Is The Religious Right Wing Dying?

[panpareil]

That is not what I said. I think it is possible to enjoy the scent of flowers; without having been sprayed by a skunk.

Do you think your sense of appreciation would still be as keen?

The scent of the flower would not be as sweet if it was less rare. And on the other hand the smell of the skunk would not be at all repugnant if it were constant.

Having less is often having more.

[justplainrev]

I believe religion as a whole is dying. Countless numbers have been killed in the name of religion, the "Our way is the only way" thinking. Peace and inclusion wil come when religion's shackles are shaken, and true spirituality takes its place. This is a realization it took me a LONG time to reach, but I feel so free now that I have realized it.

I have just read a comment in the UK's Daily Telegraph :_ http://blogs.telegra...-right-is-dead/

I have to admit being a liberal Christian the religious right wing has scared me in more ways than one and there is no doubt that what goes on in the US has an influence in the UK. I admit I would be pleased to see the religious right wing go. That is not because I am against religion but because so many aspects of the religious right wing are anti so many things that I personally support.

Such as:-

Evolution being taught in schools.

A health service for everyone.

Gay Marriage.

Respect for other faiths and none faiths.

Recognition that atheists can also be moral citizens and just because your religious does not make you also moral.

The right to question the bible, the church or the government without others complaining that your some how against God for doing so.

etc etc

What I want to know is do members believe it is true that the religious right wing is dying?

I agree. Indeed, I often wonder if what was once suppressed as heresy in the ancient church wasnt the real teaching, and what is mainstream now the deception.

I hope so Pete. I personally believe "Christianity" as we know it is dead and just going through it's death spasms. I feel and hope it is going to morph into something more akin to what I believe Yeshua and Buddha and other great sages have been trying to convey to us. Then we truly will be able to do the miracles these great personages have done and greater. Entities such as the "priest craft" will no longer be able to hold dominion over our hearts, minds and spirit and we will begin to walk as more mature Spiritual beings. I'm thinking by the year 2100 this will all come to pass.

[emalpaiz]

I believe religion as a whole is dying. Countless numbers have been killed in the name of religion, the "Our way is the only way" thinking. Peace and inclusion wil come when religion's shackles are shaken, and true spirituality takes its place. This is a realization it took me a LONG time to reach, but I feel so free now that I have realized it.

Isn't it wonderful when one liberates oneself from that old way of thinking? One should have the freedom to believe or not to believe. I have always seen religion as a path of freedom.

Hermano Luis

[Zequatanil]

Isn't it wonderful when one liberates oneself from that old way of thinking? One should have the freedom to believe or not to believe. I have always seen religion as a path of freedom.

Hermano Luis

I often feel trapped when my faith is shaken, though some will say religion is different,but for me it is the same thing--I agree with you Hermano. For me it is the path to the heart of "God", and the spirit gets tested far often. When this happens, I lose all sense of direction momentarily.

blessings,

Suzanne

[emalpaiz]

I often feel trapped when my faith is shaken, though some will say religion is different,but for me it is the same thing--I agree with you Hermano. For me it is the path to the heart of "God", and the spirit gets tested far often. When this happens, I lose all sense of direction momentarily.

blessings,

Suzanne

One of my spiritual teachers was a very devout man. He was a strong believer in God. He used to say that when things went bad, and our faith was tested somehow or the other, just take a moment to make silence and mentally repeat: "God, God God!" Never lose faith.

Hermano Luis

[Youch]

I have just read a comment in the UK's Daily Telegraph :_ http://blogs.telegra...-right-is-dead/

I have to admit being a liberal Christian the religious right wing has scared me in more ways than one and there is no doubt that what goes on in the US has an influence in the UK. I admit I would be pleased to see the religious right wing go. That is not because I am against religion but because so many aspects of the religious right wing are anti so many things that I personally support.

Such as:-

Evolution being taught in schools.

A health service for everyone.

Gay Marriage.

Respect for other faiths and none faiths.

Recognition that atheists can also be moral citizens and just because your religious does not make you also moral.

The right to question the bible, the church or the government without others complaining that your some how against God for doing so.

etc etc

What I want to know is do members believe it is true that the religious right wing is dying?

What a crock of bull feathers (ToS is so confining, isn't it??). The "religions right" had NOTHING TO DO WITH America's choice to go down a failed path, and defines NOT AT ALL the national conservative platform. Religion is NOT important to major American concerns other than the fact that religion is driving anti-American motives. Please tell me you understand the reality of the major, driving issues in America..?

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

I agree with this to a point. Where religion in growing, it's growing in the conservative denominations and congregations. However the nonreligious as a community is growing too. Which will only serve to divide us even further culturally. A great clash of worldviews is upon us and the old via media which the liberal religious groups served as is fast disintegrating. It'll soon be a bipolar world with little patience or room for fence sitters

What is the opposite of right wing religion? I don't think that it's Atheism.

[Ex Nihilo]

Methinks atheism and nonreligious are not same. Some nonreligious may be atheist but not all. Some just have no specific institutional membership. In other news, I saw this article from across the pond. It appears Jediism is a Force to be reckoned with...badump ching!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9737886/Jedi-religion-most-popular-alternative-faith.html

Edited December 12, 2012 by Mithrandir

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

Methinks atheism and nonreligious are not same. Some nonreligious may be atheist but not all. Some just have no specific institutional membership. In other news, I saw this article from across the pond. It appears Jediism is a Force to be reckoned with...badump ching!

http://www.telegraph...tive-faith.html

I agree. The question is -- if the middle is being replaced by the extreams -- What is the other extream which is opposite the right wing?

[Ex Nihilo]

I agree. The question is -- if the middle is being replaced by the extreams -- What is the other extream which is opposite the right wing?

Good question. I feel like the answer is Secularism, trust in a more relativistic spirituality, something akin the UUism or humanism, or perhaps mysticizing the state or science, as they did under communism. But who knows...maybe it will be militant new atheism when it's all said and done. Edited December 12, 2012 by Mithrandir

[Brother Kaman]

How about religious liberals such as the ULC? All inclusive, anything goes. That would seem to be at the opposite pole from religious right.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Brother Kaman

[Ex Nihilo]

How about religious liberals such as the ULC? All inclusive, anything goes. That would seem to be at the opposite pole from religious right.

Oh no! Not that lot!!!

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

Methinks atheism and nonreligious are not same. Some nonreligious may be atheist but not all. Some just have no specific institutional membership. In other news, I saw this article from across the pond. It appears Jediism is a Force to be reckoned with...badump ching!

http://www.telegraph...tive-faith.html

It is hard to know how real some real groups are.

Temple of the Jedi Order; templeofthejediorder.org

The Jedi Church: jedichurch.org

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

Good question. I feel like the answer is Secularism, trust in a more relativistic spirituality, something akin the UUism or humanism, or perhaps mysticizing the state or science, as they did under communism. But who knows...maybe it will be militant new atheism when it's all said and done.

Militant Atheism, or militant anything else is not opposite the right wing. It is a variation of the right wing. In the same way that the Christers and the Islamists are variations on the theme. Since the key word here is militant -- I'm thinking "Apathetic" would be the opposite. Such as the "Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic."

[panpareil]

The core positions of the entire left are religious, although they will not admit it. The anthropomorphized entity humanity is their god, which is non existent and merely a statistical aggregate of individuals. Altruism is the expression of devotion to their god. But most telling is the drive to control in its name, and wield inquisitional force to exterminate opposition.

Militants are on all sides. The apathetic are on no side. The division is between those who see the brightest future in everyone uninhibited in following their own counsel, much like the ULC, and those who see the brightest future in everyone being directed by those who know better. The problem with the later is in the choosing those who know better, and more importantly just what knowing better means. In my experience committees have a poorer performance record than a motivated and self organizing group.

[Seeker]

the drive to control in its name, and wield inquisitional force to exterminate opposition.

Sounds like a pretty accurate characterisation of the Right to me.

[panpareil]

Sounds like a pretty accurate characterisation of the Right to me.

A part of the right, the whole of the left. There are statists who vote on the right, but statism is not compatible with the ideals of the right, while it is essential to the ideals of the left.

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

Nazi Germany is the ultimate example of statism. You can't get more "right" than that.

[Ex Nihilo]

Nazi Germany is the ultimate example of statism. You can't get more "right" than that.

how do you figure? Are you saying that communist regimes are lesser examples of statism? I would disagree, they were certainly more violent. At last count the blood Stalin (50 million) and Mao (100 million!) Spilt of their own people far exceeds Hitler (9 million). Moreover, Nazi Germany may have evil and corrupt, but at least certain citizens had a modicum of freedom and self-determination.

Further, I take issue with the idea that Nazism is a regime of the "right". When one moves along the right axis of the political spectrum away from the center, one becomes increasingly more conservative and finally becomes identified as reactionary. To be conservative means to be "disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change." That means that conservatives uphold the status quo. Reactionaryism seeks a return to a previous state in society, prior to the current status quo. On the left is liberalism that eventually moves to radicalism, which wants to break totally from the past structures and seeks societal and political changes at the root level that creates a new order. While Hitler appealed to German conservatives' nationalistic ferver and desire for an orderly (ie, hierarchical) society in order to gain power, his ultimate gaol was a new order that had nothing to do Germany's past: an aryan empire based on a deranged twisting on norse myrjolgy and ethos....thus he was a radical and therefore leftwing. While I agree that Franco and, to a degree, Mussolini were right-wing authoritarians, Hitler is not an island in their archipelago.

Lastly, this discussion of which side of the left-right axis is more or less violent and/or authoritarian shows a limited view of the political spectrum, which consists of both a left-right axis AND also the rarely discussed authoritarian-libertarian axis. The further up the axis you move, the more likely you are to adopt statist measures to impose, by force, your will on society. The further down the axis you go, the more likely you are to oppose force of any kind. I, for example, am a libertarian. I support those on the left or right so long as they do not seek to force their will on me and try to remove obstacles from the full enjoyment of my god-given freedom.

This may be a helpful link to understand the nuances of the political spectrum: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

Trying to discuss whether the far right is worse than the far left -- of if the Communists are worse than the Fascists -- is a losing proposition. It is like arguing that devils are better than demons. A pox on them both.