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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   35552 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025

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I think there should be some restrictions on politicians being religiously motivated. In the same way that people objected to Biden being in office with cognitive impairments, I think it's a problem to let government officials base their decision making on religious delusions.

Explain to me how belief that God blesses those who support the state of Israel is more irrational than believing that the iron laws of history produce classless socialism through a process of dialectics.

Both of those sound about equally irrational.

I agree. Now explain how it is more rational to believe instead that "the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

Well I do believe that enlightened liberal societies tend to outcompete backwards, repressive, superstitious ones. But that's not some supernatural force bending history, it's just a result of natural selection. There's a reason why countries like Israel and Ukraine can fight off much more populated but less enlightened aggressors. Liberal values lead to a competitive edge in everything, including warfare.

I think there should be some restrictions on politicians being anti-religiously motivated. In the same way that people objected to Biden being in office with cognitive impairments, I think it's a problem to let government officials base their decision making on anti-religious delusions.

Believing that magic isn't real isn't a delusion, it's a logical conclusion based on evidence. Religious people admit that faith is their sole justification for believing that magic is real, which is delusional.

Thinking that an argument by assigned terminology ("magic") is remotely persuasive is a delusion. You're also deluded as to what you think "religious people" "admit". Your bare, unquestioning faith in bad metaphysics probably also rises to the level of being a delusion.

I agree it's pretty fucked up that our representatives believe insane things. There's many I'd like to be rid of, too! Alas, we cannot police their inner hearts and minds, and we can no more punish them for being religious than we can thinking we live in a patriarchy, or that communism is good, or anything else.

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