Religion

I was giving the political climate some thought of late. Well, honestly, I've been thinking about it for a hell of a long time.I will admit that I have a visceral aversion to what has been dubbed "Social Justice Warriors." Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for social justice, but I'll get to that in a moment.Starting with the 60s and moving to present day there has been a fall in attendance to churches and the like in this country. I generally think that is a good thing given my overall view that the magic sky man doesn't exist. When I was in late grade school I basically gave up on the concept of religion and moved on to raw logic to try to figure out the world. But that's me, and I'm not expecting anyone else to go down this foolish and fraught path.Concurrent with the reduction in the number of adherents to the various churches out there was an increase in the ideas promulgated by the predecessors of third-wave feminism, which would eventually grow into the present movement that I lump into the Social Justice movement. This precipitated from the introduction of the precursors to intersectionality in the 1970s by the Combahee River Collective, blossoming into the current concept of intersectional feminism by the late 80s.So, what's the connection?My view is that most people want to have a sense of community. Church, and other conventional religions, took up that place in peoples' day to day lives. As the "normal" religions were being shoved to the wayside the need of the people still existed and there was a draw to fill it somewhere. That somewhere became the clamoring to the social justice movement. Ostensibly it has the same end goals as most religions: to increase the good in the world, so it's mostly a like-for-like replacement.With the swap in religions, from god to social justice, most of the rest of Religion came along for the ride. You have the precepts that you must believe. You have the dogmas that cannot be questioned. You have the blind faith in the ringleaders (yes, I'm using a loaded term on purpose, they both get power) who must never be questioned. You have the everlasting struggle to out-pious your neighbors.The symptoms are the same. The results are mostly the same too.You have an in-crowd and the other non-believers are cast away. You have a struggle for purity. You set up us-against-them conflicts. You have your preachers telling you who to vote for.Like for like.Now, this isn't saying that I'm not for social justice; I am. But social justice isn't ignoring laws because it makes you feel bad. I'm also not saying that religion is inherently harmful or bad.But a mindless crusade at all costs does nothing but damage the cause you're trying to further.At least the typical religion says that violence and hate are bad. This is in direct contrast with the actions of the present-day Social Justice Warriors who are more than willing to shout you down and throw bike locks at you to further their cause.Any religion, god or godless, that has to resort to violence to further their cause deserves nothing but to be snuffed out by the hate that they bring upon themselves.