Up with materialism

This article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press details the agenda of the Discovery Institute, the main group behind the push to teach the "theory" of Intelligent Design in public schools. The Discovery's ultimate goal - the focus of the "wedge document," its written strategic plan - is to "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions". The Institute alleges that "[t]he social consequences of materialism have been devastating," and vows to use intelligent design as a "wedge" to "cut [materialism] off at its source." From the Pioneer Press article:

The wedge document calls the proposition that human beings are created in the
image of God "one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization is
built." It also says that thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund
Freud undermined the idea by portraying humans "not as moral and spiritual
beings, but as animals or machines who inhabited a universe ruled by purely
impersonal forces and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated by the
unbending forces of biology, chemistry and environment."

This should come as no surprise. It has long been the goal of the people we now call the "religious right" - who of course were the religious left once upon a time - to put God back at the center of human society. But what is this "materialism" that God would supposedly replace as our motivating force? It's pretty clear to me that, in the U.S. at least, materialism is technological progress.

Technological progress is powered by science. A naturalistic explanation of the world is necessary to create technology. And technology, not natural resources or cheap labor, has been the main source of America's competitive advantage. So scientific "materialism" is what made us rich (sounds materialistic to me!).

Republicans 100 years ago understood this. William McKinley defeated the religious/populist uprisings of William Jennings Bryan by joining the Republican party with business interests - with the people who were using technology to get rich. It wasn't until business interests started taking a pounding from the followers of the New Deal that the Republicans realigned themselves and made religious conservatives part of their base.

Now however, it's becoming clear just how much businesspeople sacrificed to get their tax cuts and deregulation. With conservative groups trying to ban some forms of stem-cell research (to say nothing of cloning), and the Intelligent Design crowd trying to undermine education about the basic principle of modern biology, the conservative movement has taken a decidedly anti-business turn.

Basically, putting God at the center of our understanding and regulation of biology might cripple the biotech industry, which is seen as a huge potential growth field (or, as some would argue, not). If that happens, then Europe and Asia could pass the U.S. as technological centers, despite our stength in non-God-offending sectors like IT. And if that happens, we will see our wealth shrink, and quite possibly our freedom along with it.

So we're at a crossroads. The price for weath and progress is acceptance of materialism. If the Discovery Institute and its ilk win the battle for the nation, (and the less-publicized battle for control of the Republican Party), we could see the United States' historic strength slowly draining away. Where's William McKinley when you need him?