I’m actually okay with some Gaia religion right now that makes it fundamental to protect the planet and “remove” anyone trying to mess with that, like building data centers.
Please don’t… if it is a religion, it involve irrational beliefs that will be armful at some point. To protect the planet we need to know what is good for it, and be abble to find out that some of our knowledges/beliefs are wrong. To find out we were wrong, we need to be rational ; and that require to reject faith.
So, what about personal philosophy? Do you count “Humanism”, or “Earthseed” from Parable of the Sower as religions? No magical thinking, but heavily based in ideas of morality which have no objective truth. There is no definition of “Good” that can ever be objective. You need a philosophical basis, like utilitarianism, for example, to work off of.
There are plenty of people (including many adherents, I think) who’d identify those as religions, but I struggle to comprehend how your claim would apply to them.
A philosophy isn’t a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.
Let’s take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.
Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.
If they follow principles without critical thinking, then yes they have a faith and transform their movement into a religion. Yet Lenin’s principles are to call for critics, to evaluate situations rationally and to reject dogmatism. So following this principles dogmatically is a bit ironic…
Yet I haven’t met anyone claiming being a vanguard yet, or they haven’t told me much about their view on Lenin’s thoughts.
Oftentimes religious beliefs can change someone’s worldviews, including but not limited to, environmental awareness. And I bring my own anecdotal example: since I became a syncretic Luciferian then a sudden Lilithian, I became quite eco-centric, as I got to understand Homo sapiens as just one among countless species instead of some “god’s exclusive toy” on this Pale Blue Dot. I also started to personally understand LGBTQIA+ values because, thanks to Lilith, I began discovering a part of me I wasn’t aware of, my queer me I’ve since became quite fond of (e.g. polishing my nails and letting them grow as a cisman-presenting person).
Those things would be unlikely to happen if I stayed on christianity (yes, I was christian in the far past and I deeply hate having been one) due to christian brainwashing that makes christians to “fear disobeying god” (now I want “god” to go pound sand).
There are religions and religions, faiths and faiths. You won’t get a coven of Wiccans knocking at your door at Monday (Moon day) 3AM “do you have 5 minutes to hear about our Mother Hekate?”, you won’t hear Luciferians screaming “Agios Lucifer, He’s coming back to reign” inside a bus/subway while you’re commuting, you won’t see a Thelemite lawmaker trying to shove Liber AL Vel Legis inside kindergarten and schools, you won’t see Goetians bringing a Solomon’s Magick Circle inside a hospital room to call upon Stolas to cure the patients with his herbal knowledge… Yet atheists tend to put all religious beliefs into the same box as abrahamic religions which have persecuted both you atheists and us pagans, instead of trying to make some rational distinction between different faiths…
I’m actually okay with some Gaia religion right now that makes it fundamental to protect the planet and “remove” anyone trying to mess with that, like building data centers.
Please don’t… if it is a religion, it involve irrational beliefs that will be armful at some point. To protect the planet we need to know what is good for it, and be abble to find out that some of our knowledges/beliefs are wrong. To find out we were wrong, we need to be rational ; and that require to reject faith.
So, what about personal philosophy? Do you count “Humanism”, or “Earthseed” from Parable of the Sower as religions? No magical thinking, but heavily based in ideas of morality which have no objective truth. There is no definition of “Good” that can ever be objective. You need a philosophical basis, like utilitarianism, for example, to work off of.
There are plenty of people (including many adherents, I think) who’d identify those as religions, but I struggle to comprehend how your claim would apply to them.
A philosophy isn’t a religion. You need to think philosophy by yourself, and not just one school of philosophy, since each of them have a point of view that could help you. I also think each of this school can be monstruous and misleading if you follow blindly its principles ; but each may help you to think each situation by yourself more efficiently.
Let’s take utilitarianism, maximizing the good. In many situations it applies smoothly. For the trolley track problem an utilitarian easily sacrify the one lonely to save the 5. Yet if you change the problem as: you are in an hospital and 5 patients need a different organ for transplantation ; an healthy universal donor kid is in a room waiting for a minor broken leg ; do you kill the kid to save the 5? Utilitarian principles should still say yes, but you may feel that in that case applying them would be wrong.
Those who would have faith in the utilitarianism, and apply it as a religion, may not see the problem. Of course, some may have both faith and some doubts. But I think they would think better if they think by themselves, using different philosophical principles, and without an authority to share the responsability of their decisions.
And that’s how the Church of Infinite Greed keeps winning no matter how rational you are. Their irrationality knows no counter.
I don’t think I understand. Do you mean we need a religion to counter capitalism?
Religions are always serving the ones in power, some times they may set new rulers, but then they serve the new rulers…
And no rulers will be good if it is with a protection that pass all to them and protect them.
So I think rationality and education are more likely to be the solution than any religion (even in those not existing yet).
That fell into the same trap you described. They had faith that the vanguard state would wither.
Who do you mean by they? And can you develop?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguardism
If they follow principles without critical thinking, then yes they have a faith and transform their movement into a religion. Yet Lenin’s principles are to call for critics, to evaluate situations rationally and to reject dogmatism. So following this principles dogmatically is a bit ironic…
Yet I haven’t met anyone claiming being a vanguard yet, or they haven’t told me much about their view on Lenin’s thoughts.
You don’t need a religion to be an environmentalist.
Oftentimes religious beliefs can change someone’s worldviews, including but not limited to, environmental awareness. And I bring my own anecdotal example: since I became a syncretic Luciferian then a sudden Lilithian, I became quite eco-centric, as I got to understand Homo sapiens as just one among countless species instead of some “god’s exclusive toy” on this Pale Blue Dot. I also started to personally understand LGBTQIA+ values because, thanks to Lilith, I began discovering a part of me I wasn’t aware of, my queer me I’ve since became quite fond of (e.g. polishing my nails and letting them grow as a cisman-presenting person).
Those things would be unlikely to happen if I stayed on christianity (yes, I was christian in the far past and I deeply hate having been one) due to christian brainwashing that makes christians to “fear disobeying god” (now I want “god” to go pound sand).
There are religions and religions, faiths and faiths. You won’t get a coven of Wiccans knocking at your door at Monday (Moon day) 3AM “do you have 5 minutes to hear about our Mother Hekate?”, you won’t hear Luciferians screaming “Agios Lucifer, He’s coming back to reign” inside a bus/subway while you’re commuting, you won’t see a Thelemite lawmaker trying to shove Liber AL Vel Legis inside kindergarten and schools, you won’t see Goetians bringing a Solomon’s Magick Circle inside a hospital room to call upon Stolas to cure the patients with his herbal knowledge… Yet atheists tend to put all religious beliefs into the same box as abrahamic religions which have persecuted both you atheists and us pagans, instead of trying to make some rational distinction between different faiths…
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