Following the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press, religion found itself bombarded by attacks on all sides, primarily from those who found scientific truth superior to religious truth. The Scientific Revolution promised to replace superstition and dependence on religious priests with skepticism and the certainty of empirical evidence.
The hubris of the Scientific Revolution was the idea that Science and specifically the field of physics, was capable of replacing MetaPhysics, and indeed all of philosophy.
What was missed was that Physics is dependent upon a Metaphysical Assumption, which is referred to as Materialism, or PanPhysicalism. Scientists and Physicists merely took this underlying assumption as unquestionable truth, and denied or ignored the fact that this was a Metaphysical assumption like any other, without empirical or evidential support.
A side effect of Metaphysical Materialism is determinism and nihilism, and thus we are experiencing an epidemic of people who have no identity and find no meaning in their life, and who are therefore turning to political ideology in order to find identity in victimhood, and meaning in opposition.
This massive migration from religion to political ideology is illustrated starkly in the twentieth century's politically ideological wars between Socialism, Communism, Nationalism, Fascism, etc.
The Function Of Religion
Religion, myth, and narrative, as it turns out, provide a vital function to the individual who is thrust into this reality naked and without a why, where, or what for.
Scientific Materialism tells us that there is no answer to the question of why. There is no meaning to what we are doing. There is no purpose, and further, you are not what you think you are.
Scientific Materialism tells us that our consciousness is an illusion our brains are playing on ourselves, and our feeling of free will choice making is also an illusion. We are not conscious choice makers, we are collections of material objects which have the illusion of being conscious, aware, and of making choices.
The result is that we are meaningless objects here for no reason and without purpose. We have no identity. We have no meaning.
But this answer is unsatisfactory and unstable. Even the most committed nihilist cannot remain in that state for very long. We notice injustice in the world, and we commit ourselves to stamping it out. Suddenly, we have regained purpose for our lives. We find meaning.
Identity In Victimhood
Religion had told us that we are souls which make choices. Our identity is as a soul, our purpose is to make choices. The result of good choices is paradise, the result of bad choices is hell.
Scientific Materialism tells us that we are collections of dead matter. We are star dust. There is no reason why. There is no purpose. There is no meaning. There is only determined outcomes and nihilism.
Yet we cannot deny the existence of value. We value some things over other things. And when we see outcomes in the world that are contrary to our values, we find purpose in trying to correct these outcomes... with our choices.
The Nazis saw themselves as victims of the Jews. Nationalists see themselves as victims of immigrants. Socialists see themselves as victims of the rich, the corporations, the bourgeoisie. Etc.
By identifying oneself with a collective identity group that has been victimized by some other collective identify group, we recover for ourselves an identity in the world.
We find community, belonging, and ultimately love in our shared victim narrative and shared suffering and shared mission to oppose the oppressor. We sing our hymns together, we meet on a regular basis, we love and care for each other.
Meaning In Opposition
That there is evil in the world, that there is an oppressor who is exploiting us, is to finally recover purpose for our lives. We must rid the world of the evil and the injustice that exists within it.
We find meaning in our opposition to the oppressor who is victimizing us.
The Nazis must oppose the Jews. The Socialists must oppose the Capitalists. The White Identitarians must oppose people of color. Nationalists must oppose immigrants. The Right must oppose "the left." "The Left" must oppose the right.
In all cases, God has become the State. That great force which will one day in the future set right all wrongs. That will one day bring the victimized identity group to the promised land, and smite the evil oppressors.
The State is worshipped as the God that will one day bring forth The Kingdom of Heaven to Earth.
This Is A Spiritual, and Existential Problem Above All
Ironically, without the oppressor, there is no longer meaning, no longer a righteous meaning to be found in opposing the oppressor.
If the oppressor is gone, there is no longer an identity to be found in being oppressed. No longer a bond to be found in shared victimization narratives.
The identity group dissolves back to the level of the individual members, and the process must be repeated, or else all will die out of nihilistic and existential despair!
Political Ideology turns out to be only a temporary solution to the problems of lack of identity and meaning in the world. The individuals eventually return to nihilism, and must find a different sort of injustice in the world, to rally a new victim narrative to identify with, and find a new oppressor to oppose.
But suppose Metaphysical Materialism turns out to have been a false assumption all along? Suppose there is actually a purpose for being here? Suppose every individual is actually a conscious agent which makes free choices?
Then the false god that is the state is no longer the savior of humanity.
Then victim narratives are false doctrines.
Then opposition to oppressors are false teleological motives.
Perhaps, then, it is time to question deeply this foundational assumption of Metaphysical Materialism. How well does it hold up under skeptical scrutiny?
I am not advocating a return to religious superstition, nor religious dogmatism, but I am questioning whether scientific materialist dogmatism has turned out to be the solution.
I am advocating a deep investigation into the Metaphysical Materialist assumption, and open mindedness towards a possible return to a more spiritual foundation.
One which returns to the individual the identity in being a moral agent, which is to say a conscious choice maker.
And one which returns to the individual a purpose in evolving one's self towards being a better and more conscious choice maker, by optimizing one's choices, relationships, and interactions.
- KG