Silverbackman
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Remember the good ol' Age of Enlightenment of Europe? It followed the triumph of science over religion when science proved absolutely that the Earth is not the center of the universe and the Sun is the center of the Solar System.
Reason dominated this era, at least among the intellectuals of the upper class (which later spread to the lower classes to a certain extent). It taught us that we don't need religion and government to run our lives and that man's reason and liberty should replace it instead. The "Divine Right of Kings" was shown to be irrational.
From the emphasis on reason and liberty came the political philosophy of liberalism (today referred to as classical liberalism or its more radical forms of libertarianism and individualist anarchism) and the religious philosophy of deism (a transitional religious philosophy largely superseded by atheism). Thomas Paine wrote extensively on Reason is the way to go while criticizing the religious dogma. John Locke applied this reasoning to politics and found that human action based on liberty is more productive and practical than human action based on the authoritarian decrees of a king or ruler.
If one lived at that time and knew nothing of the future, one would think that deism and classical liberalism would evolve into atheism and liberal anarchism. Instead it seems that religion and government are as strong as ever. Over 5 billion people still cling onto religion and faith, and even more people cling towards statism. Meaning 5/6 of the world still believes in faith over reason, or thinks science and religion can somehow find a compromise.
It's no wonder that countries like the US even bothers to have creationism/religion vs evolution/science debates, and that around 50% of the population richest country in the world deny evolution/science in preference towards creationism/religion.
And it's also no wonder that hundreds of millions of people have died in the 20th century as a result of government warfare or genocide. People want the state to take care of them from cradle to grave and be there super daddy similar to how religious people look at god as their super daddy. Even though the laws of economics shows that state-intervention is almost always counter-productive and the free people acting in their own self interest tends to produce the most prosperous society. If anyone has taken a look at the Index of Economic Freedom anyone would see this. And anyone seeing how miserably drug prohibition has failed will see why liberty is the best way to go.
So why don't we live in a 21st century world of non-religious liberalism, something we discovered during an Age of Reason? Why do we continue to make the same mistakes and not learn from history?
Reason dominated this era, at least among the intellectuals of the upper class (which later spread to the lower classes to a certain extent). It taught us that we don't need religion and government to run our lives and that man's reason and liberty should replace it instead. The "Divine Right of Kings" was shown to be irrational.
From the emphasis on reason and liberty came the political philosophy of liberalism (today referred to as classical liberalism or its more radical forms of libertarianism and individualist anarchism) and the religious philosophy of deism (a transitional religious philosophy largely superseded by atheism). Thomas Paine wrote extensively on Reason is the way to go while criticizing the religious dogma. John Locke applied this reasoning to politics and found that human action based on liberty is more productive and practical than human action based on the authoritarian decrees of a king or ruler.
If one lived at that time and knew nothing of the future, one would think that deism and classical liberalism would evolve into atheism and liberal anarchism. Instead it seems that religion and government are as strong as ever. Over 5 billion people still cling onto religion and faith, and even more people cling towards statism. Meaning 5/6 of the world still believes in faith over reason, or thinks science and religion can somehow find a compromise.
It's no wonder that countries like the US even bothers to have creationism/religion vs evolution/science debates, and that around 50% of the population richest country in the world deny evolution/science in preference towards creationism/religion.
And it's also no wonder that hundreds of millions of people have died in the 20th century as a result of government warfare or genocide. People want the state to take care of them from cradle to grave and be there super daddy similar to how religious people look at god as their super daddy. Even though the laws of economics shows that state-intervention is almost always counter-productive and the free people acting in their own self interest tends to produce the most prosperous society. If anyone has taken a look at the Index of Economic Freedom anyone would see this. And anyone seeing how miserably drug prohibition has failed will see why liberty is the best way to go.
So why don't we live in a 21st century world of non-religious liberalism, something we discovered during an Age of Reason? Why do we continue to make the same mistakes and not learn from history?