Good morning,
My Musing on the animus that often exists between those with religious faith and those with a more secular moral code got a lot of response. Here is some of that response:
THERE IS ONE GOD
Murad Siam, my Palestinian brother, notes that in the period of Ramadan, it is important to read and contemplate. And he is contemplating the nature of religion. He notes that “Whatever power created us humans, he/she/it did not differentiate. We humans are one and our maker is one…my personal monotheistic belief system.”
MUTUAL HOSTILITY IS BOUND UP WITH FEAR
Peter Bain notes that “I will add my entirely simplistic observation to your sophisticated consideration of an ongoing dilemma that (in my view) is a perpetual debate regarding faith vs. secularism, and even inter-faith conflict, to wit, “Anger is the armor worn by fear.”
INTERESTINGLY…
On the very day I wrote about religion, Adam Torson’s quotation for the day spoke to the same very subject:
Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.
-- Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon (1820) Vol. I; XXV
PERHAPS IT’S NOT RELIGION BUT SOMETHING ELSE
And then there is Alan Rosenbach, who notes:
You've encapsulated the intellectual analysis of religious people wondering about the abyss of immorality that could derive from atheists following their own philosophies rather than longstanding religious tenets. But is this problem really the primary force behind the right? It's a force-- but not the primary force. Most people don't intellectualize morality...
It seems to me that the majority who continue to back the craziness on the right are operating viscerally rather than intellectually…They are less secure economically because of automation and globalization. They fear that too much immigration, legal or illegal, will change the value systems in their neighborhood or country. They are against change. They view the left as a religious movement of sorts-- a fervor based on wokeness…Religion often provides identity. Wokeness provides identity for those who don't have religion.
Economic insecurity combined with too many foreigners is the primary fear of those on the right. They don't want their children being affected by changing values. They think their children are going to be indoctrinated in a new type of history about the United States, one that is much different from the narratives they were taught as children. Again, they don't want change. Simple as that.
This divide is often rural vs city, in many countries besides the United States. Let's consider France. France's Le Pen is very popular among rural French voters. Their issues are the same as the rural voters in the US: Fear of change, fear of too much immigration, fear of what seems like a religious movement toward wokeness, fear of their children being brainwashed. The French rural voters are not very religious. They don't care about abortion or gays. They just don't want change. See a pattern?
WHERE CIVILIZATION BEGINS
Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
“A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts,” Mead said.
NOTE: The above words about Margaret Mead were lifted from somewhere—I can’t remember where or I’d attribute it!
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives:
Religion vs secular ends up with a bone?