Holy Hierarchy

When it comes to religious beliefs, I'll never tell anyone what they should ot should not believe. I don't really care what deity you worship, and I'm glad if that belief grants you a measure of peace, reassurance or comfort. There are however reasons why belief in God is more prevalent among conservatives and the right-wing.

One of the main reasons why conservatives love their religion is that it fits so neatly with their love for traditional hierarchies. First thing to notice is that the God of all three modern monotheistic faiths is male. All official functions in their churches are reserved only for males as well. God is usually thought of as a bearded grey and wise white man. Second, nowhere in The Bible is there a "thou shalt not" commandment against slavery. On the contrary; it describes in detail the rules for owning another person and only members of God's Chosen People are eligible for liberation under specific circumstances. The males at least; female slaves are forever the property of men.

And it's not only female slaves, it's all females. Starting with the first female, Eve, women have been assigned a subordinate role. She was made from a mere bone from Adam's body, and she was blamed for eating the forbidden fruit. "Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, and the snake didn't have a leg to stand on," is an old joke that perfectly pictures the traditional hierarchy: God above men, men above women, women (just) above reptiles... Conservatives, especially the religious ones, long for the time when wives were kept in the kitchen and gay people were kept in the closet. And, as it says in the below linked video, it was commonly the church that would socially enforce these norms.

I think back to the many debates and speeches from Christopher Hitchens, who described the Biblical Heaven to a "North Korea in the sky," and God as an imaginary "Dear Leader." We see the conservative and right-wing wish for "strong leadership" in the many victories by far right political parties and politicians in the global north. Again it's America that provides us with the best example of the worship at the feet of a "Dear Leader"; there still exists a great number of Trump supporters who worship the ground he walks on, carry flags with a John Rambo holding a machine-gun with Trump's head attached to it, and who still believe it's just not possible that he lost the last elections.

Progressives are generally the exact opposite; their goal in life is to do away with those traditional strict hierarchies. And it's no coincidence that they are a lot less religiously inclined, as well as a lot more open to new ideas, new cultures, non-traditional gender relations and roles. Progressives generally accept the truth of global warming, evolution theory and so on, where many conservatives, especially the religious ones, have a hard time accepting those scientific realities. A lot of this has to do with faith. What is "faith"? Faith is literally belief without evidence. People of faith are, in my opinion, much more inclined to just accept the "truths" given to them from above. If you've organized your entire life around faith, belief in a celestial Big Daddy for which there's not a shred of evidence, you've already shown a capacity to just accept whatever you're told by the higher-ups in the hierarchy. And if the corporate masters, represented by the political puppets, tell you that global warming is a hoax, that the pandemic is an evil plan from the diabolical Chinese... well...

The below linked video is a commentary on Jordan Peterson's journey to God. It's an interesting example of how hierarchies and religion go hand in hand. We all know how Peterson loves traditional hierarchies, and although he's not a particularly religious person, he'll never do or say anything to undermine the order that religious institutions impose upon people. Maybe that's why Jordan Peterson always answers the question if he believes in God with "I don't like that question," before going on an incoherent rant about the meaning of the word "belief." Just to be fair, the original 18 minute video can be found here, which I invite you to check out before watching the below linked commentary on that video.

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