arcticdementor #fundie arcticdementor.tumblr.com

The opposite of MTD?

Setting aside the praxis vs. doxos dimension of religion (and what constitutes religion), there's also the dimension of "theology/beliefs on the supernatural" versus "morals/ethics/vision of the good life." And it seems to me that a big part of "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," as contrasted with more Traditional varieties of religious life/practice, is that it retains the former* while discarding the latter in favor of the ethics of the secular mainstream. You know, the sort of folks who say that what's wrong with religion isn't so much the whole "God" thing, or the "going to church/temple/mosque/shrine" thing, but the surviving, "backwards, bad ol'" pre-Modern ethics.

But what does one call the reverse of this? Those who disagree with Traditional religion on the whole "God" question, but think that those parts on dealing with your fellow man were more right than Modern, liberal "ethics"? Who say that while one can credibly dispute whether those who set the words of the Old Testament to parchment had experiences with God, one cannot dispute they had plenty of experience with their fellow human beings. Who might disagree with Saint Paul about the nature of Jesus, but agree with him on the nature of women? What does one call atheist fans of the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisitions?

*For a time, at least, but the statistics show that churches that "go MTD" tend to die as their congregations — or more specifically, what kids they have — assimilate into the secular mainstream, per the centuries-old criticism of deism as gateway/slippery slope to atheism.

#religion #culture #morality #traditionalism #secularization #atheism #atheist traditionalist #moralistic therapeutic deism #xunzi #roll hard left and die

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