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gettingreadyfor25's avatar

Firstly this is (mostly) a brilliant article. And this is (mostly) a brilliant Substack. It is my favorite substack I've come across in a long while.

But the article fell short at the S.H.A.M. section.

You say "Atheism is nihilism. It is based on a scientific belief, or actually, it is a non-scientific belief, that the universe self-created itself, out of nothing, for no reason, by accident. This is magical thinking, and it is the root problem. It is the philosophy of our age."

1. Atheism is the absence of belief in deities (whether a god or multiple gods) or sometimes more strongly it is the belief that there are no deities.

2. The big bang hypothesis is not a part of atheism. Atheism is entirely encapsulated in point "1" above and does not involve positive claims about the origins of the universe or humanity.

3. "The universe self-created itself, out of nothing" is the same exact same magical thinking as "God created himself and the universe out of nothing" which is why many atheists (being naturally skeptical) are actually not convinced by the big bang hypothesis.

The S.H.A.M. section alienates a huge section of ALTCOM, firstly by misrepresenting it as the root cause of our problems (fun fact: the same cabal/s of meglomaniacs were using money and violence to control large swathes of humanity long before the enlightenment and during a time when everyone was religious, also those current 'Old World' nations are fully controlled too), secondly by misrepresenting what atheism is, and thirdly by seeming to imply that universal values are not shared by atheists or people who don't follow organized religion but only by the world's major and minor religions. I can get behind "inject(ing) with universal values, as broad as possible" because those universal values (being universal) actually transcend religions or lack thereof.

Otherwise a brilliant article with some brilliant suggestions.

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St Stephen's avatar

Real thought and constructive ideas. Some possibly somewhat off the mark in my view but not far enogh to diminish the general worthiness and main thrust. (Thank you for pointing out that billionaires are not marxists, cultural or otherwise!)

However, I found the brief and sudden lurch towards religion off-putting and the condemnation of atheism bald and shallow. Agnosticism is more reasonable (one can't prove God does or doesn't exist) but promoting belief in a benevolent Supreme Being who loves his human creations despite all evidence to the contrary is just selling more opium to the people; ignoring the crimes against, and manipulation of, the masses by perfidous organised religion in the service of power adds to the suicide of reason plain suicide for any group hoping to organise against its masters.

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