Last Post: 12:22:09pm, 01/10/2018
It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately...
Consider religion. Religion can be sweet and ennobling when it's about being in awe of God. But way too often, it's about being in awe of one's identity, and one's tribe, one's ego. If religion is making you more hateful, then you're not really worshiping God; you're worshiping yourself.
IMO, this is something atheists misunderstand about religion... Around here, it's considered sport to attack religions like Christianity and Islam by cherry-picking verses or backwards traditions (circumcision, head scarves, etc...) But the truth is, those verses, those traditions, aren't what turn religious people into bloodthirsty zealots. Religion can be about theology, spirituality, morality, culture, social institutions, and also, identity... It's identity that's the most dangerous of the lot. That's the one that really drives people to oppress; to kill.
Example: Why did so many young Muslims leave middle class homes in the West and travel to Syria to fight for ISIS? They didn't do it in search of theology, spirituality, morality, but in search of identity... They felt alienated, cut-off from their identity, and in many cases emasculated. So they went to Syria for a chance to play at being holy warriors and forge a new identity for themselves. It wasn't religion that called them... It was identity. What propped up ISIS was basically a juiced-up form of identity politics.
The religious posturing of extremists, be they Islamists or Evangelicals or Hindutva, is more about identity than religious sincerity.
It's the same thing with our politics... The issues themselves, things like abortion, healthcare, taxes, are not even responsible for half the spanisions in our country. What spanides us more is that politics has become a form of identity politics: inspaniduals are now incorporating associations like "I'm a Democrat" or "I'm a Republican" into their core identity. It's not about enacting policies that are best for the country; it's about scoring a "win" for your team. Then you have posters like Proudclad, who's basically 70% of the way to becoming a political liberal, so much that he's twisted his conservative ideal to include socialist concepts like universal basic income. But will he give up the ghost? No... And why? Because he's decorated his self-identity with ornaments like "Republican," "pro-corporate," "pro-free market," "anti-regulation," "anti-big government."
What is it that drives atheists to attack religion (and religious people) whole cloth? In many cases, they have valid criticisms of religion and its place in our society. But just as frequently, it's because they've expanded their identity to include being anti-Christianity, anti-Islam, or anti-religion in general. In a lot of cases, they've experienced religious persecution... And persecution on the basis of identity further strengthens that identity.
Just some thoughts that have been bouncing around my head lately... G.P.