Has Social Justice supplanted Religion? - Listen and Believe

[Medicated]

I believe in Social Justice
I believe in equality
Believe Victims

How many times have you heard statements similar to these? Sure seems like a lot of believes for something that's not a religion or cult.

I've wondered often if humanity actually craves a religion of some sort. After all most of the greatest civilizations and monuments came off the backs of worshipping a deity of some kind. I just find it odd in the age of "logic and reason" there seem to be so many people blindly following Social Justice tenets of some type on Twitter, often repeating phrases over and over, like a prayer, as if it's gospel scripture and can't be disputed.

You'd think for people that have criticized religion for being corrupt and controlling the populace, it seems like they have simply fallen for the same thing under a different name. Remember how the media tried to use disgruntled old Ghostbusters fans and reframe them and angry white non-progressive dinosaurs attacking the new way of life? Seems like accusing someone of being a heretic doesn't it?

I really do wonder if many of these people, if they existed in the past, would've been going door to door trying to save peoples souls from hell every sunday.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

It definitely has, or at least for the SJWs/progressives/whatevers. No doubt that a great portion of these people, had they been around in the 1970s, would've been on the first plane ride to Jonestown, Guyana. It has supplanted religion for them in the same way atheism did for militant/passionate atheists.

That comic may be used as meme material, but it's right in saying everybody has/needs a god.

 

[BILLY MAYS]

who needs social justice when you have this as religion:

 

[Foxxo]

who needs social justice when you have this as religion:

Where are you keeping those kids?

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

It's a religion of a sort. The bad kind. You know, a cult. What's the difference, you ask?

A religion allows you to leave.

 

[flexedupicedout]

the short answer is yes. the long answer is hell yeah nigga they crazy

 

[Meat Poultry Veg]

A religion allows you to leave.

The ummah should take notes.

 

[Foxxo]

It's a religion of a sort. The bad kind. You know, a cult. What's the difference, you ask?

A religion allows you to leave.

That definition's kinda subjective. Islam technically allows you to leave, but you have to turn in your body to do so.

 

[CrunkLord420]

I agree with the idea that social justice is a kind of religion, but compatible with other religions. Like Atheism+ without the atheism.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I've heard some say there's an agenda to remove religion, and identity politics replacing it seems to fit in with that theory.

You know, a cult.

American culture can sometimes promote creepy cultlike thinking, and identity politics seems to be mostly an American thing. Or at least it came from there.

 

[Wallace]

You may be right.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Nietszche unironically predicted all this

 

[Clop]

I don't think it's religion that humanity craves but someone to follow and having a purpose. Religions and causes are packs where you can feel belonging to. Reason and logic are unnatural things that just kind of happened because of our brains' size compared to our bodies, thinking's super hard you guys. Everyone's looking for an excuse to go back in the fucking trees and fling shit.

I fucking wish these people would make like a tree.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

TBH all fits in with the theory of Ernest Becker, humans innately want an ‘immortality project’ to stop them feeling existential dread (What Terror Managment Theory is based on):

Spoiler

Becker describes human pursuit of “immortality projects” (or causa sui), in which an we create or become part of something that we feel will outlast our time on earth. In doing so, we feel that we become heroic and part of something eternal that will never die, compared to the physical body that will eventually die. This gives human beings the belief that our lives have meaning, purpose, and significance in the grand scheme of things.

Theories – Ernest Becker Foundation

Spoiler

TMT is derived from anthropologist Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning work of nonfiction The Denial of Death, in which Becker argues most human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. The terror of absolute annihilation creates such a profound – albeit subconscious – anxiety in people that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom they find exemplify certain attributes, and punish or kill others who do not adhere to their cultural worldview. On an individual level, self-esteem provides a buffer against death-related anxiety.

Terror management theory - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Before it was religion on a societal scale (With also personal creative things such as art, music or writing) but now with people believing less in religion they focus more on changing culture, especially those with low self esteem, are depressed or have other mental health issues.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I don't think it's religion that humanity craves but someone to follow and having a purpose. Religions and causes are packs where you can feel belonging to. Reason and logic are unnatural things that just kind of happened because of our brains' size compared to our bodies, thinking's super hard you guys. Everyone's looking for an excuse to go back in the fucking trees and fling shit.

There's nothing unnatural about reason and logic, though there is a reason that it's not the first things our brains developed to do. Our tendency to see threats everywhere is actually a very healthy survival mechanism. The fact that we're terrified of our own potential, whether it's by creating AI, or nukes, is also a very healthy part of our mind.

A rational argument could easily be made that once you a group first attains nuclear weaponry, that it should use it to maintain dominance and prevent any other group from attaining nuclear weaponry, by use of nuclear weaponry if need be.

Reason and logic are no less terrifying than the more primitive emotional responses. And I see no fewer examples of people escaping into rationalizations or scientism (not to be confused with science).

 

[Clop]

There's nothing unnatural about reason and logic, though there is a reason that it's not the first things our brains developed to do. Our tendency to see threats everywhere is actually a very healthy survival mechanism. The fact that we're terrified of our own potential, whether it's by creating AI, or nukes, is also a very healthy part of our mind.

A rational argument could easily be made that once you a group first attains nuclear weaponry, that it should use it to maintain dominance and prevent any other group from attaining nuclear weaponry, by use of nuclear weaponry if need be.

Reason and logic are no less terrifying than the more primitive emotional responses. And I see no fewer examples of people escaping into rationalizations or scientism (not to be confused with science).

I'm sorry, that's my fault for not wording sarcasm as hard as I usually do. I'll try again:

"Durrrr thinking's super hard you guys! Logic and reason are for HEATHENS! My God which I have not and will not ever see is the smart one here and his teachings are in this handy-dandy book that wasn't written by him! DURRR! What would I do without him?"

Sorry about that, I'll keep this in mind next time. Very thoughtful response, though.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

It's a religion of a sort. The bad kind. You know, a cult. What's the difference, you ask?

A religion allows you to leave.

Scientology and Jehovah don't, but they're pieces of shit.

 

[Medicated]

I agree with the idea that social justice is a kind of religion, but compatible with other religions. Like Atheism+ without the atheism.

Well it seems they have just as many pedophiles as any catholic church so far

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

OP: "Has religion supplanted religion?"
Me: "I don't understand the question."

In all seriousness, though, the answer is yes and no because social justice is a religion in all meaningful senses. Think of it this way: if they were to put "and God says" in front of all the crazy shit they believe, would it actually change the nature of their beliefs or policy prescriptions? Of course not. Despite having dogma, original sin, and so on and so forth, they don't call themselves a religion because that would mean all their useful idiots in academia couldn't openly promulgate the gospel social criticism. This comes from the folly of trying to separate church and state; the state requires a ruling philosophy, whether it calls itself a religion or not, and if you forbid all the formal religions, informal ones will emerge to fill the void. Like nature, power abhors a vacuum.

 

[queue-anon]

TBH all fits in with the theory of Ernest Becker, humans innately want an ‘immortality project’ to stop them feeling existential dread (What Terror Managment Theory is based on):

Spoiler

Becker describes human pursuit of “immortality projects” (or causa sui), in which an we create or become part of something that we feel will outlast our time on earth. In doing so, we feel that we become heroic and part of something eternal that will never die, compared to the physical body that will eventually die. This gives human beings the belief that our lives have meaning, purpose, and significance in the grand scheme of things.

Theories – Ernest Becker Foundation

Spoiler

TMT is derived from anthropologist Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning work of nonfiction The Denial of Death, in which Becker argues most human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. The terror of absolute annihilation creates such a profound – albeit subconscious – anxiety in people that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom they find exemplify certain attributes, and punish or kill others who do not adhere to their cultural worldview. On an individual level, self-esteem provides a buffer against death-related anxiety.

Terror management theory - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Before it was religion on a societal scale (With also personal creative things such as art, music or writing) but now with people believing less in religion they focus more on changing culture, especially those with low self esteem, are depressed or have other mental health issues.

I'm just here to have a good time.