Sarah Palin: Dinosaur Rapture

Over at Rapture Ready, everybody's favorite forum for insane fundamentalist "does-my-hair-look-good-for-jesus" drooling, the rubes are getting restless about Sarah Palin.

Ketsialove gushes over this eye-popping stuff from Salon like it's a good thing (my emphasis):

"[He] says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. “She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board,” said Munger, a music composer and teacher. “I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, ‘Sarah, how can you believe in creationism — your father’s a science teacher.’ And she said, ‘We don’t have to agree on everything.’

“I pushed her on the earth’s creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she’d seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them.”

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. “She looked in my eyes and said, ‘Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.’”

This leads to an outpouring of stupidity so rich and fruity that, well, what can I say? Don't drink and read these comments at the same time. You may splarff if you do:

"Not only afraid but hate her. Just as a lot of liberals hate GWB because of his Christian beliefs. There has been a few celebrities have come out and said they hate Sarah Palin. Pamela Anderson, Cindy Lohan come to mind. Why? What other reason could it be other than because she is pro-life and loves Jesus." - stevenw56

"What do you think the reaction would be if Sarah Palin and Joe Biden were debating on national primetime tv, and she suddenly disappeared with the rapture." - Thelion777

"like anything (her hairstyle, sex, the fact she has not had an abortion, choice of eye glasses), this will be used against her..." - icebear

"Sarah may not get to be VP after all even though I would have voted for her if I was Here." - I'mready

"You just have to love her. She doesn't care what anyone thinks, and tells it like it is. " - nanC

"Science and the Bible are in perfect alignment... What the arrogant fools who believe in evolution don't understand is that it simply is wrong because there's no evidence for it... Evolution is wrong not because of Religion or Christianity or the Bible. Evolution is wrong because there's simply no evidence that we evolved from lower species... Lack of evidence doesn't make a wacko theory a fact." - Norrin Radd

But whackoness aside, does Sarah palin actually believe in the rapture? I still think not. I still think, like the neocon movement generally, politicians see religion as a handy lever for easy electability and simple social control. But still, it's hard not to judge her for the company she keeps... And not everyone is as cynical as me about actual belief.

Sam Harris, writing in Newsweek put it thusly:

"Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?"

Meanwhile, for the rational religious, Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

"[The End Times]. Yes, she believes in them. Of course she believes in them. Her former pastor believes that Alaska will be the refuge for the faithful in the lower 48 states when the Rapture comes. She is a Biblical literalist who denies evolution - who has to deny evolution - to remain in her church. She believes - because she has to believe - that the earth was created 6,000 years ago."

Does Sarah Palin believe this? Does she believe that rape victims should be denied abortions? Does she believe Iraq was behind 9-11? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Roll on the debates...



MORE ON SARAH PALIN.