>> What (dare I say) gobsmacked me was a fallen liberal who did so out of newfound appreciation for science over religion. I'd really like to understand how that might happen.
As you indicated it is a different thing. I continue to be considerably liberal socially, e.g., I support polygamy and gay marriage and right to choose and that sort of thing. The socially liberal causes I do not support are the ones that either intuitively, or based on proof, simply don't work -- like the welfare state, and of course SS and socialized medicine, that sort of thing.
I can, however, see circumstances such as the one you described. Sort of. For many, science isn't an either/or determination, and almost half of Democrats continue to religious in one form or another -- likely based on deeply engrained beliefs from childhood -- and for many, those things are not chased out easily.
The great mathematician and computer scientist, Don Knuth, for example, continues to be religious (well, a Lutheran, not exactly a Southern Baptist), even though clearly he understands the mechanics of it and by anyone's definition would be scientist.
Religion in the US is dying, but it takes a very long time for those things deeply engrained in the back of the brain to be disrupted sometimes. Add to that -- there are no Atheists in foxholes, and the in-between precepts of spirituality, and you're going to have people who turn to religion at particular time in life. And I think that is fine for those people.
According to Davidson and Rees-Mogg, in their tome, "The Great Reckoning", it has been shown that upsurges in religious belief occurs in localities where desperate economic times prevail. I didn't read their references on it, but it is believable. Also, keep in mind the role religion plays in the famous 12-step system, which almost all drug and alcohol dependence counselors promote as the best solution to substance dependence (although, 12-step programs universally redefine religious to be what you want it to be, I think).
Not everyone is stone cold about those belief systems; they waver and there are times when that spirituality offers something to at least some of them. |
