Denying Reality – Revering Falsehood

So is President Obama a Muslim or not? I don’t know who to believe. Glenn Beck, or everyone else?

Of course the President is not a Muslim. It is a proven, indisputable fact. It’s been demonstrated over and over again that he is a practicing Christian and has been for a very long time. Yet, new polls this week show an increasing number of Americans believe he’s Muslim.

Let’s quickly brush over the question of whether it would be such a bad thing if he were. He isn’t.

What is wrong with people in this country? Are we that stupid or do we just believe what’s convenient to believe?

Selective knowledge is convenient. How easy it is to forget the First Amendment when a house of worship is being built in a location that makes us uncomfortable.

No matter how we harangue Supreme Court nominees about following the Constitution to the letter, it’s very easy to switch gears and casually suggest changing that hallowed document when it inconveniently challenges our prejudices about who should be a citizen.

We are the most information saturated people of all time, but so many of us believe incredible lies in spite of overwhelming evidence:

• Global warming is a hoax
• The holocaust never happened
• The earth is flat
• Evolution is just a theory
• Barack Obama was not born an American citizen
• FOX News is fair and balanced

Perhaps I’m overly preoccupied with the truth. I seem to dwell on scientifically viable fears that most people just ignore.

While most other American viewers were watching America’s Got Talent the other night, I watched a two hour program about the seven top ways the human species might be wiped out. Why I opt for this type of programming for my evening entertainment, I can't say. But that list included:

• Gamma rays from outer space
• Passing black holes
• Killer asteroids
• Viral pandemics
• Nuclear weapons
• The super volcano in Yellowstone
• And of course, climate change, which was number one on the list

The fact that I remember all seven off the top of my head tells you something about where my head is (I don’t even remember my own work phone number). But I will tell you this: that program was legitimate science and the evidence was presented by real scientists; not talk show drama queens (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh) who never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

With all the information at our fingertips, why is it so hard for a technological population such as our own to separate the fact from the fiction?

Frankly, the facts are much more sensational. I lose a lot more sleep worrying about that super volcano than about the mosque in my neighborhood.