A religious and a secular basis for society. (Part 5)

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 5: Unwittingly, secular ideology is a failed attempt to compensate for the loss of religion

I consider that this is an almost completely unobserved factor in the malaise of modern society – certainly I have not heard anyone else comment on it. Because modern ideologies are so shallow and simplistic, and, of course, ultimately, simply false, and also because the quality of analysis in modern society is so appallingly inadequate, those who are meant to be leading society by the quality of their thinking are completely oblivious to what is actually happening. The link with the decline of religion has not been spotted. Because these self-styled “progressive” thinkers regard themselves as so superior to all who have gone before them, and because they regard religion as “a bad thing” which society should rejoice to be free from, they have been unable to see that their own distortions in their thinking are a direct product of the void left by the rejection of religion. Tragically (it would be comical if it wasn’t so destructive) secular ideologies have recreated all the bad aspects of religion, while losing all the good aspects – most notably the assurance, confidence and sense of well-being that I have highlighted here – along with the basis for community harmony and respect for all that religion provides a foundation for.

Examples of the bad aspects of religion recreated in secular form include: totalitarian claims to truth; inquisitorial condemnation of the unorthodox; adoption of intense purity codes; utter self-righteousness; demonisation of anyone who disagrees with you; a witch-hunt mentality to terrify dissenters; apocalyptic prophecies of doom; utter intolerance of diverse opinions; completely closed-minded thinking; and irrational extremism, to the point of denying simply truths or rejecting scientific fact.

In contrast, religion becomes a world of wise sanity; clear, deep thought; gentle, compassionate desire to understand and embrace those who see things differently; the fundamental honesty to accept the truth – to accept reality – to allow facts and evidence to inform your world view, rather than twisting or rejecting facts and evidence until they conform to your predetermined world view. When secularists – with great justification – started tearing down the illusions and false claims of religion, who would have thought that they would stray so far into error that it is now religious faith that is the repository of reality and becomes the reservoir of truth from which humanity so desperately needs to drink. (Vital note: I fully accept there is still a lot of bad religion out there. So far as I can see, for just about anything you can name, there are good versions and bad versions of it. Clearly, I promote good religion)