Politics is the next Religion

Part 1 “The God Delusion”
Part 2 “The Virus of Faith” (see above)

So far those posts are getting a little bit too focused on religion, but it just happened to be that I stumbled upon Richard Dawkins - somebody I haven’t heard of until I watched his TED Talk. Richard Dawkins is also the one who coined the word meme.

The guy and the video is in my eyes somewhat controversial as he basically claims to end with respect towards religious believes and start to fight against especially anti-evolutionary trends in our society. Disrespect is something I can’t tolerate.

However the second part of the video above caught my attention.

He’s comparing religion to a mental virus (he’s a biologist) spreading from people to people, affecting especially older people and children. Religion is infectious and will harm the weakest ones first. Those infected will then spread the virus on to the next generation. I’ve to admit, that’s kind of a neat description.

So in religion people believe instead of making up their own mind based on evidences they can check by themselve. They sit down in a church, listen to someone on stage, read just one book, actively prevent to mingle with others like in the kindergartens example Dawkins mentions.

Fear among the believers is then used as a tool to keep power over people and at this point I come in and say it doesn’t stop at religion. I extend this idea of gaining power over people to todays politics. This blog will be all about it.

The film also gives great insight on how some American churches are run. It’s quite a good level of entertainment on stage.

On great quote from the documentary:

Atheism is life affirming in a way religion can never be.

I will never tell someone to stop believe in his religion. I heart-fully respect someone’s believes.

But there is a point at which I say stop. And Christians are very good at triggering that point.

I once met a very young priest or so (must have been 26) who wandered around the halls of my former campus. He was looking for students he could approach to chat about their view on religion and god. He chose me though I just started to eat my lunch which kind of freaks me out when a warm meal will get cold.

However, I always liked to talk to people who are so into religion. I like to see at which point they try to convert you. Especially Christians are always at the verge of telling you how great Jesus is. Have you ever experienced that with someone who thinks of buddism as his religion? See that’s why it’s so interesting.

So, this young man tries to wrap his head around my point of view which is pretty agnostic and based on physics, things you can prove. We philosophized about the reasons to believe in god and how I could not prove that earth came to existence some 4.6 million years ago instead of 2000. How I right now could not prove to him that dinosaurs are thousand of years old, because how can I even prove we talk to each other now?
How there would be no fundamental moral if there wouldn’t be god as the ultimate and last instance. How other religions are nice but ultimately not right.

I knew where this would lead to so I asked him right away about my impression that every Christian I’ve talked to thinks he has the right to claim a message. Every time they think to be an ambassador of something I wouldn’t understand until I come over and join their little meeting every thursday down the hall.

And guess what. He agreed.

There we have the first reason to complain in this blog:

Pope Benedict XVI urged France on Friday to move towards a model of secularism that acknowledges the “irreplaceable” role of religion in building an ethical consensus in one of the world’s most secular societies.

canada.com

See, Pope Benedict talks about the “crossing cultures” (I guess he means Islam and Christianity?) that put pressure on secularism. So instead of looking ahead and overcome this cultural relict as I like to call it we should look back or even better, turn back the clock. Just do it in little baby steps. Because, you know, it will help. All. Who believes it. Catholicism is the future! The reasons we implemented separation of state and church are suddenly gone!

Before we start of things here at politics is the next religion I want to put you on hold with the following video. I basically like every piece of entertainment that’s critically dealing with religion. Guess what, I’m an atheist.

So the following video is part of the phenomenal TED series in which A.J. Jacobs talks about his experience by taking the bible literally. Enjoy!

This is my first post. More soon.