Faith Versus Reason (an old post written on 2nd Nov 2002 and never published).

Half of the United States and most of the rest of the world are asking a question this morning – Did America vote in a man of faith or a dangerous fundamentalist?

We will have to wait and see, but on past form, I think it is the latter. I hope I’m wrong. Maybe Bush learned something during his disastrous exploit in Iraq – his number one idea doesn’t hold water – ‘freedom’ delivered by US marines, will not be universally welcome, especially when the price in death and mutilation is so high. If he has learned that, then maybe he will be less dangerous than we fear, though the fact that he had to have it demonstrated is instructive.

A pundit said last week that Europe doesn’t understand Bush, because it expects politicians to base their actions on science and reason. Bush, and half of America base theirs on gut instinct and religious belief. In that, they share something with their most implacable enemy, al Queda. It is the paradigm of fundamentalists everywhere – God has spoken to them. That the rest of us fear this, is not surprising, we feel we are in the thrall of madness, especially since the Middle American brand of muscular Christianity seems to have entirely missed the fact that its saviour abhorred violence. The righteous indignation of Jesus, resulted in the turning over of the money changers tables - George Bush’s, in a hundred thousand Iraqi dead.