Religion, Moral Authority & Power

How Politics Has Poisoned Islam

By Mustafa Akyol Feb. 3, 2016 (LINK to article)

Until modern times, religion, i.e. its priesthood, served the state as a source of knowledgeable and moral authority. William the Bastard of Normandy made sure he had the Pope's approval, before embarking on his invasion and subjugation of the English in 1066. In return, he massively supported the Church, so it was a good deal for both parties, but not so much for the English, who suffered under the Norman yoke for centuries, one might even argue, to this day.

The state has to legitimise itself and it was to the moral authority of religion that it turned. This is still the case, it seems, in the Muslim world, although brute force clearly also continues to play a big role.

In the West, brute force and the authority of priests are no longer considered acceptable. The state looks instead to a secular priesthood of academics, who base their authority not on sacred scripture, as in the past, but on their claim to possess objective facts, reason and rationality. Only, their facts, reason and rationality are not nearly as sound or objective as they would have us - and themselves, no doubt - believe they are.

This is because, largely in overreaction to Nazism, a previous generation of academics made a taboo of viewing their own species, society and civilisation from a human-evolutionary perspective, which is the only way to develop a realistic understanding of these things and of our own situation. See BLOG in which I elaborate.

Time to Take Human Tribalism Seriously

For Many, Faith Comes at a High Price

By Nicholas Kristof, Dec. 19,2015 (LINK to article)


All these problems - which is an understatement, I know - relate to human tribal nature (tribalism) which it can be no coincidence we are taught to trivialise, ridicule or demonise, instead of giving it the attention and study it deserves.

The reason for this is simple: the state deceitfully poses as our tribe or nation itself and doesn't want too much light cast on how it manipulates and exploits our tribal nature by so doing.

Our tribal nature is clearly something that can only be understood from a human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, perspective, which a previous generation of academics made a taboo of, in overreaction to initial attempts which (as first attempts at anything new and difficult often do) went horribly wrong, especially when the Nazis hijacked the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism to justify their insane racial ideology, eugenics and euthanasia programmes, and wars of aggression.

This was part of a much broader overreaction to Nazism which we urgently need to recognise, develop an understanding of, and correct: http://unapprovedcomments.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-wests-overreaction-to-nazism.html