I was raised atheist by atheist parents. My mother was raised in one of the weirder Christian sects and got out of it before they married. I have always been an atheist despite growing up in a small town with a church on every block, including one whacky church that actually did things like book burnings and burning Michael Jackson in effigy for corrupting the youth. Most of my friends were catholic, growing up, and that led me online for friends on days when they had CCC. 300 baud hayes for the win and online atheist communities, etc.
That said, as I've gotten older, I think I've concluded that many people - maybe even most - have a sort of need for religion that I somehow never appreciated. Without religion, I think we end up with the modern world, and by that I mean the weird secular religions (on all parts of the political spectrum) that keep springing up in the absence of a formal church, complete with weird notions of sin, apocalyptic thinking, etc. As an outsider, and as someone fascinated by cults and moral panics, it's interesting how similar the structures and language are between these movements and (new) religions are.
So 100% atheist.. but a suspicion that the world would be better off, Chesterton's fence-style, with a dominant religion secretly run by atheists.
No, I'm still an atheist. There's no reason to believe in god nor any evidence that we define reality through our beliefs and experiences (and a lot of evidence that this has zero impact at all, a la the entire pool of continuously disappointed "The Secret" devotees).
I'm just saying that I think there is a sort of need in most people, probably an accident of evolution, even one that has some positive fitness value due to second order effects, to have something religion shaped. Atheists like me basically helped create the mess we were in by helping to destroy the more mainstream religions thereby creating an opportunity for straight up crazypants stuff to emerge with properties that are harder to deal with (nothing is written down, nothing is consistent - Q) by pointing out the flaws and obvious falseness. We acted as a selection function for an even more terrible set of ideas.
In a lot of ways the current situation is very similar to the second great awakening in the early 19th century which spawned a number of cult-like sects of Christianity.
That said, as I've gotten older, I think I've concluded that many people - maybe even most - have a sort of need for religion that I somehow never appreciated. Without religion, I think we end up with the modern world, and by that I mean the weird secular religions (on all parts of the political spectrum) that keep springing up in the absence of a formal church, complete with weird notions of sin, apocalyptic thinking, etc. As an outsider, and as someone fascinated by cults and moral panics, it's interesting how similar the structures and language are between these movements and (new) religions are.
So 100% atheist.. but a suspicion that the world would be better off, Chesterton's fence-style, with a dominant religion secretly run by atheists.
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