I've recently ran into an article here that recycles a story which may be familiar to some as it has been going on for a few years already. But for all those who are not familiar with it, it seems that atheist churches are becoming something of a big thing in the growing secular community.
Now as an agnostic myself, I must say that I'd find this to be funny, if it weren't sad at the same time. Someone wiser than me once said something along the lines of the following - if you take away people's religion, they won't believe in nothing, they'll believe in anything. And it seems to me that this is exactly what is happening here.
Marxists and the like thought that by removing religion from the equation, the masses will suddenly regain their intrinsic perfectly rational selves and start behaving like clockwork automatons. What they failed to realize is that it simply not in the human nature to behave in that way. Most people are not alphas, which means they require someone to lead them. They'll even go so far to completely make up such an entity if they don't find a suitable person to fill the role in the real world. People also seem to need some sort of ritual tribal bonding, whether it's dancing around the fire or having holy rituals in churches.
So by removing current religion, what Marx's followers have done is simply opening up space for a new one. Christianity is pretty much dead in Europe, and is on its way to die in the USA as well. Aside from a few minor pockets of resistance, the mass media is managing to out-meme them faster than they can procreate, so the left is winning the battle of numbers even though its demographics are near zero.
What will people do once they stop believing in their god? Some will start thinking and eventually realize what religions really are, it is true. But most will simply switch the old god for the new. And the new god, although he doesn't have a name yet, offers some pretty attractive perks. The old god nagged when you were selfish (because, when you look at the commandments, that's pretty much what it's all about), and it even threatened to throw you into a fiery pit for all eternity for more serious transgressions.
But the new god isn't like that. It tells you you're unique. It tells you your opinion matters just as much as that of the next guy. Whatever you do, whatever you want, it's great. There's no universal truth, no strict moral standards. There are many different truths, all equally valuable. The old god is evil. It punishes you for slacking, it punishes you for adultery, it punishes you for greed. The new god is better, it accepts you as you are.
It doesn't have a name, it's a principle. And the principle is called Progress. It used to be linked with scientific method and empiricism, but that is no longer the case. It has grown and evolved, and now it is all about inclusivity and acceptance. Even if the maths don't agree, it doesn't matter. Maths are just one way of understanding reality, and a pretty old fashioned one at that. Other truths, emotional, spiritual, are equally valuable yet more modern, and even more importantly, fit to the liking of the new priesthood of Progress.
What we're witnessing is not mass atheization, it is nothing less than the birth of a new religion. And what a religion it is! Unlike those that came before it, in this one everything is allowed. There is no good or bad, just do what you want and when you want it. To hell with the rules.
There is just one caveat, just one tiny rule. And that rule states that there are no rules. Those who try to make rules, even if they only apply them to themselves, who try to build a new structure instead of destroying old ones are the force of evil. The new devil is not a fiendish creature sitting underground in a fiery pit, it is not a force of destruction, it is a force that wants the good, the beautiful, and the true to prevail. His followers ruin the party because they oppose the idea of absolute equality, they oppose chaos. And by doing that, they show the new god for what it really is. A force of chaos and destruction, pure hedonism that leaves ruins in its wake.
The new god may succeed for a while, but it will never succeed in the long run. As long as there is a single seed of order, it will ultimately prevail. The masses are oblivious, but the high priesthood is not. They know their system is unstable, and they know that the only way to prevent its demise is to ruin everything else. Because only by ruining all that is good can a bad practice stay alive. It is the real reason behind the ideology's aggressive expansionism. Without conquering all the rest before they implode, they can't hope to survive another round.
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