Just Scary .

Met a fellow recently on my travels. He was a very well educated and I enjoyed chatting with him.
We somehow got onto talking about what was going on with America these here days and his comment was .."those evangelicals have to be stopped!" Apparently he believed that evangelicals are a growing force in America who have incredibly intolerant judgmental attitudes, and somehow the greatest problem in America today; responsible for almost everything wrong in the country at this point.
I told him that evangelicals are not the growing force he thought ("the number of Protestants soon will slip below 50 percent of the nation's population." National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey, 2004.). I also added that any true Christian, while he may hold to specific notions of right and wrong, will not force this on anyone and is called to love all- even his or her enemies, but that they like all citizens had the right to express their views politically and personally. They (if we stretch the notion of evangelical to collect the Puritans pioneers which I think is fair ) actually were the ones who were important in bringing the notion of freedom of expression and religion to the US in the first instance.
What was really sad with this guy was the fact that he did not realize that his anger and a call to "stop" the evil evangelicals ..was simply duplicating the bigoted behavior he was charging them with. It seems he bought hook line and sinker attitudes and beliefs that were presented to him in his university experience.

It is getting scary to me how people are swallowing without discernment whatever professors or other "cool" authorities or even the movies spout. All Gore, for instance is a politician who has been widely embraced as a truth speaking spokesperson on the environment. What he presented in his movie is not even questioned as anything less than true by many, because in part, it was a popular movie (it won 2 Oscars) and he is seen as an authority figure in some circles.

But was it all true ? Check out these inconvenient articles on Gores "Inconvenient Truth " and Gores own actions.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=d0235a70-33f1-45b3-803b-829b1b3542ef
http://eteam.ncpa.org/news/new-study-points-to-an-inconvenient-truth-about-global-warming
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=nation_world&id=5072659&ft=med
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba561/

* and for a little contrast http://denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm

Are all these authors criticizing Gore and his perspectives, 100% right? I think not and that's the point I guess. Finding out what you think on a matter as incredibly complex as climate change /global warming, requires a willingness to listen to both sides and weigh out the evidence as best you can and so come to an informed opinion.
The reality of the situation is that science is not a pristine truth speaker. Publishing views contrary to the established group think can cost one their career or peer group standing, so finding the truth on this huge issue from science is becoming more and more difficult as the scientific consensus grows.
As for myself, with regards to the issue climate change /global warming and its causes, I am at present unsure what to think , but it seems to me that continuing to foul our planetary nest will not be without without consequence. It is also clear that this topic is laced with staggeringly huge political and financial concerns, so a rigorous critical analysis of who is saying what on this topic is very important.
It gets scary when I see people just willy nilly accepting whatever they are told without comparing it to anything. Politicians and large corporations love that kind of response in a populace. It helps them get things done.

ps. I would not be surprised to see Al Gore throw in his hat for a run for the presidency soon.
I haven't yet seen his film but I am looking forward to that. Should be interesting to watch.