Earlier quoted context omitted.
a-theism literally means "lack of belief". Bald is not a hair color.
It is a hair style.
No, it's a complete lack of hair.
Nudity is not a set of clothing.
The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
41–50 of 130 posts
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#42The world is finally moving to a post-theological era.
Less conflict around religion, and more social progress without it standing in the way. That sounds pretty good to me.
Optimism!
When will social progress stop though, when is it complete? There are perhaps a lot of things wrong in the world but it's not clear to me that people can any longer fall back onto blaming various institutions (for opression ... etc.). Yet agitation seems to be increasing, despite the lack of institutional barriers. Indeed it seems to have moved on to targeting social demographics for 'progress' (the white male).
Progressives started off by dismantling the social engineering and traditions of the religious institutions, but that is largely complete. All that remains is to start their own social engineering project.
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#43Materialism, theism and atheism are all religions.
You're using the fact that all are ideologies to attempt to smuggle in the connotations we have with "religion" and apply those to atheism and materialism. Examine those connotations directly and you'll see they don't sensically apply. For example: religion requires faith without evidence, materialism and atheism do not. Almost all religions make demands on the actions of their adherents, atheism almost by definition…
> Almost all religions make demands on the actions of their adherents
This is a feature, not a bug? Otherwise what's the point?
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#44The world is finally moving to a post-theological era.
Less conflict around religion, and more social progress without it standing in the way. That sounds pretty good to me.
In an atheistic culture, "social progress" is just a moniker for an increase of liberalistic nihilism and hedonism.
Modern western society has so much to thank Christianity for, it's a real shame if it ends up going this way.
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#45Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point he is making is Religion is replaced by Ideology. lets not reduce ourselves to "word-play".
Atheism is not an ideology any more than your lack of belief in invisible pink unicorns is. It is the simple absence of belief. Some atheists do have ideologies that are related to their atheism, many others do not.
Agnostic is not an ideology, not caring whether there is a god or not is not an ideology.
Certainty of non-existence of God is Ideology.
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#47While the premises may have been superstitious craziness, the Christian Church in the West developed an astonishingly successful and huge range of social institutions. I believe this infrastructure has been a huge driver of our political and economic dominance in the last 500 years. Even the science that is overthrowing religious superstition would not have been possible without Church supported universities and general education.
Also, as a social service bureaucrat, my job would have been within a religious organization until 1875 or so. And probably better executed than under modern "scientific" paradigms.
I just hope we throw out the baby but keep the bathwater...
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#48How come this story seems to have suddenly dropped off the first 3 pages of HN?
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#49Materialism, theism and atheism are all religions.
I think not. Religion: The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. [1] Atheism: Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. [2] [1] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/religion [2] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/atheism
Since you're arguing with definitions, I feel it worthwhile to point out that these definitions do not necessarily contradict each other. Note the use of the word "especially".
Re: The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion
#50I feel conflicted about this.
On one hand, religion is a large source of conflict around the world. Its restrictive norms make life uncomfortable for those who don't align to them.
On the other hand, religion codifies how to live a good life, and people with the same religion often share the same values and beliefs, making inter-community cooperation much easier.
I don't think it's a coincidence that at the same time our country loses its religion, it also loses its sense of community. I think both stem from our changing culture that has no real norms besides "think about yourself, give yourself a good life, and let other people figure out how to do that on their own." It's a shame, in a way.