Not long ago, I saw a bumper sticker on a car that said, "Love your liberty? Thank God, and vote!" Now, yes… voting is important, and the best way we've got to protect our liberties. But I get so sick of people mixing patriotism with religion, of people who honestly think the being they say created all life on earth would somehow favor one current nation over all others. What kind of arrogant bullshit is that?
I know we all want to feel somehow "special," and that patriotism is one form of that, but this is going too far. This is saying that we Americans are somehow "better" than others to the point of being divinely protected.
Granted, Americans aren't the only ones who've ever proclaimed, "God is on our side." Hitler certainly believed that, and who can show that he didn't have every bit as much justification for thinking it as others do?
Maybe I'm just the cynical atheist, but I wouldn't expect a loving creator-deity to take sides when it comes to something as petty as nationalism. Of course, the bible itself refers to God's "chosen people," so I guess it's not so hard to see where this arrogance comes from.
Is there any type of arrogance that is more insidious than religious arrogance… of thinking that you're blessed above and beyond nearly all others? I can't think of any. Sure, there are always people who are arrogant because of their intelligence, or their looks, or their strength. But there's always someone out there who's smarter, better looking, or stronger. But how do you rank "blessedness"? You can't, of course. So the arrogant remain unchallenged, their attitudes unflagged.
This is the sort of arrogance displayed by this bumper sticker. It implies that our liberties are somehow the result of divine favoritism. And it's the sort of arrogance that can lead to fanaticism. Think Muslim Jihadists aren't arrogant? Of course they are. As have been two millennia worth of "Christian soldiers."
I would think that by 2005, we'd have seen a lessening of this sort of empty-headed crap. Guess I'm just too optimistic.
