Assuming that Rome became the Roman Catholic Church/Empire, and that Christianity is actually a form of Imperialism, then my question is this: Once we’ve gotten rid of the archaic religion aspect, what is to be done with the archaic structure? How do we treat the remnants of this crumbling Empire (numerous implications)? What does this new Empire look like? Religious delusions stem from either indoctrination or ignorance, the latter being present even among atheists. What might be some good tactics for governing the ignorant (in a godless world)? Such questions may seem odd, but at the rate our population is growing, I’d say it is inevitable that questioning widespread religious delusions will grow old (in due time) and questions of Governance will become more the responsibility of all citizens. In other words, if modern religion is an oppressive imperialistic force, then is the goal as Atheists to restore proper political control of the world to the people of the world?
Posted: September 4th 2009
bitbutter www
The state, being a group with a monopoly on the initiation of physical force for a given territory, has always needed a way to legitimise its special privileges, its organised theft and its violent suppression of elements that threatened its power. In a time where god belief was near universal, that legitimisation was secured by insisting that the ruling group’s privileges were divinely sanctioned, and that the leaders of the state were instruments of divine will.
As the habit of critical thought spread, the successes of science accumulated and god belief dwindled, so too did uncritical acceptance of the legitimacy of dictatorship.
In this climate democracy arose with an adaptation that allowed it to flourish; through the vote, subjects were encouraged to feel as though they were in control of the state.
While democracy offered a greater measure of freedom than was available under a theocracy or dictatorship, it remained a structure that rested on a premise that, in my view, doesn’t withstand scrutiny, roughly
'It is legitimate for a group to use systematic coercion against parties, who have not voluntarily entered into an agreement with the group, to secure compliance with their demands’
I hope that increasing numbers of people will come to question unexamined assumptions about the legitimacy of state power, which was once supported by the imagined existence of gods.
I’d like to emphasise that the above represents my view only, one that I’m fairly confident is not shared by all or even most atheists.
Posted: September 11th 2009
brian thomson www
I suspect you may be over-analyzing the situation a little. If Christianity is Imperialism, it is more an Imperialism of the mind than the partly Pagan Imperialism of the Romans. In their case, Christianity was the beginning of the end of their Empire, since it usurped the authority of the Emperor and replaced it with a heavenly authority. In the initial expansion of Christianity, it needed no fancy churches or other worldly trappings – those came later.
So, “defeating” Christianity is a game of hearts and minds, and I question what it would mean to “defeat” it. If the Catholic Church were to vanish from e.g. Mexico, and the Vatican lost its authority there, what would be left? Millions of people who would be looking for something to take its place, and I’d expect to see a grass-roots Catholic church filling that void.
Winning the hearts-and-minds war will be a lot harder than that, and will take longer: older generations are essentially lost to religion, hence the current emphasis on keeping religion out of state schools, and resisting the drive to “get 'em while they’re young”. We need to encourage young people to question authorities, and see through the lies they are taught to believe, religious or not.
The Vatican has authority because Catholics around the world are told that it has, from a young age. If we can break that cycle, its authority will vanish, and the Pope will become just another religious figurehead among the many of history. St. Paul’s Basilica will make a nice museum, I think – a museum of religion, perhaps, since that is where religion belongs.
Posted: September 5th 2009
SmartLX www
If religion is a form of imperialism, it’s one which has adapted long ago to co-existence with other forms of authority, from actual empires to totalitarian dictatorships to constitutional monarchies to democracies.
Those forms of authority have relied less and less on religion to maintain control and order. Though religious belief has declined fairly slowly, the number of national theocracies worldwide has plummeted. The structures used in religion were largely copied from systems outside of religion in the first place, and function perfectly well without it.
A goal shared by many atheists (not all) is to free people of all forms of control by religion – political, social, financial, etc. Once they are free of all this, the politics of individual atheists determine what we want to happen next. Once religion’s out of the picture, atheism as a simple lack of belief is irrelevant for practical purposes.
Posted: September 4th 2009