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Old 2012-12-29, 22:54   Link #25508
Irenicus
Le fou, c'est moi
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf
I felt that this was what the author was trying to reflect in his opinion piece. It's interesting to me that it would draw such completely opposite reactions.
Yes, well, I felt the opposite of yours too. All I read was "look at these godless humanists and compare them to the compassionate religious," politicizing a national tragedy cloaked in the garb of humanistic questioning.

The question is kind of a peculiar one. "Where are the secular priests?" I would actually be rather pissed if someone steps out and says something stupid like "let us secularists/atheists join together to mourn this tragedy [amen]," because whether or not you are a humanist has shit all to do with it. And who the hell are they to assume the right to be my priests, to lord over me as my clergy and guides?

The sense of crisis that produces this outpouring of religious unity and cooperation, while in this case harmless and comforting and which I have very little problem with, is the same sense that occasionally, very occasionally mind (ha), produces things like witch burnings, ostracisms, wars, and other Very Fun Things. I would celebrate its presence with utmost reservation. It doesn't even help with finding an actual solution -- unless someone smart, well situated, and infinitely more charismatic than I decide to harness this energy to bring some major cultural and mental health institutional reforms in place (+gun control optional because I don't want to wade into that debate).

I would also have to note that what this article's author attempts to place as exclusively religious is, in fact, for many, many Americans, the supposedly religious Americans, superseded by the national community. It was a national tragedy, on national news, the unofficial public chief mourner is basically the national Head of State, the President, and the religious are but a subgroup in this context. Secular is already the invisible default. If you're looking for comfort in your fellow citizens, well there you are, you're replacing what your ancestors would have relied on religion for. Going by the power of nationalism and the very real and sometimes very, very destructive effects on humanity and the world, nationalism-as-secularism really is doing quite well (the subversion and subsuming of the previous regime, religious faith, into the new regime, nationalism, should not be considered truly "religious" in nature anyway). The state is, after all, the greatest of all secular institutions (us idealists would rather pursue things like human rights and "one world" global unity, but it's just not there yet and won't be for a very long time).

The only way a non-national form of secularism can fulfill the need you mention is by its transforming into "a religion," an institution, something like communism. The State has replaced religion in very many key functions of civilization (legitimizing marriages, for starters, and oh how we still feel the hung up here in the US!), but I would rather leave some prerogatives to the not-state, whether they're faith groups, good old family and friends, the local neighborhood (the lack of an actual neighborhood is a modern problem not directly related to "secularism's" failings), or a subreddit. "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state" isn't a very nice idea.

And since I'm feeling cynical today, I might as well throw in the big, big context that it was only the 20th century that saw the world religions come together in a grand multi-faith celebration of, well, faith, where Popes make apologies to Patriarchs for past city-burnings, the Dalai Lama is a worldwide human rights leader, Zen Buddhism comfortably warps itself around American consumerism, and spiritual leaders come together in well-publicized grand gatherings where high rhetoric are spoken (let's ignore Islam's unique issues for now). Beautiful, unifying, so very human, a spectacular contrast to the religious wars of olden days, and it is only possible because of secularism's growing power and penetration. There is a common problem for them all to share, see.

Last edited by Irenicus; 2012-12-29 at 23:05.
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