An Answer to a Question [rickyv] Just Daydreamed About
“Hi. This is a question for all the canidates.
So, any thinking person who’s read more than one book knows that you can’t be both intelligent and religious. Which one are you?
Please limit your response to twenty seconds and please include the answer to the question.”
— rickyv
It’s a funny question to answer. Is the questioner serious with that premise or trying to create an awkward question. If the asker is serious, it deserves a serious answer. If it’s just a joke, you can safely respond in kind. Is there a way to answer the question that accomplishes both ends at once? Here’s my answer:
This question makes a few assumptions about intelligence and religion that aren’t particularly well thought through. I consider myself thinking, well-read, intelligent, and religious—and this has never before struck me as a problem. Some of my heroes have also been quite religious—Mother Theresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and pretty much all of the abolitionists—and many gave their lives for others in service of their faith. I had always assumed they were intelligent as well, but who am I to say? But if you’re going to force me to pick a side between them and, I don’t know, you and the “thinking” people, put me in with them. Put me down as religious.
