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Revolutionary France tried creating one not once, but twice: see the "Cult of Reason" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason https://en.wikipedia.org/wik

Revolutionary France tried creating one not once, but twice: see the "Cult of Reason" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason) and Robespierre's "Cult of the Supreme Being" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Supreme_Being https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Supreme_Being). And of course the cults of personality that sprang up around Stalin in the Soviet Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin%27s_cult_of_personality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin%27s_cult_of_personality), around Mao in Communist China, and in various Communist client states around their own local tinpot Stalin would probably qualify as well. This is the problem with killing God: it's really hard to find a healthy candidate to replace him with.

pishpash 7y ago
Yours is the same argument for countries keeping their paternalistic dictators: "Whatever will we do without so and so?" It's childish and insulting, and the way out is to wean off. Every independence and turn toward truth has to start somewhere.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  That’s not entirely fair, as the comment simply points out that there seems to be a historical trend of a reflex to reinvent religious structures after abolishing traditional religion. Even in the modern day you can take a look at various rationalist/atheist/anti-theist communities which get dominated by larger-than-life personalities from Dawkins to P.Z. Myers, all the way to LessWrong’s singularitarians reinventing eternal damnation via Roko’s Basilisk. Pointing out that it’s very easy to fall into dictatorship isn’t necessarily an endorsement of one, it just should serve as a caution and as a lesson in humility.
guide42 7y ago
Maybe something like budism or Tolle (https://youtu.be/j42cTkiGdXY https://youtu.be/j42cTkiGdXY)
jmcqk6 7y ago
I'm an atheist and I didn't replace god with anything or anyone after I lost my faith. My thinking developed more orthogonally to the old religious hierarchy. The idea that you need to replace god with someone is locked into a mode of thinking that is entirely unnecessary and unneeded.

pishpash 7y ago

Yours is the same argument for countries keeping their paternalistic dictators: "Whatever will we do without so and so?" It's childish and insulting, and the way out is to wean off. Every independence and turn toward truth has to start somewhere.

Apocryphon 7y ago
That’s not entirely fair, as the comment simply points out that there seems to be a historical trend of a reflex to reinvent religious structures after abolishing traditional religion. Even in the modern day you can take a look at various rationalist/atheist/anti-theist communities which get dominated by larger-than-life personalities from Dawkins to P.Z. Myers, all the way to LessWrong’s singularitarians reinventing eternal damnation via Roko’s Basilisk. Pointing out that it’s very easy to fall into dictatorship isn’t necessarily an endorsement of one, it just should serve as a caution and as a lesson in humility.

guide42 7y ago

Maybe something like budism or Tolle (https://youtu.be/j42cTkiGdXY https://youtu.be/j42cTkiGdXY)

jmcqk6 7y ago

I'm an atheist and I didn't replace god with anything or anyone after I lost my faith. My thinking developed more orthogonally to the old religious hierarchy. The idea that you need to replace god with someone is locked into a mode of thinking that is entirely unnecessary and unneeded.