Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Why not both?

Post 16.  February 14, 2018 continued . . .

Atheism 2.0 & Deism 2.0

   Deism as a real religion

Although de Botton rejects the details of religious doctrines, he cannot so easily dismiss the power of belief in a universal authority, who stands regally above the petty insecurities of human ignorance and weakness. He asked himself, "why God was not some luxury or piece of myth. I experience God as a psychological necessity for the intolerable anxiety and fear of being human. I can't believe in God, but, boy, oh boy, do I know why people do believe."

Surely, he has noticed that faith in a universal Lord is the most powerful of all motivators of human behavior — to the point of sacrificing everything that the selfish-genes of biological evolution have programmed us to cherish. Medieval saints starved themselves to death (anorexia mirabilis) in their quest to escape the soul-soiling lusts of the flesh. Muslim terrorists proudly aver that they fear God, even more than death. I suppose he wants to turn that indomitable psychological force from empty gestures and otherworldly concerns toward making the real world a place for humanity to flourish, instead of lying dormant in expectation of an ideal afterlife, or seeking instant gratification in a heavenly harem.

A note of caution here though. 20th century Nazism appro-priated many religious symbols & tropes in their mission to conquer the world, not for God, but for the master race. Mass parades to show solidarity with the Fuhrer, repetitive propa-ganda for the dogma of Aryan destiny, and militant demon-strations of the power of the "god-ordained" Reich, bore the imprint of Hitler's Catholic upbringing. He also played the religious us-vs-them card (Gentiles vs Jews) so masterly, that a whole sub-culture almost disappeared in an Old Testment-style wrath-of-god punishment of a sinful nation. So that should be a warning to Atheists and to Deists about playing around with the potent tactics of higher powers2.

Nevertheless, I have to agree that finding some way to reverse the disintegration of modern societies sounds like a good idea. But I think it would work much better in a Deist context than as a paradoxical godless pseudo-religion. However, intellectual-elitist Classical Deism 1.0 never caught on as a real religion. So perhaps the mission of Neo-Deism, if you choose to accept it, should be to learn a few tricks from traditional religions, in order to make its scientific & philosophical attitude toward spirituality more palatable for the masses, and thereby to actually make a difference in the real world. But it should be careful not to take its divine vocation too seriously, lest the tools get out of control and turn on the masters. Perhaps in our next TED talk, we can refer to this new religious technology as Deism 2.0. 

End of Post 16

Note 2 :
I must admit that I am afraid that even Deism could be corrupted by the absolute power of religion. But we can hope that humility and sanity will prevail.