What forms of religion and spirituality are most compatible with socialism, anarchism, etc.?
Zen Buddhism, particularly the Soto school, seems to fit well with anarchism, given its emphasis on questioning and seeing through false social constructs. Taoism also fits, and notably Zhuangzi is sometimes pointed to as an early left-libertarian thinker. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu seems like a proto-Marxist, based on his ideas on universal love and utilitarianism.
Pantheism and panentheism are conducive to collectivistic economics and collective action, so that includes religions like Sikhism, as well as certain Sufist traditions like the Bektashi.
Quakerism's contemplativeness, anti-hierarchy tendencies, and social responsibility seem to lend themselves to the left. Of course, there's Tolstoy's Christian anarchism, as well as the liberation theology tradition within Catholicism.
Jewish communities had Bundism, but it almost seems like that (and anarchism) lent themselves more to more secular and philosophically-minded Jewish humanists.
It's a little bit silly, but some members of the Satanic Temple can speak pretty eloquently and effectively about both individualist philosophy, as well as progressive politics.
I'm a deist but I feel the traditional definition of deist doesn't suit me well. I do care for spirituality but I don't feel common tradition suits me, they're purposefully confusing and obscure, I care for rituals but deism offers none. I'm really interested in stuff like the cult of reason, I wish there was ant resource on how it worked in a day to day basis. I remember hearing the early soviet union had a movement to create a new socialist religion but it was quickly shut down and in the book A holy space is never empty they mention that later on there was a movement to create socialist rituals to replace religious rituals so for example marriage isn't just walking to the civil registry.
Christianity is basically PrimCom gang/AnPac gang unity with Jewish characteristics.
Know what you'll get if you walk into a random church? Sometimes, not that. So, all of them and none of them.
Dominic King
the self is the ultimate spook t. buddha
Brayden Watson
Exactly! Stirner's egoism honestly goes hand in hand with Buddhism's (and especially Zen's) seeing through illusions and social constructs. But it seems like Zen goes one step further by showing how the self is an illusion, where Stirner stops there and leaves the self unquestioned. I'm still very fond of Stirner's egoism, though, as a sort of revolution of the mind, much like Zen in some ways.
A leftist should be NO GODS NO MASTERS but there are a lot of things we don't know about nature (including the possibility of "higher" beings in the sense of entities that are more developed than we are), and having a "spiritual" connection to the foundation of our existence makes pretty good sense. Whitewashing primitive religions - noble savage and/or orientalism - is a bad idea, but it's not hard to build a sense of connection with "something greater" when you have a mutualistic relationship to nature instead of the kind of hostile and dominating one that capitalism goes for.
Religions in general usually at least have the benefit of "god of the gaps" where their domain is shit that we can't explain. The Singularity(TM) is nakedly a bunch of bullshit based on unjustified (and demonstrably stupid) extrapolations. hooktube.com/watch?v=LyrmwNN5RdY
Josiah Edwards
I agree with the No Gods, No Masters point, and I think it's important to be weary of any system that expects its adherents to submit to any religious authority.
Evan Brooks
It's what happens when scientific and technological illiterates take science fiction literature too seriously.
Cameron Taylor
Catharism honestly reminds me alot of the 'post-left'.
- No formal priests or hierarchy, almost anyone can be 'ordained' - Universal vows of poverty - The material world is literally hell - Death is the only way to have a chance to experience a paradise - Free-love - Kill representatives of the catholic church hierarchy - The soul/spirit is inherently feminine, masculinity is an aberration stemming from the evil of the material world - Having children is an inherently evil act - Every person has the spark of divinity within them - Don't eat meat
Obviously this is not a endorsement of either Catharism or the post-left on my part. Just an observation that I found to be amusing.
I like parody religions in general. They're often serving a specific purpose (e.g. Satanists making states apply the law consistently rather than favoring Christianity with displays of the 10 Commandments).
Dudeism is vaguely a modern take on Taoism. AFAIK it's not really any deeper than the basic pseudo-spiritualism and that's the point. Take 'er easy. Anybody can be ordained a Dudeist priest online in a minute or two. Truly the "Eh, fuck it" of religions. It's recognized officially as a religion in some places, which among other things can allow you to officiate certain ceremonies like weddings or funerals. Depending on local drug laws it could maybe be used as justification for drug use in religious ceremonies (e.g. Peyote).
The simplicity is nice in comparison to a lot of theology. What matters (and what most people care about) is the sentiment, not all the mystical justifications and fake cosmology. I like that their incorporation of prayer is openly based on the placebo effect and that "dude" is both gender-neutral and working class. It's not a very good ideology for action-oriented movements, but it's the kind of mentality suited to a full communist society. It's also based on a movie about (very white) people who live in one of the nicest places in the world and who are absorbed in silly identities, so not all that relatable in general.
I could see a functional use for Dudeism or ideas like it (or the cacophony society) in the context of building solidarity in our communities in "downtime" to rest from doing work. Modern society (including the left IMO) fetishizes being busy and we really underestimate the power of rest for restoring and building ourselves up. Kind of funny since the most popular religion tells us that even God needed to rest and so should we on that basis.
(checked) Satanism can be fun but it's got some Ayn Rand tendencies. IMO it's best as a foil for Christianity. The Satanic Bible does a pretty good job of flipping Christianity on its head and raising questions about whether the "Christian values" that inform society are actually good ideas. I view it as more of a certain way of looking at dominant cultural mores than as something to follow. Lucifer/Satan as a rebel is a neat figure though.
Deterministic religion = true spirituality achieved through ego dissolution and makes for the impossibility of an oppressive church (can't tell people they go to hell for their """sins""" if they literally were determined by a shitton of variables to act the way they did). Be wary that it's a dangerous truth and while some people will outright posit the existence of absolute free-will, it would inflict immense pain on ill-prepared people to have their "practical" illusion shattered at once, so don't be a dick.
Logan Jackson
Also IMO this is a much more controversial question than that of God.
Chase Perry
It's an interesting point/question. It seems like the standard position, of course, is that determinism effectively true, but we should act as if we have free will. Which now that I think about it, is a position with serious shortcomings. For example, acting as if one has free will could mean taking responsibility for bettering one's life, which I think is healthy. But on the other hand, a really useful thing about acknowledging a deterministic universe is that it might free one from basically useless emotions like shame, which can hold a person back.
I'd be interested to hear a protestant's perspective, because I thought determinism was a big dividing factor between different branches. I accept determinism, so I guess it's ironic or hypocritical that I'm at least theoretically a little more sympathetic to methodists who don't support the deterministic view that God already knows what we're going to do, since a god who isn't knowingly creating people doomed for hell seems less evil than one who is (predestination). But then, fond as I might be of Quakerism, I am no Christian.
John Martin
It means "you" as a person are simply the sum of your past lived instants grouped together under memory. I also think people simply find consistency with their life experiences, much like constantly learning algorithms. So other people have the relation to their self as you do, they think the way you do, they just have a different set of input data and therefore built reasonings and assumptions accordingly.
Spinoza already figured this out. He pretty much wrote a treatise like a mathematical demonstration including an entirely theory of how human emotions like shame, pride, guilt, envy, sadness, joy, desire etc. work. It's demonstrated meaning you don't have to take it for granted, the reasoning is explicit and rests on previously demonstrated statements all the way to axioms. Like math basically. So yeah, if you want to be decent in philosophy, you need to master Spinozist thought. Also it's the greatest vaccine against fascism.
Also free-willist interpretations of society, people, one's own self, politics, history etc. tend to be shallow, superficial, judgemental and unscientific.
Jeremiah Bell
cancer
William White
Revolutionary spiritualism of political militants. A few decades ago (when the left was still alive) we were speaking of "conversion to revolution" which meant the kind of reconstruction of the self that was previously typical of stoicism and then later Christianity.
