Hard to come by at this time of year, and it's not really news. Peter Higgs, theoriser of the Higgs Boson (subject of the CERN Supercollider experiments), has weighed in to the collective pile on Richard Dawkins with the shrewd if dull point that Dawkins atheism borders on religious fundamentalism itself. Let's go one further, it is religious bigotry, universalised and mildly cleansed by contact with humanism.
But religion is a prime vector of Truthiness, which is the real enemy of reason in public life. The ability to believe something to true regardless of facts or logic is based on alienation, and alienation starts on Earth, not in heaven or the realm of ideas. Without this understanding even the best intentioned atheism leaves one vulnerable to bigotry of all kinds (prejudice tends to mingle these days, rather than remain discrete - Islamophobic tropes for example are often a reboot of Anti-Semitism).
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Atheism, alliances and truthiness...
Irreligion is the fastest growing religion in Britain
Consistently practiced atheism is a benefit to public life. Not that atheism is a key that unlocks great wisdom. If you are an atheist you can still be a fool, you’re just an atheist fool. Atheism subtracts belief in supernatural causes for natural events. It removes at least one barrier in public life to objective human experience being subjected to collective intellectual inquiry (in the broadest sense of the word): the unity of theory and practice which, amongst other things, is the basis of Marxism.
There’s one problem with this. Atheism in itself is no guarantee against superstition or bigotry. Supernatural forces find their way into all sorts of theories considered rational, for example the invisible hand that guides Adam Smith’s political economy. New Atheism, as some call it, is troubling, to say the least. What should be a theory of emancipation is often a cover for racism. Some people object to some religions more than others, usually predominantly brown-skinned religions.
But we also stand on the threshold of Truthiness in public life, the quality that allows someone to know something is true based on whether it feels right, regardless of evidence or logic. This is part of the general ideological move to shift public life from a rational basis. However atrophied we still have a political system that acknowledges class as the prime division in public life. If this basis is removed religion will be both a prime means of importing Truthiness into debate and of reconnecting the ruling class with the classes below.
Given our understanding of the united front over time we can expect to have all sorts of temporary allies. With what’s likely to come, strange as it may seem, we may have to ally with some of the New Atheists at some point. As atheism grows so the current government is trying, however hypocritically, to reinforce religion, particularly in education through Gove’s so called free schools.
This week's thoughts for the brain...
A small story, perhaps, and the big news is this is not big news, however: 46% of Americans are out and out creationists. Another 32% believe in something called theistic evolution. On the face of it this is incredible for the country that's supposed to be the advanced outpost of capitalist civilisation (more incredible because these figures really haven't changed in years).
A few observations:
1) Tread carefully. Atheism is not in itself radical or left-wing, especially in a country like Britain. If it is it is more so in a place like the United States.
2) The separation of church and state is meaningless in conditions like these.
3) Beware, there are people paving the way for this kind of politics here.
4) National politics is impossible on the basis of economic self-interest, otherwise it suffers from the "sack of potatoes" phenomenon identified by Karl Marx. Long-term politics fade and passivity reigns, punctuated by occasional mass movements with little lasting impact. Economic interest is transformed into hegemony and counter-hegemony by ideology (an ideology is a set of ideas consistent with a defined point of view).
5) The Regan Revolution was a movement to counter and dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement in America. Popular religion already existed, however, as much as all class-based ideology was destroyed (we're not and never can talk in terms of absolute results here) religion has helped fill an ideological void.
6) Religion is a way of the 1% (as it's now called) remaining in contact with the rest of the population (and in control).
7) If the Tories are busy dismantling the basis and results of class-based politics in Britain, there will be a move by conservatives to replace this with a form of popular reactionary politics with religion at its core.
A few observations:
1) Tread carefully. Atheism is not in itself radical or left-wing, especially in a country like Britain. If it is it is more so in a place like the United States.
2) The separation of church and state is meaningless in conditions like these.
3) Beware, there are people paving the way for this kind of politics here.
4) National politics is impossible on the basis of economic self-interest, otherwise it suffers from the "sack of potatoes" phenomenon identified by Karl Marx. Long-term politics fade and passivity reigns, punctuated by occasional mass movements with little lasting impact. Economic interest is transformed into hegemony and counter-hegemony by ideology (an ideology is a set of ideas consistent with a defined point of view).
5) The Regan Revolution was a movement to counter and dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement in America. Popular religion already existed, however, as much as all class-based ideology was destroyed (we're not and never can talk in terms of absolute results here) religion has helped fill an ideological void.
6) Religion is a way of the 1% (as it's now called) remaining in contact with the rest of the population (and in control).
7) If the Tories are busy dismantling the basis and results of class-based politics in Britain, there will be a move by conservatives to replace this with a form of popular reactionary politics with religion at its core.
Repent unto almighty Atheismo!
A funny thing happened to me on the way to Lenin's Tomb, I bumped across the Jesus and Mo controversy, which has escaped from Central London university campuses and into the national press, see here and here for example. The usual band of right-wing moonrakers and I'm-not-a-racist racists have jumped on board. According to the Wikinews report in the second link, and this is a quote, unsourced but a quote:
Which is an incredible position to take, given the wall-to-wall racism and general odium aimed at Muslims by mainstream media and politics. The point about the cartoon itself, images from which were re-used on the Farcebook page of the UCL Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society, is explained rather neatly, I think, by the UCL SU statement:
Whoever it is who makes the original cartoons does so, I presume, privately, at their own risk and responsibility. I should say no more, not having read them.
Universities are, or should be, an environment, where young people from varied backgrounds can come together to learn about the world and about each other, safely and respectfully, in a spirit of equality. Asking a society to remove certain pictures from its websites does not amount to censorship. The Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society still exists, still meets, still expresses its opinions, for the sake of good relations it has to moderate its interaction with the rest of the student body.
That said, what a depressing state atheism has reached. I am an atheist, yet when I see most declared atheists go about their business I shudder. The kind of atheism that's peddled today is not the rejection of belief in the existence of deities but a crude statement: militant atheists are more-enlightened-than-thou. It is a matter of asserting superiority, usually of white people over the dark, lurking masses (and their muslamic rayguns). This alleged-militant atheism makes things all the more difficult when the likes of Cameron and co use religious unction to lubricate their crimes.
Even taken at face value, the blank assertion of the obvious contradictions in different religious doctrines does not relieve people of the burden of religious belief (or religious bigotry). Man made god in his own image. You have to look at why people make gods in order to start overcoming religion.
From now on we should refer to Atheist, Secularist and Humanist societies as Big and Clever societies, because that's what they are.
Atheists, secularists and supporters of free speech rallied in London today to protest what they feel is an "increased confidence of Islamists to censor free expression publicly".
Which is an incredible position to take, given the wall-to-wall racism and general odium aimed at Muslims by mainstream media and politics. The point about the cartoon itself, images from which were re-used on the Farcebook page of the UCL Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society, is explained rather neatly, I think, by the UCL SU statement:
"The atheist society has agreed they will take more consideration when drawing up publicity for future events.
"The society was asked to remove the image because UCLU aims to foster good relations between different groups of students and create a safe environment where all students can benefit from societies regardless of their religious or other beliefs."
Whoever it is who makes the original cartoons does so, I presume, privately, at their own risk and responsibility. I should say no more, not having read them.
Universities are, or should be, an environment, where young people from varied backgrounds can come together to learn about the world and about each other, safely and respectfully, in a spirit of equality. Asking a society to remove certain pictures from its websites does not amount to censorship. The Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society still exists, still meets, still expresses its opinions, for the sake of good relations it has to moderate its interaction with the rest of the student body.
That said, what a depressing state atheism has reached. I am an atheist, yet when I see most declared atheists go about their business I shudder. The kind of atheism that's peddled today is not the rejection of belief in the existence of deities but a crude statement: militant atheists are more-enlightened-than-thou. It is a matter of asserting superiority, usually of white people over the dark, lurking masses (and their muslamic rayguns). This alleged-militant atheism makes things all the more difficult when the likes of Cameron and co use religious unction to lubricate their crimes.
Even taken at face value, the blank assertion of the obvious contradictions in different religious doctrines does not relieve people of the burden of religious belief (or religious bigotry). Man made god in his own image. You have to look at why people make gods in order to start overcoming religion.
From now on we should refer to Atheist, Secularist and Humanist societies as Big and Clever societies, because that's what they are.
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