Faith and the Left

Cracking piece  today by Dave Hill on the commentisfree site criticizing the left-liberal,  Polly Toynbee commentariat who automatically attack religions.  They are, he bravely says, being just as illiberal in their way as any ranting right-wing authoritarian.  Worth a read.  So are the furious guardianista comments  which follow it.   

Comments

The problem is we understand all too well why people find religions helpful. It's (unfortuntely) very often the same reason that people go to psychics, mediums, and strongly support pseudosciences like homeopathy. It's because it's comforting. When your life feels lacking in direction it's comforting to be able to believe that there is some kind of connecting force and destiny for everyone. When you have been devastated by the loss of a loved one it is comforting to think that they are trying to contact you and let you know that everything is okay. When the health system is letting you down, it's comforting to think that an undermined treatment is actually able to solve everything without the hassle of queues and over-worked GPs.

Religion does, however, deal with a wider range of issues than this. However, the seniments often overlap and they really aren't terribly hard to understand. Dismissing them is not any dafter if they are religious than if they are just superstitious.

[Tony Francis]

The problem is: secular socialist atheism doesn't work on an economic level, nor on a social level. It would be great to follow John Lennon's admonition in "Imagine". Get rid of religion and superstition, and we will all live as one. Live as one until two guys get into a fight over some woman, or the man who fathered your child leaves because you are boring, or someone steals your property, or is jealous, and spreads defamation against you, or cheats you out of a position at work, etc. etc. Maybe that just all disappears if we rid ourselves of religion. What about the sin of pride? I guess religion made that up to enslave us. Greed and lust, too. Surely, these are myths created by religion to dupe us all.
I am tired of the canards that religion stops people from birth control and abortions. There hasn't been one abortion stopped by religion in the US since at least 1973. We've got over 40 million of them to prove it. Same thing with birth control. Those are really getting wearisome. Think up something new, why don't you.

[Toby Scott]

Tony writes: "The problem is: secular socialist atheism doesn't work on an economic level, nor on a social level."

Eh? Where has this secular socialist atheism been tried and failed? Do you mean the communist dictatorships which were run by personality cults? Interesting that you are spinning atheism and socialism together to imply they go hand in hand.

"Live as one until two guys get into a fight over some woman, or the man who fathered your child leaves because you are boring, or someone steals your property, or is jealous, and spreads defamation against you, or cheats you out of a position at work, etc. etc."

This is a tired old argument normally found in the playground. None of the above have been prevented by the existence of religion. Very religious people do the above. There is no reason to assume the absence of religion would increase the incidence of these.

"What about the sin of pride?"
The concept of sin relies on religion... It is interesting that lots of very "religious" people in the US take great pride in their nation and religious belief.

"There hasn't been one abortion stopped by religion in the US since at least 1973."
What utter nonsense. How on earth can you assert that not one single woman in the US has been prevented from having an abortion on religious grounds in the last 34 years...?

"Think up something new, why don't you."
Ironic really.

[Tony Francis]

Well Toby, it's difficult to argue that religion has stopped any abortions in the US since over 40 million have been performed since 1973. When I was in college, they said abortion was the answer to every problem in society. If that is the case, we should be living in Utopia. And what of the sin of pride? Do you atheists admit it exists? Or is that a creation of the churches? I don't know a lot of religious people hanging out in bars fighting over women, or abandoning their children. Maybe you do. Name one woman who wanted to have an abortion, but was stopped from doing so by a church.