Texas GOP Vote

Unsurprisingly, media and Democrats are in or are raising a major dither about a statement by Rick Santorum that Obama was promoting “some phony ideal...some phony theology…” in the clip that was shown in Bob Schieffer’s introduction of Santorum on Sunday’s CBS Face The Nation interview. Here is a fuller context of Santorum’s statement. In case it wasn’t obvious to anyone, I’d like to clarify what I think Santorum was referring to. In the first case, as Schieffer briefly referred to, Santorum was talking about Obama’s energy agenda. But nevertheless, Shieffer raised an AP assertion that Santorum was questioning Obama’s Christianity and expressed his own perception of that. Conservatives shouldn’t underestimate the perception-defining power of complete ignorance of what Santorum is talking about. They can’t see outside their own belief in Obama’s good intentions and that Santorum’s faith is irrational and hostile to those who think differently. They don’t know any better.

So what was Santorum saying? He did say that he was not referring to a theology from The Bible, and in this Face The Nation interview that Obama was trying to impose his own environmental agenda. Of course, “theology” means logic of God. But what Santorum was referring to is reflected in an old philosophical understanding that imperative statements, “oughts” and “should,” cannot be derived from empirical experience. It is simply put, “You cannot deduce an “ought” from an “is.” Whether they presume a God or not, religious assertions produce imperatives from presumptions that are not empirically experienced. Those are called “metaphysical” assertions. So Santorum was referring to Obama’s metaphysical imperatives that he tries to impose on America. He might more precisely have referred to it as a “religion” rather than a “theology.”

And everyone has one. Everyone’s worldview has assertions that are metaphysical; even the starkest naturalism that asserts that “only empirical assertions are trustworthy or valid or meaningful.” Any such assertion is self-contradictory, as it itself is not empirically demonstrable. In truth, the large majority of worldviews are considerably more heavily studded with metaphysical assertions than this. In this respect, we can call such views “religious.” They hold many beliefs that are accepted by “faith,” not by experience.