Mark Hoofnagle has a MD and PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia, and is now a general surgery resident. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.
Suzanne Sataline reports in today's Journal about the intense spotlight that has been focused on the Mormon church as a result of the Romney campaign. The criticism has been so intense that the church has hired a public relations firm to battle it, and has encouraged young Mormons to blog about their religion. Perhaps what's most interesting is this poll:
This is somewhat surprising, and I think good news. It's about time that deciding in adulthood to be a member of a cult brings one more criticism than being born a certain sex or race!
Comments
I think there needs to be a box we can check about how creepy "special underwear" is?
a.) A little creepy
b.) Definitely Creepy
c.) Totally Creepy
d.) So creepy I am now going to go throw up
e.) As creepy as a glare from Dick Cheney
Posted by: J-Dog | February 8, 2008 12:20 PM
f.) As creepy as the thought of Dick Cheney's underwear
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | February 8, 2008 12:57 PM
g.) As creepy as the unconstitutional and highly illegal activities of Dick Cheney's Underwear.
Posted by: J-Dog | February 8, 2008 1:11 PM
When do Atheists get special underwear?
I suggest leopard print thongs
Posted by: FutureMD | February 8, 2008 1:30 PM
I suggest leopard print thongs
Banana-hammocks. Men don't wear thongs.
Posted by: The Todd | February 8, 2008 1:44 PM
People are right to worry about religious candidates.
If a political candidate's actions are informed by the occult, then his occultism is not his private business, it is the public's business. We cannot allow government by secret agenda.
Posted by: Nelson Muntz | February 8, 2008 1:54 PM
I just realized that the title of the graphic is " Political *Head* Winds. EWWW - This is even creepier than I thought.
Posted by: J-Dog | February 8, 2008 3:01 PM
Sometimes tells me that, if you asked the people who declared themselves uncomfortable with Mormon candidates precisely WHY they were uncomfortable, you'd get answers that are even more unsettling than Mormonism (e.g., "it's sinful!", "He's a devil-worshipper", "I'm a Baptist", or "A literal intepretation of the Bible--which is, after all, the unerring Word of God, tells us that Mormonism is false Christianity").
Posted by: Hmm | February 8, 2008 4:18 PM
Something*
Oh, and it was good to see The Todd making an appearance. Really, no blog is complete without him.
Posted by: Hmm | February 8, 2008 4:20 PM
...you'd get answers that are even more unsettling than Mormonism
The Todd took a tour of the Temple Square some years back. Two conservatively dressed twentysomethings tried to "tempt" The Todd into joining the cult.
It was creepy, even by The Todd's low standards.
Posted by: The Todd | February 8, 2008 6:47 PM
I was raised mormon - it is rather weird (left them a few years ago). It is likely that the Mormons see this as a step towards making prophecy happen. Mormons believe that national leadership is divinely chosen. And the underwear are not the weirdest thing they believe in.
Posted by: Sophie Hirschfeld | February 9, 2008 9:53 AM
I suspect that if there was a bar for 'atheist' it would be too wide to fit in the graphic.
I would also like to see 'muslim' and 'buddist' for comparison - the latter because its a religion most Americans know of, but few know anything about, so it serves as a usful approximation for 'fear of the unknown.'
Posted by: Suricou Raven | February 9, 2008 8:23 PM
There would be other bars too wide to fit on the graphic according to other polls I've seen:
- > 70 years old
- Non-christian
- Major illness
- There was another one...multiple marriages were pretty bad too.
It's funny because all of the Republican field fell into most of those categories, yet you wouldn't know it if you depended on mass media.
Posted by: Phoning it in? | February 10, 2008 5:25 PM
Technicly, Mormon would be considered non-christian if any non-mormons knew about it - its rather borderline, rewriting major parts of doctrine to the point of getting a whole new holy book and a new prophet. Fortunatly for the mormons, Americans are in general terribly ignorant of the teachings of any religion except christianity.
As an example, this is why the Church of Scientology has as its symbol a cross with the lower arm longer than the others that looks *exactly* like a crucifix, even though they have never claimed that Christ was divine, that God exists, that sin exists, that the bible is supernaturally inspired, or anything else remotely christian. They use a Christian symbol to create deliberate confusion - the ignorant people (that is to say, most people) who knows nothing about Scientology will see that symbol and believe it to be a denomination of Christianity, and thus automatically far more acceptable than any non-christian religion.
It works just the same way for the mormons.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | February 10, 2008 6:36 PM
Mormons are not non-Christians. By definition, a Christian simply believes in Christ. They fill that requirement easily. Mormons teach from the Bible, they use the Bible all the time, they advocate many traditional teachings of the Bible and much of the new book that they added was plagiarized tidbits of the Bible. They may be crazy people - but lets at least be accurate about criticizing them.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 10, 2008 11:46 PM
oops, forgot to fill in the little information things ^^ that post was me. Sorry!
Posted by: Sophie Hirschfeld | February 10, 2008 11:47 PM
I'll bet you a pint of beer that in this sort of poll done nationwide, "Atheist" would get stronger negatives than "Mormon".
Posted by: Lab Lemming | February 11, 2008 11:23 PM