Where are the militant athiests?
This is written in response to the ravings and ramblings of autocratic theologians starting from the new Pope down, who increasingly rage against a supposed cabal of militant athiests, secularists and humanists and materialists who are the strawman ultimately responsible for leading the defenceless and the weak peoples of the world to their moral and spiritual ruin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1365417,00.html
So where are the militant secularists, the militant atheists, where are the high priests of atheism and anti-religiousity who trumpet their moral relativity and loose-living values?
They are no-where, they do not exist anywhere, other than as a figure of the persecuted mind already tortured by visions of the eternal writhings in the pits of hell, living in mystical dread of the supernatural forces for good and evil they are convinced stalk the earth. Unfortunately for the 14th Century medieval mind, The 20th century atheist spectres of Fascism and Communism are dead and gone and not likely to be resurrected anytime soon, which is inconvenient for someone looking for secular dragon to slay. Never-mind that Fascism and communism were not atheist revolutions but neo-religions in their own right who saw conventional religion merely as rival to their own ideological ambitions
So instead, the devils of materialist comfort, moral relativity and scientific progress are blamed for the societal ills of divorce, abortion, euthanasia and promiscuity etc all of which go under the nebulous expression known as "moral decay" often expressed of in sepulchral cadences as if satan himself was riding shotgun in every boudoir in the land.
Of course if religious elders the world over are to be believed, then moral decay has been as happening as long as the worlds been turning and man has been old enough to rest on his stick and complain about it.
Of course the real beasts that should haunt the men of the cloth (for its hardly ever woman) are the age old spectres of science and technology as well as the new stalking horses that threaten religious absolutism such as globalisation, pluralism, multi-culturalism… and the secular, liberal framework or rights that underpin it, vouchsafing, even actively promoting, a diversity of viewpoints, values and opinions.
Globalisation brings home how diverse the world is, and how much each religion, no matter even with a billion adherents, is no more than a cultural cul-de-sac housed next to literally millions of other alternatives, which in a secular, global world, where choice and individual freedom to develop ones own moral and belief framework is on the increase, even 2000 year old religions face the prospect of being just another item choice in the metaphysical and ethical supermarket for individuals.
According to the religious conservatives pluralism and multiculturalism is the localised spectres that bring home the beast of globalisation, creating societies, and particularly cities such as London, where the great diversity of world culture is no “out there”, but also “in here” throwing up all the multitude differences in cultures, belief systems, values and the like. However they misunderstand their own nations history, pluralism is the pulsating life force in our political system that allows for a multitude of voices to express their differences, making a single, autocratic, religious and moral worldview very difficult. Pluralism also necessarily thrives in a secular political sphere that allows the religious and non-religious alike to express themselves equally without fear of repression or violent conflict. This of course under-minds what the religious conservatives would call the “unity of the moral character of the nation”. Multi-culturalism in a secular, liberal democracy allows any expression of religion and belief, giving cultural life to the plethora of noisy humanity that expresses itself in the secular, relativistic (but not absolute moral relativist) pluralist societies of ours but in exchange demands that it’s citizens adhere to the laws and polity of their society.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1365417,00.html
So where are the militant secularists, the militant atheists, where are the high priests of atheism and anti-religiousity who trumpet their moral relativity and loose-living values?
They are no-where, they do not exist anywhere, other than as a figure of the persecuted mind already tortured by visions of the eternal writhings in the pits of hell, living in mystical dread of the supernatural forces for good and evil they are convinced stalk the earth. Unfortunately for the 14th Century medieval mind, The 20th century atheist spectres of Fascism and Communism are dead and gone and not likely to be resurrected anytime soon, which is inconvenient for someone looking for secular dragon to slay. Never-mind that Fascism and communism were not atheist revolutions but neo-religions in their own right who saw conventional religion merely as rival to their own ideological ambitions
So instead, the devils of materialist comfort, moral relativity and scientific progress are blamed for the societal ills of divorce, abortion, euthanasia and promiscuity etc all of which go under the nebulous expression known as "moral decay" often expressed of in sepulchral cadences as if satan himself was riding shotgun in every boudoir in the land.
Of course if religious elders the world over are to be believed, then moral decay has been as happening as long as the worlds been turning and man has been old enough to rest on his stick and complain about it.
Of course the real beasts that should haunt the men of the cloth (for its hardly ever woman) are the age old spectres of science and technology as well as the new stalking horses that threaten religious absolutism such as globalisation, pluralism, multi-culturalism… and the secular, liberal framework or rights that underpin it, vouchsafing, even actively promoting, a diversity of viewpoints, values and opinions.
Globalisation brings home how diverse the world is, and how much each religion, no matter even with a billion adherents, is no more than a cultural cul-de-sac housed next to literally millions of other alternatives, which in a secular, global world, where choice and individual freedom to develop ones own moral and belief framework is on the increase, even 2000 year old religions face the prospect of being just another item choice in the metaphysical and ethical supermarket for individuals.
According to the religious conservatives pluralism and multiculturalism is the localised spectres that bring home the beast of globalisation, creating societies, and particularly cities such as London, where the great diversity of world culture is no “out there”, but also “in here” throwing up all the multitude differences in cultures, belief systems, values and the like. However they misunderstand their own nations history, pluralism is the pulsating life force in our political system that allows for a multitude of voices to express their differences, making a single, autocratic, religious and moral worldview very difficult. Pluralism also necessarily thrives in a secular political sphere that allows the religious and non-religious alike to express themselves equally without fear of repression or violent conflict. This of course under-minds what the religious conservatives would call the “unity of the moral character of the nation”. Multi-culturalism in a secular, liberal democracy allows any expression of religion and belief, giving cultural life to the plethora of noisy humanity that expresses itself in the secular, relativistic (but not absolute moral relativist) pluralist societies of ours but in exchange demands that it’s citizens adhere to the laws and polity of their society.
posted by Anthony Burn at 5:29 pm
