Reply #30: Ding! My thoughts exactly. [View All]

Yes religion is a volatile topic (and has/will be for a long time) but Americans in general are just as ignorant on pretty much every other volatile topic as well.
We have gotten to a point (not sure if we where ever anywhere else) where style and sounding 'smart' trump knowledgeable reasoned arguments and explanations.

I disagree however that most people do not decide to be ignorant. I think willful ignorance is definitely a huge problem. In most cases there are loads of psychological reasons for a person to want to remain ignorant.

As for history etc. One could argue that the discovery channel is quite popular but it doesn't mean the people watching it know their ass from their elbow (or the people producing it). I think we need to be very careful not to idealize history. I honestly don't know enough to say wither we are historically at a low or not, never mind wither we have had past lows just as bad.