Some people believe that there is a strong connection between atheism and Anarchism, others believe there is no such connection. Certainly it is true that Anarchist thinkers have been strongly unsympathetic to organized religion and tend to be atheists, but the reverse has not been true. Why is that? And what is the connection?
Anarchism is a position about society and undesirable structures within it (that is to say, the belief that hierarchies are unjustified). Atheism, on the other hand, is an ontological position (about the existence of gods). But if you ask atheists why they see the need to label themselves and discuss atheism, they will almost invariably answer you that Christian dogma infiltrating itself in the schools and politics is the main issue. Therefore atheism does reduce itself to a social issue to some extent.
I think the issue that links them both, therefore, is the concept of authority. Atheists reject both concepts of authority in Christianity: the authority of God over man, and the authority of organized religion against their believers and society as a whole. Anarchists merely reject other forms of authority which any individual atheist may or may not reject.
Read the rest: Atheism and Anarchism: ideological cousins?
This subject has been a multi-year long debate and review on a particular anti-statist forum on the internet. Sadly the board is flooded from a particular christian-based website that is related in some of the subjects.
ReplyDeleteThe addition of christians who also claim anarchism has made for an extensive pool of delusion to work within.
The "saving grace" as it were is the anti-statism, sadly I feel the religion will always overcome the anti-statism.
I see no significant difference in the manipulation of government and religion, religion of course is delusional, but we can see similar delusion with systems where the state replaced or worked in conjunction with religion.
Tools to manipulate.