Archive for the ‘Religion As Political Tech’ Category
On Evil Dispositions
When political conservatives ceased to believe in God – if they ever had – they begin to justify religion in terms of making people behave. That is to say, making other people behave. By the end of the Enlightenment, this was practically the only argument left to them. Even Kant was obliged to save his […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
EthnoGenesis
All nations develop and peddle a fictitious history. I have seen a Nazi atlas that showed both the old, “Jewish” theory that Homo sapiens arose in East Africa and the new, “scientific” theory that he arose on – guess where? – the North German Plain. The Americans imagine that their state was founded by the […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
The Prophets As Bloggers
Christians who read the Old Testament allegorically, or what is much worse, mine it for quotations with which to discommode their enemies, seem not to notice that the Prophets are politics from beginning to end; and intemperate radical politics at that. Not only domestic politics, as in the divine commandment to run a decent welfare […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
We Don’t Want No Interpretation
Biblical literalism (nowadays misleadingly called fundamentalism) is not, as cheap journalists like to assume, anything whatever to do with the medieval church. On the contrary, all the medieval theologians knew perfectly well how to interpret the stranger things in the Bible allegorically. Literalism is, and always has been, the banner of a revolt of the […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
Rigor Mortis
The public does not appear to be taking the tendentious labelling of the Islamicist opponent lying down; ever since the Islamists were called “fundamentalists”, it has been common to refer to the Christian and Jewish “fundamentalists” who are thought to have a disproportionate influence on the American and Israeli governments, with the implication that the […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
The Mystical Careers Of Pillars And Messiahs
The American government has just discovered the Sufis and decided that they are a Good Thing, being as they are at the opposite end of the Islamic spectrum from the Salafis and takfiris. We ought not, however, let the general political inoffensiveness of the Sufis blind us to the fact that they constitute a racket […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
Religion, War And Economics
Many atheists, led by Dawkins, hold that religions cause wars, directly and out of nothing. That is, without religions, there would be no war. Others hold that the underlying cause of war is always economic; in the last analysis, it is one group of humans’ wanting to grab another group’s stuff. Religion is then used […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
God’s Job is to Legitimise My Politics
Christian conservatives pretend that their politics are formed by their religion, but in reality it is the other way round. They start with certain social and political prejudices, such as the desirability of low taxes, guns, executions and war, which appeal to their emotions. They then construct a religion around these desires, out of raw […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
“Jesus Gonna Come and Cut My Taxes.”
A SF novel contains the oft-quoted line, “Praise the Lord, Jesus gonna come and cut my taxes.” But where did Richard Morgan get this? Did he just make it up as satire, or did he take it verbatim from some religious cable channel? I do not know. If it becomes a meme, however, it will […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
Can’t You See I’m A Christian?
In some subcultures Christians will, on being asked what makes them a Christian, reply that they don’t touch alcohol. One suspects that in certain other subcultures, they are more likely to respond that they believe in the free market. Or else look at you strangely, since you should be able to see for yourself that […]
In: THE LONGEST CON, Religion As Political Tech
