On the decline of Theism and the effects of fear

I feel cold as razor blade
CC - photo credit: confusedvision

I just read this excellent article (hat tip: Pharyngula) about the last century’s trends in religiosy and, for a non-theist like me, it certainly perks up the ol’ optimism. Even though theists in the recent years have been claiming that theism is on the comeback while secularism and irreligiousness was just a passing fad, the cold hard data once again, forms the proverbial thorn in their soft underbelly of wishful thinking.

While this post is partly to advertise the article, I also wanted to comment on part of it that triggered a long standing wish of mine, which is to start talking about my own philosophy of life, but I’ll try to avoid getting into specific labels at this point.

In the article then, it is explained how religion’s drop in popularity is more closely related to socioeconomic reasons rather than being the result of proselytisation from the “New Atheists”. It is shown how most European countries see their religious population percentage drop with a positive correlation to socialism or socialistic policies. Indeed, some of the more socialistic Countries of Europe seem to have, for the first time, a majority or non-religious people.

I will not go into detail on this, as the article makes the case much better than I ever could, however it did raise a very interesting point. That US high religiosity has much to do with the lack of a social net for the population, and the easy way with which one can go bankrupt and never recover. Indeed this constant fear that the population lives with, is what drives so many people turn to religion or spiritualism for comfort. It is no wonder that the larger percentage of religious people resides in the poorer rural areas.

Of course this is a result of the rabid anti-socialism that is prevalent in the American society ever since the First Red Scare. Because of the huge negative emotions and reactions that being labeled “left” carries, socialist policies like universal health care, have failed to become reality which, among others, rightly earns U.S. their label as the aberrant example of a developed nation.

But what does this have to do with my own philosophy? Well, the correlation between non-theism and social safety reminded my of one of the building blocks for it, Epicurism.

As a philosophy, Epicurism was one of the first ((if not the first. Not absolutely certain on this)) who explicitly espoused materialism and a form of deism as a method to reduce fear and personal suffering. Especially because this kind of materialism instructed a radical reduction of human needs to the bare necessities, it allowed people to reduce their anxiety and fear which further chipped away at their theism.

It strikes me as brilliant then (( In a bad way)), that in the U.S., where the exact opposite of this materialism is promoted, (namely crass commercialism) the fear and anxiety increases and leads to even stronger theism. Indeed, theism itself quite often wraps itself around commercialism (or is it the other way around?) and takes away a sizable amount of money from the “flock” in exchange for blissful uncertainty. It’s like a drug who’s withdrawal symptom is fear.

I can’t help but wonder at the masterful mental construction this has created in the minds of U.S. Americans today.

  • Greed → Commercialism / Consumerism.
  • Consumerism → Fear. (“You have to buy more stuff, or the society will collapse“)
  • Commercialism → Fear. (Lack, or reduced, social security keeping people scared of sudden mishaps)
  • Fear → Greed. (“You have to have wealth or power to be happy“)
  • Fear ↔ Traditionalism / Conservatism. (“We must return to our old values to save our society“)
  • Fear ↔ Nationalism / Xenophobia. (“We must protect the homeland in order to survive and prosper“)
  • Fear ↔ Authoritarianism. (“We need to reduce freedom in order to prevent societal problems and terrorism“)
  • Fear ↔ Theism. (I don’t think I need to explain this.)

It’s a vicious cycle. It is no wonder that all these values and beliefs go together most of the time and generally, if someone has one, it is quite probable that he will have at least some of the others as well. All of them feed the fear, and fear feeds them all.

Does it surprise anyone that most Clergy have authority? Does it surprise anyone that most Clergy are conservative and most Conservatives crave authority? Does it surprise anyone that pure capitalists tend to be religious ((Even Objectivists who exhibit the most pure form of Capitalism display a certain religiousness)).

Finally, does it surprise anyone that fascism embodies all of these together in a nice round package?

Fear is the common denominator, and any philosophy that is designed to reduce fear is bound to reduce the person’s attachment to these values. This is why so many atheists seem confident, progressive, liberal and socialistic. They all lack the necessary levels of fear to be anything else ((I would also like to mention here that one can repel fear with anger as well, but only until his anger subsides. This is why atheism based on “anger at god” never lasts)).

What we need to do, is not attempt to convert people to atheism or non-theism. What we need to be doing is to change the society in ways that reduce fear. As that happens, slowly these values will start retreating due to lack of empowerment.

2 thoughts on “On the decline of Theism and the effects of fear”

  1. YES !!! BRAVO INDEED !!!

    I was always anti-bourgeois, at the same time considering western capitalistic, liberal and consumerist societies as absurd and corrupt. Hell, the bourgeois have only one central objective: material power. Making money. Consuming. And they also sprinkle this shit with superstitious, empty sort of religion, plus culture and art that amounts to little more then intellectual masturbation.

    But what really bothered me was that, as hard to believe as it may be, there really were some people there who believed that we must depart from the bourgeois state towards a higher state of higher values. This really disappointed me.

    But when I read words like yours, I realize that there is still hope for this world. You see solutions so clearly, that I can't help to agree with the header of your blog- frustratingly brilliant reasoning !

    YES- THIS IS THE SOLUTION. We must depart from the bourgeois condition and go DOWNWARD. To the subhuman condition. We must destroy all greatness and excellency, all potential for superiority in the name of EQUALITY !

    Only after we have eliminated everything sacred, everything that would point to a higher, transcedental reality, and only after we have embraced a reductionist, purely materialistic view of the world, based on nothing more than our five senses, only then can we consider ourselves and our society as evolved.

    This is the obvious solution: a society where the only things that matter are our biological functions and short term material concerns. Let our eyes turn away from anything above this ! Let's all, every human on this Earth, join hands, eat, drink and defecate together, as a symbol of our equality and similarity to one another. We are all human, we all have the same internal organs and basic functions, and it is obvious that this is all that matters !

    My only wish right now is that our grandchildren will live in that even more perfect society where all chains that enslave us will be broken, and that our grandchildren will sleep on top of the trees, naked, along with the chimps and birds. ONWARD TOWARDS THIS PROGRESSIVE VISION !!!

    1. Ah, I see you went on a strawman spree on my blog, continuing with silly extrapolations. Do my words annoy you? I think you need to chill out, and perhaps go and rant about some fundies to the little militant atheist circlejerk I'm sure you have.

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