Posted on 08/02/2022 7:50:13 AM PDT by DeweyCA
The American left has plenty to complain about these days. Liberals who support standard Democratic Party platform planks such as legal abortion, more gun control, and public schools over private schools or homeschooling, have been drenched in bad news coming from various Supreme Court cases and polls showing a widespread rejection of their agenda in the coming elections. There is plenty of blame to go around, at least in their minds. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court is near the top of the list of villains for many. Conservative elected officials passing laws they disagree with are also common targets. And then there’s always the Bad Orange Man who can apparently be blamed for virtually anything.
But at MSNBC’s website, Zeeshan Aleem has a different target in mind. Rather than blaming any one person or group of people for all of these woes, he’s found a more pervasive evil that is the fountain from which all of these disasters are flowing. You see, the real problem is Christianity. Yes, it’s embodied in the words and actions of many public figures who adhere to the faith, but it’s the underlying religion itself that’s poisoning the communal well. And the only answer is a new era of “energetic atheism” that Aleem would like to see identified as “communitarian atheism.” That is how the world can combat this trend toward a despotic “Christian theocracy,” enacted by “Christian nationalists,” permanently taking over America.
There are two pressing crises tied to the state of religion in America today. A new style of atheism can help answer both of them.
The first crisis is rooted in an excess of religion. Christian theocracy is not far-off specter but an emerging reality in America. Fueled by a radically reactionary Supreme Court that is two-thirds Catholic, Thomas Jefferson’s already-dilapidated and graffitied “wall of separation” between church and state is crumbling. The overturning of Roe v. Wade means the lives of women across the country are being held hostage by a conservative Christian conception of life. Kennedy v. Bremerton permits school officials to publicly pray and make students feel pressured to join in. Carson v. Makin allows taxpayer dollars to be used to fund religious education.
This is a very long essay, so you’re to be forgiven if you don’t want to invest the time to try to sort it all out. But the underlying premise of the twin “crises” facing America today really deserves a trip out to the commonsense woodshed. Aleem begins by claiming that an “excess of religion,” specifically Christianity, is at the heart of the problem. Presumably, some other religions might be okay, but not Christianity. Aleem himself was raised as a Muslim before being “freed” of that and turning to atheism.
But after defining the problems with an excess of the Christian religion, the author unironically identifies the second crisis as “the decline of religion.” He claims that Christians are gaining more and more power in the courts and in legislative bodies and using that leverage to somehow oppress everyone else. But at the same time, he notes that organized religion is in decline and fewer people identify with major Christian sects or regularly attend services. This part of the essay becomes particularly muddled, but Aleem seems to be suggesting that if more people of faith spent more time in church and in each other’s company, they might realize that they shouldn’t be passing laws that other people disagree with (or something like that, anyway).
Right up front, the author takes pains to point out that the Supreme Court is now “two-thirds Catholic.” What this has to do with their rulings on anything from abortion to gun rights or vaccine mandates isn’t specified, but it is clearly suggested that they are conspiring against us in some fashion. (Sonia Sotomayor is one of the Catholics on the court so the secret conspiracy is not currently voting in lockstep.) So obviously action is called for.
But what would a spreading adoption of some new form of atheism accomplish? Aleem suggests that a well-organized atheist movement could “help agitate for and finance a secularist equivalent of the Federalist Society.” You can see yet again how the Supreme Court is at the bottom of these crises in the minds of liberals since the Federalist Society has famously worked for years to place more conservative jurists on the bench. The author claims that this new, atheist society would act as a “bulwark against theocracy.” It’s an interesting idea, but how would such a group be substantially different from existing liberal organizations that permeate the country today?
Aleem also suggests community “study groups” to create spaces for atheists to share their values without “spewing venom” at organized religion. As I said, it’s a long essay and he goes on at length from there. But I would leave this topic with one question for the author. Isn’t the fundamental idea behind atheism a rejection of the “organized” nature of the major churches and their shared belief in the power of God, however you define that being? Building an organized movement of atheists sort of sounds like a central planning committee for anarchists, doesn’t it?
Who goes into a war without God on their side?
Even some crappy fake god like Baal or Krishna. Gay Thor.
Why? Makes no sense at all.
Atheism is all about situational ethics (among other things). Oddly, they see many laws as “Christianity” that are really not. i.e. laws against murder or robbery, or anything protecting individual rights to make good or bad decisions or believe whatever you want.
Abortion, their flagship issue, is about whether you are ending a human life or not. And to be clear, most of them are for it even if it IS a human life being ended. That thinking leads to infanticide and, truth be told, even justifying killing an adult that is making your life “hawrd”.
The Bible makes clear that those who truly follow Christ (not some phony pagan church or mega-church game show host promising prosperity) would be hated and hunted shortly before His return. The godless zombies are coming out of the closet.
Communitarian atheism sounds like trying to herd cats.
I knew that the left wanted to eliminate Christianity and replace it with its own religion: Leftism.
What liars. They want their own “theocracy.”
They can have their way in the tribulation, right after Christ takes us home.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
Psalm 14:1
They mostly worship killing children and the elderly,child perversion and hard drugs.
And BIG government (spending OPM and controlling people).
What liars. They want their own “theocracy.”
*************
Bingo! Extreme Liberalism is their religion and they want to impose it on everyone.
A society premised on atheism will inevitably move to either totalitarianism or anarchy.
And their high sacraments are abortion and sodomy.
Separation of Church and State
Article 52 [Religion]
(1) Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda. Incitement of hostility or hatred on religious grounds is prohibited.
(2) In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.
-Constitution of the USSR
Comcast is the most dangerous American enemy and must be totally destroyed
The lawless man is produced by the spirit of evil and armed with all the force, wonders and signs that falsehood can devise. To those involved in this dying world he will come with evil’s undiluted power to deceive, for they have refused to love the truth which could have saved them. God sends upon them, therefore, the full force of evil’s delusion, so that they put their faith in an utter fraud and meet the inevitable judgment of all who have refused to believe the truth and who have made evil their play-fellow.
Antitheism or atheism?
What are its values?
After 2000 years of trying to destroy Chstianity THIS time they’ll get it right. Just like “socialism.”
“energetic atheism”
You can see people being energetic in their Christianity, serving the Lord, helping the unfortunate, living a moral life, seeking salvation and the hereafter.
But what would motivate a person to be energetic when that person has no beliefs whatsoever? What are they working toward? What goals do they seek?
The only goal atheists have is to deny others their beliefs. That is their highest calling. What a miserable, sad life.
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