Before I try and explain why I think that religions are currently kicking our butts, I’d like to make one thing abundantly clear: one does not need to be right to win an argument. It’s becoming evident that facts are dead, and the only thing that matters now is how loudly you can say something. Is there anyone that yells more loudly than religion?
Take the insane situation in England. There is a significant Muslim population that lives there. Like all Western nations, the birthrates are in massive decline, which means that they must look to immigration for help. The influx of large groups of foreigners has fundamentally shifted the population, which means that any politician that wishes to keep their jobs have to appeal to a demographic that has its own customs, and more importantly, its own beliefs about how the country should be run. It’s why when the scandal of rape gangs broke out, the response was to try and broom it under the rug, lest the facts “offend” a religious community. This will have serious future implications for the country. Once I am not sure most Brits are ready for.
We’ve all seen this kind of thing before. It used to be the Catholic Church burying information regarding their chronic abuses. They were a sheltered group once. Now, the protected minorities are those of a religious denomination that views the secular world as its enemy, primarily because their adherents have a darker shade of skin color. Their allies are naïve young people willing to fight racism in any form, real or perceived. They react as though revealing the truth about how Islam views women is an abhorrent act. To call this kind of behavior suicidal would be an understatement.
The tradition of liberalism is now at risk, because the experiment of tolerance is now being truly tested. Once, it had the advantage of a relative homogenous society. The paradox of toleration wasn’t apparent until now. What is to be done when newcomers to their nations do not share the values of the society that harbors them? What makes matters even worse is the fact that religious fundamentalists use laws meant for victims of oppression as a shield to spew hatred and lies, and they do so with increasing belligerence. They push the very limits of our own values of free speech without consequence. Then, as soon as there is any pushback to what they say, accusations of racism and hurt feelings quickly arise, which instantly attracts soft minded people, who want to believe in the good intentions of everyone, to their defense. It is a losing battle we are ill prepared to fight.
The inability to see the truth of how Islam is undermining our societies because of political biases is what has given the Christian right so much power. Most people are apolitical, and I would argue areligious as well. They are swayed by whatever side offers them reassurance and safety. The left has proven itself unable to properly deal with the threat that Islam poses to the West and its institutions. Christianity has declared itself as the only panacea against the threat, while the remnants of the tradition of the Enlightenment argue about whether something is racist or not.
This is not dissimilar to the fight Germany had between Communists and Fascists in the 1930’s. Fascists offered themselves as the only solution to Communism, and the Center folded to the Right thinking they were the lesser of two evils. The same thing is occurring now. The Left, having used up all of it’s political capital trying to argue about the definition of a woman, the center is now ready to fold to the right and their supposed “solutions”. To say this is a disaster for reason is an understatement. This is the death of truth, which will soon be ushering a new Dark Age, where facts are hidden under a mountain of falsehoods, and truths are indiscernible from lies.