Obama and McCain: The Selfless-Driven Interviews

The Atlas Society - The Center for Objectivism ^ | August 19, 2008 | Dr. Edward Hudgins

[Ed Hudgins]

The first 2008 presidential election event involving the presumptive nominees, Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, took place on August 16 at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. The event was moderated by that church’s pastor, Rick Warren, author of a pop-religion, how-to-improve-your-soul book entitled The Purpose-Driven Life.

Warren began by telling his in-house evangelical audience and Fox News Channel viewers that, “We believe in the separation of church and state but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics because faith is just a worldview and everybody has some kind of worldview and it’s important to know what they are.”

Well, not exactly. Some worldviews are based on careful and critical thinking, and observations about human nature and objective reality. They’re called philosophies. Others are based on—well—faith and at various points they dispense with the defining elements of the former. They’re called religions. And when one says, “I believe this because of a Christian/Muslim/Morman/Hindu/Wikkan/Scientologist revelation,” that’s usually a conversation stopper. But let’s turn to Pastor Warren’s mega-church’s mega-political event and use reason to cut through moral claims based on religion, to discover what the candidates’ worldviews are and what their implications might be.

Warren’s format was to first question Obama for one hour, with McCain isolated so he could not hear Obama’s answers, and next to ask McCain the same questions.

The questions showed that both candidates share a fundamental moral belief about which they are both dead wrong: both disparage the self.

When asked about his greatest moral failing, Obama said that as a young man he abused drugs and alcohol. He then offered that, “What I trace this to is a certain selfishness on my part. I was so obsessed with me ...

[COBOL2Java]

Tried clicking on the link to read more, got this:

The page you were looking for cannot be found. If you came to this page through a link, it is highly likely that the link is out of date.

[Ed Hudgins]

Can anyone tell me how to edit my link? Here’s the working one:

http://www.atlassociety.com/cth-43-2081-Obama_and_McCain_The_Selfless_Driven_Interviews.aspx

[Pietro]

randian gibberish.

[Hawthorn]

> randian gibberish <

Well, not entirely. After all, Dr. Ed does conclude that McCain is marginally less bad than the Obamessiah.

I have to agree, and I’m confident that this conclusion is shared — to one degree or another — by the vast majority of FReepers.

[Ed Hudgins]

Actually, if I really wanted to take off on religion I’d go after the mindless, faith-based worship of Obama. I can at least understand how someone—mistakenly from my understanding—might come to believe in a god as an abstract force that orders the universe or as the ultimate consciousness. But when indivudals allow a worshipful attitude towards a human being to blind their minds, it is a recipe for tyranny. (By the way, I’m always suspicious when hundreds of thousands of Germans get together to cheer in unison for a new leader.)