If we want to just forget all examples of anything other than dogmas that cause hell on Earth we are going to be throwing out secular and religious examples alike. The 20th century is often used as examples of secular forms of governments that were responsible for the murder of millions of innocent citizens, mass starvation, etc. State is God in these examples.
I absolutely agree that dogmas cause hell whether they are grounded in secularism or religious institutions and beliefs, and I certainly wasn't attempting to imply that secular dogmas don't exist, and haven't been just as horrific and damaging as religious ones have. Instead, my point was that religion specifically
facilitates dogma through its teaching of faith and absolute belief in religion
regardless of evidence or reasoning against it, which is a claim that I believe religious
and secular thinkers alike can agree upon.
America dominates the world, and America has never been as secular as it is today (the ongoing trend). I’m not calling America a dogmatic hell on Earth, but I hardly see the world gravitating more & more towards a utopia because the world’s #1 superpower keeps becoming more secular. And as I mentioned earlier, so many people in power are so fake and they are just playing the part of what they are pretending to represent. I always shake my head or laugh at this idea that Republicans are Christians lol. I think divide & conquer is the main strategy in government.
This seems to me a classical misunderstanding of the true state of the world. As not only America, but the entire world, particularly the West, has grown more and more secular, virtually every metric we can fathom has shown nothing but an improvement within the world. Poverty, genocide, crime rates, infant mortality, illiteracy, all have plummeted in the past decades. Of course, I am not claiming that this is mostly or all due to the secularism, however it seems to be unequivocally refute the idea that increasing secularism is somehow
worsening the human condition, that concept simply isn't supported in any way by any part of the human state. And I certainly agree with your analysis of problems, even corruption, within governments, althoguh again, I do not see how this constitutes a truly solid argument that secularism is somehow the cause of an increasing array of detriments in the world.
When Western Imperialism was wreaking havoc on the world under the guise of Christianity, it was similar to killing people in the Middle East for oil under the guise of spreading freedom. Both cover stories were bogus. You can not judge a belief system by pointing out examples of its perverted abuse.
I 100% agree with you on this
principle, as any truly reasonable person would. However, as with all things, there is a definitive limit to this argument, in the sense that it is irrefutably the case that if one were to provide a
sufficient number of examples of atrocities and abuses rising out of any given belief system it would in fact begin, if not complete, a perfectly sound argument against that belief system. This case seems reminiscent of a common Marxist argument, which defends Marxism as a theoretical ideology by saying that it has never been implemented "the right way", when addressing the fact that there has never been a single nation which has implemented the Marxist ideology and succeeded in formulating a sustainable economic situation. In this same way I would suggest that there is not a single mainstream religious denomination, and certainly not a Christian one, upon the face of this Earth which has not been party to mass atrocities, including deception of followers, encouraged violence and hatred, blatant misinformation and prejudice, and much, much more. If you would like to contend this point I would love to provide a list of examples, or better yet, refute any example of such a pristine christian denomination which you have in mind.
Look at China! That is exactly the hell on Earth dogmatic regime you have been describing. That country couldn’t be any further from a nation founded of Christian tradition. Then look at all the Western nations founded on Christian traditions and compare them to China, a regime where the state is God.
Again, I agree that China is in many ways, specifically in regards to freedoms and rights, is a less than ideal societal situation. However, I never intended (and forgive me if I was unclear) to propose that all dogmatic dangers arise from religion
and religion alone. Instead I was stating that religion generally
facilitates dogma for the various reasons I set forth previously. And I would also mention that even in a world in which Christian 'tradition' is more beneficial or advantageous for a free society than secularist 'tradition', while proving or supporting the value of Christianity, still does not in fact prove its actual
truthfulness. After all, there are individuals who have experienced life-changing desires to improve themselves (practically beneficial) from psychedelics, which do not accurately represent the world around them (still objectively false).
Jesus didn’t exactly leave us preaching for theocracies! Render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s, and render unto God that which is God’s he said. Respect government so long as it doesn’t violate Biblical morality he said. So again, the only way you can really attack dogmatic Christian atrocities throughout history is to use examples of people actually perverting Christianity. Which isn’t even Christianity!
Again, this rings out in the same tones as the previously mentioned defense of Marxism. This is the same defense which cries out that the inquisitions, the mass slaughters, the slavery, the rampant bigotry and prejudice, the anti-scientific crusades of thought, and countless other religiously condoned atrocities, which, as I again stated previously, have been in some way or another a part of every single religious denomination's teachings at some point in its history, can be explained away as
perversions of Christianity, or religious belief as a whole. And even more stunning is the fact that this argument is made when many of these atrocities were
supported if not
carried out by the highest of leadership within the very Christian/religious institutions in question. And again, I would ask for you to provide a single mainstream and relevant Christian denomination which you believe is free of this accusation, and discover whether or not I am capable of proving its guilt in certain of these proceedings as well.