I’ll say it again, I’ve never seen a bigger sacred cow than BLM. If you are white and criticize them you are racist. If you are black and criticize them you are a sellout. Any other minority criticizes them, they are racist.
I am, and I'm a hardline atheist. The past ten years have solidly convinced me that most people are not cut out for living without a religion - they'll say they don't have one then they'll fit something else into the same slot of their brain and we're no better off.
Worse off, in fact: I'd rather the competing mix of old standards each with established rules and power structures to this morass of new-and-crazy where everyone's looking for - or making - power vacuums to exploit.
At the height of the Evangelical moral panic power I used to make fun of them on accounts with my real name. Today there's an orthodoxy with a priesthood so powerful and a laity so rabid I dare not affix my real name to even mild criticism. If I'm ever found out I'll suffer consequences similar to excommunication at the height of the Dark Ages - not able to interact with others, not able to work, not able to engage in simple commerce. I've been made a member of a church I never signed up for and I will suffer like any other heretic if I botch a shibboleth.
So yeah, please come back Jehovah! I still don't believe in you but boy do I ever need you; you're way more mellow than your replacements.
I am, and I'm a hardline atheist. The past ten years have solidly convinced me that most people are not cut out for living without a religion
Even back in 2010, Dawkins himself stated that he'd come to think that Christianity was ultimately "a bulwark against something worse".
I agreed with him then (in his case, he was speaking about the weak response of secularists to Islamic terrorism), and I definitely agree with him now.
If you've ever talked with theist and they've asked you the question of how you as an atheist can possibly be trusted not to be a murdering raping theiving monster with no morals, or better yet, had them openly tell you that if were not for their belief that they would go to hell, they would be doing those things, then you've already glimpsed the animal lurking under the thin veneer of civilization.
It seems most people actively desire, if not outright require an authority figure to tell them what is right and wrong.
At the height of the Evangelical moral panic power I used to make fun of them on accounts with my real name. Today there's an orthodoxy with a priesthood so powerful and a laity so rabid I dare not affix my real name to even mild criticism.
If you've ever talked with theist and they've asked you the question of how you as an atheist can possibly be trusted not to be a murdering raping theiving monster with no morals, or better yet, had them openly tell you that if were not for their belief that they would go to hell, they would be doing those things, then you've already glimpsed the animal lurking under the thin veneer of civilization.
Our problem was thinking that was a handful of weirdos we just kept running into, and not sign of something bigger. Even as we simultaneously call humans chimpanzees in suits. Hindsight's 20/20, huh?
Even back in 2010, Dawkins himself stated that he'd come to think that Christianity was ultimately "a bulwark against something worse".
Dawkins may say that, but he doesn't act like he believes it to be true. He still publicly spars with the religious and mocks religious beliefs.
Someone who truly believed that Christianity was "a bulwark against something worse" would either defend that thing or at least stop attacking it in order to avoid the worse outcome. Instead he gives material support to those who want the worse outcome.
Christopher Hitchens called the Abrahamic concept of God "a celestial North Korea." But surely, a metaphorical totalitarian state is preferable to the physical totalitarian states that rise in its absence.
The problem is that we vaunted intellectuals lost the most basic thing of all: The theory of mind. You put a little kid in a room with a basket and a dresser, then have a man come in and hide a ball under the basket. Then have a woman come in and move the ball from the basket to the dresser. Then ask the kid where the man will go to look for the ball. The kid will say the dresser because he/she hasn't yet sussed out that other people aren't working with the same info.
The hell of it is, theory of mind covers a lot more than that. To use a computer metaphor, that basic example above is essentially about people not having the same data. Problem is, the software and the hardware platforms are also unique and we forgot (or never realized) that. Whatever part of us lets us keep running our code isn't standard loadout and if anyone without the right (or wrong) wiring who tries it is going to fuck it up. So we saw this whole godless trend exemplified by Internet Atheism and thought "Neat! More people like us!" when they really weren't. So we got blindsided by stuff like Atheism+ and the fuck-your-god-dad atheism that thinks Islam is juuuust fiiiine. And, irony of ironies, we're now in a Hell of our own devising.
I’ll say it again, I’ve never seen a bigger sacred cow than BLM. If you are white and criticize them you are racist. If you are black and criticize them you are a sellout. Any other minority criticizes them, they are racist.
I am, and I'm a hardline atheist. The past ten years have solidly convinced me that most people are not cut out for living without a religion - they'll say they don't have one then they'll fit something else into the same slot of their brain and we're no better off.
Worse off, in fact: I'd rather the competing mix of old standards each with established rules and power structures to this morass of new-and-crazy where everyone's looking for - or making - power vacuums to exploit.
At the height of the Evangelical moral panic power I used to make fun of them on accounts with my real name. Today there's an orthodoxy with a priesthood so powerful and a laity so rabid I dare not affix my real name to even mild criticism. If I'm ever found out I'll suffer consequences similar to excommunication at the height of the Dark Ages - not able to interact with others, not able to work, not able to engage in simple commerce. I've been made a member of a church I never signed up for and I will suffer like any other heretic if I botch a shibboleth.
So yeah, please come back Jehovah! I still don't believe in you but boy do I ever need you; you're way more mellow than your replacements.
Even back in 2010, Dawkins himself stated that he'd come to think that Christianity was ultimately "a bulwark against something worse".
I agreed with him then (in his case, he was speaking about the weak response of secularists to Islamic terrorism), and I definitely agree with him now.
If you've ever talked with theist and they've asked you the question of how you as an atheist can possibly be trusted not to be a murdering raping theiving monster with no morals, or better yet, had them openly tell you that if were not for their belief that they would go to hell, they would be doing those things, then you've already glimpsed the animal lurking under the thin veneer of civilization.
It seems most people actively desire, if not outright require an authority figure to tell them what is right and wrong.
Same. This is an utterly undeniable truth.
Our problem was thinking that was a handful of weirdos we just kept running into, and not sign of something bigger. Even as we simultaneously call humans chimpanzees in suits. Hindsight's 20/20, huh?
Dawkins may say that, but he doesn't act like he believes it to be true. He still publicly spars with the religious and mocks religious beliefs.
Someone who truly believed that Christianity was "a bulwark against something worse" would either defend that thing or at least stop attacking it in order to avoid the worse outcome. Instead he gives material support to those who want the worse outcome.
I've chatted with a lot of professors who believe society would be mad max without governments.
Unrelated, but I dig your username!
Don't forget "Democracy"
We must protect Gaia the Earthmother!
Christopher Hitchens called the Abrahamic concept of God "a celestial North Korea." But surely, a metaphorical totalitarian state is preferable to the physical totalitarian states that rise in its absence.
The problem is that we vaunted intellectuals lost the most basic thing of all: The theory of mind. You put a little kid in a room with a basket and a dresser, then have a man come in and hide a ball under the basket. Then have a woman come in and move the ball from the basket to the dresser. Then ask the kid where the man will go to look for the ball. The kid will say the dresser because he/she hasn't yet sussed out that other people aren't working with the same info.
The hell of it is, theory of mind covers a lot more than that. To use a computer metaphor, that basic example above is essentially about people not having the same data. Problem is, the software and the hardware platforms are also unique and we forgot (or never realized) that. Whatever part of us lets us keep running our code isn't standard loadout and if anyone without the right (or wrong) wiring who tries it is going to fuck it up. So we saw this whole godless trend exemplified by Internet Atheism and thought "Neat! More people like us!" when they really weren't. So we got blindsided by stuff like Atheism+ and the fuck-your-god-dad atheism that thinks Islam is juuuust fiiiine. And, irony of ironies, we're now in a Hell of our own devising.
I'm also an atheist and I completely agree.
I never thought I'd say that even just 10 years ago but here we are.
This is one of the best comments I’ve ever read. Completely encapsulates how I feel in a very articulate way. Hats off to you.