow and a quiver full of arrows and a little ivory horn. “You must use the bow only in great need,” he said, “for I do not mean you to fight in the battle.”[...]

He gave [Lucy] [...] a small dagger. [...][T]he dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be in the battle.”

“Why, sir?” said Lucy. “I think – I don’t know – but I think I could be brave enough.”

“That is not the point,” he said. “But battles are ugly when women fight”

Once Aslan arrives, there is nothing but war and turmoil. Edmund, who is under the spell of the White Witch, betrays his friends, but repents when he is rescued from the witch. She demands the right to punish Edmund as dictated by the laws set down by the Emperor from across the sea (god), who is Aslan’s father. Aslan makes a deal with her, agreeing to sacrifice himself on the giant stone sacrificial table, covered in arcane scripts. He is bound, teased, tortured, shaven and killed in a positively gruesome chapter for a children’s book.

At last she drew near. She stood by Aslan’s head. her face was working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before she gave the blow, she stooped down and said in a quivering voice,

“And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.”

By morning (because waiting three days would have been too transparent), Aslan comes back to life, and the two girls (the Marys?) are there to greet him. The stone table is broken (the laws of Moses?) and Aslan’s army slaughters the forces of the Witch. Peter (who was faithful) and Edmund (who was a traitor) both become kings, and the girls become queens.

I plan to read the other six books in the series, but not now. It will take some time to get the taste of this one out of my mouth. I will report on them when the time comes.

~I AM~

P.S. The winners of the Godless Lyrics Contest have been posted in the Contest Winners section. Thank you all for so many great submissions.

The theory is that some time around 3,000 – 4,000 years ago man developed consciousness. Jaynes’ definition of consciousness as a metaphorical representation of the world and a new concept of self is not what you think about when you hear the word, but the first couple of chapters thoroughly support his view of what it means to be conscious. Prior to the origin of consciousness, man existed in a state of “bicamerality,” in which the brain’s hemisphere’s operated largely independently of each other, with the right hemisphere “telling” the left hemisphere what to do. In this state, bicameral man would have obeyed unseen voices and sometimes hallucinated the source of those commands. In other words, the right hemisphere was god. When consciousness emerged, the gods disappeared.

Jaynes analyzes literary evidence, linguistic nuances, artistic representation, neurological discoveries, religious texts and historical events to support his theory. He examines the relationship of the bicameral mind to prophecy, poetry, hypnosis and schizophrenia, looking for traces of bicameral man in the modern world. If you’re looking for the Cliffs Notes version, the Julian Jaynes Society provides a nice table summarizing the evidence here. Most of the pieces of the puzzle can be easily interpreted in other ways, but the totality of evidence lends credence to Jaynes’ theory.

Near the end of the book is a fabulous paragraph that does a nice job of summarizing the work…

This drama, this immense scenario in which humanity has been performing on this planet over the last 4000 years, is clear when we take the large view of the central intellectual tendency of world history. In the second millennium B.C., we stopped hearing the voices of gods. In the first millennium B.C., those of us who still heard the voices, our oracles and prophets, they too died away. In the first millennium A.D., it is their sayings and hearings preserved in sacred texts through which we obeyed our lost divinities. And in the second millennium A.D., these writings lose their authority. The Scientific Revolution turns us away from the older sayings to discover the lost authorization in Nature. What we have been through in these last four millennia is the slow inexorable profaning of our species. And in the last part of the second millennium A.D., that process is apparently becoming complete. It is the Great Human Irony of our noblest and greatest endeavor on this planet that in the quest for authorization, in our reading of the language of God in Nature, we should read there so clearly that we have been so mistaken.

Jaynes sees religion as man’s struggle to deal with the disappearance of our gods from day-to-day life. It started as an effort to appease them so that they would return. If he is right, as I now believe he is, religion is, as I have said, doomed. It may take centuries or millennia, but we will eventually outgrow gods. The potential for that kind of good news is reason enough to pick up this book.

I welcome any informed criticism in the comments, but if you haven’t read the book, keep your opinion to yourself and go get a copy. Like most Christians with the Bible, it’s very easy to develop an opinion on a book you’ve never bothered to read. If it’s important enough for you to want to argue over, it’s worth examining.

~I AM~