Brummentt steps into some murky waters 

If I did one of my arrow columns, and if I threw God in the mix and gave him or her an arrow down because he or she has been taking it on the chin lately, would I generate controversy? Would I get called a blasphemer and heathen and a heretic? Would I be forced to flee under cloak of darkness from this buckle of the Bible Belt?

I mean, really: Haven’t I asked for enough trouble already by suggesting a femaleness for our prevailing spiritual being?

I suspect so. I figure I’d best leave my arrow unfired.

Still, something’s happening here, and what it is ain’t exactly clear.

Three weeks ago, atheist writer Christopher Hitchens drew a big crowd at the Arkansas Literary Festival in Little Rock as he discussed his new book, “God Is Not Great.” Two weeks ago, the famous atheist and evolution biologist from Oxford, Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” drew more than a thousand at a free lecture put on by the Clinton School of Public Service.

Last week, three of the four nuttiest Republican presidential candidates, meaning Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback, but not Duncan Hunter, meekly raised their hands when a debate moderator asked if any among them didn’t believe in evolution.

They’ve been ridiculed ever since, including by some conservatives who say the principle of natural selection provides the very essence of modern conservatism and a capitalistic economic structure.

It was indeed quite an ironic moment in the debate. Usually it’s not the academically failing children who raise their hands. But presidential politics is about fear of blunder. You could see our boy Huckabee’s mind working. He had a split second to raise his hand and invite ridicule or not raise his hand and risk vital credibility with the Christian conservative extremists to which he needs to appeal if he ever intends to get out of a big tie for last place.

Let’s call him and the other two “shoulder-jerk conservatives.”