sunday morning with HL Mencken

"The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father of knowledge a serpent -- slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the earliest days the church, as an organization, has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings."

-- H L Mencken


Those who read Mencken as an arch-rightist should note his disapproval of the Divine right of kings (ie, the correct POV, and that of the Founding Crackers Fathers, not to say...Jacobins--the real Rev. starts with the purging of...all royals and aristocrats, everywhere). That said, we would modify Mencken's bon mot: the monotheistic theology of  Abrahamic religions (christianity, judaism, islam)  is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking, though at times clerical sorts have attempted to use Aristotle's quaint logic to help with the priestly justification-procedure.  That said, Mencken has his own issues and we don't quite agree with his quasi-Nietzschean a-theism.