Thread by @RadicalSecular

Arguments about the existence of God are absolutely 100% vapid, useless, and unresolvable. They are an example of the the kindergarten stages of religious deconversion. But they are a complete dead end and miss the point entirely.

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In fact, such discussions play into the hands of religious power structures by creating an untestable binary proposition. Which then sets up preposterous philosophical rabbit holes like Pascal's wager which just builds on the original pointless question.

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Trading on the controversy of the existence or non-existence of a deity takes the credibility of a made-up mythology and brings it from a 0% storybook fantasy to a 50% probability: A supreme being exists or doesn't exist. Harry Potter exists or doesn't exist? Irrelevant.

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We've recently been treated to the spectacle of many so-called luminaries in the atheist movement turning into reactionaries. Among them, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion. He made a good case for non-existence of a deity, but what did that accomplish?

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The transition from atheism to secularism / humanism involves the recognition that disgust with religion actually reflects disgust with unearned hierarchies--in general. A fantasy God character isn't the problem. The problem is human abuse of power.

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"God" is merely the top dog in a made-up arbitrary moral hierarchy used by conservatives to justify the world they want to inhabit. And they attempt to use the power of the state, and money, and emotional blackmail to enforce their desires. Which don't include democracy.

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This is George Lakoff's conservative moral hierarchy. Arguments over the existence of God are really arguments about this:

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And isn't it a coincidence that so many famous atheists are also white and male and have found themselves rejecting "God" but supporting the rest of the CMH. All the "Western civilization" and "anti-woke" dog whistles in the world can't elide the contradiction.

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This is why we at The Radical Secular don't talk much about God's existence or atheism, even though we are, of course, atheists. Because we understand that this world and this life are the only ones we have. And justice is therefore our primary concern.

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So the question is never, "Do you believe in God?" The question is always, "Do you support justice?" And that is why we are so adamant about separation of church and state. Because we see the incredibly corrosive intrusion of narrow sectarianism in public life.

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Specifically, with the Covid pandemic, we've seen religious politicians willing to perform egregious human sacrifice to retain power. Opposing vaccinations and demanding lockdown exemptions to allow religious services to become super spreader events.

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Indeed we would rather have politicians like Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or MLK or others who publicly professed their belief in God but support social justice, than people like Trump who couldn't care less about God but use believers to retain power.

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Arguably the human brain needs to fabricate a dualistic concept of the universe, what Daniel Dennett calls Cartesian Gravity which likely evolved to help overcome a paralyzing fear of death. Religious myths helped humans to cooperate during the establishment of civilization.

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So railing against God and dualism and religion end up running into a firestorm of opposition because this drive toward magical thinking is sadly a part of our evolved mental makeup. A lot of people lose their minds when they contemplate their existence as mortal mammals.

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While we at The Radical Secular believe evolution to be strictly true, we are much less concerned about people accepting their mortality and animal nature and finite lifespan, than we are about how our systems of governance help or hurt human flourishing.

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For example, religious believers can support the "care of creation," to demand climate action. Or they can support kindness and The Golden Rule in order to justify their votes and efforts toward social democracy and racial equality.

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It turns out that religious dogma really does matter in terms of public policy. If you're an Evangelical who supports prosperity gospel nonsense to justify tax cuts and disaster capitalism, and continued burning of fossil fuels, you're the enemy of humanity.

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But the same scriptures that religious charlatans use to justify all these abuses, can also yield a strong motivation toward community and cooperation and stewardship. We think you shouldn't need scripture to care about your fellow human beings, but whatever works, right?

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The point is that we demand "justice, equality, and rational public policy." And that is why we find anti-racism, anti-sexism, support for LGBTQ+ rights, and overall human flourishing to be our highest goal. Join us every week if you agree!

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