RE: Comfort in Faith at Death
July 7, 2019 at 9:11 pm
(This post was last modified: July 7, 2019 at 9:33 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
You began this by thinking that comfort provided by belief in an afterlife had anything to do with antitheism.
It shouldn’t be surprising to you that the belief in a deity, deism, is also not what antitheism refers to
We commonly point to those more general and nebulous beliefs, and their relationship as opposites on a scale of religious extremism to show that we understand the difference between the two. Even theists ( especially theists) have a strong antitheistic streak, but it’s contextualized as maltheism directed at -other- gods.
As soon as people start talking about a god-as-Uber human that intervened in life or death with a shitlist and relationships... misery isn’t far behind. No matter how comforting the belief, or how fairweather faithful the mass of believers are. Without that mass of Good Believers their shit belief would have more difficulty being normalized, or becoming culturally dominant.
Think of antitheism in context of hitchens saying “ I will not play with your toys or be made to play with your toys”.
That’s opposition to theism. The belief that their Superman spoke is impossible to separate from the belief that you should listen to what it said or that the world ought to be made inline with its wishes ( without dipping into the antitheist ir maltheist well, at least). Whether that manifests itself as violence or social coercion is a fun convo... but, social coercion is the more effective way to produce the same ends that violence is leveraged for.
It shouldn’t be surprising to you that the belief in a deity, deism, is also not what antitheism refers to
We commonly point to those more general and nebulous beliefs, and their relationship as opposites on a scale of religious extremism to show that we understand the difference between the two. Even theists ( especially theists) have a strong antitheistic streak, but it’s contextualized as maltheism directed at -other- gods.
As soon as people start talking about a god-as-Uber human that intervened in life or death with a shitlist and relationships... misery isn’t far behind. No matter how comforting the belief, or how fairweather faithful the mass of believers are. Without that mass of Good Believers their shit belief would have more difficulty being normalized, or becoming culturally dominant.
Think of antitheism in context of hitchens saying “ I will not play with your toys or be made to play with your toys”.
That’s opposition to theism. The belief that their Superman spoke is impossible to separate from the belief that you should listen to what it said or that the world ought to be made inline with its wishes ( without dipping into the antitheist ir maltheist well, at least). Whether that manifests itself as violence or social coercion is a fun convo... but, social coercion is the more effective way to produce the same ends that violence is leveraged for.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
