THEY DON'T THINK IT BE LIKE IT IS, BUT IT DO 
#memestr
#memestr
Login to reply
Replies (11)
All the worst parts of a religion
I am not sure I understand the message
But if I do - look around
State usually will use bearded man in a sky to teach hatred to anyone that dares to challenge the status quo.
I stand on a side of misunderstood rebeles
If you have no higher authority, the state will rule
View quoted note →
I don't know of any Western states trying to use the bearded man for anything. If anything, they're saying the bearded man doesn't exist. It's only the science that exists, or something else equally pragmatic - and equally controllable by humans (the state).
In any case, for context (no pun intended), here's the longer thought this meme kind of arised from:
The only reason we don’t just suffer endlessly is that we take care of each other. Parents take care of children; men and women take care of each other; relatives, friends, the free market, the structures of society take care of them all. Or, at the very least, provide some sort of underlying structure and laws, and I don’t mean strictly in a judicial sense. And God, metaphorically speaking, takes care of those structures. And if there is no God, then whatever else is at the top of the meaning hierarchy takes its place and becomes the guiding principle for the whole thing. That usually tends to be the State or the ego or an amalgam of those things which manifests as authoritarianism, tyranny, slavery, and in general - crimes against humanity. In other words, Hell. So there’s nothing trivial about any of this, and there’s certainly nothing trivial about the notion that God is dead. Even if God doesn’t exist, even if God is just a codeword for a set of moral and ethical guidelines, or a personified explanation of the Natural Law, or a description of the Most Good Being - without it, we’re lost.
Related:
View quoted note →
View quoted note →
View quoted note →
If you can get a sense of meaning and a grip on reality without religion/spirituality and also without regressing into statism and/or narcissism, good on you.
For context (no pun intended), here's the longer thought this meme kind of arised from:
The only reason we don’t just suffer endlessly is that we take care of each other. Parents take care of children; men and women take care of each other; relatives, friends, the free market, the structures of society take care of them all. Or, at the very least, provide some sort of underlying structure and laws, and I don’t mean strictly in a judicial sense. And God, metaphorically speaking, takes care of those structures. And if there is no God, then whatever else is at the top of the meaning hierarchy takes its place and becomes the guiding principle for the whole thing. That usually tends to be the State or the ego or an amalgam of those things which manifests as authoritarianism, tyranny, slavery, and in general - crimes against humanity. In other words, Hell. So there’s nothing trivial about any of this, and there’s certainly nothing trivial about the notion that God is dead. Even if God doesn’t exist, even if God is just a codeword for a set of moral and ethical guidelines, or a personified explanation of the Natural Law, or a description of the Most Good Being - without it, we’re lost.
Related:
View quoted note →
View quoted note →
View quoted note →
Western, eastern, all the same.
Ideology of hatred fuelled by religious zeal.
You don’t know any?
Really?
Yeah... For sure...
Just because a tool or a concept has been misused doesn't mean it's invalid or useless. If anything, it points to the contrary.
"With atheism, there is no cultural identity, there is no philosophical framework, symbolism or ritual."
I agree and I think that the lack of all of the above is detrimental to society. It results in confusion, selfishness, hedonism, separation, nihilism. And any of those can lead one to much darker places.
"It's simply not believing in something without good reason."
I can't really agree with that. If that were the case, it would be a good thing. But one of the things that my meme is intended to hint at is that it is NOT the case. It seems to me that most atheists take the laws of the State as the laws of God, the word of the mainstream media as the word of God, the indoctrination by the education system as baptism.
Hey, valid points, and I might be wrong - I haven't studied any surveys or empirical data. But my personal experience is that most of the people around me are atheists, and whether they admit to it or not, they are also statists. I myself was a very selfish and nihilistic person, as an atheist, until some mystical experiences convinced me that there is more to life than what the eye can see. FYI I very much oppose any religious dogmaticism and would not associate myself with any specific religion - as I pointed out to someone else commenting on this meme, I think they've all been corrupted anyway. I have an old WIP piece on the way I would describe the nature of reality, if you're interested: https://medium.com/@mckontext/unified-creation-energy-theory-ucet-8814041ed94c
Peace! ☮️
We are still trying to separate state and religion...
Nice try statesman