Published on March 12, 2025 6:06 PM GMT
The argument about God's existence is a proxy war. A grand ideological slapfight where the real tension isn’t about God at all—it’s about whether we should organize society around individual freedom or collective reverence. The atheists, champions of autonomy, dream of a world where people carve their own meaning, free from imposed narratives. The religious side, meanwhile, sees value in shared belief systems as a glue that holds societies together. The fervor driving the debate is not sourced in theology—it’s related to power, structure and how society should navigate these complex times.
The current resurgence of Christianity in certain circles? Not due to some new, groundbreaking theological argument. There’s no renaissance of divine insight. It’s fear. Societal fragmentation. Geopolitical pressures. When the world feels unstable, when trust in institutions erodes, people grasp for cohesion, for a shared framework that promises security. And religion—specifically Christianity in the West—has a well-worn infrastructure for providing exactly that.
These societal pressures shift the focus of the spectacle, selecting for True Believers —atheist and religious — to serve as fighters in the proxy war. Lost in an intricate lattice of theological justifications, they argue based on the premises of their side, beating a dead horse in front of a cheering audience. None of it matters. God’s existence, in this context, is just a pretext for a deeper question: should we be bound together by shared mythos, or should we be free-floating agents, forging meaning on an individual level?
It’s tempting to get drawn into the debate. To argue about first causes, fine-tuning, consciousness, and anthropics. But if you find yourself in that rabbit hole, pause for a second. Ask yourself: is this a constructive use of your time? Or are you doing propaganda, fighting a mind-killing war in service of a cultural faction?
The real question isn’t about God. It’s about how we navigate the push and pull between individualism and collectivism in a world that’s constantly shifting beneath our feet. If secularism is to stand a chance against the gravitational pull of religious revivalism, it must offer more than the rejection of gods. It must offer cohesion—values, traditions, and a sense of belonging—without clinging to claims of divine authority.
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