In my previous posts “It’s a Religion: Trans Ideology” and “It’s a Religion: Public Health,” I discussed how governments and activists use religious indoctrination techniques to propagandize people. This is typified in statements by trans-rights activist governments…
“Repeat after us: trans women are women”
…and statements by public health bureaucrats…
“Repeat after me: public health interventions are worth doing”
…but prominent atheists do it too:
“Say it: “I’m an atheist””
No, Michael. I don’t think I will. You see, Michael Shermer gives the game away when he says:
“The more I say I’m an atheist, the more other people will feel comfortable calling themselves atheists. And the stigma will gradually dissolve.”
This is just religious indoctrination, the process of teaching a person to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. This is why Shermer uses feelings-based language instead of emphasizing critical thinking. He doesn’t want atheists to be justified in their belief, he wants them to believe in atheism even when the stigma for doing so is rationally justified. The same is true for trans ideology, public health, and a host of other socio-political positions.
Atheists like to suggest that their faith is based on science and reason and is not, in fact, religion. But the statements of atheists themselves clearly show otherwise. Far from being independent free-thinkers, they show themselves to be just as concerned with manipulative social group dynamics—including applying social pressure to alter behaviors—as any other religious group.
What do all of these propaganda statements have in common? They are all feminine-coded. Whether it be the feelings-based appeals, the focus on feminizing men, or irrational policies based on feelings (e.g. fear of death) rather than science, the desire to cause uncritical acceptance through mental manipulation is a decidedly feminine tactic.
On this blog, we recognize that critical thinking is a masculine pursuit and that thinks like feelings-based propaganda and viewpoint censorship do not belong. We acknowledge that the New Testament emphasized using one’s mind to examine the truth of God in order to separate the true from the false messages. Indeed, no one can love God without applying their whole mind to the act. We also acknowledge that faith is a complete trust in God, the sure assurance and confidence—not mere hope—that God’s promises are, in fact, substantive and true. Faith is the evidence—the substance—of the things hoped for and the things not seen.
This is why we should reject demands to engage in religious indoctrination, the empty liturgies of socio-political faiths. Our faith is something higher and more critical. It is not a blind faith like the faith of atheists, public health bureaucrats, or ideologues of sexuality.