Atheists are the new Christians
I don’t mean that literally. Atheists have not started believing in God. But in one respect they have replaced Christians—they are now the group that views all humans as having equal worth. In contrast, universalist Christianity has largely been replaced with Christian nationalism (which of course is a sort of oxymoron.)
Here’s Matt Yglesias:
George W. Bush took up the cause of HIV/AIDS in Africa and created the PEPFAR program with the backing of a bipartisan majority in congress.
PEPFAR is quintessential elite-driven, inside-game policymaking. You could never win a high-profile public argument about how we should help poor people in Africa. That’s why now that Bush is off the scene and it’s no longer a personal priority of anyone important in Republican Party politics, the program is mired in the larger abortion discourse dynamics.
But membership in the cosmopolitan minority is increasingly correlated with other issue positions. The kind of Bush-style politics where Christian commitments drive traditionalist notions of sex and gender, but also universalist beliefs about human value is going out of style. Increasingly, the cosmopolitan-minded people are just the secular people who are also on the left on other issues. This is all part of the larger process of education polarization — politics in western countries increasingly pits the business class not against a labor union left, but against what Thomas Piketty calls the “Brahmin left” of educated professionals and social service providers. Those are the people who are mostly likely to be cosmopolitan, and that’s created a mutually reenforcing cycle in which politics increasingly aligns around views of immigration rather than views of Medicare.
Illegal immigration could easily cost Biden the election.
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22. February 2024 at 20:56
Maybe I’m a bit too dense here but I fail to see how anything you said related to anything Matt said nor any mention of atheism or Christianity period, secular is not a synonym for atheism.
A bone with something Matt said though “Educated people committed to liberal values and pluralism who increasingly dominate left-of-center politics in western countries are also committed to cosmopolitan values”; where are these magical people committed to liberal values whom even having marginal influence on politics, much less dominate. Pretty sure liberal values, especially on the left, have been in full retreat and picking up speed as it goes this entire century so far going back until the 80’s at least.
22. February 2024 at 22:16
I see things a bit differently, after my vacation in the Philippines. One thing that struck me while there was how differently people in the service sector are viewed and treated, and that includes not only cashiers, wait staff, and delivery drivers, but handymen, CNAs, etc. They are not looked down upon there as they are in the US. More generally, people who are less educated are not looked down upon there, as here.
I’ve begun to realize that this is perhaps one big reason for the blue collar move to uncivil populism. After repeated large failures by the white collar elites, the blue collar now wants more say in how things are run, and candidates like Trump can activate them. Also, the internet has helped amplify their views and organize them.
They bit their tongues for many years in relative silence, as immigration rates picked up, social progress continued, the college educated grabbed ever larger shares of the ecnonomic pie,… They tolerated this more when change wasn’t quite so rapid with the results seemingly so unfair, and with policy failures not so large and obvious. They feel not only left behind, but stepped upon, and they feel like the educated elite live in another world.
And I have to be honest, it’s hard not to look down upon people who want to build a wall on the southern border, restrict trade, pull out of long-standing alliances and other treaties, codify fundamentalist religious beliefs into law, look up to fascists like Trump and Putin, think of the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers”… There’s much mutual disrespect, mockery, and even hatred now.
There’s also been a growing gender divide that has disproportionately hurt less educated men. Women have long been getting college-educated at higher rates than men, and have seen gains in their relative earning power. This, along with internet dating culture, means that Tyler Cowen’s “Average is Over” thesis also applies to dating and marriage. Women seem relectant to “date down”, and more women today prefer to remain single than to “settle”. Women, on average, have much higher expectations for men as mates than in the past, and so many men are left out of the dating market.
Then, we have the generational divides, with older Americans having secured expensive retirement benefits for themselves, while driving up deficits and debt. This suggests higher taxes for younger generations in the future. At the same time, older generations also restrict housing development, pricing younger, less successful people out of many markets.
Looked at this way, it isn’t surprising that so many people are MAD AS HELL, and willing to toss out the baby with the bathwater.
I agree with Peter that this isn’t really about atheists, on the religious dimension, but about the religious fundamentalists against everyone else. As Scott alludes to in his post, these aren’t “Christians” in any real sense, as they often even express disgust with the Sermon on the Mount. These are Old Testament believers, who take the Bible quite more literally than most Christians.
22. February 2024 at 22:30
To expand just a bit, I’ve long used internet ordering and self-checkout lanes just to avoid dealing with cashiers. I don’t want to talk to them or otherwise have anything to do with them. I similarly rarely dine in at restaurants, as I don’t want to deal with hosts or waitstaff.
This isn’t because I hate them, but because I just assume that if they say anything, it won’t be worth hearing, and I don’t want to be troubled to respond. It would be hard to believe that the disrespect I have isn’t obvious at times. I don’t mean to be this way, and I’m trying to change, but I’m still avoiding service people as much as I can.
I realized that I live in a bubble. I live in a beautiful historic district in Jacksonville, Florida, where life seems like a dream. I’m surrounded by miles of streets with late 19th and early 20th century rivivalist and art deco homes and apartment buildings. I walk to do just about everything I need to do, having many of the best doctors and dentists and other educated service providers just down the street.
I don’t track my spending when I shop. I don’t often have any drama in my life. I never see the extreme crime in certain areas of town. Easter services here are held at the yacht club.
I need to figure out how to deal with people who are different than me.
23. February 2024 at 05:35
Peter, Yes, Yglesias does somewhat misuse the term “liberal”, but I got his point.
“secular is not a synonym for atheism”
Maybe, but they are increasingly correlated.
Michael, I’ve never been to Jacksonville—didn’t realize they have so many nice areas.
23. February 2024 at 06:40
@Michael
One thing about core Trump supporters is that they make up a minority of the electorate. Another way to look at the US is to realize that Biden would be cruising towards reelection if he had managed to keep border crossings down. Immigration is basically the only winning issue that the right has. When voters are given a chance to vote directly on access to abortion, a majority supports it even in red states like Kansas or Ohio. Voters broadly prefer the agenda of the Democratic Party over that of the Republican Party, as shown by Democratic candidates winning more votes than the Republican candidates in all but one election since 1992. Democrats just need to pull their heads out of their behinds and realize that both swing voters and even Democrats very deeply dislike too much immigration, and especially immigration that they view as disorderly. The Democrats have a choice, and that is to give the voters what they want on immigration and by doing so win enough elections to implement the rest of their agenda (which is broadly popular), or to lose to people like Trump. Perhaps understandably, Biden didn’t put much focus or attention on the border in 2021-2022. It might have split his caucus, and made legislation impossible. But after the 2022 elections, once it became clear that the Democrats would not be able to pass any legislation, he should have been laser focused on setting himself up to win in 2024. Not making securing the border a focus, and both publicly and privately supporting that was a huge error. No one in his administration wanted responsibility for the border or immigration because they viewed as a lose-lose proposition, and that is Biden’s fault. I mean, he could have given the job to Harris and actually backed her up, by telling her that if she handled it well that would pave her way to the presidency in 2028, and that trying to move left to prevent a vigorous primary race in 2028 was dumb, because no matter what Harris does she is going to viewed as the moderate candidate anyway, and her main argument for herself will be that she is more electable than Warren or AOC or whoever.
23. February 2024 at 08:24
Lizard Man,
Yes, Trump supporters are a minority, but they’re a large minority. Yes, the Republican Party is collapsing electorally, which is presumably one reason they increasingly favor authoritarianism. The gerrymandering, fear mongering/rage generation, and general lack of perceived acceptable alternatives are all that keep Republicans together.
Republicans don’t even have policy platforms anymore. They have grievance wish lists and enemies lists, in addition to wanting to build a a white, Christian nationalist theocracy. They don’t consider policy implications of a theocracy, which is how you get red state voters motivated to protect abortion rights, after voting for people who promised to ban abortion for decades. And now the IVF services end in Alabama, and people act like they couldn’t see it coming. Some of these religious kooks want to ban any and all activity that might waste sperm or egg cells. They think that even preventing the creation of a potential person is interferring with god’s plan.
It’s not suprising that the old Republican leadership lost followers, given the decades of lies and culture war distractions, while their real goal was obviously always to serve the plutocrats. Tax cuts for the wealthy at all costs was the goal, with deficits only a problem when social benefits were discussed or when Democrats were in the White House. The leadership had been mostly performative for years, even prior to Trump. Think of the 50+ overwhelming Republican majority votes repeal Obamacare, many of which disappeared when actually in a position to repeal.
Regarding Biden, he’s gotten a surprising number of large bills through Congress. This represents suboptimal policy at best, but the political achievements are impressive. Yes, like most Democrats, Biden has not been aggressive enough in pointing out Republican nonsense.
Regarding immigration, for what its worth, polls seem to consistently suggest most Americans like immigration, but don’t like the perception that the border is out of control, whatever that means. I think it’s a dumb concern, but it’s one Democrats need to address aggressively. The vast majority of immigrants are not sneaking across the border. We should be welcoming them at the border anyway.
The idea that government can best decide who should immigrate here is absurd. They lack the incentives and the information to do so, and anyway, all people who come here to work without causing trouble are a net benefit.
23. February 2024 at 08:32
Scott,
Yes, I live in the Riverside/Avondale area, which also has the art museum and city symphony orchestra down the street, in addition to a truly astounding number of public parks with a great deal of green space.
https://riversideavondale.org/architectural-gems/
This is a very socially progressive area, with people of all ages, due to the abundance of rental property. That means lots of hipster and Ma and Pa restaurants, coffee shops, and retail stores. People are friendlier here than in other parts of town, but as Europeans would say, it’s probably mostly just on the surface.
I’m very YIMBY in perspective, but am a hypocrite to live in a protected historic district.
23. February 2024 at 08:39
Universalist Christianity has not largely been replaced with Christian nationalism… it’s just that Christian nationalism has always been a great temptation…
Some words on this from a Christian leader from 2021….
“ We can fail to accept, except perhaps in words, a weak and crucified God, and prefer instead to dream of a God who is powerful and triumphant. This is a great temptation. How often do we long for a Christianity of winners, a triumphalist Christianity that is important and influential, that receives glory and honour? Yet a Christianity without a cross is a worldly Christianity, and shows itself to be sterile.
For the cross is not a flag to wave, but the pure source of a new way of living. Which? That of the Gospel, that of the Beatitudes. A witness who bears the cross in his or her heart, and not only on his or her neck, views no one as an enemy, but everyone as a brother or sister for whom Jesus gave his life. A witness of the cross does not dwell on the wrongs of the past or keep lamenting the present. Witnesses of the cross do not employ the ways of deception and worldly pretension: they do not want to impose themselves and their own, but to give their lives for others. They seek not their own advantage, in order to be seen as devout: this would be a religion of hypocrisy, not a witness to the crucified Lord. Witnesses of the cross have but one strategy, that of the Master: humble love. They do not look for triumphs here below, because they know that the love of Christ bears fruit in the events of daily life, renewing all things from within, like the seed that falls to the ground, dies and produces much fruit.
Dear brothers and sisters, you have seen such witnesses. Cherish the memory of those persons who nurtured you and helped you to grow in the faith. Lowly and simple persons who gave their lives in love to the end. These are our heroes, the heroes of everyday existence, and their lives changed history. Witnesses generate other witnesses, because they are givers of life. That is how the faith is spread: not with the worldly power but with the wisdom of the cross; not with structures but with witness. Today the Lord, from the eloquent silence of the cross, is asking all of us, as he is asking you, and you, and you, and me: Do you want to be my witness?”
23. February 2024 at 08:41
How is “Christian nationalism” different from the Moral Majority stuff of the 1980s? Seems like it’s just a new name for the same thing.
23. February 2024 at 08:53
I personally think that Biden is a bit too much like Neville Chamberlain, insofar as Biden is hoping to prevent war mostly through words and not through military strength. I see no reason to think that the military balance of power between the US has improved during Biden’s presidency in the US’ favor. The US might still be powerful enough to lead a coalition that can successfully defend Taiwan and the rest of Asia, but it is far from obvious that is actually the case, and that is a huge problem as it makes the odds of World War III much higher. But just like in Europe, Americans don’t won’t to believe that they will have to increase the sacrifices they make in order to maintain peace, and that the cost of not doing so is a disastrous war which in which the very best outcome is a global economic depression. Trump is obviously way worse, but I fear that no matter who the leaders are, the West is sleepwalking into a nightmare that is largely of its own making.
23. February 2024 at 08:54
I’m not sure I follow this post, but to the extent I do, I’m not sure I agree with the premise. When I look through these charts on American charity, including overseas charity, I’m not sure I see the trends you’re talking about: https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/statistics-on-u-s-generosity/. One line from the site: “Religious people are much more likely than the non-religious to donate to charitable causes—including secular causes—and they give much more.”
23. February 2024 at 09:24
But my ompression is that if you look at people really helping the poor it’s still heavily Christians. It’s that politically Christians have adopted the Republican agenda.
23. February 2024 at 10:38
This poor argument was made on MSNBC last night.
It’s great Sumner keeps up with his nightly T.V. schedule. Whenever someone else makes an anti-trump or anti-christian post, we can be sure Scott will repeat it.
Christian nationalism, Mr. Buffoon, doesn’t really exist. Christians don’t believe in combining religion with state.
They do, however, believe in universality. Whether that universality is from god (Augustine), nature (locke) or dignity (kant) is another matter. But they don’t like little Sumenr creeps taking their liberty away, inflating the price of their goods and services, destroying their communities, calling themselves elite, plotting once a year at a forum, then saying ridicilous things like ‘everything is subjective’, ‘everything is a struggle for power’ and ‘everything is a social construct’ with no purpose and no meaning, so that nothing remains but the pretentious (you) the mundane (you) and the insane (you).
Keep writing, though. You’re making progress. Slight improvement from 2011. You’ve gone from barely legible to somewhat readable.
Perhaps one day, you might actually be an intellectual. I won’t hold my breath.
23. February 2024 at 10:56
Sara’s responses are always worth reading on this blog. Sandifer – you are a fucking tool.
Love, Steve
23. February 2024 at 11:03
Lizard Man,
I agree that Biden has been way too weak on foreign policy, though he’s the best we have. I can’t even think of who would be better who could actually win office.
It makes no sense to me that we’re willing to provide weapons to Ukraine now, that we would not provide prior to the war. If we properly armed Ukraine in the first place, perhaps the Russians would have been deterred.
And we just put more sanctions on Russia this week. Why not put the maximum sanctions on during the military buildup on the Ukrainian border? Then, remove them only if Russia backs away?
This is not all Biden’s fault, as he was certainly more hawkish during the buildup to the war than many European NATO members. But still, our military lack of readiness is not only disappointing, but dangerous. For all of Trump’s talk of “rebuilding our military”, the state of readiness is rather shockingly low. Trump lied about that too, not surprisingly.
It’s not a popular idea, and perhaps an expert could talk me out of it in less than 5 minutes, but if we nuclearize the bulwark countries on Putin’s European borders, it can radically change Russia’s calculus regarding its sphere of influence forever. That means not only providing the nuclear war heads of course, but also advanced and diverse enough delivery systems to ensure MAD.
23. February 2024 at 11:19
Everyone, Obviously, I’m not referring to all Christians.
Lizard, You said:
“the West is sleepwalking into a nightmare that is largely of its own making.”
Yup.
23. February 2024 at 11:37
steve,
LOL Perhaps you’re happy with the fact that Alabama accidentally banned IVF when they passed a law that established that life begins at conception. No effort has been made by many anti-abortionists over all these decades to try to anticipate unintended consequences of such laws.
23. February 2024 at 12:15
I hope sumner doesn’t burn my church down.
His hatred for Christians is palpable.
Christians were hunted and slaughtered in Nigeria last year. Over 5000 killed. From Alabama to Texas, Churches were burned and attacked this year. There has been an increase in Christian hatred and it’s part of the CRT movement. Quacks like Ben Crump who call white people ‘psychopaths’. People like him don’t value equality. They value superiority. He’s a black nationalist. He called the founding fathers ‘Christian nationalists’ and the bill of rights a ‘christian invention’. Crump also believes that if we want to reduce violent crime, then we should just change the definition of a crime.
23. February 2024 at 16:12
https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1761171554593861765
Bishop Robert Barron’s response to Athiests who claim Christians are a danger to the Republic.
Never heard of a “Christian Nationalist”. But come to think of it, I’ve never heard of Latinx until recently. I just can’t keep up with the leftists self aggrandizing.
Senorita is just too feminine for them. Senora apparently is too polite. Now these bigots think our religion is a threat to them. LOL.
I’m starting to think that Milei was right when he said: “You cannot give a shit leftist a millimetre or they’ll kill you.”
23. February 2024 at 16:43
Christian nationalists strike me as rather tame compared with Muslim nationalists
24. February 2024 at 09:35
There are no real Christian Nationalists. You should feel super silly saying the phrase… There are a ton of nationalists who will limit foreign immigration to those who BOW DOWN TO Western Civilization (judeo-christian values):
Rights come from God. Not the govt. Rights are mainly best understood as PROPERTY RIGHTS.
The Federal Government will not choose a national religion
So YES, you’ll find the GOP will happily eventually unpeel prior SCOTUS rulings to get rid of the Incorporation Doctrine so that states can limit speech, and Utah can be Mormon and Michigan can be Sharia, and the new US state of Israel can be Jewish.
But until then, you should expect ALL illegals will be turned into Biometrically Tracked Guest Worker – and they will all be forced to leave after 6 months working and come back 2-3 months later.
And with that in place, I expect we’ll take UNLIMITED high skilled that can make $80K in Detroit or $140K in SF – AND LIKE BIKINIS.
24. February 2024 at 10:33
I think I should defend Christians who are really Christian. As we know, this is actually a fairly small group. When you look at the numbers of people who claim to go to church and compare it with the recorded attendance numbers at churches the latter number is much smaller. So th large majority of people who claim to be Christians are just making a cultural claim and lack real faith and have rarely read the Bible or much theology at all. These secular Christians very much are into politics and very much want to enforce their ideas about their faith, often wrong, into law but they are largely tribal beliefs that belong to the GOP. It’s one of the reasons that pro-life ends as soon as the baby is delivered. It’s one of the reasons that when faced with poor people they completely forget WWJD.
Charitable contributions? They look good for Christians when the analysis is done by Christians. when done by others its notable that a large percentage of their donations goes to church activities and even those that supposedly go to secular activities are selectively supporting their preferred beliefs. (Check out the nice Gyms and praise bands at some of those big evangelical churches.)
Scott- David French has written some good stuff on Christian Nationalism. He finds time to write when not receiving death threats from Christians upset that he doesnt support Trump.
Steve
24. February 2024 at 10:36
Steve, I wouldn’t even say it’s a small group—there are plenty of good Christians.
24. February 2024 at 10:37
“But in one respect they have replaced Christians—they are now the group that views all humans as having equal worth. In contrast, universalist Christianity has largely been replaced with Christian nationalism (which of course is a sort of oxymoron.)”
Rather refreshing to hear this argument from someone who isn’t Jewish. Christianity begun and will end with Jews ‘splaining to da goyim how to be true Christians, lol.
24. February 2024 at 18:30
Steve, I’m extremely glad most Christians don’t read the Bible much and aren’t ‘true Christians.’ True Christianity is pretty terrible. Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t just boil down to a vague edict to ‘be nice.’ I’m not a Christian, but I’m happy to assert that modern-day America has, from a secular standpoint, just about the best Christians the world has ever known, largely because they’ve mostly assimilated secular norms.
As to why Christians have become less cosmopolitan. My take is that it’s because in the era of Bush, promoting American, western, ‘civilized’ influence abroad still largely meant promoting Christianity, at least indirectly. Christianity was still somewhat a part of ‘the blob.’ But today western countries are much more secular than even 20 some years ago. You’d be hard pressed to find an NGO or aid agency today that doesn’t have at least some policies that in overt contradiction to Christian values. Christianity has also become a low-status ideology, and low-status ideologies tend to become parochial (same thing happened to Paganism when Christianity became the religion of the urbanites in the Roman Empire).
IMO, David French can’t really address the subculture he’s devoted his career to taking down because he refuses to recognize the fact that one of the main reasons many Christians are freaking out nowadays is because they’re realizing what he seems totally oblivious to, that their religion is dying and is only a few generations away from being little more than an irrelevant, cultish minority in the US. If I were a sincere Christian and were witnessing the pace and irreversibility of secularization, I doubt I’d be able to take it with equanimity either.
24. February 2024 at 19:50
re: “the people of the breath”
Mark Z writes: “True Christianity is pretty terrible.”
Actually, it’s very beautiful if you understand it.
The Qur’an says that mainstream Christianity has covered up the truth, and that it is gnostic Christianity, that which mainstream calls a heresy, which is the true Christianity. There are elements of gnostic Christianity in the canonical gospels also, but even these mainstream Christianity has covered up.
Recall that gnostic Christianity divided people into three types: the hylics, the psychics, and the pneumatics. The hylics were the people wrapped up in materialism, the psychics were the people torn between matter and spirit, and the pneumatics were the people of the spirit, i.e., the people of the breath.
The same tripartite division of people is in the Qur’an and the Qur’an describes in detail the relationship between these three groups. Thus, true Christianity is preserved in the Qur’an, as are all other revealed scriptures and in their true form.
Another name for the hylics is “somatics”. I mention this because in the following YouTube video, and right at the start of the video if opened up in paused mode instead of autoplay, you will see the words: somatic, psychical, and pneumatic. The video is by David Bentley Hart, who I believe is a pneumatic, and speaks about something called the doctrine of reserve. The idea being that some Church leaders were aware of this teaching but hid it from people who were not capable of handling it. In any event, here is a link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvEVV9qNias
As an aside, I am a Sufi. (Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, i.e., the Islamic path to enlightenment).
Also, while there are various names for what would be the equivalent of a pneumatic in Arabic, one of these names is “khalifa”, often transliterated as “caliph”. This from Wikipedia:
[quote]
Etymology of California
Multiple theories regarding the origin of the name California, as well as the root language of the term, have been proposed, but most historians believe the name likely originated from a 16th-century novel, Las Sergas de Esplandián. The novel, popular at the time of the Spanish exploration of Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, describes a fictional island named California, ruled by Queen Calafia, east of the Indies. The author of the novel, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, also known as Ordóñez de Montalvo, is thought to have derived the term California from the Arabic Khalif and/or Khalifa, but he might also have been influenced by the term “Califerne” in the 11th-century epic French poem The Song of Roland.
[end quote]
If the first explanation is correct, and that picture of a car’s license plate in an article by Scott Sumner which has printed on it “NGDPLT”, is Scott’s car, then Scott has, well, “pneumatic” printed right there on his license plate.
25. February 2024 at 00:02
I have a rule for social media: Anyone who uses the phrase “Christian nationalism” unironically is too stupid for human engagement, and must be permanently thoroughly and irrevocably blocked on a cross-platform basis.
25. February 2024 at 01:33
I just read Matt’s article.
Matt laments that one cannot redistribute someone’s labour because it’s a “political nonstarter.” But that’s not liberal.
The government can either protect your rights or violate your rights, but it cannot claim to do both at the same time. Either theft is moral or immoral.
As St. Augustine said: “No unjust law can be law at all.” If you allow all laws to be created by a plurality, then that will lead to what John Stuart Mill called “the tyranny of the majority.”
Likewise, the word “educated” and “cosmopolitan” cannot be used in any meaningful way. Do you think the undergraduate with a high GPA in gender studies is more educated than the low GPA student studying Physics? Is Christopher Michael Langan, an autodidact with an I.Q. of 190, less educated than an MBA at Harvard? I doubt it.
Matt talks about his “cosmopolitan” view. Matt attended Havard, which is 95% democrat. Is that a Cosmopolitan place?
You see the irony is that Matt wants his city to be “cosmopolitan” but only if the people living in the city believe what he believes, which isn’t very cosmopolitan. He simulatenously criticizes Muslims and Christians for living in separate communities, but we all know that if NYC began to recruit Texas Cowboys he’d run to Vermont.
In New York, Atheists are attacking Jews outside their homes, spitting in their faces, ripping Jewish pins off their shirts and coats.
It’s funny, because the Atheist is marketed as peaceful, but it’s most often militant. Atheists have a profound hatred for Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. They arrogantly believe that all of the world’s problems could be fixed if religion was banned.
However, Atheism is a religion. The religion of the Atheist boils down to moral relativism and nihilim. Atheists often believe that they are superior to the various religious groups, and therefore have an obligation to impose themselves upon those “less educated” groups. That’s why they have no problem bombing Iraq, Palestine, Bosnia, where they even blow up religious sites. The Atheist believes they are backward people. The white Atheist liberals wants to be their “savior”.
The most glaring contradiction is that the Atheist often worships Science, but doesn’t fully understand the science. They criticize our “faith” based beliefs, but they also have “faith” in what they don’t fully grasp.
Dawkins is a very smart man. But so is John Lennox and Jordan Peterson. Educated people can reach very different conclusions about religion, morality, natural law, etc.
In my view, Matt is a phony. He’s not a real intellectual.
25. February 2024 at 10:21
PEPFAR may have done net good (such programs often fail a cost-benefit test, but perhaps this one passes); still, it was imposed on American taxpayers who disapproved of it, and thus it fails the libertarian test. In the first flush of youthful libertarian enthusiasm, I would have thought it important to note this fact. But I changed my mind upon realizing that almost everything fails the libertarian test; and among the ultra-numerous (actual and proposed) government programs that fail it, this one looks relatively benign.
It is worth noting that libertarianism is sufficiently contrary to human nature that it can never be implemented, and 2nd-(3rd-, nth-)best arrangements are all it is reasonable to hope for; also those of us who are not *opinion-leaders* should pay little attention to global politics, which we cannot significantly affect. (Our “hoping for” should be very much lacking in passion.) The choice we Americans are now facing, between smug leftists and mean-minded nationalists, should greatly bother us only if there were something we could do to escape it. Since there is not, we should largely ignore it. “ONE MUST CULTIVATE ONE’S OWN GARDEN.”
25. February 2024 at 23:15
Another Atheist attacked a Christian yesterday.
According to KWAM out of Memphis:
“The black pastor of New Zionfield Baptist Church was shot in the parking lot of his church this morning. Memphis Police say the 70-year-old pastor was trying to stop two thugs in hoodies from stealing a Sunday school teacher’s car.”
I’m telling you, man, these marxists calling themselves “liberals” don’t really like diversity. They like uniformity. It’s all about ideology. They’ll propagandize anything Kendi says because he’s a useful idiot – a man with an SAT score in the 60th percentile. They’ll market Kendi, and tell you how much they love black people. But they won’t market Carol Swain, Glenn Loury, Thomas Sowell, Ben Carson or Walter Williams. Those are the “bad blacks” who don’t play by their rules.
As Biden would say: “they ain’t really black.”
Cosmopolitan, for Yglesius, means diversity in skin color. It doesn’t mean diversity of thought.
29. February 2024 at 08:49
All true scott. At the same time, we see people who claim to be pro working class, yet really find globalization to be bad, because for them, massive improvements in Asia don’t count. When international socialism stops being international, it turns into something else… and we know who is increasing their share of that vote. Bad for everyone, as I don’t think there’s any kind of growth-oriented economic policy in there. I am disappointed by how the US donor class has been reacting to things.
As for the comments on balance of military power, I wonder at which point it becomes tempting to just stop all the pretenses of ‘weapon aid’ in Ukraine, and just let the NATO air force shorten the war. If the fear of escalation is this big, it’ll be just as big in any other armed conflict.