[snip] Conservative evolution. A lot of liberals may assume that because conservative, patriarchal families are reproducing faster than liberal secularist ones, America’s headed back to the Dark Ages. But as sociologist Kieran Healy writes at crookedtimber.org, “the terms ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ are moving targets. Even assuming all the kids of conservative parents grow up relatively conservative, does this mean they’ll hold the same substantive views as their forebears? Insofar as there has been any drift in generally shared ideas, it seems to have been in the direction of adopting views that would have been considered liberal or radical in previous generations.”
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[snip] “Of course Jerry Falwell thinks that Jews and Muslims are going to hell,” writes Lindsay Beyerstein at majikthise.typepad.com, surprised that anyone would be surprised. “I mean, RTFM, people. You know, the part where the Jewish carpenter says ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.’ . . . Yes, it’s silly to think that a vengeful god sends his own followers to hell because they don’t also believe in the divinity of his son (who’s actually him anyway). But that is the party line.”
