“Religion is Politics?”
From the title, I thought this was going to be about the One Universal World Religion: Statism. But, no, it was about Christianity and abortion and the interpretation of language, and all that boring stuff that’s been beaten to death for decades, if not centuries.
I’m much more interested in the way Statism continues to fly under the radar, with almost nobody recognizing it for what it is. The nation-state as it is conceived today carries all the same attributes as a religion: belief in the non-existent (national boundaries) symbiology elevated to the level of holy icons (flags, monuments), scripture (constitutions and laws), binding authority of the priesthood (politicians), ritual singing (national anthems) and mantras (pledges of allegiance). Nationalism (“our country is the best on earth”) is effectively the same thing as the claim religions make for themselves (“ours is the one true religion”).
Even most people who call themselves “atheist” worship at the altar of the nation-state, although lately I’ve been seeing hopeful signs of apostasy. Now that the faithful flock have chosen a knuckle-dragging mouth-breather to be their high priest, I’ve seen an encouraging number of people starting to say, “Now wait just a god-damn minute! Something’s fundamentally fucked up here!”
You’re right, folks! Keep on with that train of thought. Next thing you know, you’ll be imagining a peaceful world where people will live out their lives and work out their differences without lying priests drumming up wars.
