Dec 7, 2018 01:57 AM
(This post was last modified: Dec 7, 2018 03:44 AM by C C.)
http://www.atheismandthecity.com/2018/02...-post.html
EXCERPT: I just wrote a few blog posts last week about how traditional religious belief is rapidly declining in the US [...] and how in its absence "social justice" increasingly has become the new "religion" of the Left, adopting along with it many of the negative attributes one typically associates with traditional religion: dogma, tribalism, group-think, purity. [i.e., parareligion]
I am certainly not alone in noticing this [...] fresh faced new internet superstars [...are...] riding the growing wave of criticism of the Left's extreme PC culture and identity politics. It's quickly becoming "cool" to riff on the Left's insanity — as well as a good way to make money. [...]
I'm mostly on the Left politically (even though I'm increasingly weary of labels), but I do have to say, many of these popular critics of the modern day Left do have a point. Their criticism isn't completely unfounded. In the larger picture, it was never just religion simpliciter that was the problem, it was always the kind of thinking endemic in religion that was the main problem: the dogmatic, tribalistic thinking that puts feelings-before-facts. Religion is just a product of that kind of thinking; it's not the cause.
Here is where I will predictably tell you that we need to replace religion with critical thinking, secular humanism, and skepticism. But I'm not sure anymore that this is even possible. [...] That's not to say we shouldn't encourage these three things as paramount, it's just to say that achieving them as a replacement for religion may not be feasible because human nature is antithetical to them. [...]
Secular humanism only commits one to a few ideas: (1) we can be ethical and moral without god; (2) reject religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition. The problem is that many atheist secular humanists only reject religious dogma. On non-religious topics, some atheists embrace dogma and tribalistic thinking all the way, whether they're aware of it or not. [...] the atheist community is not immune to bias and group-think. These are innate human tendencies that come easily and naturally to us that make it extremely hard if not impossible to be a critical thinker on all subjects. [...]
That being said, I think we have no better alternative [...] even if it's just its most basic form of being ethical without god, and rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition. Secular humanism doesn't tell you what's ethical [...] or exactly what is "the good life." And that seems to be its flaw. Nevertheless, I will take on secular humanism in light of all its flaws in my next post....
MORE: http://www.atheismandthecity.com/2018/02...-post.html
EXCERPT: I just wrote a few blog posts last week about how traditional religious belief is rapidly declining in the US [...] and how in its absence "social justice" increasingly has become the new "religion" of the Left, adopting along with it many of the negative attributes one typically associates with traditional religion: dogma, tribalism, group-think, purity. [i.e., parareligion]
I am certainly not alone in noticing this [...] fresh faced new internet superstars [...are...] riding the growing wave of criticism of the Left's extreme PC culture and identity politics. It's quickly becoming "cool" to riff on the Left's insanity — as well as a good way to make money. [...]
I'm mostly on the Left politically (even though I'm increasingly weary of labels), but I do have to say, many of these popular critics of the modern day Left do have a point. Their criticism isn't completely unfounded. In the larger picture, it was never just religion simpliciter that was the problem, it was always the kind of thinking endemic in religion that was the main problem: the dogmatic, tribalistic thinking that puts feelings-before-facts. Religion is just a product of that kind of thinking; it's not the cause.
Here is where I will predictably tell you that we need to replace religion with critical thinking, secular humanism, and skepticism. But I'm not sure anymore that this is even possible. [...] That's not to say we shouldn't encourage these three things as paramount, it's just to say that achieving them as a replacement for religion may not be feasible because human nature is antithetical to them. [...]
Secular humanism only commits one to a few ideas: (1) we can be ethical and moral without god; (2) reject religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition. The problem is that many atheist secular humanists only reject religious dogma. On non-religious topics, some atheists embrace dogma and tribalistic thinking all the way, whether they're aware of it or not. [...] the atheist community is not immune to bias and group-think. These are innate human tendencies that come easily and naturally to us that make it extremely hard if not impossible to be a critical thinker on all subjects. [...]
That being said, I think we have no better alternative [...] even if it's just its most basic form of being ethical without god, and rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition. Secular humanism doesn't tell you what's ethical [...] or exactly what is "the good life." And that seems to be its flaw. Nevertheless, I will take on secular humanism in light of all its flaws in my next post....
MORE: http://www.atheismandthecity.com/2018/02...-post.html
