I’m continuing my reporting on the next installment from Conservative Estimate, the recently founded website that is devoted to demolishing Conservatism.
Yesterday, Alfred George showed that Religion should never be superior to politics and society.
Today, having completed his critique of Religion, he shows how Religion can actually be a force for good within society.
Let's mosey across the duplex orange whorley thing . . .
Mr. George begins by saying that he has no animus against Religion per se:
All this criticism of Religion that we have expressed during the previous week does not imply that it has no useful role at all to play in society. We have intended to show only that Religion should play no direct role in government. This is because Religion, as it is practiced by the majority of believers, can do nothing directly to make government better.
He goes on to point out that Religion can certainly be a force for good in society:
Nevertheless, Religion can indirectly benefit society. The proper place of Religion in human life is to link people back to the source of their being, to remind them, and make present to them, the source that stands behind their lives, the power than makes the world beautiful, awe-inspiring, and lovely. If Religion was pursued with its proper end in mind, more people would be at peace with themselves and with others, and the need for vicious attack and refusal to compromise would cease.
In other words, if the religionists were really interested in pursuing Religion for its true purpose, we wouldn't need the stopgap measure of politics to hammer out compromises between self-interested parties. But until that should happen, we had better try to cling to the principle of the Framers: rational self-interest against rational self-interest.
You can read the whole post here.
This completes Mr. George's treatment of the Myth of Religion. Having shown that Religion as it is currently practiced should not be allowed the upper hand in society, Mr. George finds that Conservatives who are inclined to the Myth of Religion also tend to confuse it with another Major Myth, the Myth of Tradition. He we begin to take up this new topic tomorrow.
I’ll be reporting back each day as a new installment appears.