Chapter 1, Page 2: Religion
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I can never, ever truly describe how much I HATE the effects of religion on my country. There is nothing more that I hate about my country's culture than how religion effects politics and child rearing.
When it comes to religion, the vast majority of Christian right arguments that I've heard can be completely debunked by 2 or 3 videos by Darkmatter2525/DarkAntics;
Should You Worry About Violent Atheists?
Can Christianity Save Western Civilization (Condensed version of the video below)
Christian Nationalism is a Bad Idea (Not necessary, just a longer version of the above video.)
I'll link to three Ryan Dawson videos for good measure:
Black Pigeon Speaks Atheism and makes no points
Dawson vs Fuentes (debate.)
Ryan's Analysis of The Taylor vs. Jones Debate
Another relevant video is
RELIGIOUS LARPERS ARE RUINING THE INTERNET AND HERE'S HOW....
The idea that Christianity is needed to fight Marxism simply falls flat on its face.
The Eastern Orthodox Church failed to stop the Bolsheviks and the Soviet Union.
The Catholic Church has failed to save Eastern Europe from the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia.
The whole of Latin America is Catholic, but that did not stop stop Cuba from becoming a Marxist-socialist state, or Venezuela from becoming a Marxian command economy, or Marxism from becoming popular in the rest of Latin America. (Not to say that the Catholic Church never did anything good.)
Most Hispanics/Latinos are Catholic, and in the past mostly voted Republican, but today mostly vote Democrat.
Black Americans are the most religious ethnic group in America with the vast majority being Christian, but most Blacks vote Democrat.
While I am not a social conservative or a traditionalist, it is untrue that Christianity (or any religion for that matter) is required for society to be conservative/traditional. As I've mentioned in Countries underrated by conservatives and the right wing, people in east Asia, particularly in Japan and Singapore, tend to be traditional/conservative even though they are by and large irrelegious (or at least not Christian), while the Czech Republic and Estonia are two of the world's least religious countries, yet also some of the most the most skeptical countries towards immigration, and have shall-issue licenses to own firearms (including handguns and semi-automatic assault-weapons) and are two of the five countries in Europe that have shall-issue licenses to conceal carry firearms (the others being Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania). The State of New Hampshire is one of the least religious states in the union, but is one of the best in terms of standard of living when you look at almost any statistic, and even has permissive weapon laws as well.
Prostitution is legal in Poland, a country that has a reputation for being conservative with a Catholic supermajority, but illegal in countries that have a reputation for being socially liberal such as France, Canada, and Sweden. In the U.S., prostitution in only legal in several countries, none of which with a Democrat majority (Prostitution in Nevada - Wikipedia 2020 United States presidential election in Nevada).
Members of the Christian right credit Christianity with ending child marriages and making pedophilia a taboo. This again just falls flat on its face, as that Wikipedia points out that age of consent laws did not exist until the 20th century (I've read something age of seduction laws existing, but I don't know much about them, or even if age of seduction laws even existed).
Ages of consent in the United States #History - Wikipedia:
"While the general ages of consent are now set between 16 and 18 in all U.S. states, the age of consent has widely varied across the country in the past. In 1880, the ages of consent were set at 10 or 12 in most states, with the exception of Delaware where it was 7. The ages of consent were raised across the U.S. during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. By 1920, 26 states had an age of consent at 16, 21 states had an age of consent at 18, and one state (Georgia) had an age of consent at 14. Small adjustments to these laws occurred after 1920. The last 2 states to raise its age of general consent from under 16 to 16 or higher were Georgia, which raised the age of consent from 14 to 16 in 1995, and Hawaii, which changed it from 14 to 16 in 2001."
Child marriage in the United States - Wikiepdia
"In many cases, minors in the U.S. may be married when they are under the age of sexual consent, which varies from 16 to 18 depending on the state. In some states minors cannot legally divorce, leave their spouse, or enter a shelter to escape abuse."
If you are really curious about child marriage in America, the best article to read is
Child Marriage, Common In The Past, Persists Today By Andrea Dukakis - Colorado Public Radio.
Perhaps the best book about child marriage in America is
American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States - by Nicholas L. Syrett
Zionist Occupation Government isn't real, but tiny fringe factions of evangelicals lobbying to keep child marriage legal isreal;
Banning child marriage in America: An uphill fight against evangelical pressure
The only reason why child marriage is tolerated in America is because the vast majority of people are ignorant about it because the media does not report on it. If the media reported on child marriage en mass, it would stop.
Pedophilia being made taboo was a positive social development of the 20th century that had little if anything to do with Christianity.
YouTube channels Red Shark Intelligence and soph (neither of which are left-wing) has mentioned this issue:
Legal Pedophilia in the US: a True Story of Child Brides in America
For any Christian who still opposes same-sex marriage, here are the types of marriage recognized by the Bible:
. Man + Woman.
. Man + Woman + Concubines.
. Man + Woman + Woman's property (man could aquire his wife's property, including slaves). Genesis 16.
. Man + multiple Women (polygamy). Genesis 38:6-10.
. Man + Brother's Widow. Genesis 38:6-10.
. Rapist + His Victim. Deuteronomy 22:28-29
. Male Soldier + Female Prisoner of War. Numbers 31:1-18, Deuteronomy 21:11-14.
. Male Slave + Female Slave. Exodus 21:4.
This issue is depicted in the Darkmatter2525 video Atheist Comedy- Family Values.
All of this, plus child marriage and martial rape being perfectly legal in Christianity, but something wrong with two consenting adults who love each other if they are of the same sex.
The Catholic Church's covering of sexual abuse of children is so infamous that it has became a Trope in Television.
I've seen a Christian conservative blame athiests for prostitution. Not all athiests believe that prostitution should be legal, and not everyone that thinks that prostitution should be legal like prostitution on a personal level.
Prostitution was actually allowed and tolerated by the church until the 19th and 20th centuries, and the actual traditionalist position would be to have prostitution be legal. Prostitution legalization and the Left Wing
Prostitution - Bad News About Christianity
Prostitution legalization and the Left Wing
I've seen religious conservatives associate transgenders with atheists. In reality, you do not need to be religious to disagree with transgenderism. Ryan Dawson, an atheists, has made a video called "Is Transgender sexist?", along with others videos. Kothorix, an atheists, has a video called "What Is A Woman". Styxhexenhammer666, also an atheists, criticizes transgenderism. The animated sitcom South Park has made fun of transgenderism.
Videos about transgenderism playlist.
Socialist Whores: What did Karl Marx think of prostitution? - Slate
Amnesty International says prostitution is a human right – but it's wrong - The Guardian
I know that I will piss off both Christians and Muslims, but Christianity and Islam are pretty similar to each other, so similar that some criticisms are even interchangeable (several videos in my playlist Videos criticizing Islam can be found in my playlists addressing the Christian right).
I would argue that Christian fundamentalists were the predecessor to social justice warriors. Wikipedia articles about Christian fundamentalist groups and individuals is just the start;
National Center on Sexual Exploitation
Study of Women who have had an Abortion and Their Views on Church
70% of Women Who Get Abortions Identify as Christians, Survey Finds
Why Do Christian Women Continue to Have Abortions?
If you want to argue against abortion, I suggest using philosophy like My 2 Cents did with his video series and playlist
Dave Smith is not a Christian (he is Jewish, but I think he is a non-practicing Jew), and he made some pretty good arguments against abortion;
Dave Smith’s Part of the Problem – Ep. 775 – The Texas Taliban (YouTube version)
Ironically, abortion just might actually reduce the number of people who would vote for welfare and big government.
That being said, I'll write about abortion in a separate article.
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The reason why there is not so much right-authoritarianism anymore is not because the right supports liberty, but because the Christian right has lost power at the Federal and, in many cases, State level, so the authoritarian Christian right has retreated into rural counties and small towns, where Churches still have power. The biggest reason why social conservatives trust the church more probably comes from the losing influence in higher institutions and not from rational thought.
Putting this into other words, just like how the left's authority is academia (particularly college professors), the media, and government (sometimes), the right's authority is the church, preachers and religious teachers such as pastors.
All of this being said, I know that religion can be helpful to a lot of people. It is common for people to feel that they need meaning in their lives, and religion can be helpful for them.
I politically have more in common with Christians such as Ron Paul, Tom Woods, and to a lesser degree, Thomas Sowell, than atheist progressives. Whatifalthist/Rudyard Lynch has challenged my views on Christianity (Videos by Whatifalthist and other Christians that challenged my worldview) (though he has said that he has total respect for atheists, and has made sexual innuendos in his videos). Many people who fought the American Revolution, the War of 1812, fought against slavery, fought for equality between sexes and races and so on, were Christians. I can disagree with someone's religion but still agree on politics.
Though to be fair, Christianity came from the middle east, it was really spread by Europeans, and not to mention how the callus and puritanical American brand of Christianity can trace the roots of its philosophy, ideas and attitudes back to the Puritans who got their ideas from the Calvinists, who were Europeans.
This is reason number one why I say that am am grateful to be an American citizen as opposed to being proud to be an American, along with the points made in the video Are You Proud to be an American?, in which it only makes sense for one to have pride from accomplishments or contributions to accomplishments as an individual and not an accident of birth.